I left Wade in the kitchen and headed up to the room. I was ready to change into comfortable clothes and make a list of things I would need to pick up tomorrow. I knew I needed travel toiletries and such. Carrie and I had planned to make a little shopping trip together and have a lunch date. I was beyond excited about it. It had been quite some time since I had a friend and actually did things that normal people would do.

"Quinn." I heard Wade speak. I looked up from the bed where I had been scrolling through my phone. He was standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame, looking too good to be true. "I just wanted to let you know I'm going out later to a local bar with some of the guys. Just wanted to let you know."

"The route?" I asked.

"Yeah. Have you been?" He asked, raising a brow in surprise.

"No." I chuckled. "Officer Stevens asked me to join him there this evening." I smiled over at him.

"Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, it's just a dive bar, nothing fancy. You'll have fun, I'm sure." Wade stuttered, turning to head back down the hall. "Well, you have my number if you need anything. Guess I'll see ya there." He shoved his hands into his pockets, looking defeated, from what I wasn't sure.

"I'm not going," I replied, stopping him in his tracks.

"Ok. Have a good night in then?" He looked awkward as hell. Everything had been weird between us since I tried to get him to kiss me. Despite talking about it, it still hung in the air. I nodded at him, and off he went. When I heard the front door shut a little while later, I jumped into a nice hot shower.

I spent the remainder of the evening organizing the rest of my things that had been brought over from the apartment a few days ago; once that was complete, I decided to lay in bed and read for a bit. Just as I was starting to doze off after a few chapters, I heard the front door slam. I sat up, listening to make sure it was just Wade coming in. I could hear rustling around and then what sounded like something crashing to the floor. I got out of bed as quietly as possible and listened at the door. I could hear a muffled voice, but it didn't quite sound like Wade. I was beginning to panic.

Wade lived out in the country with a lot of lands around. There weren't neighbors for a few miles. I had nowhere to run for help. I looked around the room for anything that I could use as a weapon but came up empty. I muttered a few swears under my breath, gripping my phone in hand, and headed toward the steps.

I slowly made my way down, one step at a time, attempting to peer around the corner to see who or what was in the house. I caught a glimpse of a large figure hunched over by the dining table. It took a few minutes to adjust my eyes to the darkness before I realized the figure was Wade. I rushed down the remaining steps and over to him.

"Wade? Are you ok?" I lightly touched his back. He swung around with a giant grin on his face, and I realized then he was drunk as a skunk.

"I am fan-fucking-tastic." He bellowed.

"How did you get home?!"

"Mickey gave me a ride." He slurred. I silently thanked the heavens he hadn't driven in the state he was in. "What are YOU doing?" He brought his hand up and bopped me on the nose. I had to stifle a laugh.

"I was about to fall asleep. Now, I'm going to help you get to bed because you're wasted." I held onto his arm, turning him toward the hall that led to his room. "Come on, let's go. I'll get you settled, then get you some water and aspirin." He grunted in response but attempted to walk toward his room as I led him by his arm. Once we made it into his room, I pushed him toward his bed, where he quickly fell back and spread out. I helped remove his boots while he mumbled to himself. I had to admit I was a little surprised that Wade would get this drunk and stumble home. In the little bit of time I had been getting to know him, this just didn't seem like his character.

"Thank you." He managed to get out as he crawled the rest of the way up on his bed.

"You're welcome. I'll be right back with your water."

I grabbed a throw blanket off the sofa on my way back to his room with a glass of water and aspirin in hand. To my surprise, he was sitting up, leaning back against the headboard, waiting for me. He gave me a goofy grin that sent butterflies to my heart. I sat the water and meds on the nightstand and laid the blanket over him.

"You should sleep; you're going to be feeling rough in the morning."

Wade slipped back down onto the bed, pulling the blanket up over him.

"I wanted to kiss you." He yawned. "I wanted to kiss you so bad."

I froze at his words. Before I could formulate a response, I heard light snoring coming from him. He couldn't have been talking about me. He must have been talking about someone else; maybe someone he met at the bar tonight. Yes, that was it. I made my way back up to my room and crawled into bed. It only took a few moments before I fell fast asleep myself.

*

I woke up later than I had anticipated, so I had to rush to get ready to meet up with Carrie. I grabbed my purse and headed down the stairs. Thinking quickly about last night, I popped down the hall to check on Wade. He was spread out across the bed, still out like a light. I rushed out the door and headed toward the shop Carrie asked me to meet her at.

"Hot mess express." She laughed when I hopped out of the car.

"Sorry, I overslept." I followed her into the shop.

"Oooh, late night?" She wiggled her brows with a smile.

"Not like that."

"You didn't take Ben up on his offer?" She was already browsing through racks of clothes.

"Ben?" I asked, confused.

"Stevens. Officer Stevens." She looked at me as if I were crazy.

"Oh, no. No, I didn't. Not really my type, and it was a little awkward him asking me while bringing me court documents, ya think?"

"So, he's not Wade," Carrie smirked at me.

"Wade was the reason I was up late. He went out and came back drunk as hell."

"What?! No way!!" She stopped what she was doing and turned to face me now. Shock was written on her face.

"Yep. Scared the crap out of me. I thought he was being robbed. I came down the stairs, and he was slumped over the kitchen table, out of his gourd. I helped him to his room, and that's where he was still passed out when I left." I explained.