Home Sweet Home

The Reunion

The cafe wasn't too busy. Peyton's line of sight caught Haley waiting a table, coffee pot in hand. Switching her view over to Brooke, who had her head down counting the till. "I'll be with you in just a minute. If you want to find a booth." Brooke's raspy voice sounded. "Actually, we're not here for the food." Peyton said. The shatter of the coffee pot once in Haley's grip echoed throughout the cafe. Brooke's eyes nearly bulged out of her head and she dropped the coins she was counting. "No way." Haley said, in near shock. "P. Scott?" Brooke's eyes filled with tears and she practically jumped the stainless steel counter in front of her, just to grab onto her for dear life. The death grip she had on Peyton was returned by her curly haired best friend. Haley apologized to their customers who were now seated in front of the caffeinated broken glass mess. She too, rushed toward them, gathering Lucas up into her arms. "My god. So this is why you kept us basically on read for most of this week. You suck, you know that, Eugene?" Haley said using his middle name to make sure he knew she meant business. He let out a laugh, and hugged her back tight. "Oh Hales, I've missed you so much." He said softly.

"You're not exactly off the hook either, Peyton. Seriously, a warning would have been nice and you double suck for not telling me." She said as she pulled back out of their hug. Suddenly, a small pair of arms were wrapped around Brooke's legs. She looked down and there was Sawyer. She reached down to pick her up. "There's my baby Brooke." Sawyer snuggled in closer for a big hug. "I waited forever to get here Aunt Brooke. It was torture." She said dramatically. Brooke hugged her tighter, trying to hold back tears. "I've missed you, too." Haley approached. "Alright little miss, share the love." "I missed you so much too, aunt Haley." She reached her little arms out for Haley to grab onto her. They stood in their little three way hug for a moment. "What an amazing surprise. Really. I think this takes care of Christmas this year." Haley said, earning a collective laugh. "Alright, let's get you guys seated and some food into you. I need to get that mess, but I'll be right back." Haley headed for the mess she had left, and Brooke lead them to the counter stools, still carrying her newest 'accessory' in the form of her Goddaughter. Sawyer let go, with a bit of hesitation, and took a seat on the stool, just as Peyton and Lucas sat. Brooke reached for the menu's and slid them across the table top. "It looks amazing in here Brooke." Lucas said, admiring what they had done with the place since his mother had owned Karen's. "Thanks Luke. That means so much." She said, with her signature dimpled grin. "Okay, so. Spill the details! Where are you staying? Did you get everything handled in LA? What are you going to do? We should have dinner tonight!" "Woah. B. Baker. Slow down!" Peyton laughed. "We actually just bought my old house. Yes we took care of work, I'm going to see if Haley wants me to help out on this end of the record label and Luke's writing his latest book. We are great. I'm sure we can do a dinner." Brooke clapped her hands together. "I'm so excited. So you're really back for good. God this is amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better gift." She said, excitedly. "Alright, now that that's taken care of. I'm super excited to see you guys myself. No more FaceTime." Haley said joining them. "Me too!" Sawyer answered. "We'll have dinner tonight, how about seven? Nathan and Jamie will be so thrilled to see you all. It'll be good for Lydia to have Sawyer to play with now, too." Peyton and Lucas exchanged a look. This couldn't have gone any better. They chatted away, and waited in between as Brooke and Haley filled their orders, and before long they had spent most of their first day back catching up about their road trip, the last three days of life they hadn't had a chance to talk about, the kindergartens, and finally as Brooke closed up for the day, they finalized dinner plans for the evening and headed back to their homes to get ready. It was about to be great night.