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"I'm going to steal your heart, Niall."
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Niall James Horan is what you would call your not-so-typical multimillionaire. He's lived his whole life striving to build his company, Horan Incorporation, leaving no time for silly games and romance. Mat...
"My mam's on her way," I informed, glancing over at Ellison who was nearly having a panic attack as she scurried her little bottom back and forth across the kitchen, helping Nicholas prepare dinner and multiple little desserts. They had already made ham and roasted chicken, steamed mixed vegetables, sweet potato casserole, and egg salad. For dessert, Ellison made a homemade apple pie, strawberry shortcake, and seasoned fruit salad. And even with all of this, they were still working on rolls and something else that smelled like garlic. "Any last words?" I teased.
"Yeah," she breathed. "Shut the fuck up."
I started to laugh, walking across the living room to get to her before my hands lifted to run through her hair and pull her head back. Once my lips pressed down onto her forehead, Ellison exhaled, relaxing under my touch.
"Stop worrying, love. It's not like you haven't met her before."
"It's not that..."
My eyebrows creased. This whole week she's been nervous as hell to see my mother and suddenly she's not nervous about that? I was left more confused than ever as I watched her pull away and head over to a cupboard to grab all of the plates. She brought the stack back to the table and I quickly grabbed a few to ease her load.
"What do you mean?"
She sighed and placed her stack on the marbled table. "Look at me."
My eyes glanced down, taking in every part of her, but I didn't understand what was suddenly different. She was dressed in a pair of dark purple leggings with a simple grayish colored, cable-knit sweater. Her hair was straight as it fell down her shoulders, and her makeup was simple yet elegant as always.
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"Still not seeing what's wrong..."
"Niall, I have tried on every shirt in that closet and every dress and there is not one thing that hides this bump unless if your mother wants to see me come down in a rag of an XL t-shirt."
Oh... "You don't even have a sweatshirt? Did you try on any of mine?"
"No offense, Ni, but you're small. Everything sticks to me like glue and I don't know what to do."
I could see her getting worked up over this, so I quickly sat my dishes down and reached out to pulled her closer, my palms cupping her cheeks. "You are carrying a child, Ellison. There is nothing wrong with that."
"Not until everyone walks through that door and is smacked in the face with the image," she sighed, bringing her hands up to cover mine. "I didn't think that I would pop this early, but I did and..." She shook her head, "We fucked up, Niall."
I felt my heart ache for her because as much as I had a feeling that this would happen, I was kind of hoping that the media would out the pregnancy first and just get it over with for me. Now, a month later, nothing had been said and suddenly we were at a crossroads with what the hell to do with at most twenty minutes left to spare.
