Before It Ends • Hessa • Emery Scott

𝕊𝕚𝕩𝕥𝕪 𝕊𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟

He furrows his eyebrows in thought, "I don't know. Probably in her room."

As if on cue Emery comes bouncing down the stairs. She puts her hand on the front door handle before I stop her. "Hey, woah! Where are you going?"

"I'm going out. Am I not allowed to anymore?" She snaps, looking down at the floor with furrowed eyebrows. She still won't look at the living room.

I roll my eyes at her, "be back by midnight. For real this time."

"You got it." She mutters as she shuts the door behind her. I let out a breath, tapping the top of Auden's head which is now laying down on my stomach.

"Alright, Aud. You got to get up so I can go tell your father." Auden huffs but he obliges quickly, climbing off of me and reaching for the remote. That's when I realize I haven't seen him wear his glasses he got a week ago.

"Auden, didn't you get glasses a week ago?" I ask, "where are they?"

"I never got them. It was the time daddy got a call from someone saying you weren't okay." He mutters, shrugging his shoulder.

"How about we grab them tomorrow? We have all the paperwork now, so all we need to do is pick them up."

He looks down and shrugs sheepishly. "I don't need them—"

"Auden, I paid a lot of money for those, you better wear them." I say sternly and he only nods vigorously. I know he's only nodding to make me stop talking, but I had to say it. That was a lot of money that I can't just waste. "Alright, I'm going to go talk to your father."

I'm avoiding it. I don't want to. I was hoping to ask Emery about it first, but maybe that isn't such a great idea. She doesn't want to talk to me about Cole's family. The same Cole who moved back to New Hampshire yesterday. It's better to just get it over with and tell Hardin.

I get up, slowly walking towards the upstairs. Hardin moved his things upstairs today. They were in the living room but he said it was just too weird and all he could focus on were those cars driving passed the window so he moved upstairs. I know this because he called me to ask if he could use my desk for the day. Of course he can. Why ask? He bought me that thing anyways.

The bedroom door is cracked and I press my hand to the middle of the door, and it creaks open more. Hardin turns his head, his eyebrows raise and a smile forms when he sees me, and he waves me over.

"Where the hell have you been?" He asks softly, rubbing his hand down my arm.

"I got caught up at work." I say, shrugging my shoulders. "Emery just left. She is going out again." I frown, leaning myself onto the desk.

"Yeah she came in and told me. I told her to be back before twelve." Hardin nods and I can't help but feel a small sting. There's no reason to feel hurt, because she also told me she was going out, but I kind of forced her to tell me. She voluntarily walked in here and told Hardin. Am I overreacting? Probably.

"Do you know where she is going?" I ask, tilting my head.

"No, she just said she is going out and I didn't want to push her or anything." Hardin replies, his focus mainly on the paper in front of him. Hardin doesn't know that Emery knew the man who broke in. I don't plan on telling him anytime soon either. He would never let her leave the house if that was the case.

Hardin reaches across the desk and gal desk at one of the finished papers before glancing back down at his current one. He has been writing on paper ever since he moved from the basement. He hasn't had the time to move his computer upstairs, so he has resided in the notebook, which I love so very much. It's very old fashioned.

"Is that a new book?" I ask, trying to start up another conversation. I'd rather not tell him about Trevor so soon. Maybe when we are about to sleep, then maybe.

"Nope. This is the last chapter of my short stories book. I had inspiration yesterday for this one." He says, smiling proudly.

"What's it about?"

"Emery as a little girl. I changed the names though because I know she wouldn't like to be in one of my books." He explains, "but the memory is real."

My small smile grows into a large one and I lean over and kiss him on the top of his head. "I'm so proud of you." I whisper, caressing his cheek as I lay my head on his fluffy hair.

"I love you." Hardin mutters, placing his pen down and turning his head towards me.
I position my head in a way he can kiss me, and he does.

Once we break the kiss I mumble a small, "I love you." Before kissing him again, this time with more force.

I feel his muscles relax and his hands move up to my shoulders, rubbing up to my cheeks. He stands from his chair, making him seem like a skyscraper if he wasn't bent down, kissing me right now. I pull him closer to me by his neck, and he slowly walks us towards the bed. He hoists me up onto his hips, leaning me over the bed as his eager lips trail down my body, kissing the crease in my chest, and then up again.

His hand trails from my breast down to my hip where he squeezes and that's when I yelp in surprised. It feels like I've stabbed myself with my binder, yet again. By the way, it had happened two more times before I left Laura's.

Hardin seems more in pain than I am as he stumbles away from me. His eyebrows arch into a worried expression, "I'm sorry. Jesus, Tess. I- I wasn't thinking- I couldn't think straight."

I slide off the bed, getting as close to him as I can. "It's okay, baby." I mutter, he loves when I call him baby. I kiss him again, but this time he doesn't kiss back like he was. He kisses almost timidly.

"Let me finish this book, okay?" Hardin whispers between small kisses, and soon I'm also the one kissing timidly so I stop and nod my head.

"Mhmm." I hum, turning away from him and walking over to the closet. He doesn't say anything but I can tell he's watching me to see if I'm okay with it. I'm not okay with it, but I can act like I am.

And really, I do understand. I was stabbed a week ago, and he also has a paper to write. Ten days without sex is nothing. It's fine.

Once I find a nice shirt to wear of Hardin's and some panties I turn back around and Hardin is still watching me. I don't feel comfortable removing my clothes in front of him right now. I know it's stupid, but it just seems to awkward to do it right now.

We were so close to sex and then I had to ruin it. It doesn't seem possible to take my clothes off chastely. And I know he is thinking the same thing because he clears his throat and sits back down at the desk, lifting his head up with his palm on his temple.

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𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛'𝚜 𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎

Happy almost Easter! Would it be Easter-Eve?

Chapter sixty seven: April 3, 2021