AFTER WE MADE IT | HESSA

Chapter 10

Tessa's POV

We walk into the dinning room, and the sweet aroma of food fills my nostrils. Karen and Ken are sitting opposite to each other and Abby is sitting in between them on a chair, which is I guess a feeding chair for babies, considering it's design and colour.

"Hardin! Tessa!" Ken says with wide eyes and a smile on his face.

"Hi Dad" Hardin greets him, the fact that Hardin still refers to Ken as his Dad warms my heart .

"So good to see you both together" Ken says and we smile at him. We take our seats next to each other.

"It all looks so good" I say while grazing my eyes all over the dinning table. The table is filled with food, there are pancakes, scrambled eggs, juice, cupcakes, toast and it all smells so damn good. Karen and her cooking skills deserve some serious appreciation.

"Then what are you waiting for, here, I will make you and Hardin a plate." Karen offers

"No, no we will get it ourselves. You have already put so much effort on the breakfast, serving ourselves is the least we could do" I smile at her, and make a plate for myself and Hardin.

"Did you both sleep well?" Karen asks and my cheeks flush as I think of our morning teasing game.

"Yeah we did" Hardin winks at me and his hand slides underneath the table, he grabs my left hand and intervines our fingers together. A smile instantly covers my face and I can feel the butterflies in my stomach as I relive the time when he would do this everytime we came here for dinner. But the situation then, was never like this, it used to be so intense, considering ken's and Hardin's relation before. Now, it's literally the contrast of what it was, and I couldn't be happier.

"Now since Landon and Nora are married and you guys are back together, are you guys planning to.....you know" Ken raises his eyebrows at us and I tighten my grip on Hardin's hand. Not marriage again. Why does everybody wants to us get married?

"No, dad. That isn't happening for us, not so soon atleast, so let's better not talk about it. " Hardin warns him

"Alright, alright. Have you both atleast decided on the big decision of who's moving where? " Ken asks and I look at Hardin who is just as confuse as I am. What is he talking about?

"I mean since you two live in different cities now, one of you will have to change cities right? ." ken says and my face falls, I didn't even think of this, the idea that one of us will have to move to the city of the other never really occurred to me and by the look on Hardin's face, it's obvious that even he didn't think of this. When were we even suppose to think of it? It's literally been what, 24 hours since we got back together?

"Haven't you guys decided about that yet" Ken interrupts my thought. I look at Hardin, but he is just as clueless as I am. Karen seems to notice our discomfort "Ken, let's give the two a little space. They just got back together, they have got time to make these decisions" she says and I give her a smile, in a way to thank her.

Soon enough the happy environment on the table gets replaced by awkward silence. Why did Ken have to bring this up now? Living in different cities is definitely going to be a problem. I don't think we would want to do long distance, the two years apart was more than enough of space we both needed. And as much as I want to be with him I don't want to give up on New York either. I have grown to love the city so much now. Maybe he could give up living in Chicago for us, I mean except for his job what's even there for him? God, its messed up. "Hey" Hardin whispers to me. "Don't think about it, we will talk about it later" He assures me and the previous tension slowly fades away. He really does know me better than anyone else.

"Hardin, will you let me paint your drawings after breakfast" Abby says breaking the silence.

"Not happening Abby. The last time you painted on my arm, it literally took me hours to get it off. And for the love of god they aren't drawings, those are my tattoos" hardin corrects her. Hardin letting Abby paint him, itself is hilarious.

"Yeah, the tannoons can I paint them, atleast the rose drawing on your hand? I can make it look colourful"

"Tattoos Abby, Tattoos. Not Tannoons. And i will buy you coloring books for painting. " Hardin says making us all laugh.

"No, I want to paint the drawing on your hand." she pouts

"Abby stop talking and finish your breakfast first, you haven't even finished your milk yet, come on, be a good girl and finish it quickly" Karen's says while bringing the milk glass to Abby's mouth, she scrunches her nose and turns to look away "No, I don't want it mom, I have had enough"

"No Abby, you have to finish it" Ken tells her

"No, no, no" she whines.

"You know what Abby, if you finish your glass of milk I would let you paint my tattoos" hardin says, and I look at him with surprise

"You promise?" she asks

"Yeah... Yeah... I promise. But the offer is open only for the next 3 minutes, so you better finish the glass before I change my mind." Very quickly Abby grabs the glass from Karen's hand and finishes the milk. "Oh, now you are drinking it" Karen glares at her and we laugh.

"See, I finished." She says while showing the empty glass "Now I want to paint"

"Abby, let him atleast finish eating first" ken says

"It's fine, I am almost done" Hardin says

"I will bring my paint box, dad will you help me find it?"

"Sure, sure!" Ken says. He and Abby disappears upstairs and after a while Abby shows up with a pink box and a few brushes in her hand.

"Hardin! You are still eating!" she complains

"Coming, coming" Hardin says and moves to get up from his chair but I pull him back "You are really sweet for doing that" I give his hand a little squeeze and he plants a kiss on my forehead. I love the bond he and Abby shares. He is so adorable with her.