After 2

Chapter 117.

"Hardin actually got it for me. He left it in my car when he brought my car back from getting it fixed."

"Oh. That was nice of him." He says.

"Yes, very. He even put all these wonderful novels on there and .." I stop myself.

"So what do you think about it?" He asks.

"It confuses me even  more. He does these incredibly kind things sometimes but he doesn't the most hurtful things at the same time. "

'He loves you. Love doesn't always go hand in hand with common sense." He smiles.

"He doesn't know what love is." I sigh and scroll through the list of romantic novels, common sense is not something usually seen in any of these stories.

"He came to talk to me yesterday." He says and my gift falls from my hands onto the mattress.

"What?"

"Yea, I know. It surprised me too. He came looking for me, his dad or even my mother." He says and I shake my head.

"Why?"

"To ask for help."

"Help? With what? Is he okay?" Worry builds inside of me.

"Yea.. well no. He asked for help with you. He was completely distraught Tessa. I mean he came to his father's house out of all places."

"What did he say?" I can't picture Hardin knocking on Ken's door to ask for relationship advice.

"That he loves you and he wants me to help him persuade you to give him another chance. I wanted you to know that, I don't want to keep things from you." Landon says.

"I..well.. I don't know what to say. I can't believe he came to you. To anyone really."

"As much as I hate to admit it, he isn't the same Hardin Scott that he was when I first met him. He even joked about hugging me." He laughs.

"He did not!" I can't help but join him. I don't know how I feel about Hardin being desperate enough to go to his father's house and talk to Landon about me.

"Do you really believe that he loves me?" I dare to ask.

"Yes, I do. I don't know if I think you should forgive him but if there is one thing I am certain of, its that he does love you."

"It's just that he lied to me, he kept this big secret from me while everyone talked behind my back, laughed at me, and even after he told me he loved me he still went and told them all what happened between us. All of this is still new, it literally just happened a week ago. Then, as soon as I begin to think I could possibly consider trying to move past that, he sleeps with Molly." Tears prick my eyes and I grab the water bottle of the nightstand and take a drink in an attempt to distract myself.

"He didn't sleep with her."

"Yes, he did. He told me he did."

"He just said that to hurt you, I know that's not much better but you two are known to fight fire with fire."

Hardin is good, he even has Landon believing his lies. But what if he didn't actually sleep with her? Could I move towards forgiving him? I had my mind made up that I never would but I can't seem to shake him.

As if the universe is mocking me, my phone lights up with a "Happy Birthday beautiful" message from Trevor. I thank him and put my phone back on to the nightstand.

"I need more time. I don't know what to think." I admit to Landon and he nods.

"Fair enough, so what are you doing for Christmas?" He asks and grabs the remote.