The Weeks Between • HS

Week 23: Part 2- Harry *

***A/N: I know... it's been a hot minute. I finished my first story series, and needed focus on tying that up in pretty package before I could get back to focusing on Harry and Nola. In the meantime, y'all pushed my reads over 50K, which is just MIND BLOWING. Honestly! I am so beyond humbled and truly thankful for each and every one of you.

Now, to the real reason you're here- PART 2 of a very important week for Harry and Nola. I promise this chapter is worth the wait 😊

I walk upstairs to my room, and cautiously open the door to find Nola- blissfully unaware of the intrusion of her privacy in a different country. I'm not sure that waking her up to tell her this is going to be any better than just letting her sleep until morning. In my experience, these things are going to happen, whether you're awake for them or not. So, I grab a pair of joggers and a sweatshirt and walk myself outside and up to the terrace to lose my shit a little. There's a very real fear living in me, having taken root with all my past relationships, that this will be the thing that makes her decide that I'm not worth it. That staying with me isn't worth the hassle. Most of them do, that or I make them run before they get the chance to tell me I'm not worth it.

"Harry?" I hear a timid voice call from the top of the stairs. A tired Nola is wrapped in a quilt, clearly looking for the person who had just been sleeping next to her.

"Hi," I say, equally as timid. I barely look her direction, steering my eyes back down to the ground between my feet. I don't get up to greet her because I'm trying to make my eyes stop watering before she finally gets to me.

"Baby, what's wrong?" She asks as she sits down on the other end of the lounger. Clearly she can see that I'm upset about something, but I didn't have enough time to flush out what I was going to say when I told her about the pictures. Hell, I didn't even know if they were up yet. She scoots closer to run her hands through my hair, like I do when I'm nervous. My longer hair is tickling my eyes and she takes the clip from where it was resting on the pouch of my hoodie and clips my it back for me.

"Talk to me, H. What's going on?" she soothes. I don't want to do this now. I don't want to break us, but I can't lie to her. Especially not when it involves the girls. The sad reality is that I also don't have the words to get it out. So, instead I just open my text from Jeff and hand her the phone.

Her first reaction is exactly what I expect it to be. Her petite hand makes its way up to cover her mouth as she inhales a gasp. She started to shake her head and mumble the word no over and over again underneath that same hand. "A-a- are there pictures coming out?" she stutters.

"Jeff did what he could about the paps, but they were people at the park taking pictures, as well. He's guessing some private accounts will post them today, if they haven't already. They'll do their absolute best to get all of them down but you know how fast people screenshot these things and start asking questions and..." I anxiously rub my hands over my face as the tears start to fall. I attempt to wipe them away so I can get her back to the girls.

"I'll call and get everything set up so we fly back in a few hours," I say, standing up. This was her threshold. This was her only remaining limitation with me- the privacy of her girls.

She reaches for my hand as I start to walk away and she pulls me back to her, forcefully pulling me down. I sit down next to her, but refuse to meet her eyes because I don't want to see the moment that she chooses to leave me set in those beautiful golden brown irises. "Look at me, Harry," she says rather forcefully.

"I'm sorry," I say as I start to break down. She cradles my body against hers, and after a few minutes she holds my head up so that I have no choice but to meet her gaze.