Those That Came Before

Three Years

The cup of warm espresso goodness she was coddling lasted the rest of the eight hour drive to Georgia. The sun was setting and it cast the most beautiful shadows among the mountains in the distance. Clouds like wisps of cotton in the sky. She pulled up to the gate and rolled down the window to her black Chevy SUV. She pushed a button, sitting in silence biting her bottom lip. 

"Hello?" A familiar gruff voice rang from the other end of the speaker. 

"It's me...." She hesitated, looking up toward the sky. 

"Hadley....?" The person asked, unsure if they were correct in who they were hearing. 

"Uh, yeah." 

The buzzing of the gates opening in front of her vehicle filling in the silence. Hadley nodded her head at the speaker as though the person could see her and continued on down the long concrete driveway. The house came in to view, forcing Hadley's heart to jump in to her throat. Three years. 

As Hadley approached the parking space open by the garage, she noticed someone standing on the front porch waving like a lunatic. She cut the engine and hopped out of the driver's side, shutting the door quietly behind her. 

"Ahhhhh! You're here! You're here!" Hadley rounded the back corner of her SUV shortly before she was nearly tackled to the ground by a banshee woman screeching at the top of her lungs. 

"I can't breathe, Blair ." Hadley was able to choke out. 

"Breathing is overrated. You're here! Finally. It only took you three years to come back and visit us." Blair stood with her perfectly manicured hands placed on her hips. 

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Life has been crazy lately." Hadley lied. Life was actually pretty mellow for her right now. The little bakery she co-owned with her neighbor was doing really well. Jay, her boyfriend of a year, had made detective and was working as much as he could to help their dream of building a bigger cabin one day. 

"Excuses." Blair rolled her pretty blue eyes, "Alright. Enough of this chit chat. Let's get inside and start the baking for tomorrow. And by baking, I mean I sit and drink all of the wine while I sit at the island and watch you make the pumpkin pie." She looped her arm with Hadley's and they headed in to the very large log cabin home that Blair had decked out for Thanksgiving. 

As they stepped through the front doors, a pair of green eyes caught Hadley's. She offered up a small smile in return. 

"B, can you go get Hadley's bags out of the car please?" Blair asked, stopping to give him a kiss on the cheek. 

"Sure. Hey." He replied, walking by them out to the driveway. 

Hadley watched until he was out of sight before she spoke up. "Did Brantley know I was coming to spend the holiday with you guys? He seemed pretty surprised when I buzzed for the gate." 

"Oh, yeah. I didn't really say anything to him. I figured one more mouth to feed wouldn't be a problem. Especially since it is your mouth." Blair brushed off the question, grabbing two glasses from the cabinet next to the fridge. "Moscato?" 

"Sure," Hadley sighed, sitting on one of the chair around the island in the middle of the kitchen. She watched as Blair poured with a rather heavy hand. 

"So tell me, what has my best friend been up to since I last saw her. You know, three years ago at my wedding." Blair tried hard to make Hadley feel guilty about the lack of communication, but it went both ways really. 

"Just working. The bakery is doing well. We are sold out daily by the time we close. Jay got a promotion at work so he has been busy." She took a long swig of her moscato, relishing in the sweet liquid sliding down her throat. 

"This Jay guy..... it's serious?" Blair followed suit, finishing half her glass and pouring herself more. 

"We have been together for a little over a year. We live together and plan on building a house. So yeah...." Hadley trailed off as she heard her bags coming through the front door. Brantley placed the duffel and extra large pillow next to the stone fireplace and walked in to the kitchen when he heard the girls talking. 

"How's the sex?" Blair smirked. 

"Blair!" Hadley retreated back behind her hands, turning a nice shade of crimson. 

"Oh, come on. From what you have said when you first met him, I know you two get freaky rather often." 

Hadley peaked through her hands, watching Brantley shake his head as he walked upstairs toward the bedroom. Three years. And now she was reminded of why.