A/N: Thank you for the continued support by way of reviews, folks. I know I just keep on putting obstacles in the way of Zade, but in the end, it'll be worth it, I promise ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 18

She felt sort of committed to going into the Rammer Jammer for lunch after pretty much telling Wade that she would. Of course, after everything Harley had said before they headed off to Mobile today, Zoe wasn't quite so comfortable now as she had been when she made the arrangement with her friend.

Given where she had just been and what she had been doing, Zoe was well aware her mind should be on more important things than the status of her relationship with Wade Kinsella. In her purse was a picture of the baby growing inside of her. There was no way to know the gender yet, but the little foetus was doing well, everything looked healthy and normal and good.

When Zoe saw him or her on the screen, her eyes had welled up with tears and when she looked at Harley she found him in a similar state. It was all so emotional, but that fear and panic Zoe had expected never did come, which was a great relief. She suspected Harley's kind smile and his hand gripping her own helped a lot.

Unfortunately, as they headed back to Bluebell, Zoe stopped thinking about her baby in quite the same terms as she had at the hospital. She wanted this child and she would raise him or her as best she could. At some point, she could figure out how her education and career fitted in too. What she couldn't make work right now was how she was going to fit Wade into her life from here.

What Harley said was true enough. Wade had a reputation, he had told her that himself, and Zoe had always been aware of it. Since he had never actually asked her out or anything, she didn't worry about it, though he seemed like he wanted to for a while there. Once the news of her pregnancy was out, things certainly changed, at least for a while, but these past couple of weeks, she and Wade really had become so close, like the best of friends. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but Zoe knew very well that what she was feeling was not all friendship, and strange as it seemed, there were times when she wondered if Wade still had those feelings for her too.

Those wonderings were quashed almost immediately she walked into the Rammer Jammer with Harley that lunch time. Wade was leaning into a booth, flirting up a storm with a pretty blonde that Zoe had never seen before. As she and Harley sat down at a nearby table, she couldn't take her eyes off the girl that had all of Wade's attention. It was fully five minutes before he even seemed to realise he had other customers, never mind the fact that one of them was Zoe.

"Well, hey there, Zoe Hart," he said when he finally turned around and spotted her. "Harley," he said, nodding to her father also. "Everything go okay over in Mobile?" he said with a look, clearly unsure if he should actually be mentioning the hospital or the scan.

"Everything went just fine," said Harley when Zoe didn't answer for too long.

She hadn't consciously stayed silent, but somehow, when she looked at Wade now, he seemed so different. She could blame Harley for what he said in the car this morning or she could say it was about the girl across the room that was also staring at Wade yet, but Zoe had a feeling it was neither one of those things specifically. Mostly, she realised, she probably felt different because of the baby.

"It's official," she said aloud, without really meaning to. "I'm going to be a mother."

"Well, I was pretty sure we knew that already," said Wade with a chuckle that almost sounded nervous. "I guess it is all official and everything now though, huh?"

His smile wavered a little and Zoe was sure she knew why. Maybe he did think about it sometimes too, the idea that they might have made a good couple. It wasn't really possible in the circumstances. He wasn't the type for any kind of settling down in the first place, everybody knew that and Wade never hid it. Even if he might have changed his mind, there was no way he would do it for her, for another man's child.

Maybe it would be better if they weren't so close, even as friends. Maybe it was better for everybody if they stopped pretending right now, Zoe thought, even as she stared down at the scan picture she just retrieved from her purse.

"Zoe?" said Harley then, his hand on her arm to get her attention. "You wanna order, sweetheart?"

"Sure," she said, nodding her head and forcing a smile.

She glanced at the menu, told Wade in the smallest number of words as possible that she would have a sandwich and a soda, thanks.

"Thought you wanted one of those fancy drinks I made for you before?" he said, with that usual charming grin that could make any woman weak at the knees.

"No, thanks," Zoe told him, shaking her head. "Just a soda. Um, I think your girlfriend is trying to get your attention," she said then, gesturing back towards the blonde from before.

Wade glanced away and then back. "She ain't my girlfriend," he explained. "That's just Tansy. I've known her practically my whole life but we're not... well, not that we couldn't be, but we're not," he explained, phrasing things a little more carefully than he might sometimes, since Harley was right there.

"My, my, little Tansy Truitt," he said himself as he looked over at her. "She surely has grown up into a very pretty young lady."

"Yes, sir," Wade agreed wholeheartedly.

Zoe hated how much that hurt. She had no right to be wounded by Wade thinking some other girl was attractive. Hell, even if they had been dating, he had a right to notice if a good-looking person walked by, and she was sure she would do the same. Still, there was a horrible ache somewhere between her chest and her stomach, just knowing that Wade had other women in his life, women who looked like Tansy and had a right to expect a guy like that to want to take them out on dates and spend all their time trying to make them happy.

"I thought you were getting us our lunch," she said too snippily, looking up at Wade.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said, seemingly having to shake himself from staring at Tansy and head off to the kitchen.

Zoe took a deep, calming breath and tried to think of any other topic to talk to Harley about. She was relieved when he started to say something himself, at least, she was until she realised what it was he was saying.

"Maybe that's for the best," he told her. "Wade and Tansy, they've known each other a long time and she's... well, I think she might be a good distraction for him, if you see what I mean."

"Absolutely." Zoe nodded in agreement, even if she wasn't really feeling it. "Um, so, do you have to work at all this afternoon?" she asked, hoping to change the subject. "I'm assuming Dr Breeland won't cover for you all day without so much as a lunch break."

"Brick can cope just fine, don't you worry about that," Harley insisted, patting her hand. "Although, if you think you might be alright by yourself a while this afternoon, I probably should poke my head in at the practice," he said with consideration. "I just don't want to abandon you, Zoe."

"No reason for her to be by herself, Harley, even if you do have to be elsewhere," said Wade, returning to the table with their order and placing it in front of them with a flourish. "Zoe can always hang out here a while, right, Zo?" he said to her. "I gotta work, obviously, but at least you'd have people around, wouldn't be so lonely or whatever."

"I'm not lonely," she snapped, wishing immediately that she hadn't done it, but it was a little too late then. "Thank you, but I don't need you to babysit me all of the time, Wade," she told him, in a calmer tone, though he still looked a little stung by her words.

"I didn't know that was what I was doin'," he said, shaking his head. "Thought we was just friends, that's all."

"Well, we are," Zoe agreed, "but you can have other friends too," she said, eyes darting to the far table where Tansy was sitting and then back again. "She looks like she's in a more sociable mood than me anyway."

She very deliberately turned her chair to the table then and made a big deal of eating her sandwich. The whole time, Zoe was wating for Wade to walk away and didn't fully relax until she finally heard him go. She couldn't even look at Harley, unsure if she was more worried that he would tell her she had done the right thing or that he might admonish her for being too cruel. He seemed to sense that she didn't want a third-party opinion and just got on with eating his lunch too. Zoe was so grateful for that right now.

"Wade Kinsella, if I don't know your reputation by now, then I never will." Tansy rolled her eyes. "Why would I wanna go ahead and agree to a date with you anyhow?"

"Because you know that nobody around here will show you a better time than I can, Tans," he reminded her with a grin. "Come on now, you know I'm right."

She giggled into her soda and he knew he had her hooked. Sure, he was probably an ass for asking her out just because Zoe put the idea in his head. More than that, just because she had pissed him off and made him want to get with anybody else just to make her as mad as hell. Not that Wade didn't like Tansy well enough. They always did get along, and every time he saw her, she seemed a little more confident, a little more beautiful. He couldn't imagine regretting his decision to ask her out.

"I must be crazy," she said then, rolling her eyes, "but yes, okay, you can take me out tonight," she agreed at last. "But when I say out, I do mean out, Wade Kinsella. You are not gettin' away with bringing me right back here to the Rammer Jammer and then putting the moves on me in the back of your truck. I got me more class than that."

"Yes, ma'am, you do," he agreed, picking up her hand and kissing it then walking away backwards. "You won't regret this, Tans," he told her loudly, before turning around and getting right back to work.

He made a point of ensuring Zoe heard what he said and glanced her way to see what her reaction might be. She had a face on her like an incoming thunderhead and that was what he hoped for. She could be all stuck-up and weird around him now if she wanted to and that was fine. After all, it's not like she and him really had anything going. Yes, he was friendly to her and she was kind of friendly back, maybe even a little flirty sometimes, but Wade had to admit he knew the score.

Zoe was pregnant by some fool from Yale that didn't even want her. Six months from now, she would be literally left holding the baby and Wade didn't want no part of that. Wasn't his kid, wasn't his responsibility. If Zoe Hart didn't want him around, that was all well and good, because Wade had quite decided he didn't want her either.

"More trouble than she's worth," he muttered to himself as he bussed a couple of tables.

Of course, two minutes later, as he saw Harley and Zoe leave, him with a friendly wave but her with hurt evident in her eyes, Wade didn't feel quite so good about what he had done. Sure, it seemed to him that she deserved to feel a little pain after being so snotty with him, but he also figured Zoe had her reasons for being a little off, today of all days.

Reality came up to smack her in the face when she got to that hospital, he supposed. She was pregnant this whole time, but now she had seen the kid she was carrying. That had to be so many kinds of scary and weird, Wade could hardly imagine. He figured he didn't have to, reminding himself one more time how that whole mess really did have nothing at all to do with him, and yet.

For a few seconds, he reconsidered everything. Maybe he should just tell Tansy it wasn't happening and go over to the Wilkes place tonight. Maybe he could talk to Zoe about whatever was bothering her, give her a chance to explain, even apologise maybe, and then tell her he was sorry too. They could patch it all up, be friends again. Maybe more than friends?

Wade closed his eyes and forced a deep breath through his lungs. He really was a Grade A fool! Like he could really be with Zoe in the circumstances. Didn't she just make it pretty damn plain that wasn't what she wanted anyway?

"I'm not lonely."

Zoe's words replayed in his head, along with a scathing expression that made him wince even now.

"I don't need you to babysit me all of the time, Wade."

Odd choice of words, he thought. Babysit. Maybe that was what he had been doing, coddling the girl when she most needed to learn to stand on her own two dainty little feet. God only knew why he felt this insane need to help her, protect her, be everything she needed. She had a daddy already, she sure didn't need a big brother, and hell, that wasn't even what he was really hoping for anyway. What he wanted couldn't ever happen, Wade was real sure of that right now.

Picking up the dirty dishes and trash from the table he had been clearing, Wade headed for the kitchen, catching a real big grin from Tansy as he went.

"Looking forward to tonight already, Wade," she told him happily.

Finding her a smile, Wade nodded his head. "Me too, Tans," he assured her.

It was a relief to realise that she didn't notice how his heart wasn't really in it.

To Be Continued...