A/N: Hey, folks. Yep, I'm back again. Anybody still around and wanting to read a new Zade fic? I hope so! :) This fic was partly inspired by a country song I heard on YouTube called (unsurprisingly) 'If You Met Me First.' I intended to write this a great deal sooner, but other fics and such got in the way. Anywho, finally, I'm getting around to writing it and sharing it. If you like this beginning, please leave a review :)
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters from Hart of Dixie belong to Leila Gerstein and other folks who aren't me.
Chapter 1
She looked more than a little wary when he pulled up his car alongside her to offer her a ride. Wade supposed he could understand that. After all, she didn't know him, and from the looks of her, she sure wasn't from anywhere close by. Nobody ever looked more out of place on the dusty road into Bluebell. Of course, in Wade's opinion, nobody ever looked quite so good either.
"Can I offer you a ride, ma'am?" he said, rolling the car forward in pace with her walking as best he could.
"No, thank you," she said with a tight smile.
"You sure 'bout that?" he checked, pushing his aviators up on top of his head. "'Cause if you're headed to Bluebell, you got a long walk ahead o' you, and in those shoes...?" he trailed off, eyeing her high heels and shaking his head.
She stopped walking and Wade pulled the car to a sharp stop.
"Look, I'm sure that smile of yours makes all the girls at the church social swoon, but I don't know you, and I have a strong policy against strangers chopping me up into a million pieces."
Wade stared at her for a moment and then couldn't help but let a burst of laughter escape his lips.
"Sweetheart, I am no axe murderer, okay?" he promised her. "I'm actually a bartender, and if it helps you at all, I happen to live on the mayor's plantation up there in Bluebell," he said, gesturing in the general direction of town. "That make you feel any better about accepting a ride or do you just have your heart all set of hiking another three miles in your high heels?"
She looked as if she were debating her decision carefully for almost an entire minute and then she sighed. "I'll take the ride, thank you," she said, almost sounding as if she wished she didn't have to.
Wade took no offence, just told her to leave her bags where they were and he would grab them. Two minutes later they were sat together in the front of his car, heading on down the road, the mysterious woman glancing between the view through the windshield and Wade the whole time.
"So, you're not from around here," he said after a while. "Northerner, right?"
"Yes," she said, nodding her head. "I'm from New York, actually."
"Long way from home," Wade considered. "What brings you to Bluebell?"
"I'm a doctor," she explained. "And I've been offered a job down here. You know Dr Harley Wilkes?"
The wheel slipped in Wade's hands when he heard that question, but thankfully he regained control pretty fast. There was no way his passenger hadn't noticed how she shocked him and of course she asked what was wrong.
"Uh, I don't know how to tell you this, doc, but I think maybe somebody is playing a trick on you," he said, just as they neared the sign welcoming them to Bluebell. "See, Dr Harley Wilkes, he was from Bluebell. Best doctor in town, you want my opinion."
"Hold on a second, did you just say was?"
Wade figured you had to be pretty smart to be a doctor, especially in some fancy pants place like New York, so it was no surprise to him that she caught on real fast to what he said.
"Yeah, so Dr Wilkes passed on, must've been three or four months ago now," he confirmed, one hand leaving the wheel to rub at the back of his neck. "Not sure where they leaves you job-wise but..."
"This makes no sense," she said fast, suddenly rifling through her purse like a woman possessed, completely missing the 'Welcome to Bluebell' sign as they passed by it. "Here. See, Harley Wilkes, dated three weeks ago," she insisted, trying to wave the postcard in Wade's face.
It certainly gave him pause for thought, though it was tough to focus on anything but the road until they were in safe place for him to pull over. Given the circumstances, he did just that, down a side road where they wouldn't be in anybody's way. Leaving the engine idling, he finally pulled the card from his passenger's hand and properly read it over.
"Huh," he said, considering it, rubbing a hand over chin as he thought on it. "So, best I can figure, you should talk to Mrs H about this."
"And who would that be?"
"Emmeline Hattenbarger" Wade explained, handing back the postcard and shifting the car back into gear. "She looks after things at the practice. Appointments, paperwork and such. Seems to me, she's most likely to know what's going on."
It was a real short distance to the practice from where they stopped. Wade decided not to say anymore until such time as they got there. There was a kind of shock settled in on his passenger as she read her postcard over and over, plus a couple more she dug out of her purse. Seemed to him something strange was going on, but it was somebody else's business and not his. No way he was getting involved any more than he already had.
"Here's the place," he said, finally pulling the car up to the kerb. "Time to disembark, Zoe Hart."
She looked at him like he just pulled the most impressive magic trick, but Wade only smiled.
"Your name was on the card."
"Oh, right." She glanced down at the postcards still in her hand and rolled her eyes. "Well, thanks for the ride..."
"Wade Kinsella," he said, offering her a hand, which she immediately took a hold of and shook firmly.
There was such a smile on her lips and a jolt of something almost electric in Wade's own arm in that moment, he didn't entirely know what to make of it. It was almost as if something real significant happened between them, even though it was nothing but a handshake.
"Um, I should go inside, find this Mrs H person" she said then.
"I'll grab those bags for you, doc," Wade told her, only then realising they still had a hold of each other's hands and quickly letting go.
Out from the car, Wade got the bags from the trunk and led Zoe into the practice, yelling for Mrs H as they went.
"What's all the commotion, Wade Kinsella?" she asked, in that concerned but exasperated tone that reminded him of his own momma whenever she heard incoming noise - he kind of liked it, actually.
Not that he had to give any kind of explanation himself. The moment she laid eyes on Zoe Hart, it was clear enough that Mrs H knew who had come calling. That saved a lot of fuss, Wade reckoned, and so he left the womenfolk to their conversation and headed on his way.
In her wildest dreams, Zoe could never have expected her first day in Bluebell to be so eventful. To think she had just assumed she would show up, meet Dr Wilkes, and start her new job, easy as anything. There was no way she could have anticipated a smelly bus ride, followed by a potential long, dusty walk that she was only saved from by a very unexpected ride from a very attractive man.
Finding out from him that Harley Wilkes was dead had been a heck of a shock, but at least Wade had been able to take her to the right place to get an explanation from Mrs H. Next had come the problem of where she was supposed to stay, which had led Zoe to the mayor's plantation and the discovery that Lavon Hayes, former line-backer, was in fact the mayor of Bluebell.
He was giving Zoe the guided tour of the place, ending at the carriagehouse that was to be her home for a while, when suddenly a thought hit her.
"So, you share the generator with the guy in the gatehouse, his name is-"
"Wade Kinsella," she said, actually laughing, first at the realisation that she knew what he was going to say, second at the entirely amusing look of shock on Lavon's face. "I'm sorry, it's just we met already. Wade was driving into town when I was walking in. He picked me up, gave me a ride. He seemed nice."
"Oh, he is a nice guy, no doubt." Lavon nodded knowingly. "Where women are concerned, he is more than nice."
Zoe opened her mouth to reply to that remark, then changed her mind. She didn't get the impression that Wade was necessarily that type of person, the kind that would pick up anyone in a skirt. Of course, they had only spent maybe fifteen minutes together, mostly in a car, that was all. How much could she really say she knew about him anyway? That said, she figured she was probably going to get to know him if he was her neighbour.
Before she could think about it anymore, Lavon was excusing himself and disappearing down the porch steps, back towards the main house. Zoe watched him go for a moment, then turned away, gaze shifting to the pond and then to the house on the other side of it. That had to be Wade's place, she supposed.
Making a quick decision, Zoe carefully manoeuvred her high-heel clad feet down the steps and around the pond. She arrived at Wade's door, relatively unscathed, all things considered, realising she was probably going to have to buy some 'sensible' shoes sometime if she was going to be staying here. She knocked firmly.
Zoe's focus was decidedly not on her footwear anymore when the door opened and her vision was filled with an expanse of well-toned muscle. Zoe swallowed hard and forced herself to look up from Wade's chest to meet his green and sparkling eyes.
"Well, howdy, neighbour," he drawled, leaning on the doorjamb. "You needin' a cup o' sugar already?"
The way he said it made a shiver pass through Zoe in the most delicious way, just knowing as she did that he wasn't talking about the kind of sugar used to sweeten tea. Unless of course he was and she was just letting her imagination run wild. That was completely possible with the amount of attractive flesh that was on offer to her eyes.
"Um, no," she said, shaking her head. "I was just... um, Lavon was showing me the carriagehouse," she explained, stumbling a little over her words, at least until she forced herself to take a breath and get some control. "He mentioned you were my neighbour, so I thought I'd just come over and say hi. I realise now you already knew I was moving in here."
"News like that moves through Bluebell faster than green grass through a goose," Wade told her with a grin. "I'm guessin' Mrs H told you what was what over at the practice?"
"She did." Zoe nodded her head. "Turns out Harley Wilkes was sending me the postcards to start off with, but after he passed away, he wanted her to continue. God knows why he was so determined about me coming here but... well, here I am," she said, shrugging her shoulders, still unsure whether she had made the right choice.
"Well, all I can say is, it ain't a bad place to be, doc," Wade told her easily. "I mean, it ain't New York or whatever, but it's treated me pretty well my whole life. Nothin' much for me to complain about."
"It seems nice enough so far. The natives are friendly at least," she said with a smile, seeing from the similar look on his face that he well understood she was mostly talking about him. "Are you always the knight in shining armour, rescuing damsels in distress from the side of the road?"
"Not much call for knights around here," he told her, rubbing the back of his neck, "but you ever find yourself needin' one for anythin' at all, you know where to find me, Zoe Hart."
"I guess I do," she agreed, that same satisfying shiver running down her spine as their eyes met one more time and a look of understanding passed between them.
When she eventually turned to walk away, Zoe was sure she must be going crazy. After all, why would she want to be making eyes at some cowboy type from a small town that she only planned to stay in for twelve months at most? Still, she had to admit that Bluebell, Alabama really wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be when she first arrived. In fact, she thought, as she looked back at Wade still on the doorstep watching her walk away, it might just turn out to be a great place to spend a year of her life.
To Be Continued...