Page 8 of Hadley


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“There isn’t any reason for you to be in that shed anymore, young man. You take Hadley with you, and he’ll drive you there and back. That way, you’ll have some help to get it all loaded up faster.” GGMa winked at Hadley. “You don’t mind, do you, Hadley? He more than likely doesn’t have all that much, but we’ll fill him out once he gets here.”

When the two of them left, Colby asked her mom what she was going to be doing now. Laughing, Mom told her that she thought it would be a good time for her to start looking for more ideas to make the farm viable.

“I’m not sure what it is that I can do. I mean, I think it is now, don’t you?” Mom nodded but said that they needed to make sure that the land wasn’t destroyed by people when they opened it up for the public. “Do you really think this is a good idea? To have a working farm that people can tramp all over the place? I’m all for it, but it just seems like you and GGMa are standing to lose the most out of this. Your privacy, for one.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about that, honey. If it gets to be too much, I’ll just find myself a place to hide. I’ll even take Grannie with me. However, this is something that we need to do. To show people that farming and all that comes with it is the only way to sustain ourselves when things get tough. And I do believe that they will. We’re very lucky in that we don’t have to depend on anyone or anything to keep us in food and the other essentials while living here. I would imagine that we could go on from now until forever and not have to ever step foot into a store again so long as we do what is needed here. A lot of people don’t have any idea where the food they eat comes from other than they get it from the store.” She thought about that, too, while her GGMa pointed out that even things like watering a garden might be something that most people knew how to do. “I agree with Grannie. I’ve seen plants in people’s homes that were either underwatered or overdone. I think that once people see what is behind the things they eat and use, they might be a little less willing to part with things once they don’t live up to their standards. Thus dumping them in the landfill.”

For the next hour or so, they talked about the farming. Colby knew that it wasn’t only farming in that putting seeds into the ground that needed to be shown to people but where the seeds might come from. How the foodstuff was preserved once it was ready to be picked. It boggled her mind at all the things that happened around the farm that she simply didn’t think of but did all the time. She could, at that moment, see where the advantage would be to let others know what they needed to do if the time came to feed themselves.

~*~

Hadley was chopping wood when his brother Milo joined him in the field. He didn’t say much. Milo had never been one to chatter on and on about things. He’d speak when he was ready, and no amount of begging him to get on with it would work. Finally, he sat down on one of the many stumps that Hadley was working on cutting into smaller pieces.

“Have you noticed that your hair is getting lighter?” He told him that he’d been out in the sun more. “No, I don’t think that—it might a little, but I’m thinking that that’s not all of it. I’ve also noticed that Colby’s hair has been developing streaks of dark hair like you have. Let me take a picture of your hair and show you.”

After turning so that his brother could do what he wanted, Milo handed him the phone. “I didn’t see it before. I mean, I might have, but like I said, I thought it was that I was spending more time in the sun. I’m sure you’ve thought about this. Tell me what it is that you’re getting at.” He said that he wasn’t sure just yet. “All right. Does it have to do with anything about my having a mate?”

“I think it haseverythingto do with you having Colby as your mate.” He asked him why. “I’ve not gotten there yet. And I might never. But I have a feeling, and don’t ask me why I feel this way, that Colby has been meant for you since before even our grandparents were born. Something to do with her being the firstborn with the silver or white hair. And I have noticed too that her hair is more silver, like your diamond dragon, than white like her family.”

Hadley sat down on another stump and thought about what Milo was telling him. Meant for him? Before the dragons were made? He wondered if Milo had spoken to Imp about it but decided that he’d not have done that. Like him, Milo would have gone to the person that would be affected, such as him, in telling him first rather than going to any of the others. He’d want his opinion before talking to them. But he did ask him if he was going to talk to her.

“No.” Hadley had to laugh. “She scares the shit out of me if you want to know the truth. I don’t mean that she’s scary in that she’ll jump out of doors and scream at me. She can destroy us all—not that I’ve given her any reason to want to destroy me, but she can, and I try very hard not to—” Hadley cleared his throat. “Yes, all right. I’m babbling. But I have something that I’d like for you to do. Not now, but soon. I want you to shift to see if your dragon is taking on any of the things that I’ve noticed about you.”

“Other things than my hair?” Milo nodded, then took his hand into his. “That’s just where I bumped my hand while working out here. It’s nothing more than a bruise.”

“Yes, perhaps, but Colby has the same marking on her hand. If you were to take a closer look at it, you’d see that it’s in the shape of half of a heart. Colby’s is the other half of it.” Turning his hand toward him, he could see that his brother was right. It did look like a heart. “I think, and again, I have no idea why but I think that once the two of you bond, then it will be different again. How different? I haven’t any idea. This is just me thinking outside the box for this. I’m a little creeped out if you want to know.”

“Scared, Milo or creeped out?” He said, for some reason, he wasn’t afraid, but he was certainly a little on edge about what was going to be happening to the two of them. “I don’t understand. I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but I don’t understand why you’re going down this path with us.”

Milo stood up and started to pace. A thing that he’d not noticed he did when he was thinking. While his brother was working through his thoughts, Hadley reached out to Colby to find out what she was doing and if she could come and see him.

“I’m working on the map with GGMa and the others. But I can be there in a bit if you want. I miss you anyway.”She said that she’d bring him something to drink and a snack as dinner was going to be delayed somewhat.“We’re having leftovers from the party. Not a lot of things are left, but enough where we can have that don’t seem like leftovers.”She laughed, and he smiled.

“Milo is here with me. If you’d not mind bringing him something to eat as well.”She told him that would be great. He debated on telling her what he’d been telling her and decided that it might be better to talk in person about his thoughts.“I’ll see you soon then. We have been eating a lot of our meals outside lately.”

“Mom mentioned that as well. I guess it’s because of winter coming up soon. A few months, I know, but I have always loved the time between summer and winter.”He told her that he did as well.“One more thing that we can do together. Also, I know we’ve not mentioned it, but the house is finished. When would you like to move into it? I’m thinking soon as I’m feeling a little crowded here with my mom and GGMa. They bicker a great deal. Where have you been staying?”

“At the house but not in it. I’ve been waiting for you to be ready for us to move in together. I didn’t want to do that with us only just being married.”She said she was ready the first time she’d seen his house in town.“Good. I’m so glad that Hoda wanted you to see the other house. Not that I wouldn’t have lived anywhere with you, but this will be nice for us.”

“Yes, I agree.”He told her that Milo was talking to him and that she’d see him soon. Looking at his brother, he could see that he’d either thought of something terrible or that he’d thought of something profound. Either way, he couldn’t wait for him to tell him what he’d come up with. His brother sat down just as he closed the connection with Colby.

“Okay, hear me out. And as I said, this is just me observing things about you and Colby.” Hadley said he was all right with that. “You seemed to hit it off well. I don’t mean that you were enemies from the start, but you just seemed to flow into the relationship better than any of the rest of us did. You married her on the first day of meeting her without any complaint from her. Other than her hitting you but that was a case of mistaken identity on her part. Also, and this one isn’t that hard to understand, your house here is the exact duplicate of the one you have at home. I’m willing to bet that there are even the same things in your cabinets that you have there. You two are perfect.”

“Maybe we’re just ahead of the game for some reason, as in our relationship. With me being the last of us to find a mate, maybe I had observed—” His brother was shaking his head. “What do you mean no? That could be it.”

“It could. But it’s not what the answer is. I know it.” He asked him what he knew. “You have more magic than before. Not that you didn’t have a great deal before, but you are oozing with it now.”

“Oozing with it? What the hell does that mean?” Milo said that in addition to the magic, he seemed to be stronger too. “I’ve always been strong, Milo. What is it you’re trying very hard for me to see, yet I’m not?”

“Here. I want you to chop this stump here.” Milo moved out of the way and asked him not to move it but to just knock the axe he’d been using into the stump. “Just one hit. That’s all I’m asking you to do.”

He did as he was asked. It took him a moment to figure out what he was looking at, but once he did, Hadley had to sit down. It was perfectly cut. Not only was it in eight separate pieces, but he was willing to bet that if he were to measure each piece, he’d find them to be all the exact same size and weight too. Looking at the stack he’d been cutting up, he could see that they, too, were all the same size and shape. Milo asked him how he’d been moving the pieces to the long lines of wood he’d been working on.

“I don’t know. I mean, I just thought that…I guess I didn’t think about them being moved by me. Or a faerie. Could they have moved them?” Milo shook his head and said that he’d not seen a faerie since he’d been here. And the wood was just moving to where it needed to be. All stacked up in a neat, perfect stack. “You keep using the word perfect. It’s starting to scare me a bit too. We’re far from perfect. Neither of us…what else have you observed? Come on. We’ll work this out together. And—by the way. Colby is coming here to bring us something to eat. I’m going to shift when she gets here, and you can figure out what you were looking for. But I have to tell you, Milo, I’m starting to get freaked out, and I never freak out.”

“No, you don’t. All right. Let me make another observation about the two of you. You’re settled. I don’t mean that you’ve settled, but the two of you seem as if you’ve been together for decades rather than just a few days. And Hadley, it’s only been three days. If you didn’t know better, you would think that you’re more of a married couple than even Uncle Cooper and Aunt Carson are.” He had to think about what his brother was saying. “I’m betting too that you’ve already put her on your accounts, probably as soon as the day you married her. And that the two of you have been apart more than you’ve been together over the last few days but have gotten more accomplished than any of the rest of us have. Like in this farm and what you are going to do with it.”

“It’s her family’s farm.” Milo didn’t even blink at him. “It is. I’m just here chopping wood so that I can have some—come on, Milo, you can’t think that all this is happening because of her being meant for me. There has to be more than that.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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