Hey all! Happy Friday! I'm not sure what the update schedule for next week is going to be like. What I do know is this chapter has been a fun one to write. To explore the feelings of Harley and Earl when it comes to Zoe and Wade, past and present.
I do hope you guys are still with me and liking the direction the story is going.
Enjoy!
Harley smiled as he sat at the table in his backyard enjoying his ribs and his bowl of grits watching his daughter, and Wade flirt from where they sat on the ground having finished a game of some sort with Sofia. He still can't get his daughter to enjoy grits, he's tried many times over the years. Zoe makes the same disgusted face every time. Sofia on the other hand can never get enough of the grits. Hence why at nearly every dinner they have together, Sofia begs to have grits be incorporated with the meal. Harley has come to find he can't refuse to give into Sofia over certain things.
Harley knows he should feel weird sitting across his backyard spying on his daughter, but he doesn't. He has to make sure he's right about Wade, and his feelings for his daughter and granddaughter. Wade spends his time flirting, and being playful, and he's watched as Zoe acts the same way. It brings joy to his heart to know his daughter is happy. He had thought there was something between them as kids. He had watched from the sidelines as their little quarrel of sorts turned into a very tentative friendship, before becoming the best of friends that were very much inseparable. He thought something would happen between them until Graham entered the picture. He liked Graham, he was a good kid, right up until he broke Zoe's heart.
He liked Graham well enough as her daughter's first boyfriend. Relieved in ways that it wasn't Wade that had been her first boyfriend. Back then, and even now he knows that if they would have dated their friendship wouldn't have survived. And for a good chunk of time, it didn't matter as their friendship had come to a very abrupt end. Yet, here there are, acting as if they were never apart. Things take time to blossom, and things between Zoe and Wade needed that time.
When Wade showed up at their house on the night of senior prom, that was when things started to click in his head. All the pieces were there when it came to Zoe, Wade, and what could be. Harley didn't like that Zoe would be missing out on her senior prom all because Graham chose that one night to end things. The one night that Zoe had been looking forward to for months, he thought was going to end in total disaster, and yet Wade showed up, uncertain that Zoe would even want to go to prom with him after everything she had been through that night. The bond they share, he should have seen it a lot sooner than as he sits here watching them flirt. Their bond is the one thing that has kept them connected, it's what made his daughter smile for the first time after getting her heartbroken.
The clues to his daughter's happiness have always been there. Out in the open for everyone to see. The rumors of them dating when they were teens, may have been wrong back then, but now? It's hard to ignore the waves of happiness they share. He couldn't ask for a better guy to be with his daughter. Like he can't ask for a better step-parent to his granddaughter. Wade treats Sofia as if she is his. He can't ask for anything else.
When he learned that he was going to be a grandparent, he was excited to have his first grandchild. He loves Sofia dearly. The only thing about the whole situation that he doesn't like, is the way that it happened. He would have liked for Zoe to be in a relationship, dating or married, when it happened. He didn't want her to be in a situation similar to the one had found himself in when it came to Zoe. No parent wants that for their child.
Sofia had brought Zoe home. But that wasn't the situation in which he wanted his daughter to return home. She should have had more time in New York to make a name for herself, as that's what she always wanted. He didn't want his daughter to ever feel like she had to give up New York to return home to Bluebell. His half of the practice will always be there for Zoe if she ever wanted it. He would have never forced her to come home to take over for him. Don't get him wrong he loves having his daughter home, he wouldn't change that or even the circumstances that led her to being here.
George Tucker is a decent upstanding guy. Harley has nothing against the man. He has been there every step for Zoe in her pregnancy, he's been there for Sofia. George has been a wonderful father. There was a moment, not a long moment where he thought his daughter would end up with George, not because of Sofia, as he had advised the both of them that being together for the sake of their daughter, wouldn't end well, not if they didn't truly love each other.
Years later, he's happy they made the right decision for themselves. Seeing his daughter happy, not in a relationship for the sake of Sofia, well, it's everything to him. He wants Zoe and Sofia to be happy, and not suffer in a relationship that wouldn't work out, that they were only together to give Sofia a family. Families come in all different shapes, and sizes. They learned how to make it work for them, giving Sofia all the love in the world.
In many ways, he's jealous of the way they had figured out their situation. Jealous because he didn't get to see the first few years of Zoe's life. Jealous that even because he tried to make a family with the woman he loves, it still ended. He can wish all he wants to have what Zoe has let George have. For he will never have that. He shouldn't be jealous of it, but he is. And it's not the fact that George gets to be there throughout it all, as that's what he wants for his granddaughter. To have a father and a mother in her life, in the best way possible for her. It's more the idea of it all that he's jealous of.
Jealousy aside, he's happy that his daughter has reconnected with the one person from her childhood, that can make the darkest of her days be the brightest and the best. All because Wade shows up with a smile on his face, and tries. Watching them now shows him that he has nothing to worry about. And really, he doesn't worry about anything when it comes to Zoe and Wade's relationship. They can make it work because they've been able to over the years.
When the day comes for Wade to seek him out to ask permission for his daughter's hand in marriage. The answer to the question will be the easiest answer he has ever given in his life.
"Who would have thought?" Earl said, taking the seat at the table he had vacated, when Sofia wanted to show him the small goldfish her grandpa Harley got for her, to stay in her room at Harley's house. His eyes glancing at his son, and Zoe.
"The whole town," Harley chuckled. "Where's my granddaughter?" He asked, not seeing, or hearing Sofia.
"Lavon captured a turtle making its way downtown on Main street. Sofia recruited herself to help get the turtle to its home in the pond," Earl explained. They had seen Lavon out the living room window when they were making their way back outside, Sofia wanting her bubbles from the living room. "The Mayor assured me, that it was okay, and once the turtle is out of harm's way, and not making a traffic jam in the middle of town, that he will bring Sofia to her mother," he shared.
"That's Sofia for you," Harley chuckled. "I don't know how many animals we have taken to Dr. Judson Lyons," he says, shaking his head. He will be surprised if his granddaughter has a career that has absolutely nothing to do with animals.
"Don't let it slip, but I didn't want my son dating your daughter when they were kids," Earl confessed. "Now, I am all for it, and hoping every day that my boy doesn't screw it up," he huffed out, turning his attention to Harley, and not on his youngest.
"What was wrong with them dating as kids?" Harley asked, taken back at what his longtime friend had told him. He couldn't imagine not wanting his daughter to be with anyone. Heck, he would have gladly welcomed George into the family if that was who his daughter wanted to spend her life with. Zoe's happiness is all that matters, he's not about to dictate who that person in her life is going to be. And he knows that's not what Earl is trying to do now when it comes to Wade. Harley also knows Earl wouldn't have done anything if they would have come home one day after school to say they were dating.
"Everything," Earl stated, sighing informing his friend of why he thought the way he did.
If his youngest finds out that he didn't want them dating when they were teens, he's not sure what Wade would do. Their relationship isn't the best it can be, but it's better than what it has been. Earl does know that he doesn't want to do something that is going to make his son freeze him out again. He got where his son was coming from after the loss of Jackie. He too had become a shell of his former self. That is another topic for when he gets around to talking about it with his son. When Wade comes to him ready to open himself up because Earl is not going to push Wade into something he's not ready to do. That will be more harmful than helpful.
When Wade and Zoe were kids, he could see how special they were to each other. Heard all of the rumors, told everyone that listened that it wasn't true, that they were only friends, and that's how it was going to stay. He has nothing against Zoe, loves her like his own daughter. Loves Sofia as his granddaughter, and one day that might very well be true. He can see that the spark Wade and Zoe shared as kids, and into their teens is still there as they're adults with plenty of life experience between them. He wants them to succeed, to have the magic of true love. They deserve it.
Teenage Wade and teenage Zoe would have ended badly. It would have been harder for them to fix a broken relationship than a friendship. And he fears they wouldn't have been able to bounce back from that. Growing up they needed each other as friends, best friends. And they need that now as well, but now, they don't have to worry about a due date for it all to end. Now they can enjoy each other's company with their futures ahead of them, and nothing standing in their way. No medical school, no New York, no basic training, no going overseas to fight in the war, no music tours. Everything in their future revolves around Bluebell.
He gets that they could have made it work if they had dated when they were still in high school. He was able to marry his high school sweetheart, so he knows they could have made it work. But they weren't willing to make their friendship work, so he doesn't know if they would have tried while in a relationship. As far as he's concerned they had done the right thing.
If they would have started to date back then, he would have been happy, he would have supported his son. He will always support Wade in whatever it is he wants to do. That won't ever change.
What he wanted for them to do was to keep their friendship strong, to keep it that way, for when they were ready for the inevitable step in their relationship, as it's only natural. He's happy that it's working out for them now. When the time comes to welcome Zoe into the family officially, he will welcome her, and Sofia with open arms, in a warm, and loving hug.
When they were kids and teens, he didn't think it would have been right for them to date, or to be anything other than friends. It would have been hard for them to remain friends, or rebuild their friendship if they had dated at any point in their life. The very last thing he wanted to see is them screw up their friendship, especially after it took some time to build, to begin with.
Why would he want to see his son lose his best friend over something that could be helped? Growing up Wade needed Zoe to be his friend, more than he needed her to be his girlfriend.
Those feelings are no longer the same. Back then it wouldn't have been good for them to date. Now? He believes it's the best thing that can happen to his son. They're older now, and understand the consequences if things don't work out. Old enough to know when things aren't working out, and know when to talk things out to keep their friendship from crumbling.
With no end date on when they're leaving home to start the rest of their lives, they can take their time to see where they can go without rushing into things, making it all sorts of awkward. They can learn everything they need to know about each other, and their relationship without worrying it will end because life is there to send them down two very different paths.
Earl truly believes that things worked out the way they should have for them. Remaining friends when they needed the friendship the most, and coming together as a couple as their paths happen to cross, knowing what it's like not to have the other person in their life. It showed them that yes they can make things work without the other, but they don't want to. That yes they want to live and experience things together.
Earl worried when Sofia came along that Wade had lost his chance, and made him think for a brief stint that they should have tried when they were teens as he doesn't want them to live with the whole what-if scenario. Getting to know the child that is very much his granddaughter in every way but blood, it's hard not to fall under her charm. Given the chance, he saw that Wade would be a goner as well. They had taught Wade to treat others how he wanted to be treated, he doesn't know if Wade stuck to that throughout the years he was way.
What Earl knows is that Wade is a sucker for Sofia in the same way that he is a sucker for Zoe. Earl once feared that Wade wouldn't want any part in being friends or more with Zoe once he learned that Zoe had a daughter, and the father happened to be George. Earl was ecstatic to find that it didn't bother Wade one bit. Happy to see that Wade took to Sofia in the same way that he took Zoe when they were kids.
Things work out the way they need to. And with everything that has gone wrong in Wade's life, he's happy to see that things with Zoe are going right for him.
And his thinking about them not dating when they were younger, might have been wrong, but he doesn't want to think about that. All he wants to focus on is where he put his late wife's ring, as Jackie wanted Wade to give it to Zoe when the time came. It shouldn't have amazed him that his wife knew without a doubt that their son and Zoe would be the ultimate end game. A bit longer and they might very well be there if things don't get screwed up along the way.
Earl, like the rest of the town, and much like Harley, is pulling for them to work everything out, in their own time.