A/N: So happy to know the Zade is going down a treat with you guys - thanks so much for all the fab feedback! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 14

"Seriously now, I couldn't be happier for the two o' you, but could you maybe save all that for when you are not eating breakfast with Lavon Hayes?"

Zoe was sure she was red-faced, both from the embarrassment and the exertion of some pretty intense kissing, when she and Wade finally pulled away from each other. Poor Lavon, he did look a little scandalised and it was hardly surprising. Zoe was all-but in Wade's lap as they made-out against the counter top, with absolutely no thought given to the muffins and pastries, or to their friend and landlord.

"If you're waitin' on me to apologise, you got a long, disappointin' time ahead o' you, Mr Mayor," said Wade without a care.

Zoe slapped him across the shoulder for his comment. "Be nice," she scolded, even as she laughed.

"You want me to be sorry for kissin' on you?" Wade asked her with a look.

"Obviously, not." Zoe rolled her eyes. "But we should be sorry for making Lavon uncomfortable," she insisted.

"Nah, it's alright," said Lavon himself then, getting both their attention. "I guess I should be a little more understanding. After all, you two gettin' it together, that's been a long time coming, and like I said, I couldn't be happier for you. I guess I'm just a little jealous. Happy relationship and all, while I'm just... well, single."

Zoe felt even worse when she looked at Lavon then, not just taking in what he said, but also having to see the kicked puppy type expression on his face. It really was too bad that her friend was single. In her opinion, he shouldn't be.

"I don't understand how you're not fighting off the women, man," said Wade, almost as if he read the thoughts right out of Zoe's head. "I mean, you're Lavon Hayes. Former NFL star. Mayor of Bluebell."

"Not to mention good-looking, smart, funny, charming," Zoe listed all too easily. "The women should be lined up around the block for you."

Lavon raised a smile at their compliments. "Y'all are good people, and it ain't that I couldn't get a date, I guess. It's more... well, finding the right person, that ain't so easy."

There was a strange kind of serious sadness in his expression that Zoe couldn't figure out at all. Almost as if Lavon had loved and lost rather than never found the right person at all. He never mentioned anything like that to her. Well, no, that wasn't true, when she first moved in, she did recall something about him having recently gone through a bad break-up, but he never elaborated on that. He had been on a couple of dates with Didi Ruano back then, though it never went anywhere. Lavon's heart never really seemed to be in it. Now, Zoe wanted to know more as to why.

"Okay, well, I got places to be," said Wade then, lifting Zoe from his lap and depositing her on her feet on the tile. "You need a ride into town, doc?"

"No, thanks," she told him. "Brick's covering the morning, I'm not due in until this afternoon."

"Then I will catch you later, Zoe Hart," he told her, standing up and immediately pulling her back into his arms. "You might wanna look the other way, cause I am about to kiss my woman goodbye," he told Lavon quickly, before kissing the very breath out of Zoe.

Not that she minded at all. It was quite the exhilarating experience and one she was sure she was never quite going to get used to. She was very okay with that. She didn't even mind the way Wade whooped and hollered as he finally left the house to go to work himself.

"I'm so sorry," she told Lavon, sure she was blushing even then.

"Ah, don't be." Her friend literally waved away her concerns. "You're happy, that's not a crime, and I swear, I have never seen Wade happier either. You're good for him, Zoe Hart."

"He's good for me too," she said with a wide smile, though her happy expression diminished some when she recalled Lavon's own sad looks when he talked about being single. "So, what's up, Lavon?" she asked him then.

"Not much?" he ventured, looking confused.

"Come on, don't do that," she urged him. "Something is wrong. When you talked about being single, about not just wanting to date but wanting to find the one... I don't know, I just felt like there was something you weren't saying."

He looked awkward about it and then he turned away to the sink, dumping in abandoned coffee cups and plates, but making no moves to actually clean them. He was evading, Zoe knew, and that was his right. She was pretty good at that kind of thing herself sometimes.

"You know, you don't have to tell me," she said quietly, "but if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here, Lavon."

She watched him for a few seconds, saw his shoulders rise and fall with a big sigh, then he turned back to look at her.

"I found my someone," he told her, leaning back against the other counter. "The one I thought I was supposed to be with forever. I don't think I have ever been happier than those few months we spent together," he explained with a smile that didn't last long enough. "Problem is, she wasn't free to be with me, or she could've been, I guess, but... well, she chose somebody else. When it came down to me or him... and she picked him."

Zoe felt like her heart was breaking just hearing those words and seeing the pained expression that went with them. To think that she and Wade had found something so good, a friendship that had developed into so much more and was making her so happy already, just a couple of days since their first date. Then there was Lavon, who was sure he had found 'the one', the love of his life, only for her to choose another man over him? It was horrible and so very unfair, not least because he was genuinely one of the nicest guys Zoe had ever known.

"Oh, Lavon," she said sadly, going over and throwing her arms around him. "I'm so sorry," she said against his chest.

"Ain't your fault, Z," he assured her, hugging her back. "Ain't nobody's fault, I guess."

"Except for..." Zoe began to say, before changing her mind.

Maybe it was better than she didn't blame the woman in question. She didn't know all the facts. Maybe there were really good reasons for her having to choose the other guy, like a marriage or kids or something. Maybe she just didn't love Lavon like he loved her. Nobody could help who they did or didn't love, she knew that. Still, it seemed so very unfair.

"Hey now, don't you be turning that smile of yours into a frown all because of me," Lavon insisted then, pushing her gently out of his arms. "You and Wade deserve that happiness you found together. Besides, I like seeing it, really. Gives me hope. Maybe things will work out just as well for Lavon Hayes someday."

Zoe found him a smile just to please him. "Yeah, I mean, who knows? Maybe she wasn't the one after all. Maybe there's another woman out there just waiting to be swept off her feet by Lavon Hayes."

"Maybe" he agreed, smiling back at her, but his eyes betrayed him - he didn't really believe it.

There was no way for Zoe to know who this mystery woman was that had broken Lavon's heart, not unless she asked outright, and that didn't seem fair. If he wanted her to know, he would've given a name when he told her the whole sad tale. Still, Zoe was sure that whoever she was, the woman who chose somebody else over Lavon had to be regretting it now. How could anyone not?


"You didn't come along just to remind me to lift with my legs, did ya, doc?" Wade asked as he saw Zoe approaching, a couple of large boxes already hefted up in his arms.

"I didn't," she confirmed, "though that is always good advice."

"Yeah, reckon I heard as much," he said, grinning at her as she reached up to kiss him hello. "Thought you was working this afternoon."

"Me too, but there were so few appointments, we were all done by three. Addy said she was happy to hang on just in case anybody wandered in, so I thought I'd come by and say hi," she explained.

Wade liked the idea of her coming by to see him just because, but he wasn't quite buying. Once they were inside and he had stowed away his boxes, he leaned over the bar to where she was perched on a stool and told her as much.

"What's really on your mind, Zoe Hart?" he asked then, watching her close as she turned thoughtful on him, just like he reckoned she would.

"I was just thinking about Lavon." She heaved a sigh. "He's so sad, because... well, you know what happened, right? With the woman?"

The last part came out half-whispered, half forced out through lips that barely moved. Zoe clearly knew she was keeping a secret of some sort, though Wade had a notion she didn't know exactly what that secret was.

"Okay, I think you oughta come with me, doc," he said then, offering her his hand.

She looked confused, but didn't argue as she hopped back down to the floor and let him lead her behind the bar and out back to the storeroom.

"Wade, I am not having sex with you in a closet," she insisted, making him laugh.

"Well, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind," he admitted, even as he pinned her to the inside of the door, "but now that you mention it..." he said, waggling his eyebrows.

She laughed, like he knew she would, and didn't seem to mind at all when he kissed her long and hard on the lips. Seemed she really wasn't prepared to go any further than that though, as her hands pressing against his chest soon proved.

"I'm serious," she told him with a look. "If you brought me back here to-"

"Relax, I didn't," he assured her, stepping back and sitting down on a nearby crate. "I brought you back here so we could talk about Lavon, without you breaking your jaw, like you almost did out there," he explained. "Thing of it is, I'm guessing he told you the sad tale of the woman he was seeing for a few months last year. The one that left him to go back to some other guy?"

"Yes, exactly," said Zoe, nodding madly. "You know about that?"

"Sure, I do," Wade agreed easily, "but not because Lavon and me were sharin' like girls at a slumber party. I know because I live on the plantation and those two really were not as sneaky as they thought they were."

"So, you know the woman?"

"Yep, and you do too."

Watching her expression when he told her that was just this side of hysterical, though Wade wasn't sure he felt much like laughing about it. If it were anybody else, he never would tell what he knew, but this was Zoe. He'd trust her with his own secrets and he trusted her with Lavon's secret too, even if the man himself seemed unwilling to share today.

"No, don't tell me" said Zoe, all out of blue. "If Lavon wanted me to know, he would've told me, right?"

"Maybe," Wade considered, "but like I said, he didn't exactly want me to know either, I just do, and I figure since you and me are close as we are, well, I'm not altogether happy knowing I got a secret from you."

"Aww, that's sweet." Zoe grinned at him, before suddenly frowning again. "But it's not really your secret to share. Although, Lavon did tell me everything else about what happened, so I don't see that it would matter if I knew the name of the woman. You said I know her?"

"You do." Wade nodded, pressing on before there could be any more back-and-forth on whether he was spilling the truth or not. "You work with her daddy every damn day. Zoe, when good ol' George Tucker was up in New York, Lavon was seeing Lemon Breeland."

Once again, Wade was sure he would've laughed at the look on Zoe's face if the circumstances were different. As it was, he knew all too well there wasn't much that was funny about knowing one of his closest friends had an affair behind the back of another of his closest friends. It was not a secret Wade liked much and he knew Zoe wouldn't either. Maybe it was selfish that he shared it with her, putting the same burden on her that he carried himself, but it was done now and he couldn't really feel too sorry about it.

"Lavon and... Lemon?!" Zoe squeaked, shaking her head. "No way!"

"Yes way," Wade countered without pause, "but sweetheart, you gotta get your head around this and fast, because you cannot, I repeat, cannot tell anybody about this. Now, I let you in on the secret, because it didn't seem altogether fair to keep it from you in the circumstances, but if this got out... I don't even like to think how bad that could get."

He didn't have to worry about Zoe, Wade knew. She was smart enough to understand the holes she could blow in their whole crazy little community if she ran her mouth to anybody at all about the affair. Of course, a million different emotions were racing across her face as she thought it all through, which was hardly surprising.

"Oh God, I don't know who I feel worse for," she said suddenly. "I mean, I know affairs are wrong, believe me, I really do, but poor Lavon, having to watch Lemon and George plan a wedding. And poor George, because he obviously has no idea what happened when he was gone."

"And honestly, much as maybe you don't see it, it's kinda poor Lemon too," said Wade, not exactly shocked to see Zoe's eyes go wide with surprise at the suggestion. "Hey now, she really went through it when George Tucker chose a New York lawyering job over her. My guess is that Lavon was her broad shoulder to cry on. I didn't see much of what went on with those two, but I know Lemon well enough to know, she felt real deep things for Lavon to be doing what she did."

"But not deep enough." Zoe shook her head sadly. "Wow, this really is a horrible mess."

"Don't I know?" Wade sighed. "But there ain't much we can do about it, 'cept be there for Lavon and try not to let anybody else find out about this whole web o' lies."

"I guess."

Though Zoe was agreeing with him, she didn't exactly look happy about it. That part made Wade wish he never told her, but at the same time, he was still glad she knew now, even if it were selfish. Putting his arms around her, he pulled her close and kissed her once.

"Hey, where's that smile you had going on at breakfast?"

"It's still there somewhere," she assured him, trying hard to bring it to the surface as she looked at him. "It just seems so wrong. We get to be so happy, but Lavon has to be so sad, and George and Lemon..."

"Yeah, I know. It sucks," Wade sympathised, moving her hair back from her face, "but like you just said, at least we get to be happy, right? And I reckon, after a while, those three will get things figured out, one way or the other. If things are working so well for us, after everything, must be possible it can happen for everybody else eventually."

"I'd like to think so." Zoe smiled more genuinely then, leaning in to kiss him.

He kissed her back, pulled her tight to him and hoped not to have to let go. She all but melted into his embrace, so much so that he had a feeling she might be changing her mind about the whole sex thing.

"Mmm, nope," she said suddenly, smashing all hopes he had of getting somewhere good. "Still not having sex in a storage closet," she told him. "Nice try though," she added, stealing one last kiss before practically running from the room.

Wade ran a hand back over his head and couldn't help but laugh. His Zoe really was something else and he couldn't be happier about having her in his life.

To Be Continued...