Chapter Text
The first time Earl saw it, he wasn't entirely surprised, but he didn't expect it to be an ongoing thing.
The new waitress at the bar had been here for 6 months, Clyde had just begun to settle back in to running the bar after returning from war, and there it was. An undeniable attraction.
Clyde gave the girl soft appreciative smile as she was rolling up his undone sleeve cuff. She was chattering away concentrating on getting his cuff out the way. Clyde was looking on, in what Earl had come to realize, was the look of love. After another month he noticed that Clyde was definitely smitten. Clyde had added several new songs to the jukebox because y/n had said she liked them (the fact that they were classic country songs was a plus for the bar). Clyde had moved things around behind the bar so that she could reach everything. Now, Clyde was a caring and considerate good man already, but he didn't change the jukebox for just anyone. It had taken Jimmy 3 months to get one new song in there.
As earl witnessed Clyde's affection growing he was not surprised to see that it was not unrequited. Y/n was clearly taken with Clyde. As a friend of Mellie's from school y/n was no stranger to the Logan's but she'd gone away for the last year of high school and then college, returning now to look after her elderly Uncle, working in the bar in her free time.
Earl saw her gaze at Clyde sweetly when her favourite romantic song was playing. He had seen her face full of pride when, after helping with Clyde's sleeve for the first time, Clyde looked it over with an appreciative thanks on his lips.
During thunderstorms Earl saw how fast y/n was to turn up the volume of the jukebox and turn on all the house lights in the bar, it took him 3 storms to realize she was doing it to stop Clyde from hearing the bangs and seeing the flashes that reminded him of his time in the military. Clyde had PTSD that manifested in panic attacks when sudden loud bangs and flashes of light happened in unison. Y/n's observation of Clyde during the first storm she worked through was enough for her to pick up how to help, watching how Jimmy helped him come down from the panic with distractions, she made sure to turn up the volume and turn up the lights at the first hint of a rumble.
This truly impressed Earl.
The effort and thoughtfulness in that action alone told Earl all he needed to know about y/n. But as she worked at the bar and got to know everyone better he could see that she really was a perfect match for Clyde.
But now it had been four years since she started and it had been four years of pining on both sides. Both Jimmy and Mellie could see it, heck the three of them had spoken about it one drunk night when Clyde was helping y/n take the trash out. The only people who didn't see that Clyde and y/n were desperately in love, were Clyde and y/n. Earl didn't want to break the spell of their untold truth. But that didn't stop him from trying to push them together.
When they had both gone to his auto shop in the same week he had arranged their appointments to be side by side so that they could have some time away from the bar to talk. He thought maybe a change of scenery might help give them a change of discussion topic. No such luck, Clyde was quiet, polite and tentative. She was sweet, inquisitive and gentle. Mellie and Jimmy always included y/n whenever they were having a BBQ and she was invited to all of Sadie's birthday parties.
Today Earl decided was the day that he used all of his untapped genius to his advantage. He wasn't going to yell it out but he was going to get them so close to each other they would have to be dead not to see it.
Over the passed few weeks one of the regular ladies had become a big fan of the song 'Travelling Solider' by The Dixie chicks. This song, without a doubt made y/n tear up and become sad every time it played. Clyde had noticed when she was sad, but he hadn't connected it to the song playing each time.
Y/n was out in the kitchen getting a food order, Clyde was serving at the bar so Earl oh so subtly went and requested the song to play next. Returning to his place at the bar Earl watched the next part of his plan unfurl as planned. The song started, y/n finished serving her order, when she noticed the song her face fell subtly, Earl watched as Clyde's brow furrowed when he saw the sparkle leave y/n eye.
“Is y/n ok?” Earl asked, watching Clyde's eyes flick over her face and then back to Earl
“She does look a little sad doesnt she” he agreed.
As she walked past Earl he motioned for her to join him and Clyde.
“Are you doing alright darlin?” Earl asked softly. She looked around a bit self consciously, sighing she said
“Its this song, it always gets me” she looked between the men, keeping eye contact with Earl she continued
“I'd skip it but if someone’s paid for the play i'm not going to do that” she gave a small smile but her eyes were still sad.
Earl waited for a beat but Clyde was just looking at her face and nodding.
“What's so bad about the song?” Earl questioned
“Oh its stupid really” she tried to pass it off, but to Earls joy Clyde interjected softly
“If it makes you feel something it cant be that stupid” Earl grins at Clyde's comment.
Sighing y/n says, looking Clyde in the eye
“It reminds me of when you were away, and we would write letters for your care packages. It makes me think about what i'd feel if you hadn't come back” her voice laden with emotion that her eyes were trying to leak out.
Earl had suspected something about it reminding her of Clyde's active duty but he had no idea she had been writing to him during his tours. Or that they had been replied to by Clyde.
Or that they had been sending him care packages.
“I told you it was stupid” y/n shrugged and went back to waiting her tables.
Clyde looked taken aback.
Softly Earl said
“I had no idea you two had written each other when you were away”
Clyde was still watching y/n with a faraway look in his eye.
“Yeah, it was the best part of my deployment, she would tell me all about her studies, how everyone was doing here, she even sent me photos of my favourite places as they changed over the seasons. She never left my letters unanswered. I still have all of them.”
Dumbstruck Earl realizes, dumbstruck is the look on Clyde's face.
Earl had to take a moment to digest this new information. The fire burning between these two was much stronger and more established than he knew.
Earl thought his plan might need to be simplified.
“Its a shame that song makes her so sad” Earl quipped before taking a swig from his beer.
“I could take it out of the jukebox” Clyde said quickly, as Earl had hoped he would. Clyde started to leave the bar area but Earl grabbed his elbow
“Why not do it tomorrow morning, before she gets in, like its a surprise. That old jukebox will need taking half apart and you don't want to be knee deep in that when the dinner rush hits.”
“Good thinking Earl, hey could you bring me some of your hand tools in the morning so I can do it? Mellie wont let either of us touch hers since Jimmy borrowed it last.”
With a smile on his face Earl agreed.
“I'll come help if you want, I don't have any pick ups from the shop tomorrow anyhow.” with a small smile on his face Clyde nodded in thanks.
Earl hid a grin behind his beer.
This might just work.
The next morning Earl arrived at the bar with his tools just as asked.
He and Clyde made light work of taking the case away from the base of the jukebox but that was when the easy part ended. The mechanics of the jukebox were very old. The discs were stored in the center of it, but to retrieve one for removal you had to remove them out of the bottom.
Lying on his back, his head completely under the machine, Clyde kept blowing dust bunnies out of the way so he could see the gears and trays to find the right one for removing the CD.
“Hey Earl can I beg a favour?” Clyde asked
“Sure thing, whaddya need?”
“Can you tie my hair back, the static under that thing is making it get up all in my eyes”
“Course I can, you got a band?” Clyde looked at Earl and shook his head slowly.
“No worries, you can use this” Earl pulled out an elastic band from his pocket. Clyde crouched and Earl tied the top part of Clyde's hair to the back of his head. It wasn't a pretty job but he did the trick.
“Let me see how you've done down there so far, do you know what disc your grabbing yet?” Earl asked as he took a look under the machine, there were gears, mechanical arms and trays all over the place. He flicked a gear and saw how it made the arms move to try and select the CD's for playing.
“Should we turn this thing off to do this?” Earl queried getting back to his feet.
“If we turn it off the disc cant be released” Clyde answered, looking over the tools on the bar.
“Its disc 213, I think I can get it.”
Swapping places with Earl, Clyde went back under the machine. As he tinkered Jimmy arrived at the bar with a look of confusion on his face at the scene in front of him.
“What the hell ya doin down there Clyde?” he asked with a laugh
“Just changing a disc” a muffled reply informed him.
Jimmy approached the machine and gave it a small tap as he looked inside, as result one of the arms within it jumped, Clyde yelled out
“Dont touch it, dont touch it! Damn it Jimmy you made it catch my hair!”
To which Jimmy and Earl started to laugh.
This was not part of the plan.
Just a titter to start with but as soon as they looked at each other they were roaring. Jimmy went the shade of beetroot. Earl could feel himself tear up and was soon crying freely as he laughed long and loud. Clyde was starting to feel very claustrophobic, the machine above him now seeming much closer, his hand trying to free his hair but not having the dexterity in one hand alone to unhitch his hair from what ever was clasping on to it, it was pulling painfully.
The door to the bar suddenly opened and y/n walked in.