A/N: Here we are, back again. Hope y'all didn't miss me too much ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 5

For two people who had only been away for two days, and spent most of that time in bed, Zoe and Wade seemed to have quite the pile of laundry between them, on their return from their weekend at the cabin. It only made sense to throw everything in together, at least, as much as possible, and Zoe decided she would be the one to do it.

"Don't get any ideas, cowboy," she said, on coming over to his place and pitching the concept. "This is not maid service. I just think one big load is better than two small ones - save a little water and energy, help the planet."

"Understood, doc," Wade told her easily, pulling together his own pile of clothes to be washed. "You think you got room for a few things that got left hanging around before we went away too?"

Zoe rolled her eyes. "I guess so," she agreed, wandering around the gatehouse while she waited for him to find everything. "You know, if you just kept things a little tidier in here, you'd have an easier time finding things."

"Well, maybe if I had some maid service..." Wade smirked wickedly at her.

He took a dirty sock to his head for the trouble, which they both laughed about, before he went in search of any other clothes he may have shed in the bathroom and left there.

Zoe sighed, sitting down on the edge of the bed to wait. She was soon smooshing around trying to get more comfortable, before realising she was never going to manage it. There was something hard digging into her back. Rifling through the untidy covers, she was surprised to find it was a notebook she had been reclining on.

Maybe she shouldn't have been so curious, but then she would hardly be Zoe Hart if she wasn't. Flipping the book open, she felt her eyes widen as she took in what was written within. Page after page of Wade's scruffy handwriting proved to be fairly detailed plans for a bar of his own. Wade's Place. She smiled as she read a little here, a little there, until suddenly she realised she wasn't alone anymore.

"Hey," she said, looking up at Wade. "I was just... Um, I'm sorry. Obviously, this is private. I shouldn't-"

"It's fine," he told her easily, sitting down beside her and encouraging her to keep looking at the book if she wanted to. "I don't want any secrets from you, Zoe, you know that. 'Sides, you already know I was thinkin' about opening my own place once upon a time."

"I do know," she agreed, nodding her head, eyes back on the pages as she turned them over and over again. "Whatever happened to that?"

Wade shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, just gave up on it, I guess. Didn't seem worth the effort, somehow. 'Course, I might be willing to try again now."

Zoe glanced up at him, tried to read the expression on his face and had trouble doing so. What he said was true. Wade rarely said anything he didn't mean, but she just wasn't sure why he was saying it.

"You know I will support you one hundred percent," she told him definitely, "but if you did try again, it would have to be because you really wanted to, Wade. Don't just do it because you think it's what I want you to do."

That caused a frown. "What? You don't want me to be some big-shot bar owner?"

"Sure, if that's what you want," she insisted, "but don't you remember what I told you up at the cabin?"

"I seem to remember something' like an L word bein' used." Wade's expression was more smile than smirk, even though he seemed as if he were trying to rein it in a little.

"It was," Zoe agreed, "but the most important part actually came after. I love you for you, Wade. For who you are and what you are right now. If you want a career, or to do something big with your life and your work, then that's great, and like I said, I will totally support you," she said, waving the book in her hand for emphasis, then closing it and putting it into his hands. "But if you're happy just tending bar and playing in a band and being the awesome guy that you are without any changes, then that's great too. What I want most is for you to be happy, okay?"

She expected to have made him happy just by saying it, and yet, he looked strangely sad. If he were anybody else, Zoe might have even thought he was going to cry, but this was Wade. She actually couldn't imagine him doing something like that.

"Are you okay?" she asked then, her hand on his arm, urging him to look at her - he was scaring her just a little with how quiet he had gotten.

"I'm okay," he told her after a moment, finally meeting her gaze once more. "Just wonderin' all over again how in the hell I ever got so lucky as to have you lovin' me like you say you do."

Zoe was both relieved to hear that and thrilled too. "Trust me, I feel just as lucky having you loving me like you do," she told him, planting a sweet kiss on his lips.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time for any more than that. They had the laundry to finish sorting out, and then, Zoe had to get to work. After her weekend away, even with Jonah Breeland filling in like he had, she and Wade both knew Brick wouldn't be too happy if she was late showing up today.

When she was gone, Wade sat alone a long time, staring at the notebook in his hands. He didn't even open it for a while, just kept on thinking about the possibilities it held inside.

The plans he had made back then, it had mostly been to impress Zoe, when he didn't know how else to do it. Now, he had her as his girlfriend, and she loved him. He didn't need to fight to get her attention anymore, and apparently, he didn't need to better himself in some big and exciting way to keep her interested.

That was all good to know, Wade thought, but it didn't necessarily mean it would be so bad to try and make his one-time dream of being a bar owner come true. As big career moves went, he supposed it wasn't so huge, nothing like being a doctor or a lawyer, but it would be something. Business owner sounded just as impressive, and it certainly wouldn't suck to be his own boss, to have a place where he could do things just exactly how he wanted.

"Wade's Place," he said to himself, opening up the notebook and flipping the pages.

He had got more down in that book than he remembered. Possible layouts for the venue, potential menu ideas, sketches of signs and logos, even a little research he had managed to do online as to what things might cost. It was something he could actually do, if he wanted. The only question was, did he really want to take the leap?

He was still thinking on it when his cell phone suddenly rang, Lavon's name flashing on the screen as the incoming caller.

"What up, Hoss?" he asked as he answered it.

"Wade, m'boy. Glad to have you back!"

"What'd you bust this time, Mr Mayor?" Wade smirked, knowing just from his buddy's tone of voice that something most definitely needed fixing up at the main house.

Ten minutes later, he was coming in through Lavon's kitchen, tool bag in hand, all ready to deal with the plumbing issue the sink was having. Wade was laid out on the tile with his head in the cabinet, all thoughts of his own bar quite forgotten as he worked on the pipes. He was hardly aware that Lavon was still hanging around until he asked him how his weekend had been.

"You sure you wanna be asking me that?" he called from beneath the sink. "I mean, I know you look to Zoe like a sister, so anythin' I might tell you from the past two days, 's probably gonna turn your stomach some."

"Oh, right." He could picture Lavon wincing at the very idea. "Yeah, so you had a good time and that's all I need to know."

Wade chuckled at the way his friend said that, then slid out from under the sink and sat up to look to him. "Leavin' out all the parts you wouldn't care to hear, it was still a heck of a weekend, man. You know, Zoe told me... Well, she went ahead and said she loved me while we was up there at the cabin. And before you ask, yes, I said it back, 'cause it's as true as I'm sittin' here. How in the hell did this happen to me, Lavon?"

"I don't know," he told him, shaking his head, "but given the real bumpy road you two took, please don't go tellin' me you're sorry about where you've ended up."

"No, sir," Wade said firmly. "I got no regrets about Zoe. Her and me, that is the real thing, capital R, capital T. Nothin' I ever saw comin' when she first rolled into town, but I promise you, I am happy as a dead pig in the sunshine about it."

"I really hope you didn't put it that way to Miss Zoe," said Lavon, even as he laughed.

Wade rolled his eyes and didn't bother to answer as he put his head back into the cabinet, the correct wrench now in his hand to finish the job.

"Seriously though," Lavon told him then, "I am happy to see you so happy. Wish my own love life was goin' as well as all that, but hey, that don't change how glad I feel about you and Zoe. That is real good news about you and her, and I could not be happier for the two of you if I tried."

Wade knew he meant that. Lavon was good people, after all. He cared for Zoe, and probably for him too, just like family. It did kind of suck that the mayor himself couldn't seem to get things figured out, not with Lemon or Ruby or even Annabeth, but somewhere down the line, he had to get lucky and find somebody he could stick with. If it could happen to Wade, he firmly believed it could happen to anybody.

Besides, Lavon was the romantic type. He had been the one to encourage Wade when it came to getting with Zoe in the first place. There had been support aplenty from his landlord and friend when he was struggling with his feelings and also how to get Zoe's attention.

"Okay, pretty sure that's all good now."

Getting out from under the sink and moving out of the way, Wade stood watching, wiping his hands on a rag, while Lavon tested the taps. He smiled on seeing the water flow freely away without causing a leak below.

"You know your stuff, Wade," his friend told him happily. "Thank you for comin' by so quick to get the job done."

"No problem," he replied with a smile of his own. "You know, it's funny, speaking of things I'm so good at, Zoe came across this notebook I have up at the gatehouse, all full o' plans for when I was thinkin' of opening my own bar a while back."

"Yeah, whatever happened to that?" asked Lavon, turning to lean back against the counter. "You were pretty excited to start that whole thing and then..."

"And then, Zoe decided she was leavin' town and I decided to give up on the whole bar idea. Just when I might've been thinkin' about it again for a minute, well, she went ahead and liked me without me bein' any fancier than I already am," he admitted, shrugging his shoulders, eyes entirely on the rag in his hands as he confessed the truth. "See, the truth is, I mostly wanted to own a bar, so that Zoe would think I was worth somethin'. Prob'ly shoulda known better than to think she was so shallow, but... well, I ain't always the sharpest knife in the drawer."

"Don't sell yourself short, Wade," Lavon advised. "You're plenty smart, where it counts. Not every man is cut out to be a career guy. There's no way I could ever be a lawyer like George Tucker or a doctor like Jonah Breeland. Football was the one thing I was good at, or so I thought. Now, well, the people skills I have and everything, makes me ideal for mayoral duties," he said with a wide grin. "You're good at plenty o' things yourself. Plumbing, electrics, all kinds of maintenance, actually, and you're real good at running a bar. Sure, I know, the Rammer Jammer is Wally's place, but I know he'd be the first to admit, you do more than your share, most especially when he takes time out to spend with his wife and family. What I'm sayin' is, if you wanted your own place, I for one know that you could do that. 'Course, if you don't, that's fine too."

"You sound a lot like Zoe." Wade smiled, finally looking up at his friend. "Hey, you ain't about to tell me you love me too, are you?" he joked, getting a playful yet fairly heavy-handed slap on the back for his trouble.

"I ain't even gonna dignify that with a response," Lavon told him. "Now, if you were thinkin' of having your own business, I know you'd need money. This was in the mailbox this morning," he said, handing Wade a flyer.

"Battle of the Bands," he read aloud from the paper. "First prize... $20,000?"

Lavon was nodding when he looked at him. "Something to think about maybe, if you were looking for a little cash to get a bar started."

Wade couldn't deny the man had a point. It was most definitely something to think about.

To Be Continued...