Un-Tying the Knot {h.s.}

Chapter 31

"Boy, if you don't get out of my way, I'm gonna beat you..." Harry's grandmother warned. She playfully swatted his arm with a wooden spoon until he scurried to the other side of the kitchen island.

I couldn't help but giggle at him, his demeanor reminding me just how childlike he could be sometimes. It was quite endearing, and it just drew me into watching every movement of his as I washed dish after dish in the sink and handed them to Anne to dry.

Dinner was quite the raucous affair -- everyone in the family showed up, people grabbing at the traditionally British Christmas feast that Harry's mom and grandmother had worked so hard to prepare. Everyone laughed and shared stories and listened to old music on vinyl. If I'm being honest, it was perfect.

As Nana pulled out the pie, Harry was hovering over her again, his excitement both annoying and contagious.

"Dude, you're like a little fuc -- friggin kid," Nick mumbled, laughing at his best friend.

"Harold. Sit down," Eleanor mumbles, bored already by all of this family time.

"You act like I'm not going to give you any," Nana rolls her eyes with a laugh as she gets out the knife, letting it hover over the confection. She feels his eyes on her expectantly and looks back at him. "You wanna do this?"

He nods quickly, almost too quickly, before closing the distance between them and cuts the tiniest of slivers before wrestling it out with a fork. "Want a piece?" he asks her with an adoringly cute smile.

She nodded, and he held the fork out -- but just as she was about to take the bite, he diverted it and popped it in his own mouth with a groan and a chuckle. "Too slow!!"

She swatted him and laughed. "Stop giving your Grandmother a hard time, son..." His head bowed with a blush at his Grandfather's scolding, and he pulled out another bite for her to have. They shared a smile before he handed the knife back to her.

"Who wants a piece!?"

A chorus of me's were heard around the kitchen, so I wiped my hands on the dish towel and rejoined the family as we waited for pie to be served.

Today was a perfect day. This felt like home. It almost made me forget about how much I missed my own.

"Your parents call yet?" Harry asked, as if he was reading my mind. I couldn't help but smile at him with his mouth full of pie.

"Not yet," I divert my smile to the older woman approaching me, taking the pie Nana handed me.

"Do you and your family do anything special for Christmas, Olivia?" Anne asked.

"We watch 'It's a Wonderful Life' together," I smiled at the memory. "And my brothers pretty much spend all day picking which present they're going to open." I see the confused look on Harry's face. "We're only allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve."

"That's just cruel," Harry mumbles through the pie he's chewing.

Nana purses her lips. "Just because they didn't spoil them rotten like we did with you and Gemma doesn't mean it's cruel," she chuckles.

"Yeah, we open all of our presents on Christmas Eve because someone is impatient," Gemma chimes. "I won't name names, Harold..."