Hardline by Meredith Wild Page A

a long way to go pulling his life together after his stint in rehab. Being back in Boston with his family and now Alli seemed like the right move, but we all cared too much about Heath to take this good stretch for granted. That may have been why Blake hadn’t pushed him to move out, even if it had encroached on our privacy now that we were living together.  
       “Have you thought about what you want to do?”
       I sighed. “Not really. I think I’m too overwhelmed to even consider the details. When, where, and who... I can’t imagine how I’m going to pull this together.”
       He slid his hand into mine and squeezed gently. “We can do whatever you want. At the end of the day, all I care about is being married to you. If that’s at some lavish affair that will go down in Landon family history, or if we take a weekend in Vegas and tie the knot on our own, I don’t really care as long as you’re Mrs. Erica Landon at the end of it. Just don’t make me wait too long, okay?”
       I relaxed a little at the sweet look in his eyes when he said my name, the name that would be mine. “I feel the same way, but I don’t want to disappoint your family. If we eloped, they’d probably hate me for stealing their moment.”  
       He laughed softly. “Their moment? Baby, this is our moment. We can do whatever we want. Heath will get around to it eventually, and Alli can go nuts with her planning then. Say the word, and I’ll book the Elvis chapel.”
       I rested my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes. “I don’t know. I guess I need to think about it.”
       “Are you worried about your family?”
       The dread in my stomach answered his question before I could respond. “Maybe a little. Too bad my family can’t be more like yours. I’m not sure I’d even want to invite them to a ceremony.”
       “Have you told Elliot?”
       I shook my head.  
       “Daniel?”
       “Yeah, I told him. He actually said he was happy for us. Totally threw me off.”
       “Well he sure as hell won’t be walking you down the aisle.”
       “I don’t think we have to worry about that. If anyone would, it’d probably be Elliot. He actually called me out of the blue the other day. We haven’t talked in months.”
       “You never mentioned it.”
       “I would have, but you had a pressing need to tie me to the dining room table. He’s what made me late, by the way.”
       He squeezed my hand, maybe in a silent apology. I was too comfortable to move and catch his reaction.  
       “So what did he say?”
       I shrugged my shoulders, suddenly wishing I hadn’t brought it up at all. I understood Elliot’s reasons for wanting to reach out to me, but I hated feeling like he was doing it out of obligation or guilt.  
       Blake caught my chin, tipping it toward him. “Did he say something to upset you?”  
       I met his gaze and straightened in my seat. “No. It’s just that talking to him again brought back a lot of memories. A lot of those are sad, I suppose. He wants to come visit and commemorate Mom’s passing. It’s been ten years.”
       I stared into the darkening night sky through the small window at my side. A vision of my mother as I remembered her passed through my mind, the same way it did every day and at times like these. She was always with me, somehow.
       “Funny how years can go by and one conversation can bring me back there so quickly. All of a sudden I was twelve again. I mean, I’m an adult now. I can rationalize and cope when difficult things happen, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to think about her life or her death without the kind of devastating feelings I had as a child.”  
       “That makes sense.”
       “Does it? I mean, I should be able to move on by now, but that conversation made me realize how much is still there, unresolved, for me.”
       “What do you feel is unresolved about it? I mean, it doesn’t sound like