A/N: So happy to see some happy readers/reviewers are still around. Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know you're enjoying the story :)
(for disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 3
"Zoe? Honey, you suddenly look awful pale," said Lemon worriedly.
Wade knew what the problem was, of course, and it would be easy as anything to make life real complicated for Little Miss Zoe Wilkes right about now. Of course, he could always be a gentleman and say nothing about last night. Though Wade had never been accused of being such a person before, be might just cut this sweet little thing a break. God only knew why he felt like doing such a thing, but he did.
"Prob'ly a little too hot out here for your friend, Lemon," he said, taking Zoe gently by the elbow. "Come on over here now, Miss Zoe. Take a seat in some shade and cool off some," he urged her, tipping her a wink when she shot him a look.
She must have understood that he wasn't about to say anything about their little frolic together, her expression softening into something like a relieved smile. Sure, Wade could have been insulted that she seemed ashamed to have slept with him, but in all honesty, she wouldn't be the first woman in that particular position. It was something guys like him got used to. Besides, they did have a deal last night, before they fell into her bed. No names, no promises, no regrets. Just because they happened to stumble upon each other this afternoon and accidentally learn each other's names, there was no reason to make a fuss, as far as Wade could tell.
Before long, Lemon took charge, just like always. She had George laying down a blanket and was telling Wade he ought to let Zoe have the most shaded spot given how unused to the sun she was. While Lemon started getting food out of her hamper, talking a mile a minute about Bluebell and such, Zoe just sat staring hard at Wade, until he actually glanced her way. The moment she saw him looking, she made a big deal of putting her eyes just about anywhere else.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Lemon then, "I should've asked. There's nothing else you don't eat, is there? You know, besides the obvious? I was careful not to pack anything of that kind, on account of what Harley said about your momma's heritage. Your people don't eat pork, right?" she checked with Zoe.
"Your people?" Wade made a face at the sound of those words. "She's not an alien, Lemon."
"She's half-Jewish, Wade!" Lemon told him through gritted teeth.
"No, I'm really not." Zoe shook her head. "Well, I mean, yes, technically, I am, but I'm not what you'd call a really religious person. I eat pretty much anything."
Lemon let out a breath. "Well, that is certainly a relief. I'm sure the last thing I would ever want to do is cause offence."
"Perish the thought," George said softly, getting a smack in the shoulder from his girlfriend for his trouble.
"Would you stop? You're gonna have poor Zoe here thinkin' I am some kinda monster."
"Which she is not," said Wade definitely, "unless there's a full moon out," he added, smirking hard and all the more so when he managed to dodge the blow Lemon sent his way that time.
"You will pay for that, Wade Kinsella. Mark my words, you will pay."
"What're you gonna do, Breeland?" he asked, stealing a couple of dainty sandwiches from the dish she just uncovered. "Glare at me real hard?"
"Oh, I don't know," said Lemon, her nose in the air as a smile pulled at one side of her perfectly painted mouth. "I was just thinkin' there might be some kind of problem in the area of the women's bathroom later on. The kinda incident where someone might be called upon to use a plunger. Stuff his arm real far around a stinky u-bend."
The look on her face was as close to pure evil as a Southern belle could get.
Wade spat crumbs when he declared; "You wouldn't!"
"Oh, dear, sweet Wade, you know I would."
"Yes, she definitely would," George confirmed, reaching for a devilled egg to eat.
Zoe watched the whole scene with nothing less than awe, plus a whole heap of confusion. It had been shocking enough to arrive at this picnic and come face to face with the bartender she had sex with last night. Really fantastic, mind-blowing sex, that she was sure she would never forget for the rest of her life. Not that focusing on that was doing her any good. She may have looked pale before, but Zoe was sure her face was burning now, despite the shady spot her new friends have encouraged her into.
The banter between the three of them was kind of crazy too. Lemon Breeland seemed like such a proper young lady, but the way she lashed out at George and threatened Wade, albeit in a strangely sweet way, was just bizarre. Zoe wasn't sure she would ever fully understand people from the south. Of course, even if she could untangle the dichotomy of how to overly politely tell someone to shove it, she still wasn't sure she could figure out why Wade would be called upon to unblock a toilet, no matter what Lemon did to it.
"Am I missing something?" she asked, looking between the three of them. "He doesn't work for you, does he?" she said, eyes darting from Lemon to Wade and back.
"Of course not, silly." Her new friend giggled prettily, proffering the plate of mini quiches at Zoe. "Wade doesn't work for me, personally. He works for all of us. He's on the maintenance staff," she explained.
"He also tends bar over at the Rammer Jammer," said George. "It's the closest bar to campus-"
"I know where it is," Zoe said fast, immediately wishing she hadn't when she caught Wade grinning at her from across the blanket. "Um, you tend bar and you're a maintenance worker," she said, without hardly looking at him. "When do you even find time to study?"
"I don't," he told her, immediately shoving so much food in his mouth, he would never be able to answer a follow-up question, even though he must have known Zoe had a hundred of them.
"Hey, Wade, let's see if you still have an arm," said George then, getting up from the blanket with a football clutched in his hand. "Excuse us, ladies, we'll be back in a little bit."
"You boys have fun now," Lemon told them with a smile, though the happy expression faded a little the moment they were gone. "Poor Wade. We probably should've explained about him before y'all met."
"He doesn't study," said Zoe, shaking her head. "So, he doesn't actually go here?"
Lemon sighed heavily. "Wade's not exactly what you'd call academically minded. Now, that's not say he's not smart, because he is. There's nothing he can't fix or pull apart and put back together. I swear what that man can't do with an engine block or a circuit board is not worth knowing about. He really is super good with his hands."
Zoe choked a little on the tiny sip of soda she had just taken, but thankfully, Lemon didn't seem to take it amiss.
"Wade's just not book smart, and besides, even if he had been, there's no way he could have afforded college. I don't wanna tell tales, but his family life is a little lacking. George and I are his closest friends and we do what we can for him. It was a real wrench when we came away to college and left him behind in Bluebell. So, when we all went home for Thanksgiving that first year, it was George who decided we ought to bring Wade back with us. Just let him hang out here a few weeks and not be so lonely. He got some work in one of the bars near campus, and then, one of the maintenance men here retired that Christmas and Wade joined the team. He's been here with us ever since.
"Of course, the Rammer Jammer came later. See, the original is in Bluebell, but the owner, Wally, well, when he heard from Wade just how much money was to be made near the U of A campus, he wanted a piece of that action. He set up a kind of spin-off version here, and as much as we say Wade is a bartender, he actually more-or-less runs that place now."
"He has to be smarter than you said if he's doing that."
"I guess you could say Wade knows what he knows," Lemon considered, pausing in their conversation to whoop and holler, waving her arms high like the cheerleader she probably was when George made a particularly impressive move against Wade in their faux football game. "Now, don't go thinking he's a saint or anything. When it comes to girls, Wade has taken more than his fair share into his bed, but then there are always those kinds of girls around, willing to give the female sex a bad reputation with their loose morals and all." Lemon rolled her eyes. "You can rest assured, I have told Wade not to try such things with you. I just know he has better sense than to mess around so close to home. Now he knows you're Harley Wilkes' daughter and a Bluebellian, he won't try anything he shouldn't."
The words 'too late' hovered on Zoe's lips, but of course, she never said them. After all, she couldn't exactly accuse Wade of anything, even if she wanted to. She was the one who went out looking to seduce someone last night. The fact she had success with the easiest bartender in all of Alabama really didn't matter much. It just would have made life simpler if her one-night stand hadn't turned out to be so well-connected to her new friends, her new father, and the two places she was going to be spending the majority of her time for the next year, namely U of A and Bluebell.
"You are such a girl, George Tucker," Wade was saying as the guys returned to the picnic blanket then. "Seriously, if you were this much of a wuss when we played ball in high school..." he said, slapping his friend on the back before they both sat down.
"I guess I am a little out of practice," George admitted, breathing too hard as he pressed a hand to his chest, "but I think maybe you don't always know your own strength, man. All that manual work has given you muscles on your muscles. I don't get that from writing papers for class."
Zoe made a point of looking anywhere but at Wade, even when he seemed to be trying to entice her to pay attention, practically leaning right over her to get to the food. As if she needed any kind of reminder about how well he was built or what he was capable of doing with that body of his. She was pretty sure the sight of his naked self was indelibly drawn on her mind forever.
"So, Zoe, tell us all about yourself," Lemon urged her then. "I mean, beyond what we already know about your family situation and your medical school ambitions, of course."
"Oh, well, there's really not all that much to tell." Zoe shrugged, picking up a sandwich and nibbling at it.
"No hobbies? No friends? No boyfriend?"
"Lemon, don't push," George advised her. "Maybe Zoe isn't used to sharing every intimate detail of her life with strangers. She's from New York. Things are a little different there to our way of goin' on in a small town like Bluebell."
"It's not that I don't want to share," Zoe insisted. "I just really don't have much to say. I mean, I have things to say, obviously. Ask anyone who knows me, I have a lot of opinions," she said, with a smile. "But I'm not big on hobbies, beyond shopping, of course, and my only friends around here are, well, you guys, I guess," she admitted, shrugging her shoulders.
"And there's no boyfriend either?" Lemon double-checked. "Oh, I'm sorry, maybe you're, uh... well, is it a girlfriend you're pining for?"
"No." Zoe shook her head definitely. "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just not. Gay, I mean. I like guys, I'm just not seeing one right now."
"Well, I'll bet campus is just crawling with options if you wanna start, Zoe Wilkes," said Wade, a salacious smile on his lips when she made the mistake of glancing his way. "You should come by the Rammer Jammer sometime. I could prob'ly get you hooked up."
"Wade Kinsella!" Lemon said crossly, slapping him across the knee. "I'm sure Zoe wouldn't need your help in looking for a man, and certainly, you're not talking about getting her a boyfriend, in any case, only a conquest."
Zoe said nothing, it seemed safer that way. She didn't look at anybody, just concentrated on putting as much food into her mouth as possible, so she was neither tempted to speak nor called upon to do so by anybody else for a while. She really, really just wanted this whole group lunch to be over as quickly as possible, so she could go back to her dorm room and hide herself away. So much for making friends. Maybe she had been better off just learning to love loneliness!
To Be Continued...
