Happy Endings: A Hessa Story (3)

Chapter 47: Hardin

ONE WEEK LATER

"Hardin! Can you get the door!?" Tessa shouts out for me. I just turned the shower water off, and I can barely breathe through all the steam in the bathroom.

"I just got out of the shower!" I shout back, rubbing a towel through my wet hair. The doorbell rings again. Groaning loudly, I lazily throw a towel on and rush across the cold floor into our bedroom.

"Unless you want me to answer the door naked, just give me a minute." I speak in a normal voice now that I'm in the same room as her as I quickly throw on some clothes. Tessa's been on a pretty strict bed rest since she came home a few days ago, so I've been having to pick up the slack for the past week... which I do happily knowing how lucky I am she's still here with me.

"How are my two favorite girls?" I kiss Tessa on the lips, then give my daughter a kiss.

"Talk to us after you get the door!" She pushes me away with one hand and shoos me with the other. Our house has been a fucking revolving door for the past week. Tessa's mom has been here since Tuesday, my mum is coming tomorrow, Karen and Ken are coming in an hour, and now Kim and Vance are here for the usual birth celebration. None of them have met her yet besides Tessa's mom, so it's sort of a big deal.

"Surprise!" Kim's smile nearly blinds me when I open the door. She throws her arms around me in a hug, the pushes her way into my house.

"It's not a surprise when we know you're coming." I whisper under my breath, which earns me a slap on the shoulder from Vance.

"Where's the baby! We want to see the baby!" Kim rushes to place a gift on the kitchen table.

"You mean your granddaughter?" I smile, knowing how much she'll hate being called that.

Her face pales, giving me the reaction I expected. "Don't use that word in front of me, Hardin!"

"Can you stop, please?" Vance slaps my shoulder once again. He's about to lecture me before Grace and Smith rush over to hug me. I know it hasn't been too long since I'd seen them last, but I swear Smith has grown another five inches, and did Grace's hair get longer?

"Hardin!" Grace rushes over, and I hug my half-siblings.

"You guys ready to meet your neice?"

"Aren't I a little young to be an uncle?" Smith questions me in the most proper way.

"Where's the bathroom?" Grace tugs at my pants.

"And what's her name!?" Kim shouts at me.

"Hey! Listen!" I raise my hands and wave them above my head. "All your questions will be answered in like a minute, so please just calm down. Grace, bathroom is down the hall to the left." I point for her since she's really too young for instructions. "Also, before you go in. Tessa's in strict bed rest for the next two weeks, so please be gentle with her."

"Okay. okay! Can we see her!?" She nearly pushes past me once more, so I decide that it's in my best interest now to just shut up and let them see her.

I knock on the door briefly before opening it slowly. Tessa's laying in our bed in a beautiful  sun dress that she forced me to help her get into. It's crazy how Tessa just gave birth over a week ago, yet she's able to fit into her older clothes already. She's never looked so beautiful in my eyes, yet she really doesn't feel the same way. She wanted me to close my eyes and turn away while I help her into her dress, two things which I refused to do.

"Hardin please, I look different." She pushed my hands off of her body and covered herself with her arms.

"You've never looked more beautiful." I remind her with a quick kiss to her neck.

"You're lying." She steps into her dress and quickly pulls it up, covering her chest so I can zip the back.

"You pushed our baby out with this body. This body kept you alive when you should've not been, so yes, I think it's beautiful."

She turned around slowly with tears in her eyes and whispered that she loved me.

"Tessa!" Kim rushes over to Tessa's side and hugs her. "Oh my goodness, look at her! She's beautiful!"

Tessa hands our daughter to Kim, who immediately begins making weird baby noises towards her. Vance, Grace and Smith surround her as well. I take my place on the bed and wrap my arms around my wife, kissing her cheek.

"Feeling any better? I know you were in a bit of pain this morning."

"I am, now that the meds kicked in... and also now that she's sleeping. She was crying all morning."

"I'm sorry, just with the book tour coming up, I'm on the phone non stop. I'm trying my best here, but I'll harder."

"I know that, I know. Everything's fine." She places her hand on my cheek. "Doesn't mean I don't miss you."

I groan loudly, rolling my head back. "Don't say things like that to me or else I will quit my job."

"Wait! What's her name!?" Kim asks eagerly.

I look to Tessa, who lifts her head off my shoulder.

"You can tell them." I whisper in her ear.

She takes a deep breath before speaking. "Her name is Emery Jane Scott."

"Emery! Awww. What a beautiful name." Kim swoons. It took us so long to come up with a name, but now that she has one, it seems to fit perfectly. A homage to our relationship and our entire journey thus far exists with her name.

Karen, Ken and Abby show up a half hour later with Landon and Nora, and before we know it, we're all sitting in our main room eating pizza and laughing at funny stories from our past as everyone gets a chance to hold Emery.

"Do you remember how long it took for us to get that pizza out of the oven!?" Landon bellow in laughter. "It was stuck on the tray!"

"It's not my fault I set a timer for 200 minutes instead of 20!" Tessa laughs back and she snuggles closer to me. I wrap my arm tighter around her and chuckle along to the story as well.

"You nearly burned the entire apartment down! If it wasn't for Nora noticing when she came over, the whole apartment would have been up in smoke!"

"I've learned my lesson!"

"Hopefully your daughter is better with technology than her mother." Nora kisses Emery on the head.

I point my finger directly at Nora. "Hey! Don't talk shit about Tessa in front of our daughter."

"I'm only kidding! I've had my fair share of culinary mishaps. I'm just so excited Addy and Emery can be best friends now." She gleams.

Landon and Nora spend the next five minutes pretending that our daughter's are talking to each other.

Hi Addy, I'm Emery! You're new cousin.

Hi Emery, I can't wait to be best friends.

It makes me physically ill, but I suppose it's cute. Tessa finds it funny, and just watching her laugh is worth having me have to witness Landon speak in a high pitched voice.

"I missed your laugh. It feels like forever since I've last heard it."

"What do you mean? I've been laughing the entire week. Remember when Emery spit up on you? I sure was laughing then."

I smile at the memory. "I know. I just... I love seeing you so happy."

"I am happy. More happy than I've ever been. I love you."

I kiss her cheek and snuggle closer to her. "I love you."

Emery finally ends up in Tessa's arms once again. My father begins telling an embarrassing story about me when I was a child, but I couldn't even focus on it because my attention was solely on Tessa and Emery. It's moments like these, moments spent with family, that I realize how much I've made it and how grateful I am I never gave up all those years ago... and still never give up to this day because I am not only living for myself anymore, but I'm living for my wife and my daughter.

And I couldn't be happier.