After

Chapter 86.

"Or we could skip it and I could take you to Seattle for the weekend?" He lifts an eyebrow.

"What?" I sit up.

"I mean no! We are going to the wedding." I correct myself. "But you could take me to Seattle next weekend."

"Nope, offers only good if we go this weekend." He teases and pulls me onto his lap.

"Fine, I guess I will have to find someone else to take me to Seattle." His jaw tenses and I trace my finger tips over the stubble on his chin and jaw.

"You wouldn't dare." His lips twitch to hold his smile.

"Oh, I most certainly would. Seattle is my favorite place after all."

"Your favorite place?"

"Yea, I haven't really been anywhere else."

"Where is the furthest place you have gone?" He asks. I lay my head on his chest and he lays back against the headboard, wrapping his arms around me.

"Seattle. I haven't left Washington."

"Ever?" He is baffled.

"Nope, never."

"Why not?" He asks.

"I don't know, we just couldn't afford to after my dad left. My mom worked all the time and I was too focused on school and getting out of that town that I didn't really think of much else, except working."

"Where would you want to go?" He asks, his fingers rubbing up and down my arm.

"Chawton. I want to see Jane Austen's farmhouse. Or Paris, I would love to see where Hemingway stayed while he was there."

"I knew you would say those places. I could take you there." His tone serious.

"Let's just start with Seattle." I giggle.

"I mean it Tessa. I could take you anywhere you want to go. Especially England, I did grow up there. You could meet my mum and the rest of my family."

"Uhmm.." I actually have nothing to say. He is so strange, he introduces me as his friend an hour ago and now he is trying to take me to England to meet his mother.

"Let's just start with Seattle?" I laugh.

"Fine, but I know you would love to drive through the English countryside, see the house Austen grew up in.."

I can't imagine how my mother would react to me leaving the country with Hardin. She would probably lock me in her basement and never let me out. The best thing about the thought it that she has absolutely no say in what I do, I am an adult. I still haven't spoken to her since she stormed out of my dorm after threatening me in an attempt to get me to stop seeing Hardin. I want to avoid that inevitable argument for as long as I can.

"What's wrong?" He asks and dips his head down in front of my face.

"Nothing, sorry I was just thinking of my mom." I tell him.

"Oh.. she will come around babe." He sounds so sure but I know her better than that.

"I don't think so, but lets talk about something else." Hardin's phone vibrates in his pocket. I shift off of him so he can get it out but he makes no move to do so.

"Whoever it is can wait." He tells me.

"Will we be staying at your dad's house Saturday after the wedding?" I ask. I need to get my mind off of my mother.

"Is that what you want to do?" He asks.

"Yea, I like it there. This bed is tiny." I crinkle my nose and he laughs.