A/N: Thanks so much to all those lovely people who send regular reviews - means a lot :) Now, where did we leave Zoe and Wade last time? Yup, that's right, falling into bed again! lol

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 6

"That didn't mean anything," said Zoe, breathing harder than she had ever breathed in her life, she was pretty sure. "Also, that was the last time, ever. I mean it."

The grin on Wade's face as she glanced at him then was not reassuring or at all helpful.

"You know, I'm startin' to think that means somethin' different up north to what it does down here in 'Bama. See, most people, when they say something has happened for the last time, well, they never do that thing again."

"Which is why I said it," Zoe insisted, pulling herself up to sitting in the bed, the covers held tightly against her chest. "We are never doing this again. Not happening. Never."

"Which is what you said the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that," Wade recalled with annoying accuracy. "In fact, you have said it every time we have 'done that' which, if memory serves, is a total of a dozen times in the past month."

He was right, she knew he was, and Zoe hated it. She hated that he had kept score and hated more than that, she had too. She couldn't not. Every time was so good, it was burned into both her body and her brain like a brand, tattooed onto every inch of her skin. She felt as if she walked around wearing a sign declaring she had slept with Wade Kinsella multiple times and loved every second of it, though she had never told a soul and was certain he hadn't either. Well, fairly certain.

"You don't... I mean, you haven't told anybody about this, right?"

At that question, Wade rolled his eyes and then got straight up out of bed.

"You ask that almost every time too," he recalled, grabbing up his pants and T-shirt to redress. "And the answer is still the same. No, I didn't tell anybody about us having sex. Not Lemon, not George, not good old Judson Lyons, nobody."

Zoe winced at the way he said it. The more times this happened, the more times she confirmed with him that it was definitely being kept a secret, the more bitter Wade started to sound. Not that she could blame him, she supposed. From his perspective, it probably did sound like she was ashamed of what they were doing. Unfortunately, Zoe couldn't actually deny that was at least a little bit true, but recognising that only put an uncomfortable guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Wade, I didn't..." she began, losing her entire grip on the English language for a moment when he looked at her. "You can't be mad at me about this. Nobody is making you come here. I never forced you into anything."

"Did I say that you did?" he asked, as if he wasn't accusing her of anything, and yet somehow, he still looked kind of angry.

At that point, Zoe wasn't sure what she was supposed to say. What she and Wade had was kind of undefinable. She would call it friends with benefits, except that didn't really have the friends part to begin with. It started with sex and continued with just that. It was a casual relationship, if it was anything, and he seemed okay with that, in the beginning. Zoe thought she could be too, but every time they did what they did, she just wound up feeling like it was wrong in some way or other. After all, most things that felt so good just had to be bad in reality.

"I guess I'll see you around, sweetheart," said Wade then, bringing her back to the present moment instantly.

"Wade?" she called to him, a second before he made it out of the bedroom door.

"Yes, Zoe, I will check the coast is clear before I leave, okay?" he yelled back to her, not even bothering to stop or turn around.

"That wasn't what I was going to... say."

Her last word was spoken after the main door had already slammed shut behind him and Zoe winced at the sound. She really didn't mean to upset Wade. She also didn't mean to keep falling into bed with him, but it had happened with alarming regularity, in the past few weeks.

"It's college," she told herself, not for the first time. "These things are normal, expected even. Everybody experiments and has no-strings-attached fun," she said, swinging her legs out of bed and beginning to look for her clothes. "I spent four years of high school and the first three of college being the perfect student, hardly ever going to parties or out on dates, doing everything I was supposed to do. Good little Zoe, top of her class, never bothering anybody. Well, now I'm having some fun, and my grades aren't even suffering! Take that, world!"

She stood in triumph, once again fully dressed and feeling a little better about herself than she had a few minutes before. There was no shame in what she was doing, no harm was being done. If she and Wade wanted to continue their arrangement, they could, and if either of them wanted to be done, that was okay too. That was the point of no strings after all.

Of course, when she pictured the look on Wade's face before he left today, recalled his bitter tone when he spoke to her, the guilt started creeping back in again. Maybe he wasn't happy with their arrangement anymore. Maybe he would be the one to end it. Zoe really wasn't sure how she would feel about that.

"There are other guys in the world," she muttered to herself, fixing the bedclothes, pounding her fists into the pillows too. "It doesn't have to be Wade Kinsella."

Not that Zoe had a clue who else she would want to be with or even date. She only went out once with Judson Lyons and he had turned out to be the dullest dud on the planet. A nice guy, that much was true, but so very boring. Aside from him, Zoe really hadn't spent much time with any one particular guy from any of her classes. The closest male friend she had made was George Tucker and that was well and truly platonic, not least because he and Lemon were like something out of a fairytale. Zoe pitied any fool who thought they stood a chance of coming between Bluebell's golden couple.

"Huh, talk of the devil," she said to herself, picking up her cell when it chirruped with a new message and finding it was from George himself.

'Did you want to get together to go over calculus today?'

Zoe sighed. The answer was no, she really did not want to spend the rest of her afternoon on math, but at the same time, she knew she really should. It wasn't her best subject, that was for certain, and George had been kind enough to offer to study with her, so she wouldn't completely screw up on the next test. She really should be gracious and accept.

'Sure. What time?'

'Meet you at the library in fifteen?'

'I'll be there.'

"Special delivery for Miss Lemon Breeland," said Wade, presenting her with the box the moment she opened the door.

"Well, thank you," she said happily, taking the package from him, "but you're a maintenance man, not a mail delivery person," she pointed out with a frown, even as he attempted to invite himself into the sorority house.

Lemon's hand on his chest kept him out and the look on her face was as no nonsense as ever. With a sigh, Wade sat down on the porch swing outside instead.

"I was coming by the office when it arrived, figured I'd save somebody else the trip." He shrugged, leaning back against the cushions and crossing his arms behind his head.

"And that's all it was, just you bein' real helpful and kind?"

Lemon narrowed her eyes so much, Wade would be surprised if she could see anything at all. He almost told her as much, except she never gave him the chance.

"Wade Kinsella, what is goin' on with you?" she asked, coming to sit beside him with her package in her lap, staring yet. "These past few weeks, you have been acting real strange. One day, you're as high as a kite, the next you're moping around like it is the end of days. You wanna explain to me why that is?"

He opened his mouth to tell her it was nothing, because that was the easiest answer to give. Of course, it wasn't true and, most likely, Lemon would know it too. She had a sixth sense for a lie, most especially where her friends were concerned. They had really known each other too long for him to get anything past her, which was probably why he went seeking her out in the first place. Wade didn't really want to lie anymore. Not that he was about to break the promise he made to Zoe about keeping their 'relationship' secret. It was just he needed somebody to talk to about that whole thing, even if he had to do it in vague terms.

"When you and George Tucker first got it together, if he had wanted to keep that whole thing a secret, what would you have said to that?"

Lemon made a face at the sound of that question.

"I can't imagine anybody wanting to keep such a thing a secret," she said, shaking her head. "Not unless one person or the other was cheatin' on somebody else, obviously," she considered, her eyes getting narrow again as she stared at him. "Wade Kinsella, what did you do?"

"Geez, Lemon, I didn't do anything!" he told her fast, sure he looked as affronted as he felt. "You know me well enough to know that I am not a relationship guy, no way."

"Then why are you asking me about my relationship with George and about keeping secrets?" she asked, back on her feet with hands on her hips by now. "Either you're trying to tell me something about my George that I don't want to hear, or this is all about you and something you're up to..."

"I never shoulda come here to talk to you about his," Wade muttered, getting up to leave.

He didn't know why he was even surprised that Lemon got in his path and wouldn't let him pass.

"Wade, please," she said, her voice and eyes both a little softer then. "If there is something you need to talk about, just tell me what it is. I can't help you if you don't tell me."

She meant well. For all her yelling and foot-stomping and judging sometimes, where her real good friends were concerned, Lemon always meant well. It was how Wade had come to look on her not unlike a sister these past few years, whether he meant to or not. Of course, he still wasn't keen to break his promise to Zoe. God only knew why, because Wade sure didn't. He really didn't owe her anything at all, but he would keep his word, all the same.

"There's this girl, I've kinda been seein' a lot of her," Wade admitted at last, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away. "Trust me, it is nothing like what you and Tucker have. It's just... well, sex mostly, which I'm not complainin' about as such, but she is so damn weird about anybody ever findin' out I so much as touched her. It's not like I wanna care about that. Normally, I wouldn't. You know as well as I do, I have been the dirty little secret of my fair share of girls," he said, unable to keep the smirk from his lips when he admitted as much, though it was gone in a flash when he continued on. "It's just, somehow, it's different with her. And I sound like a real jackass, don't I?"

"Oh, sweet Wade, no," Lemon insisted, reaching out her arms to hug him tight. "You're not a jackass. I mean, don't get me wrong, you can be sometimes, but you're not for caring about this," she told him definitely, pulling back to meet his eyes. "Do I know this girl?"

He thought about telling her, he really did. A part of him even thought maybe somehow she might look at him that way and just know, but in the end, he couldn't tell her and realised fast that she couldn't figure it out for herself. How would she, given the circumstances?

"Doesn't matter," he said, shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure it'll all be over soon anyhow."

"And you're not hearing a word I'm saying."

Zoe snapped out of a daze and stared at George, taking a moment to even realise what he had said then. "Oh, George, I'm so sorry," she apologised, shaking her head as much to clear the fog as anything else. "I was just... I kind of have things on my mind right now."

"Well, we're not gettin' all that far with calculus," he declared, closing up the textbook with a bump. "So, can I help you with what has you so distracted instead?"

"Oh, I don't know..." said Zoe awkwardly.

She wasn't sure she really knew the guy well enough to share personal details with him anyway, but considering it was his good friend Wade she was having her casual relationship with, that just made it all the more strange.

"You don't have to tell me anything, obviously," George insisted, "and hey, if this is something you'd rather talk to another woman about, I'm sure that Lemon-"

"It's not." Zoe shook her head definitely, knowing she absolutely could not tell her about Wade either - it would be too awful! "I'm just... I don't know, it's just a lot. You know, moving down here, changing schools, making new friends and... everything. One month in and I still feel a little out of my depth, you know?"

"Sure, I can understand that." George nodded in agreement. "It must be a huge adjustment, so many changes all at once, including finding out the truth about your father."

"You're not kidding, but Harley seems really great, and I'm enjoying most of my classes here, not to mention making excellent new friends," she said, smiling across at him.

"Well, we all do our best, especially for one of our own," said George, grinning back at her, "but if everything is going so well, makes me wonder what's on your mind so much. Is it... a dating thing?" he asked carefully.

"Yes and no." Zoe didn't think she could give a better answer than that.

After all, she and Wade were certainly not dating. They had never been anywhere together but her bed or his. They didn't talk much, just occasionally in passing, when they were in the mixed company of Lemon, George, and other friends they might bring along when they ate together or got a drink or whatever. They barely knew each other, in so many ways. There was just that one way where they knew each other super well. Zoe shivered yet felt herself flushing with heat as she thought about that, even for a moment.

"Uh, it's complicated," she said then, looking everywhere but at George as she shoved her books back into her bag. "I mean, I had one date, with Judson, but it didn't really work out, and then, I was kind of seeing this other guy but... like I said, complicated. I'm just not sure that the type of relationship we have is really the best thing for either of us. I don't have much experience of the whole casual college thing."

She hoped she was phrasing it in a way that made sense to him, without embarrassing either one of them. Zoe was sure she was failing, because her cheeks felt very warm and George suddenly started to squirm in his chair a little.

"Oh, casual," he said pointedly. "Well, it's not really something that I've ever done myself, but hey, no judgement. To each their own way, is what I always say. That being said, if you try something and find it's not working for you, there's no shame in saying as much and trying something else instead. We all make mistakes, or if not mistakes exactly, then choices we later regret," he said, diplomatic as ever. "All you can really do is move on and learn from what came before, if you can."

Zoe gave his words due consideration and realised he made very good points.

"You know what? You're right," she said eventually. "Thank you, George. I really believe you're going to be a great lawyer someday."

"Well, thank you, Zoe Wilkes," he told her, smiling widely at her.

At least now she knew what she needed to do next.

To Be Continued...