Do I Wanna Know?

Chapter 39

I woke up to the sound of Nora crying from the monitor on my bedside table. It wasn't her dramatic, "help me, I'm dying" cry, but just the whining she does when she's ready to eat and get out of her crib.

My eyes were groggy from the deep sleep I had fallen into, and I wasn't used to being the one who got to her in the morning, not since I stopped breastfeeding. And because she was crying at all, that only meant Harry had to step out of the house or hop on a phone call.

"Okay, baby I'm coming," I yawned on my way to her room, where the sun was flooding in and she was rolling around helplessly in her crib.

She was warm like she always was in the morning, damp with a bit of sweat through her onesie, as I picked her up and let her lay her cheek on my shoulder. To help both of us wake up a little easier, I sat in the recliner and rocked her until she cooed and wiggled in my arms, ready for the day.

The first thing I did was change her diaper before we trod down the stairs to have breakfast, which for me would be an easy slice of toast and mashed bananas for Nora. When she leaned in to bite my toast, I opted to feed her a swipe of the raspberry jam from my finger instead, laughing to myself when her lips pursed at the tartness.

"Should we call daddy?" I asked her, licking the jam off my own thumb now as I reached for my phone. Seeing as it was Saturday morning, I doubted he was doing any kind of serious business, or else I wouldn't call.

But then I got his voicemail straight away, so I hung up and opted to send him a picture of Nora with a smile on her chubby face instead. That would usually act as bait for him to call or text me back at least within the next couple of hours.

The weekends, I've learned, were the toughest days of the week for me. Usually, Harry did most of his business on Friday and Saturday, morning through the night, which meant it was just me and Nora...which meant I couldn't really do anything but watch her, but it was simple enough.

After breakfast, we played together in her nursery before it was time to put her down for her nap, and that was when I showered with the volume on her monitor turned up on full blast. I tried not to take too long if she woke up, and I'd have to hop out with shampoo suds still in my hair. That happened once.

But this morning, she managed to sleep long enough for me to take my time with the skincare routine I've been trying to get back in the habit of doing, to make the bed, to change into a real outfit that wasn't just a fresh set of pajamas. It was a good start to the day.

Nora woke up again at around 1:30, so we snacked a little, I laid her down on her tummy for a while so we could begin the transition to crawling soon, I read some books to her, had lunch, and then it was nap time again.

During the second nap was when I called Harry again, just to receive his voicemail...again. That might have been normal back when it was just the two of us, but I can't remember the last time he turned his phone off for any reason, especially in case something was wrong or I needed help with Nora.

Then I called Zayn...no answer. Niall, Louis, nothing.

There was no doubt that Harry was acting strange yesterday, with the mystery man who came and picked him up, with that burst of intimacy and begging me to tell him that I loved him no matter what. It seemed really bad, but we talked like normal before going to bed, and everything was fine after that.

So, to serve as a distraction for myself, I called Claudia and asked her if she was free to come down to Malibu so we could all go have an early dinner at our usual favorite cafe on the beachfront. She squealed and said she was already out the door before she hung up on me, and Nora was up again not too long after that.