Page 7 of Always There For You

She didn’t have to say any more. Amelia opened the tracking link and the next screen popped up, showing a rather large box coming from France; it was currently sitting on a container ship and would be at the next destination in a few days.

“It’s a gift for you. For the shop, if you want. I found an artist while I was in France and she makes the most beautiful things.”

Her hand immediately went to the key around her neck. “Hads, you can’t….you already got me something.”

“Yeah, well….I mean, this is custom made and it should fit the shop! But if it doesn’t, that’s okay and maybe you can find somewhere else to put it. Or, I can always send it back.” Hadley’s tone grew softer and Amelia could see doubt creep in, a thief in the shadows ready to steal her friend’s joy.

Amelia’s heart melted. “Don’t you dare. Whatever it is, it’ll be perfect.” She gripped Hadley’s hand harder. “Don’t you dare. You always think of me and that’s…”

How could she say what lived in her heart, what flowered there and made her feel so light, so wonderful? How could she even begin to try and put words to the emotions that rattled through her? Everything about Hadley had always been special, and pressed to give an answer to when she’d fallen in love with her best friend, Amelia wouldn’t be able to.

Maybe she’d always been a little bit in love with Hadley. Maybe those nights pining over someone she couldn’t have weren’t wasted, but were instead new growth, new maturity. She was no moody, starry-eyed teenager nor a twenty-something trying to find footing in a world stacked against her. Love had never been something that came easily to her. Hell, she’d been accused by more than one ex of being “withdrawn” or “distant”. Though “cold” was the only word that had ever been more than a papercut. “Cold” had hurt in a way she never could explain, even to this day. That same ex had remarked how much more alive Amelia seemed when Hadley was around.

Her head spun as she held tight to Hadley’s hand and stared into that heart-shaped face. “Don’t you dare,” she whispered. “Everything you do for me is special.”

You are special, her heart sang, but she couldn’t force the words up and into the air.

Then Hadley, in her sweet, soft way that made Amelia’s teeth itch and her hands ache in a different kind of sense, smiled and held her arms out. “Okay. Okay. Whew. Come here, please. I need a hug really badly.”

Amelia curled up in Hadley’s arms and pressed her cheek into the soft, worn fabric of her hoodie. She felt Hadley relax, felt the clench of long-fingered hands at her waist and shoulder. Felt her sigh and how it stirred her hair. But the breath Hadley took before speaking was what reverberated through her. Like standing at a precipice and wondering what lay beyond.

“Do you know how special you are, Ames?”

Amelia frowned. “What?”

Very gently — so gently, it was as if the wind itself helped to move her — Hadley turned her until they were face to face, Amelia practically splayed out in her friend’s lap. It was a difficult position to be in, though not wholly foreign to them. Often Hadley would pull Amelia back against her to braid her hair or rub her sore shoulders.

But this felt different. Good, but different. There was that precipice looming large, but the horizon beyond so, so promising.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Hadley’s confession was a whisper nearly lost on the breeze. “Every time I’m with you, I’m home. I want to be home all the time any more. I want….” Hadley turned away, face pinched. "I love traveling, but I’ve been to a lot of places. I thought home was wherever I was happiest but I kept thinking that was the next place.” She reached up to tangle her fingers in Amelia’s hair. “I need you. Home is you.”

Every response flew out of her mind, a flock of birds leaving behind their nests for the winter. She gave in to the desire thrumming through her and tucked her face into Hadley’s neck, smelling jasmine and blackberry and holding back the hot tears that wanted to spill. “Don’t you dare go anywhere,” she mumbled. “Don’t you dare.”

“But if you ever want me out of your hair -"

Amelia lifted her head and gave Hadley her best death stare. “No.”

Despite the shake in her voice, Hadley laughed softly. “Okay, okay.”

“I mean it, Hads.”

Gods, please stay with me. Don’t leave again.

“But you have to let me buy more groceries and cook better stuff.”

Amelia nodded. She wasn’t a very good cook outside of the basics, but Hadley could whip up beautiful, savory meals in a heartbeat. Like a culinary magic trick. “I won’t say no.”

“I didn’t think you would.” Hadley patted her own shoulder. “Now come back. Please.”

Amelia slowly relaxed against Hadley and listened to the steady beat of the heart beneath her ear while she lost track of where the wind and Hadley’s soft breaths stirred her hair.

When she woke up, Hadley was quietly humming while she rubbed Amelia’s left hand with her right. “Should probably get you inside, babe.”

“Yeah.” Her body ached and she’d hurt tomorrow, too, but she didn’t regret the time spent curled up against Hadley. As if that were her natural habitat, the only space she could live and fully let go. Hadley got them both to their feet and then steered Amelia inside, shutting off lights and checking doors as they went. The bedrooms were on the cottage’s second floor, more of an extended loft than a true upper story. The rooms were identical in layout and across the short hall from each other. Amelia managed to stumble into her doorway and turn, only to find Hadley carefully watching her every move.

“I’m okay,” she grouched.

Hadley just shook her head and smiled. “I know you are. But I want to make sure you get your rest. If you’re up for it, I would love to visit some spots in town in the morning.”

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