Author's note: Thanks again to all of you who are reading, and especially those who have offered reviews. I really appreciate it. The last chapter was a lot of background and not so much Zoe and Wade but hopefully this one will make up for that. Let me know what you think!
Wade knew it would be her as soon as he heard the footsteps on the stairs of the library. It wasn't like he had some kind of sixth sense or anything. It's just that almost everyone who used the library, or at least the second floor, where there were no computers, was old, and in most cases a lot heavier than Zoe Hart. So when he heard the quick, light footsteps, he guessed it would be her. Besides, who else would be headed to the library on a beautiful day like this? He knew from watching her at school that she was real smart and that she studied a whole lot. She seemed to spend most of her lunch breaks at school with her nose in a textbook, so he should have guessed that she would spend her Saturdays at the library. If it had occurred to him earlier that she would be there he would have found somewhere else to go, because he did not need someone asking him what he was doing right now.
He braced himself to be interrupted and tried to think of some plausible explanation for why he, of all people, was in the library on a sunny Saturday morning, but then he heard the footsteps stop. He waited for them to start again, but when they did they were quieter, more deliberate, and they were heading away from where he was. He risked a glance over his shoulder and out the doorway and saw that she was lugging that huge Jansport backpack she always had with her down the hallway to the other end of the house. He didn't know if she had recognized him, but either way she clearly wasn't keen for a chat and that suited him just fine.
It wasn't that he didn't like her. From what little he knew of her so far, he did. She was certainly intriguing, and she was gorgeous of course – nothing had changed on that front. But he had seen her watching him over the last few weeks and she did not seem too impressed with what she saw. Wade was no stranger to attention, and he got more than his fair share of looks from all kinds of girls. Some were blatant, others were coy, but when Zoe looked at him she always seemed to have that expression he had seen when she had asked him why he would chug a bottle of disgusting goop. He doubted she realized it, but her face was an open book, and when she looked at him it said that she just did not get him. It was obvious that she thought they were on completely different wavelengths.
Which they no doubt were, he thought as he tried to force himself to get back to concentrating on the task at hand. She was super smart, stunningly pretty, always dressed impeccably, and it was clear she liked to keep to herself, except in class, when she would have answered every question the teachers asked, if only they had let her. Plus she was the daughter of Bluebell's favorite doctor. Meanwhile, he was a loud, boisterous, joker whose clothes were simple at best, tatty at worst, and the only time he spoke up in class was when he had some half-smart comment that he knew would get some laughs. And to top it all off his dad was Crazy Earl, the town drunk.
Speaking of drunk, he really had to try to figure out this paperwork. He looked at the number again. $250.00. How the hell was he going to come up with that kind of money? Just when Wade had thought they were on top of the bills, for the moment anyway, Crazy Earl had to go and pass out during a drinking binge in Mobile. Some well-meaning citizen had called an ambulance to take him to the E.R. and next thing he knew they had received this bill for $250.00. Wade had called the number at the top of the bill in confusion. Shouldn't this have been covered by their insurance (which luckily they had, thanks to some arrangement his mother had made before she had died)? Apparently not. The person on the other end of the phone tried to explain that there was an alcohol exclusion clause or something, but Wade wasn't really able to process what she was saying because all he could think was that if this wasn't a mistake he was going to have to figure out a way to get his hands on $250.00.
Over the last few years he had always tried to pick up work when he could, delivering papers, helping out in the lumber yard, washing dishes, picking whatever crop was in season; basically any kind of work that was available at the time. But none of those jobs paid much and it was going to take him a hell of a long time to scrape together $250.00. Damn Earl and his drinking.
He could not find any mention of an alcohol exclusion clause in the pages and pages of fine print and he was starting to lose it. He was about ready to throw something when he heard a thud from the other end of the hallway, followed by a scraping sound and then some frustrated muttering that sounded like it included more than a few curse words. He couldn't help but be glad for the distraction, as he slowly got up from his chair, being sure to put the bill and the health insurance papers in his backpack as he did. He wasn't going to leave that stuff lying around for someone to stumble across.
He walked down the hallway and couldn't help but smirk when he saw what Zoe Hart was doing. She was standing on a wobbly old chair, on tippy toes, stretching as far as she could, in an attempt to reach the cord for the blinds. The sun was streaming in through the window on this side of the building and he could see why she would want to close the blind, but she was tiny and had no hope of reaching that cord at the top of the casement windows; it was about three feet above her pretty little head.
He decided to step in before she hurt herself.
"Looks like you could do with a helpin' hand…"
He realized his mistake when she jumped in surprise and let out a small squeal. She obviously hadn't heard him approach and he had unwittingly given her a huge fright. She lost her balance on the chair and he could tell she was headed for a fall. Before he knew what was happening he found himself scooping her up in his arms and whirling her around to deposit her safely on the floor. She landed lightly and looked up at him with that bewildered look he was already too familiar with. Somehow his rescue attempt suddenly seemed a bit over the top. He probably should have just grabbed her arm and steadied her or something. He wasn't the blushing type, but his cheeks colored a bit as he scratched at the back of his head with one hand and tried to regain his composure.
"Sorry 'bout that. I never meant to give you a fright…"
She looked a bit flustered herself. He usually enjoyed it when girls squirmed in his presence. If it had been any other girl he would have used this as an opportunity for a bit of a flirt, teasing them about how they must have enjoyed being cradled in his arms or something. But somehow with Zoe Hart it was different. He had this weird urge to make her feel less uncomfortable, so instead of calling attention to the fact that she was standing there red cheeked and with her mouth hanging open, he sprang up on the chair and reached up to grab the cord and pull the blind down.
"How's that?" he smiled as he got down from the chair and put it back in front of the writing desk, which was covered in what looked like science textbooks and pages and pages of detailed notes.
"Better. Thanks," she replied. "I knew this was going to happen actually, which is why I wanted to use that desk at the other end of the house, but someone was already there, which is weird, because usually this place is deserted…," she was rambling, she knew, when he interrupted her.
"Yeah, um, sorry about that…"
She looked at him in surprise. "That was you?!"
"No need to look so surprised – I can read you know!" He was a bit pissed off now. I mean was it really so shocking that he should be found in a library?
"I know. I mean I'm sure you can, but… it's just that…"
"Just that what?" he cut her off and there was a sharp edge to his voice now. She had hit a sore spot. "Just that 'cause I'm not in your physics class, 'cause you don't see me studyin' in lunch break, and 'cause I don't carry a ton of books with me wherever I go like you do, I must be dumb?"
She didn't know what to say. She didn't think he was dumb exactly, just maybe not very academic. But she probably shouldn't say that, she supposed. She was at a loss as to what to say to rescue the situation, and then she looked up to see that he was already halfway down the hall. He seemed pissed and she wasn't really sure that what she had said warranted such a reaction. She called out weakly, "I didn't mean…" but she wasn't sure how to continue, and as he came back out of the small room with his backpack he gave her a tight smile that didn't reach his eyes and said, "Don't worry about it," before he disappeared down the stairs.
Well that was weird. She didn't know what to think. She knew that sometimes she upset people without meaning to, but even when she replayed the conversation in her head she couldn't tell what she had done wrong. I mean it wasn't that weird to be surprised to see him in the library, was it? She was so confused.
After Wade left she tried to keep studying but she just couldn't focus. In the end she gave up and headed back home. Back to Harley's house, she corrected herself. What was she thinking calling it home? This was not her home. It was an unwanted but unavoidable detour on her path back to New York; as long as she stuck to her plan.
She still believed her policy of not sharing confidences with Harley was the right way to go, but she couldn't help asking him about Wade as they sat down to a dinner of quiche and salad on the back porch that evening. She really didn't like puzzles that she couldn't solve, and Wade did not make sense to her. Maybe Harley could share some information that would help her figure out what his deal was, and then she could stop thinking about him and return to focusing on her plan to get back to New York.
Zoe was not the most skillful conversationalist at the best of times, and when the topic was something out of her comfort zone like this she was even worse. The conversation started off clumsily.
"So, um, remember that guy we saw at the school? Wade something?" She knew perfectly well that his last name was Kinsella, but she was trying to give Harley the impression that she was not overly invested in the topic. Somehow she felt that Harley saw right through her act, but, always the gentleman, he didn't call her out on it.
"You mean Wade Kinsella?" he asked mildly.
"Yeah – that's it. Kinsella," she carried on with her act. "What's his deal?"
"I'm not sure I know what you're getting' at…?" Harley looked mildly amused, but then he must have decided to help her out because he said, "What is it that you wanted to know about Wade?"
"Well, I ran into him at the library today…" Harley raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"I know, right?!" she exclaimed, pleased to find that Harley was surprised by that too. "I mean he just doesn't seem like the study in the library type! But when I said that to him… And you know, I didn't even actually say that… I didn't get that far! Anyway, he kind of freaked out and got all snarly at me…"
She looked at Harley and was surprised to see that his expression had suddenly hardened. "What do you mean 'snarly'?" he asked in a voice she had never heard him use before, and she realized he had gone all protective. She had noticed this trait several times in the men down here, even in the short time that she'd been here. Southern men were apparently very protective of the women in their life. She was quick to attempt to get the conversation back on course.
"Oh, he wasn't aggressive or anything. He just seemed a bit more upset than was necessary. Well a lot more, really. For some reason he seemed kind of hurt…"
Harley looked relieved when she clarified that Wade hadn't threatened her or anything. Then he let out a sigh and said, "Poor Wade. That boy deserves a better hand than he's been dealt."
Okay, now she was even more confused. As far as she could tell Wade had been dealt a pretty good hand in life. He was the most attractive guy in the whole school, probably in all of Bluebell actually, he was athletic, he had a bunch of friends, he was the most confident person she had ever come across, and the other day she had even discovered that he could sing and play guitar. So he wasn't academic – big deal. With all the other stuff he had working in his favor he probably didn't need to be.
"I don't get it…"
Harley had finished his dinner now and he shifted his chair around so that he was gazing out over the backyard when he spoke. It was as though he felt uncomfortable sharing Wade's story with her directly.
"Well, you see, Wade's family life is complicated…" Oh. Well, she knew all about complicated families. Could his situation really be any worse than hers?
"His mom died of cancer a few years back, and without her around they sort of lost their way. Wade's dad started drinking when he lost her, and he's never really stopped. Then last year Wade's brother Jesse left to join the military. So now it's just Wade and his dad, which can't be easy for him."
"But he always seems so carefree," she said, more or less to herself.
"Yes, you're right, he does. He does a pretty good job of making it look like everything is fine. It must be exhausting for the poor boy. Actually, I'm really glad you brought this up Zoe. I'm ashamed to say it's been too long since I checked in on him and Earl. I will have to remedy that…"
Zoe didn't know what to think. The ideas she had had in her head about Wade had suddenly all been flipped around. But even after what Harley had explained, she didn't really understand why Wade had been so upset about her being surprised to see him in the library. She debated whether or not to ask Harley for more insight. She was tempted to just leave it, but she somehow felt that she wasn't going to solve this puzzle on her own so she decided to just ask Harley straight out.
"But that doesn't explain why he got so…," she chose her words more carefully this time, "upset when I was surprised that he'd been in the library. Why would that bother him so much?"
Harley sighed again as he contemplated her question. Finally he said, "I suspect Wade is very aware of the fact that if things were different at home he would have had the opportunity to be a lot more successful academically. That boy is sharp as a whip – always has been. His mom used to say that he had overtaken her by the time he reached the third grade. It wasn't quite true of course – Jackie was no dummy. But even back then there was no doubt that he was plenty bright. People seem to have forgotten that about Wade."
It took Zoe a long time to get to sleep that night. Normally she took the time before she fell asleep to think back over what she had achieved that day and plan out what she was going to do the next day. But that night her head was filled with the two very strange conversations she had had that day, and when she did finally sleep she dreamed strange dreams about lost little boys and screened in porches, about falling from great heights, and about being caught in reassuringly strong arms.
