It's been a crazy few months for Hardin and Tessa. It's finally time for them to say I do, and they couldn't be more excited to be husband and wife. Things seem to be going well for them, but when events shake their world, and old friends pop back i...
I wake up alone in my bed after a nice night's rest. It feels amazing being on such good terms with Tessa again with all of our doubts and secrets out in the open. Even though I just got surgery two days ago and can't have sex with the woman, this is the best I have felt with Tessa in a while. We are getting married tomorrow, for real this time, no matter what. I will stand up there hemorrhaging if I have to, it's happening. I check my stomach, and the bandage looks new. Did Tessa redo it while I was sleeping? How the fuck did I not wake up? I check Tessa's alarm clock, and it's already 10:30, and people are coming at 1. I get out of the warm comfort of my bed, and throw some socks on before I head out to the main room.
I hear Tessa, my mum and Mike all laughing in the kitchen when I enter. My mum and Mike are dressed, but Tessa is in this Christmas onesie that I bought her last Christmas. She looks so damn adorable in it, like a child, but like a sexy child... okay never mind, that's disgusting.
"Look who's awake." My mum walks over, and hugs me. "Merry Christmas, Hardin."
"Merry Christmas, Mum." I hug her back.
Mike comes up wishing me a Merry Christmas, and I shake his hand.
"Merry Christmas." Tessa comes over, and wraps her arms tightly around my torso.
"Merry Christmas, baby." I whisper in her ear.
She pulls me into the main room, and we sit in front of the Christmas tree. She pulls out this big box with wrapping paper covering it.
"I'm so excited for you to see this." She claps her hands together. "But be careful opening it."
I slowly unwrap the wrapping paper to reveal what looks like a painting of the both of us on this huge canvas.
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"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." She points to her keychain, and I see the same quote is at the bottom of this painting.
"Woah." I wonder how much this must've cost her to have done. "Who did this?"
"I asked Heather to for me."
"Heather? As in your younger step-sister, Heather?"
"Yeah, isn't she super talented!?"
"Yeah, definitely." I cannot stop staring at it. The way she is smiling, the way she is holding my face, the way I am looking at her, the quote at the bottom. It's perfect. It's one of the first pictures we ever took together.
"When did she do this?" I ask.
"When I went to Washington for her birthday party, I asked her if she would do it for me... Do you like it?"
"I love it." I pull her arm to sit on my lap, even though we are on the floor. "I already know where I'm going to hang it."
