A/N: Thanks for all those lovely reviews, folks! Rest assured that while Zoe & Wade are friends only for now, it will change later, it's just going to be a slow process, given the circumstances, that's all ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 15

"That was not fun," Zoe declared as she hung up the phone and sighed.

"Were they mad or somethin'," Wade asked. "I mean, do fancy colleges get mad when you tell 'em you ain't comin' back just like that?"

"I really don't think Yale cares too much that they lost one person from their Sophomore class," she said with another sad sigh. "It probably happens all the time."

Of course, Zoe noted, she never had thought it would happen to her. She really did feel like her entire life was falling to pieces around her lately. It was as if everything she thought she knew was coming apart at the seams, leaving her to drift, aimless and alone, in the middle of the mess left behind.

"Hey," Wade's hand on her shoulder got her attention and the smile he gave her was comforting to say the least. "What do you need, Zoe?"

"A time machine?" she suggested. "I mean, if I could go back, just to the start of the academic year, maybe tell myself that sleeping with Logan is a really bad idea," she considered, before shaking her head. "Of course, even that wouldn't fix everything. My mom has been lying to me my whole life, Wade. I think that's the part that's messing me up the most. If she had just told the truth, everything would've been better. I could've known Harley this whole time, and even if she wanted to be with Ethan, that would've been okay, but at least we all would've known where we stood, and... I'm sorry," she apologised then, seeing the look of awkwardness and pain she was causing on her friend's face. "I'm being boring and miserable again, aren't I?"

"You got the right, Zoe," Wade assured her. "Hell, ain't my place to say, but it seems to me your momma has caused her fair share o' your troubles."

"Oh, yeah," Zoe agreed whole heartedly, "and trust me, that is why I am staying far, far away from New York for a while. Harley says I can stay here and, as much as Alabama was a million miles away from the plans I had for my future, it's working for now, at least until I figure out where I go next. Um, don't you have to be at work or something?" she asked Wade then, mindful of the time.

He checked his watch, then shrugged his shoulders. "I got some time yet. I start showin' up early to the Rammer Jammer, folks are just gonna think I went crazy or some such. I ain't exactly known for my timekeepin'."

"Right," said Zoe, nodding absently.

Quite honestly, she wasn't altogether listening. She did appreciate that Wade came by to spend time with her, keep her company and offer support and everything. Harley had to work so much, he couldn't be by her side every minute, and while Zoe knew she could cope alone, right now, it was nice not to have to. That said, with so many big decisions to make and things to figure out, Zoe found her mind was wandering more often than it wasn't, which didn't exactly make her a great conversationalist.

"So, the rest of your stuff is back at Yale?" asked Wade then. "I mean, you only brought a couple o' bags when you came visitin' Harley, right?"

"I did," Zoe agreed, "and yes, most of my stuff is still at the dorm. I guess I should call Katie next, let her know I won't be coming back. I'll have to get movers to bring the rest of my things down here. They could probably bring anything I might need from New York too, but it's going to get expensive."

"Harley'd help you out with that," said Wade easily. "Come on now, you know he would," he insisted off the look Zoe shot him, "or, if you don't want strangers messin' with your stuff, I could drive on up there and get everything you need. Hey, you could come along too, we'll make a road trip out of it."

"Drive?" Zoe said incredulously. "From Alabama to Connecticut?"

"It's not like I never did it before," Wade told her, rolling his eyes. "How'd you think I come to see you in the first place? That was part of a job. Me and Nate Hilson from the hardware store, we drove a truck full of supplies up that way. Only took a couple of days with us two taking turns on driving."

"Huh," said Zoe, eyes wide with wonder. "I'm sorry, I just... I assumed you flew up or something. People don't drive much in New York and... well, a lot is different down south," she realised all over again.

"You'll get the hang of it, Zoe," Wade promised her as he got up from his seat. "After all, you got at least half your blood from down here, right?"

"So they tell me," she agreed, standing up too and immediately wobbling.

"Hey, take it easy there," said Wade as he steadied her. "Maybe you oughta sit right back down again. Not like I can't find my own way to the front door to let myself out."

"You're leaving?" Zoe checked even as she sat back down in her seat as he advised.

"Didn't you tell me a short while back I was gonna be late for work I didn't go soon?"

Zoe hated to realise he was right. It was so stupid, when he was there, she was hardly talking to him, hardly listening either, and yet, when he said he had to go, she could so easily sit and cry her eyes out about it. It was simple enough to blame her messed up hormones for the whole crazy situation, but honestly, Zoe wondered if that were really her only problem here. She suspected not.

"Um, so, I guess I'll see you later?"

"Uh, I'm gonna be working pretty much the rest of the day and then I gotta go see to Earl," said Wade, rubbing the back of his neck. "Then tomorrow, I promised Delma Warner I'd go take a look at her porch and that'll prob'ly lead to a bunch of other stuff she needs doing around her house, so..."

"Busy guy." Zoe smiled up at him. "When I said 'later', I didn't necessarily mean today or even tomorrow. You know, it's just an expression. I'll see you when I see you," she said, waving away the whole situation with her hand.

"I guess you will," Wade agreed, finding her a smile and patting her on the shoulder once before he finally said his goodbyes and left her alone.

Zoe bit her lip as she heard the screen door slam shut behind her friend. She was absolutely not going to cry about the fact her friend was busy and probably wouldn't see her in the next couple of days. That was stupid. She could make other friends here, and she was going to call Katie to catch up with her too, plus Harley was around every morning and evening, as a minimum, to make sure she was okay.

"I used to be able to take care of myself," Zoe reminded herself, wishing she hadn't bothered to speak her thoughts aloud, because it only opened the floodgates to the tears she had been so desperately holding back.

A few minutes later, when the sobbing was all over, Zoe cleaned up her face and took a deep breath. She really did have to try harder with all this. Where was that New Yorker backbone she knew she had in there? Where was the Southern spirit she saw so much in others and knew now she must possess herself somehow? It was no good just making excuses and sitting around crying. She had to make some choices, some real plans for the future.

"It's not easy, but it is possible," Zoe told herself, reaching for her legal pad and turning to a new page.

Picking up her pencil she started to draw columns on the sheet in front of her so she could make pro-con lists, to do lists, and the like. Nothing was ever achieved by sitting around feeling sorry for herself, Zoe knew that much for sure. It was time to start looking to the future instead of the past. Time to figure out exactly where she went from here.

When Wade had first talked to Delma about mending her porch steps, he figured it would be a nothing kind of job that would take no time at all. Even if she had a couple more things for him to do, his plan was not to charge her any cash for the labour. He would just maybe accept a free lunch or something from her when she offered, which she pretty much always did when anyone was hanging around her place doing any kind of work.

Of course, it turned out to be more complicated than that, and then, she asked if he could take a look at a few other things, including cutting down the back lawn that was high enough to maybe have tigers stalking through it, and cleaning out the rain gutters that didn't seem to have been touched since Noah built his boat.

Wade didn't like to say no to a neighbour. His momma and Earl both had taught him the value of doing right by others and all. Plus, of course, with this much work to do, he'd actually have to get paid, and Wade was all for a few more dollars in his pocket, especially these past few weeks when Earl seemed to be having more bad days than good.

To a degree, Wade had to blame himself for his father's downward spiralling, after all, he probably hadn't given him quite so much attention as he should have. Zoe Hart was all kinds of distracting, in ways Wade never could've imagined when he first met her. She was something to look at, that was clear from the get-go, and unlike most girls he knew, he actually liked talking to her too. She was real smart, but never did talk down to him just because he wasn't, and they seemed to have enough in common to get along okay. Then came the revelation that she was pregnant.

Even now, a couple of weeks on, Wade had no idea what he was supposed to say to her about that whole situation she was in. He could do the practical stuff, like offering to help her get her stuff back from Yale or New York or wherever, and he was happy enough to be her friend in town when she didn't have so many, but how he was going to deal with the whole her having a baby angle, Wade had no idea.

It was going to get weird. This girl he liked, that was all kinds of hot right now, was going to get pretty obviously bigger, and then in a few months, she was going to have a kid of her own. Wade knew he was a fool if he got mixed up in all of that, and it sure wasn't his plan to try to play happy families or anything with Zoe Hart and her child. At the same time, he didn't like the idea of just walking away when she needed him. After all, he promised her she always had a friend in him. Wade just wished he knew exactly how that was supposed to work.

He had female friends, sort of. He and Lemon got along okay some of the time and he never once considered hitting on her, but that was a very different situation. How you were supposed to be buddies with a girl you liked as much as Wade liked Zoe, well, frankly, he had no idea.

"Hey, Hard Worker."

He was so stunned by the sound of her familiar voice, Wade was lucky not to lose his footing and fall right off Delma's roof.

"Sorry," she said, as he peered down at her. "I didn't mean to startle you. Are you okay?"

"Doin' just fine," Wade assured her as he moved over to the ladder and climbed down to the ground. "I'm pretty good with roofs. Well, you'll find out all about that eventually, I guess."

Zoe looked confused and Wade didn't wonder at it. She was holed up in Harley's house, not really seeing him when the first of the month rolled around, so she didn't know yet about Earl's regular ritual on the hardware store roof. That was most definitely a tale for another day.

"So, what brings you out here in the heat of late-afternoon, Miss Hart?" he asked her instead.

"Oh, I was just thinking maybe you were too busy to stop for food, so... I brought food," she said, proffering a picnic basket at him. "I didn't make anything. Well, the sandwiches, I made those, but I bought the pie and pastries and drinks at the Butterstick," she explained.

"You went to all that trouble for me?" Wade asked her, sort of teasing her in a way, but at the same time, a little amazed that she cared so much.

After all, he wasn't hers to bother about any. Not a relation like Harley, and not her boyfriend or anything. Certainly not the father of that kid she was carrying around. The thought of the baby made Wade immediately uncomfortable and, unfortunately, he realised, it must have showed.

"It really wasn't a lot of trouble." Zoe shook her head. "And if you had other plans, I can just..."

She turned to go and Wade hated that more than anything else.

"Hey, I never said I had other plans," he called after her, wiping his hands on a rag. "Look, I just gotta go inside, get cleaned up, tell Delma I'm taking a break, that's all," he explained. "You okay out here for a little while?"

"Sure." Zoe smiled, moving closer to the porch and sitting down on the steps to wait. "Just don't be too long, okay? This food smells really good and I'm already hungry."

Wade laughed at that, moving past her up to the house. "Two minutes, I promise," he told her as he went, already knowing he would he faster if he possibly could be.

Maybe he was a fool, Wade thought, because it wasn't as if this thing with him and Zoe could really go anywhere or be anything , not in the circumstances, and yet, for as long as he could fool himself that it might, it seemed like he was going to.

To Be Continued...