27. Hannah
CHAPTER 27
hannah
Liam and I walk up the steps to my parents’ house, the same one I grew up in, and I can’t help but feel like this is my coming out party. The Washington weather is gorgeous today, the sun giving us its last gracious rays as it starts to dip behind the mountains and cloud cover. Liam squeezes my hand as he knocks on the door with the other. He leans in, whispering gently into my ear, “You’ve got this, beauty. Whatever happens, it’s me and you.”
“Me and you.”
Jay and Cynthia Haven meet us at the front door, opening it wide as we walk through the entryway. We’re twenty minutes late, which wasn’t my fault—we had a shoe crisis with Charlotte before dropping her at a friend’s house. Liam’s parents, all of his siblings, plus Ivy and Blaire, my grandmother, and my sisters, stand in the formal dining room with drinks in their hands, except for Ivy, who is rapidly approaching her due date.
“Welcome back to Aspen Ridge. How was California?” Liam asks my parents, starting the next twenty minutes of greetings and small talk. We all move to take our seats at their large dining room table, reserved for hosting dinners just like this one.
“So, Liam, what made you decide to run off and marry our daughter without speaking to us first?”
The fucking audacity. But Liam doesn’t miss a beat, putting her in her rightful place.
“Well, I’m in love with her, and she’s a perfectly sound-minded, twenty-seven-year-old, fully functioning adult who runs her own business, raises her daughter alone, and doesn’t need the blessing or permission of anyone.”
“I see.”
“We had no idea, either,” Liam’s mom, Amy, adds, sensing the tension in the room climbing. “We’re beyond happy for them. It’s so romantic that they couldn’t wait another moment to be husband and wife.”
“My god, I can’t sit here for a second longer and listen to this. You all realize they aren’t even married for real right?” Harlow spews, slapping both hands on the table.
Dallas chokes on his drink and I cock my head at him, did he know, too? My mom gasps and looks at me with a level of shock and disappointment I’ve never seen before. Liam stiffens next to me, his hand moving to my thigh under the table and squeezing, a silent reminder that he’s got me. There are so many reactions and too many people.
“Lo! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you even know what you’ve done?”
“She had a right to know the truth before she gave you Bean Haven! Maybe if you weren’t shacking up with your best fucking friend like some desperate dog, I wouldn’t have had to tell her. ”
“Wow. Newsflash, Lo! Bean Haven is already mine! It was never Mom’s to hold over my head to begin with!” Harlow’s eyes get big as she takes in that little piece of information she was missing. “Yeah, idiot.”
“Excuse me?” my mom asks, truly confused. My dad is quiet, as always. It’s then I realize what I announced and how no one knew but me and my grandmother.
“Will you all shut up already? Thought we were gonna have a nice dinner celebrating Hannah and Liam, but you all are ruinin’ it with your bitchin’. Bad enough I couldn’t bring my Winnie because the fishy one is here and she’d lose her mind, but now I’ve gotta listen to all of this,” my grandmother admonishes, and I melt into my seat, so fearful of seeing Liam’s face as he takes in my grandmother’s confession. I’ve never been more thankful for my decision to let Charlie have a playdate tonight. “Cynthia, you’re ruining your relationship with your daughter. I signed that deed over to Hannah already. It was mine to give and now it’s hers. Worry about yourself. Your girls are fine. Except for you,” she continues as she turns to Harlow, “you need to get your jealous head outta your ass before it gets stuck there.”
“Liam, is there truth to this?” his mom asks.
Everyone goes completely quiet, all eyes on Liam and me, and I want to disappear. This was my biggest fear, crushing everyone we love with false hope and promises.
“I married Hannah because I’m in love with her, because I can’t go a single day without seeing her before I lose my mind. She’s been the center of my world since she cried for the Charlie bear I was playing with in preschool. There’s no me without her. This isn’t fake.”
His words wash over me, and I can’t stay here for another moment. My chair squeaks across the hardwood floor as I jerk back in it, standing, and walking briskly out of the dining room, out of the house, and then darting up the street to the only place that I can think of where I’ll get a break and to someone who will make sure that I get it.