You Can Let It Go [ZARRY]

Epilogue Part One

Three Years Later

Harry:

Quiet, everyone, please!” Phoebe adjusted her headset and glanced around the room and the people in it.

“Zayn? Harry? Are we missing anyone?”

I scanned the anteroom of the Rooftop Pavilion, taking inventory and basking in the wealth of people surrounding us. The people Zayn and I loved most in the world.

Half of them, anyway. The others would arrive tonight for the rehearsal dinner.

Zayn’s mom and dad were chatting with his friend Louis.

The twins, now nine, stood with their five-year-old cousin, Amy.

Marcel was with Taylor, my brother holding a conversation with her while keeping his eyes on the ground.

My chest swelled with pride and love for him. After three years at Valley Village group home, he was finally comfortable enough to work with me in the SP offices and rumor had it, he was bringing a date to the rehearsal dinner.

“Not everyone is here,” Zayn said, checking his phone with a worried frown. “Perrie is—”

“I’m here! I’m here! Sorry we’re late,” called a feminine voice from the back.

Perrie Edwards, her blonde hair in a ponytail and large gold hoop earrings in her ears, came flying into the room.

She scanned the small assembly, found Zayn, and an expression of the purest joy came over her face. I watched her race to him, wrap her arms around his neck.

He hugged her back, eyes closed against her shoulder—the look of a man whose life just became complete.

My damn heart ached to witness it. I’d met Perrie at her own wedding to Sawyer and liked her immediately. She was funny, smart, and bursting with energy.

But to me, her most endearing quality was how much she loved my Zayn.

“Hi, honey,” Perrie said to him, tears in her eyes.

“Hey, Pez,” he said softly. “Glad you made it.”

“You couldn’t pay me to stay away.” She hugged him again and then turned. “Hi, everyone. I’ve met some of you, but for those who don’t know me, I’m Perrie. Zayn is my best friend and I love him so much and I’m just out of my mind happy for him that he’s getting married.”

There were appreciative murmurs and smiles all around.

“And you,” she said, turning to me. “Come here, you big lug.”

I grinned and took my turn being enveloped in her embrace.

“I’m so happy for you,” she whispered against my neck.

“So am I,” I said as we both watched Zayn kneel in front of Jamie and Brent, our ringbearers, and make them laugh.

Perrie spoke with her eyes on Zayn. “I was going to make a joke about how I’d hunt you down like a dog if you didn’t take care of him, but. . .” She glanced up at me.

“I don’t have to worry about anything, do I? The way you look at him. . . I’ve wanted that for Zayn since the day we met. For someone to look at him and really see him, you know?” She shrugged her shoulders up and let them go with a sigh. “I love that I don’t have to worry anymore.”

I swallowed a lump in my throat. “You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

She smiled and kissed my cheek. “Thank you.”