Delicate

Chapter 80

HARRY STYLES

I thought maybe I was imagining the sound of crying until I start to regain consciousness and realize that it's coming from the monitor on my bedside table and not just in my mind. So I lift my head and blink a few times until my eyes can stay open to see Haven still sleeping next to me. In an attempt to let her keep sleeping, I roll over to shut the monitor off and quietly leave the room to see why Lily's upset. It's only 4 a.m., so she shouldn't be awake for another three hours at least.

She stops crying but continues to whimper and whine as I open the door to let the dim hallway light in and I can see Jack moving around in his bed with her. I stifle my laugh when it seems like he's annoyed and trying to go back to sleep while she fusses for whatever reason, and I wonder if that's what he's thinking as I pick Lily up with her blanket to leave the room.

Rather than going back into my and Haven's room, I take her downstairs to the couch where the Christmas tree is still lit. Her body is warm under her pajamas and her little heart is racing against my chest as I sit down and close my eyes to rest them again, hugging her the same way she's hugging me.

"What's wrong, darling?" I whisper.

She answers with sniffles as I maneuver her in my arms to hold her like a baby–something I haven't done in quite a while. Her puffy cheeks are pink and damp with her tears, but her expression is no longer as distressed as it was before as she plays with my cross necklace. I wonder if she remembers that she used to chew on it when she was a true baby.

"Did you have a bad dream?"

Nothing.

"Did you miss me?"

She nods but I'm not sure that's what the reason is. I think she's scarily smart, and I think she knows that I'd like to hear that answer the most. She'd be right about that.

"Well, do you wanna know something exciting?" I use the pad of my thumb to brush her teardrops away. "I asked your mum to marry me last night, and you know what she said?"

She shakes her head.

"She said yes," I smile in remembrance, hoping that whole thing was real when it seems too good to be true as I say it out loud now. "She wants to marry me."

With a little pout, she reaches up to touch my mouth like she used to do when she was a baby.

"You're the first person I've told," I mumble, just speaking my thoughts out loud now when I know she doesn't really understand. "We're going to tell our families today, but I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't scared for the whole world to find out because...well, because I want to protect you all, y'know that?"

She blinks up at me with long lashes just like her mum's.

"I'm scared people will be mad at her and I'm scared she's going to get scared," I confess out loud for the first time since I reached out to Harry Winston to design the ring a few months ago. "But she knows that I love her and she says she loves me, so...I think that's all that matters, right?"

As her eyelids start to droop until they finally close again, I find mine doing the same thing until I can't stare at her anymore. I rest my head back on the couch and keep her in my arms, smiling as I consider what the reaction of both our parents is going to be. James' reaction to me asking for permission back in September was priceless enough.

***

"Oh. You're back, huh?" James' receptionist smirked at me, looking me up and down as I stood in front of her desk. "I take it things went well last time, then?"