Page 17 of Unfinished

“Liam, you will stay for dinner.” I spun and glared at my mother.

“Actually, no I won’t. You might think it’s okay to try to do whatever it is you are doing here, but I promise you it isn’t.”

“I don’t know why you and Brittany can’t work it out,” my mother huffed.

“Brittany is a slut who I caught cheating on me with some asshole. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let that dirty cunt anywhere near me.” I turned on my heel and walked out the front door after Bas who had the car running for a quick getaway. Brittany came running out the front door as I was getting into Bas’s car.

“I said I was sorry,” Brittany whined.

I ignored her entirely and as soon as I closed the door, Bas took off down the driveway and through the gate. If it weren't for my dad I might have gone no contact with my mom already. What mom brought an ex around to try to get you back together?

“What the hell?” Bas breathed.

“I don’t want to talk about it, I want to get back to Hannah.” I looked over at Bas and he looked as pissed about what my mother pulled as I was.

Bas wasn’t shy about the fact that he didn’t trust or like my mom. Truthfully, no one in the family cared for her all that much. Bas took the move to California the hardest and blamed my mother for it. He made it clear if I wanted to ever take her down, he had plenty of information that would likely ruin her socially, even if nothing legally would ever come of it. He wouldn’t want any illegal activities, to which she committed many, to affect me, my dad, or the Teresi family as a whole.

Being a son of Michael Teresi, Bas learned how important connections were for closing deals or digging up dirt. He made a lot of connections throughout the years. For being a twenty-one year old, he was incredibly vicious and would take down almost any person he damn well wanted to if he needed to.

My recent actions with Hannah were uncharacteristic, but Bas would support me if Hannah was who I was choosing. I couldn’t get enough of her, she was real, smart, beautiful, and stood on her own two feet. She had dreams that she was chasing and wouldn’t give them up for anyone. She was so unlike any other woman I'd been exposed to.

When we got back to Hannah’s house, I dropped my bag in the trunk of my car and locked it up again. We went to the front door and I let us in.

“Honey, I’m home!” I shouted and I heard Ashley start laughing.

The two women came walking down the stairs. Hannah was in short cutoffs showing off tan, toned legs, and all I imagined was how they would look wrapped around my waist. She was wearing an off the shoulder black cover up that revealed her bikini underneath.

“Not your home,” she gestured to the house and then to herself, “not your honey.”

“I was trying it out.” I grinned with a shrug.

“Let’s get going, I want tacos,” Bas grunted. I handed Ashley back her key and she pocketed it.

“Should we take separate cars?” Hannah suggested as we walked out the front door.

“Nope, I’m driving,” Bas insisted casually, tossing his keys up and catching them.

Ashley looked at Hannah with wide eyes and Hannah shrugged. They planned on ditching us. I walked over and wrapped my arm around Hannah, then I looked at Ashley.

“What he said about me, also goes for him.” I grinned at Ashley who cringed slightly and looked between Bas and I.

“Fuck,” Ashley groaned and then stomped off.

“So what is this? Some sort of tag team wing-man bullshit you two do with women?” Hannah joked and I laughed.

“No, this is all new territory for both of us,” then I whispered in her ear, “but I’m going to enjoy the hell out of figuring it all out.”

Hannah shivered and she rolled her lips to try to hide a grin as I pulled her down the driveway. Climbing into the backseat with her, I dropped my hand on her thigh and ran my thumb in circles. She didn’t remove my hand. I hoped I was slowly winning her over.

We made it to the cove right before sunset and the music was already blaring, beer was flowing, and people were dancing. Hannah and I talked while we watched the sun disappear behind the horizon. She told me more about Pittsburgh, her degree, and what she wanted to do with her life. She even told me about her plans to help her father retire, since he had to raise her on his own.

I was a little envious of her freedom. Hannah was able to make decisions about her life. There were no expectations that were placed on her. I never had the ability to choose my own path, which was part of the reason I was so adamant about choosing who I got to spend the rest of my life with. There had to be at least one thing that I got to choose.

I found myself researching on my phone the distance between New York and Pittsburgh. After finding out it was a six-hour drive, it was clear it'd be be better to fly out of Newark to see her whenever I wanted. There was no way in hell this ended up as a summer fling. I would make long-distance work.

“So, if you didn’t have your last name or money, what would you do with your life?” Hannah asked me.

“I would have ended up in some sort of tech career. Maybe making video games or something.” I shrugged and she tilted her head in curiosity, “If I didn’t have my parents’ money, I would want a job that supported me but didn’t suck the life out of me.”

---