New Beginnings: A Hessa Story (2)

Chapter 54: Tessa

"Why can he never be ready on time?" Landon asks as yet another five minutes goes by. Landon, Nora and I have been waiting for fifteen minutes for Hardin to finish getting ready. I don't want to go in there because I know he's probably going to try and distract me like he usually does whenever we have some place to go.

"I don't know, he's your brother." I joke with Landon.

"He's your husband, so I think you're now more responsible for him than I am." He jokes back, and Nora nods in agreement.

"Fine." I roll my eyes, and walk to the bedroom. I knock softly on our closed door. "Hardin? We're gonna be late."

He doesn't answer, so I knock again, harder this time. "Hardin?" I say more forcefully, but still met with more silence. The door is unlocked, so I slowly open it. Instead of seeing Hardin getting dressed like I thought I would be, he is fast asleep on the bed. Hardin isn't one to take naps during the day, so for some reason, he must be exhausted. I walk over to him lying on the bed and put my hand under his nose to make sure he's still breathing. I do this sometimes when I am sleeping with him, and I think it's because of PTSD with my father. I remember when we first got back together, Hardin caught me checking his breathing.

-

"What are you doing?" He asked as my finger accidentally woke him up.

"Oh, nothing." I quickly tucked by hand back under the covers.

"Were you... were you checking to see if I was breathing?" He asked, exposing me.

I nodded, slightly ashamed that he caught me doing something so stupid, but I couldn't help it. I was scared, and it had been a while since I had slept with anyone. Whenever I saw people sleeping, the first thing I would assume was that they were dead. It was like that for a while. Occasionally, when Landon fell asleep on the couch, I would do the same thing to him.

Hardin cupped my cheek with his hand. "Is it because of what happened with your father?"

I nodded again, avoiding his intense stare.

He brought me close to him, his arms engulfing me in so much warmth. He placed my cheek against his stomach, so I could hear his heartbeat.

"Here. Now you can hear that I'm alive."

-

It had to be that way for a while. I had to sleep on Hardin's chest, which of course he didn't mind, but I had to hear his heartbeat. I had to make sure that when he closed his eyes and was still, he was just sleeping.

I decide to just let him sleep. I don't know if he was up late last night, but I don't want to wake him even if it's New Years. I'm sure he'll wake up before it's midnight and meet us at the bar. I grab a pen, and scribble a note to Hardin for when he wakes up.

I came in and noticed you were sleeping, so I chose not to wake you. We're probably still at the bar, so come meet us there when you wake up. If you see this past midnight, Happy New Year babe :)

xoxo, Your wife

I gently kiss him on the cheek before turning off the light and closing the door. When I walk out alone, Landon and Nora give me a funny look.

"Hardin's sleeping, and I don't have the heart to wake him up. He doesn't take naps unless he needs it, so let's just let him sleep."

Landon nods in agreement, and grabs his coat. "Then let's go." He grabs Nora's hand as we walk out of the house.

-

When we get to the bar, it's packed like it usually is. It's only 10:30, so we still have some time to go, but it's best to get here early before it gets too crowded and they stop letting people in. Most of the people here use this as a pitstop before heading down to Times Square to watch the ball drop live. I never watched the ball drop since I was from the West Coast, and when it was New Years here, it was only 9 PM in Washington.