After 2

Chapter 136.

"I think you are."  I call him out and he laughs, burying his head into my neck.

"What a Christmas Eve. It's been a long ass day." He complains and I agree.

"Way too long. I can't believe my mother came here. She is so unreasonable."

"Not really." He says and I pull back to look at him.

"What?"

"She isn't unreasonable, really. Yea she goes about it the wrong way but I can't blame her for not wanting you to be with me." He tells me.

"What? Since when are you on her side?" I am offended. I stood up to my mother for him, for us, and here he is telling me she is right.

"I never said I was on her side but if you were my daughter I would never allow you to be with someone like me."

I scowl at him and move off of his lap to sit next to him on the bed.

"Don't look at me like that, I am just saying now that I have really thought about all the shit I have done, I don't blame her for thinking we shouldn't be together."

"Well I think she is wrong, can we stop talking about her." I whine.

The guilt from my harsh words to her earlier is trying to surface and I have had enough emotional trauma for the day. The year really. The year is almost over, I cant believe it.

"Yes. what would you like to talk about?" He asks.

"I don't know.. not her.. let's talk about something lighter. Like how romantic you can be." I smile.

"I am not romantic." He scoffs.

"Yes you most certainly are. That letter was one for the classics." I tease.

"It wasn't a letter, it was a note. A note that was only supposed to be a paragraph at most." He rolls his eyes.

"Sure, a romantic note then." I smile.

"Would you shut up." He groans.

"Is this where you annoy me to get me to say your name?" I laugh.

He moves too quickly for me to respond, he grabs my waist and pushes me back onto the bed, hovering over me with his hands on my hips.

"No, I have since come up with other ways to get you to say my name." He breaths, his lips against my ear.

My entire body ignites with only  a few words from Hardin.

"Is that so?" I say in a thick voice.

Natalie's faceless figure appears in my mind causing my stomach to turn.

"I think we should wait until your mother isn't in the other room." I suggest.

Partly because I need more time to ease back into our relationship, but mostly because Anne is in the other room. It was awkward enough doing it once while she was here.

"I can kick her out now." He jokes and rolls off of me to lay next to me.

"Or I could kick you out."

"I wouldn't leave, I am not leaving again. Neither are you." The certainty in his tone makes me smile.

"So this is it then, we are done with the back and forth?" I ask.

We are laying next to one another, both of us staring at the ceiling.

"Yes, this is it. No more secrets, no more leaving. Do you think you can manage not leaving me for a week at least?"