A/N: Thanks to those who continue to review - much appreciated :) Now, did somebody mention Crazy Earl? ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 13

"You look a little less tired today," said Lavon, as he and Zoe sat across the breakfast bar from each other. "Gotta be the first time in a week that I haven't seen you yawn into your coffee."

"Things are definitely a little better at the practice," she admitted, breaking another piece off her buttermilk muffin and popping it into her mouth. "Brick is back to work, albeit this week he'll be concentrating on Mental Health Week, and Jonah comes in for a shift every once a while, which doesn't suck. It means I get to at least catch up on sleep and visit Wade at the Rammer Jammer. I swear, I wouldn't see him at all if I didn't go over there."

"He sure has been putting in some hours this past week or so since he bought the place," Lavon agreed, "but that's a good thing, right?"

"Of course."

Zoe wondered why he would ask her something like that. She was very happy that Wade was living his dream and starting his own business. Okay, so it wasn't exactly how he originally envisaged it, turning his old place of work into a different kind of venue, but still, he owned it and it would be Wade's Place when all the work was done. Zoe couldn't be happier for him or more proud of him.

"You say that, but you should see the look on your face," said Lavon knowingly. "Come on, Zoe, spill already. What's botherin' you?"

She was about to say, 'Nothing,' but immediately thought better of it. Not talking things out never did anybody any good, she knew that well enough, and all the more right now, given the discussions she and Brick had been having about talking therapy and such. Mental Health Week seemed as good a time as any to bare her soul, and she felt better about doing such a thing with her best friend than her fellow doctor, truth be told.

"I don't know, I just... I miss Wade, and yes, I know that sounds so pathetic. I mean, he's doing what he loves. Owning his own bar, it means a lot to him, and I was the one who encouraged him to go for it, if it was what he wanted. It's honestly great to see him so excited over work. He's never had that before and he's just so happy."

"But you're not, on account of how much you miss him," said Lavon, leaning down on the counter across from her. "Zoe, you know you mean the world to Wade. Just 'cause he never let himself get all that distracted by work before, it doesn't mean he doesn't love you just as much as ever."

"I know that." She rolled her eyes, mostly at herself, because she was well aware of how foolish she was being. "I can get very involved in my work, and God knows, when I was fighting to get qualified and everything, I barely had time for anybody or anything. I was all about my education and my work, so it's not as if I don't get it. I do."

"But that doesn't keep it from hurtin' when you want your special someone to have time for you that they can't give right now." Lavon nodded. "I understand, I honestly do, but you know, it won't be like this forever. Wade's just gotta find his feet, get all the major construction and refurbishment stuff figured out over at the Rammer Jammer. Things will quieten down some in a couple of months, after the grand reopening and all. Least, that's what he told me."

"Me too." Zoe sighed. "Just ignore me, I'm being childish and I know it."

"I hardly think that's what it is," her friend told her generously. "You're allowed to feel how you feel, Zoe. You know that as well as I do. Just maybe let Wade know how it is with you. Maybe see if he can't work a date night into his busy schedule. Bet you anything he'll make an extra effort to do it, the second he realises you're missin' him so much. Hell, didn't you do the same when he told you something similar a while back, after that whole flu epidemic?"

"That is true," she agreed, finding a smile. "Thank you, Lavon," she said, reaching out to hug him.

"You're more'n welcome, Big Z," he promised her, hugging her back. "Now, go on, get yourself gone. I got work of my own to be doin'. Mayoral duties and all."

They wished each other a good day and parted ways then, Zoe checking she had everything she needed in her purse before heading to work. She looked up just in time so as not to plough into someone else coming in the other way.

"Hey, Lemon. Were you looking for Wade?"

"Oh, no, I wasn't," she confirmed, shaking her head. "I actually have a meeting with the mayor this morning."

"Right." Zoe nodded, glancing back over her shoulder to the house and smiling.

So much for mayoral duties. Lavon and Lemon sure seemed to be finding plenty of excuses to spend time together lately, and Zoe was sure she couldn't be the only one to notice. Not that she minded at all. The idea of her best friend in the whole world getting to be as happy as she was herself by finding a way back to his supposed true love put a warm glow in Zoe's chest, that was for sure.

"Sounds to me like you're making a real good start on this bar o' yours," said Earl, smiling widely at his son. "Fancy that, me bein' the father of a real-life business owner."

"Yeah, imagine that." Wade rolled his eyes. "You bein' the father of a real-life bar owner," he said pointedly, picking up an empty whiskey bottle from the coffee table and waving it around.

"That was purely medicinal," Earl muttered. "My back was playing me up some."

"Sure it was." Wade sighed, but said no more, focusing instead on cleaning up the mess around the place, pushing laundry into the hamper in the corner, straightening picture frames on the wall and such.

"You know, I heard tell from Frank at the Dixie Stop, you wasn't the only one lookin' to buy the Rammer Jammer. Word around town is that Lemon Breeland was hoping to stake a claim, turn it into some fancy-schmancy place or some such."

Wade smirked at the phrasing, because it was hard not to be amused.

"You heard right," he told his father, stepping back to look at the room and deciding it was as good as it was going to get, then joining Earl on the couch. "'Course by the time Lemon got her cash and her plans all together, Wally already sold the Rammer Jammer to me. She was kinda put out about the whole thing, but just like always, she bounced back pretty fast. Says she wants to run her own event-planning business, and I happen to think that's a great idea. Like I told her, we can prob'ly do all kinds of work together, me havin' the best venue in town for parties and all."

The look on Earl's face when he heard that confused Wade more than a little.

"You watch your step with that one," he said, shaking a finger in his son's direction. "Those Breelands ain't to be trusted, that much I know for certain. Now you're a business owner and all, could be she's settin' her cap at you, and you don't need that. You got your pretty little doctor and she's ten times better than some stuck-up Breeland!"

Wade felt his eyes go so wide he was sure he must look like something out of a cartoon.

"You crazy old man," he told Earl, shaking his head. "I wouldn't go makin' promises to Lemon Breeland if my life depended on it," he said firmly, shuddering at the very thought. "Don't get me wrong, we get along well enough when we need to, and for all that she can be stuck-up and prissy sometimes, she knows what it is to be a good friend when she needs to be, but as to anythin' else, anythin' romantic or whatever... nuh-uh, no way, never gonna happen," he said, making sweeping motions with his hands. "That just ain't the kind o' close I could ever be with Lemon Breeland, nor her with me either. I can promise you that."

"Well, good," said Earl, sighing with apparent relief. "Like I said, you and the doctor, you are much better suited. You know, I think Harley Wilkes himself would approve such a union, and I know for sure your momma would just love Miss Zoe."

That made Wade smile. "Thanks, Dad," he said, patting him on the shoulder, so happy to hear it from him, even though he had long suspected the same was true himself.

"So, I guess you should be gettin' back to your work already. Business won't run itself."

"Ain't all that much runnin' needs to be done right now," Wade considered a they both got to their feet. "Far as most folks are concerned, it's just the Rammer Jammer, same as always. It's how it's gotta be, until I can make the refurbishments happen. 'Course, there's stuff I can do by myself, or with Lavon or George pitchin' in to help me out, but materials cost money, and then there'll be labour when it comes to some of the more major improvements... It ain't gonna be easy. I keep on crunching the numbers and... well, I guess it'll all work in the end. Case of it havin' to, now I come this far."

Wade hadn't meant to say so much, not to old Earl. He had enough to worry on, without his son adding to the pile. Whenever he came over to his father's shack, he tried to put on a smile and only talk about good things. Further depressing Earl was just what Zoe called counter-productive. Meant he was just adding to the old man's problems, making him more likely to sink into a bottle. He did enough of that all by himself, without any help from others.

"You that tight up for money?" Earl asked, looking pained.

"Not so much that you gotta worry on it," said Wade insistently. "You ever need a few bucks, you know I won't see you strugglin', okay? Hang the bar, family comes first, alright, old man?" he said, his hand firm on Earl's shoulder.

He was a little surprised to see him smile, given the subject they were on. Even more surprised when the old man stepped out from his grasp and gestured for Wade to follow him outside. Next thing he knew there was a shovel in Earl's hand, that he quickly handed off to Wade, gesturing out to the land beyond the little house.

"See all that space out there? Go on and dig a little, see what you find," he said, eyes sparkling with fun, like he was playing the best of all jokes, somehow.

Wade wondered for a second if Earl was drunk. He showed no real signs of it today, no slurred speech nor falling about and such. Sober as a judge, far as his son could tell, yet he was grinning like a loon and talking what seemed an awful lot like gibberish too.

"Go on, go on. Get to diggin'!"

"Alright, I'm goin', you crazy old man," Wade told him, even as he was half-pushed down the porch steps.

Out in the yard, he felt a prize fool pushing that spade into the soft earth to see what he might come up with. Aside from rocks and dirt, Wade wasn't expecting much, then suddenly the shovel head hit something hard, something that made a weird clanging sound. Like maybe he hit on something metal, could even be thick glass. That made not a lick of sense to Wade, and so, he dug around some more, got down on his knees and pulled at the dirt with his hands. Sure enough, he come to realise he had uncovered a mason jar, and inside of it, a bundle of ten- and twenty-dollar bills.

"I'll be damned," he said, counting out a hundred bucks, just as easy as anything. "What in the hell is this, Earl?"

"Savings," his father told him joyfully. "A little here, a little there, all adds up."

Wade frowned hard and looked back at the cash in his hands. "A little here, a little there," he echoed, eyes scanning over the ground all around him. "You tryin' to tell me there's more under here?" he checked, glancing back at his father.

The way Earl was smiling so wide and nodding his head so much it might just fall off before long let Wade know he wasn't out here looking for just one or two jars. Maybe not even just a half dozen. God only knew how much was buried in this yard, possibly all over Earl's nothing strip of land.

"You're kiddin' me," he said, more to himself than to Earl as he thought on it some.

When he stood up, still staring at the dirt, while his mind spun on, he hardly realised Earl had come to stand by him until he spoke up.

"Like a told you last year, when young Tucker was so fixed on me not sellin' my land to those shopping mall people or whatever they was, this here is your inheritance. What I planned on leavin' for my boys when I was gone," he explained, his arm around Wade's shoulders then. "Seems to me, your share'd be more use to you now than later. So, you get to diggin', son. Half of everythin' you find, it's yours for the keepin', with my blessin'."

Wade honestly did not know what to say.

"Wow, you might just be havin' a worse day than I am," said Tansy, clearly trying not to laugh as she looked him over.

Wade couldn't exactly blame her. He hadn't planned to spend his day in quite the way he had. He sure as heck hadn't meant to come tracking mud into his own bar, but Wade had things to do that couldn't wait. There was no time for him to go home first and then come over to the Rammer Jammer for the deliveries he was expecting, so he was just going to have to make do and clean up as best he could in the bathroom there.

"It's been a weird-ass day so far, I don't mind tellin' ya," he said, grabbing a towel from behind the bar as he headed out back.

Ten minutes later, he returned with a clean face and hands, his hair fixed and a clean shirt on that he had thankfully stashed in the office a while back. At least he was presentable enough for the Rammer Jammer now, and there was Tansy, still on the same stool, looking halfway to crying into her drink. With five minutes to spare before his deliveries were due to start arriving, he had the time to lend a friendly ear. She had done the same for him, more than a time or two, and he did so hate to see folks he cared for suffering.

"What's up, Tans?" he asked, fixing her another drink since hers was almost gone anyway. "Last time I saw you lookin' so sad, it was my fault. There some lesson or other I need to teach George Tucker about treatin' you right?"

He was at least half-joking, but started to worry some when she didn't immediately tell him no. Not that Wade could really imagine his buddy being anything but decent with womenfolk. Closest George ever came to bad behaviour was flirting with Zoe while still engaged to Lemon, and Wade really wasn't in much of a position to make a fuss about that at any time.

Tansy sighed and stared hard into her drink. "I know I'm probably makin' something outta nothing, least I hope I am," she said sadly. "It's just... I mean, what would you think if you heard that somebody bought up eight copies of a stupid newspaper from a store just for some other person, that was not the person they were supposed to be datin'?"

Wade felt like he was almost going cross-eyed trying to work that one out, then he recalled something Zoe had said to him about her beloved New York Times and everything clicked into place.

"Right," he said, leaning down on the bar close to his ex-wife. "Tansy, if George Tucker bought a bunch of newspapers from The Dixie Stop, just to keep Frank from sayin' he would stop orderin' 'em in, then that is for two reasons. One is he really likes that damn New York Times, and the other is because he's such a stand-up guy, he wanted to do a nice thing for a friend o' his. What it does not mean - no way, no how - is that your boyfriend is still hung up on my girlfriend, okay?"

Tansy looked as if she wasn't quite sure she believed that. She wanted to, that much was clear, but still she was wavering.

"Come on now, Tans, you gotta know I'm right," he told her, shaking his head. "Those two had their chance. They had a handful of 'em. Never took a single one and I know why. Zoe loves me and George is crazy about you. They picked us over each other. You just gotta get it through your head is all and stop worryin' so much. Don't go thinkin' you ain't worthy of the man you have now, just 'cause some good for nothin' husband you caught back in the day wasn't all he shoulda been to you," he said with a knowing look.

At last, Tansy smiled across at him. "I don't know, that stupid old ex-husband o' mine wasn't so bad. He makes a pretty good friend, even now."

Wade smiled right on back at her for that remark. "You know it, sweetheart," he said, tipping her a wink and moving out from behind the bar to deal with his delivery, that arrived right on time.

All in all, seemed like maybe today was going to be a good day, after all.

To Be Continued...