After The End: Book 2

19. Home and Favors

Louis POV

"Is he asleep already?" My mum asked me quietly. I sat in the kitchen with my laptop open on the table. It was the first time I'd checked my work email since the previous day and it was safe to say I wasn't Melvins favorite guy. The room was dark except for the glow from the screen as I worked and the soft light of the lamp in the corner.

"He is," I said in reference to Oliver. "Daisy's lying with him."

"Harry's asleep too," my mum said settling in the chair beside me. I'd expected as much. He only got a few hours of sleep the previous night and after a busy day of family time entertaining the girls I wasn't at all surprised to see him down for the count at 9 pm. He'd gotten pretty quiet after dinner. He hadn't even attempted to argue with Lottie again.

Gemma had called him but things between them had been weird since he'd told her that he wasn't interested in a relationship with their mum anymore. She was also quite peeved after finding out about his impromptu office marriage via the tabloids instead of from him. The call had been short.

I wondered how much of the day Harry had spent imagining his previous birthday. I hoped he could see that despite his set backs, this year had been a much better look for him. "He's bouncing back well," My mum observed.

I nodded in agreement. We'd had an interesting morning but objectively he was pulling things together well.

"Are you going to bounce back as well, Louis?" She asked me seriously.

"Depends on how tomorrow goes," I mused closing the computer.

"And how do you want tomorrow to go?" She asked me.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I'm torn right down the middle between never wanting to see her again and wishing she'd just come back."

My mum grabbed my hand in her own soft ones. She was quiet for a moment before speaking. "I know the feeling."

"When things were done between you and my father, how did you know?" I inquired. "How did you know for sure?"

My mum frowned down at the table before meeting my eyes. "I didn't. He did. He's the one that left me. I was just there."

"How would you have reacted if he wanted you back?" I asked.

"I would have taken him in a heart beat," she spoke in a sad tone. "It would have been the worst mistake I'd ever made, but I would have taken him because I was so scared of being alone with you kids."

"I wasn't supposed to be a single parent." I heard my own voice break. I would have been embarrassed if it was anyone but my mum staring at me. "If I tell her off then I'm signing up to do this on my own. Or I'm signing up to battle it out with her while we decide who keeps the baby and when and that's somehow a million times worse."

She looked pained at the thought before squeezing my hand reassuringly. "Louis, she's the one who walked out. Naomi seemed to believe that one of you was better for him. She pretty clearly thought that person was you. I don't see her changing her mind on that part."

"Then what?" I asked. "He just grows up without a Mum? Because that isn't fair either. Harry barely had a mum and look how he turned out!"

"You grew up without a dad and you don't seem to miss him," she reminded me. I frowned. I'd not seen my dad since I was 14 and although he wasn't a bad man he also wasn't winning any father of the year awards. Even living in the same home as him, I'd barely known the man that had been a father to me and my 4 sisters. He'd left when the twins were very small. Maybe that's who Naomi would be to Oliver. Someone he knew and missed now, but also someone he wouldn't remember later.