Page 32 of Unfinished

“If it were some stupid trash you would have gotten shit for sure. Hannah is far from stupid and she’s way better than any of the girls you previously dated. How can we not be supportive of this?” Bas encouraged.

“Thanks, I’m glad someone has my back on this.”

“I want a ‘Hannah.’ Does she have any friends?” Archer probed at Bas, who glared at him when Archer nudged him with his elbow.

“I’m going to have a battle on my hands with my mom over it though.” I changed the subject.

“Your mom will have to come around,” Archer stated.

“I only wish that were true, she’ll try to make our lives hell. I had to warn Hannah that my mom knew who she was.”

“Wait, she went and found out who you are dating behind your back?” Bas growled out.

“Yep.”

“She wouldn’t kill Hannah, would she?” Archer looked at me with concern.

“No, but she might try to go talk to her,” I said, and they all cringed.

“Hannah will be able to handle it,” Bas remarked.

“I’m sure she will,” I agreed with a smile, thinking about how strong and perfect Hannah was. “Still, I’ll do almost anything to make sure my mother stays far away from Hannah.”

My mom was so concerned about Hannah trying to trap me but Hannah brought her own brand new box of condoms and I felt the implant in her arm. She didn’t want a kid anytime soon because she had other plans. Still, it couldn’t stop me from imagining us several years from now having a kid and what Hannah would look like pregnant.

I wanted it all with her. I wanted the wedding, the marriage, the house, the kids, the career and the entire life. Life with Hannah would be absolutely beautiful. Waking up next to her this past weekend had me craving to wake up next to her every morning.

“Have you told her about the family yet?” Bas asked and I shook my head.

“I don’t want to scare her. What am I supposed to say? ‘Oh by the way, my family is involved in illegal activities.’ I’ll tell her when the time is right, she knows the legal side of things, I’ll explain the history and how it bleeds into the present at some point,” I explained.

“Waiting is probably for the best.” Rion shrugged as I looked at him, “She’s got four years left. A long-distance relationship works for a couple of months but rarely for anything longer than a year. See if you can make it through that first.”

“Wouldn’t that be worse? She doesn’t seem like the type to spill our secrets, and if you hid it from her for four years and she’s not okay with this life, it might make her angry that you didn’t tell her sooner,” Archer argued.

Bas voiced his agreement with Rion, “I’m with Rion on this. What our family does should only be discussed with the family.”

“Hannah can handle this but I think it should wait too, at least till we finish college. Long distance is going to be hard enough, I’ll have to have guys out in Pittsburgh watching her anyway and without her knowledge.” I tried to think of ways to make this long-distance relationship easier for us. However, our options were limited, leaving us with the only option of attempting frequent weekend visits during the semesters.

“What if we were able to provide her a full scholarship to TKU?” Archer suggested.

“FIT is the number one college for what she wants to do. Plus, I doubt she would leave Ashley in Pittsburgh. Look, I’ll plan out trips to go see her. She shouldn’t give up her dreams for me because there are expectations I have to live up to.”

“You could give up your expectations though,” Rion suggested.

“I could, but I doubt my father or Uncle Michael would let me transfer from Trident King University. They’d be pissed as hell. My father might be on board with me choosing who I marry, but he’s never going to be okay with me leaving the family tradition of TKU.”

“But would he really take away the business from you? The job isn’t dependent on you graduating from Trident King University.” Bas leaned back putting his hands behind him.

He was right, I only needed to have an MBA and work for each department within the company to take a leadership role. I wondered if it was possible to convince my dad to let me do that. Probably not this year, but next year after I received my bachelors I might … I shook my head, banishing the thought.

“No, I can’t leave Trident King University for FIT. Hannah would be pissed if I did that for her because she wouldn’t change her plans for me. We’ll figure it out.”

My cousins all looked at each other with concern in their eyes. They were all thinking the same thing I was. There was no way that we were going to be able to make a long-distance relationship work for four years. Even I had a hard time imagining it working out for us. Still, I’d do what needed to be done to make sure we stayed together.

“Speaking of New York, Salvatore is causing problems,” Bas informed Archer and me.

“What kind of problems?” Archer grew serious like he typically did when we started discussing the family businesses.

---