Til Kingdom Come [Harry Styles- Bk 4]

ch.68

Richie took a deep breath and smiled. "Thank you, sir," he mumbled.

"Call me Harry," Harry patted Richie's shoulder.

"Harry."

"I was kidding," Harry hissed.

"Oh, sorry, sir," Richie mumbled awkwardly.

"Lighten up, kiddo," Harry chuckled. "Just call me Mr. Styles."

Richie smiled. "Ok."  Darcy hugged Harry.

For the first time in weeks, I finally grinned at Harry. He was coming around, actually, genuinely coming around. If he just dropped the liquor and continued on with smiling and being nice to Richie, he might actually get a surprise visit tonight, from Officer Angie...

Darcy and Richie continued to see each other, but more comfortably this time. Richie didn't choke on his tongue when Harry glared at him. Harry still kept a watchful eye, but he wasn't nearly as terrifying as before, when he used to bring his guns out...

Des became a bit snoopy. When he wasn't training with Harry, he was off in the attic, scraping through old newspapers and photo albums. And everytime he came back to his room or to the basement/gym, he looked angrier and angrier. I wanted to ask him why, but never got the chance. When Des was under Harry's order, there was no looking back.

When J.D. was at Ariana's house and Harry and Des were working out, I liked to go to Monarch Park with Farah. She played in the pond, always promising not to get her dress wet, but ending up tripping and falling flat on her little butt.

Today, Farah was trying to "catch goldfish." She knelt down with her bail and shovel, standing bare foot in the pond. Little orange specs swam past her toes and around her ankles. She tried to scoop them up, but they were too fast. I smiled.

"Honey, I can buy you a gold fish at the store," I reminded her.

Farah turned around, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"No, mom, I wanna catch it by myself," she insisted. I shook my head.

"Ok, be stubborn," I smiled. Farah pouted her lips. "I'm not stubborn."

I laughed lightly and played with a few blades of grass.

"Angela?" a male voice called calmly. I turned to see Nick standing with his hands in his pockets. 

"Hi Nick," I smiled politely. Nick and I saw a lot of each other because of Richie and Darcy. We didn't have any unresolved issues, but seeing one another always reminded us of Liam.

"Hello Richard's dad," Farah waved. Nick smirked.

"Hi, Angela's daughter."

Farah smiled before returning to her fish hunting.

Nick returned his attention to me.

"She looks just like you," he nodded, glancing at me, then at Farah.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It took four children til one of them ended up looking like me," I joked. Nick laughed lightly, patting his hand on a clump of grass beside him. 

Nick glanced at my ring finger. Farah giggled as a fish tickled her toes.

"So I guess we're like in-laws, now?" he laughed lightly, pushing at my shoulder.

"If Richie professes his undying love for Darcy, then I guess so," I joked.

"Didn't he already do that?" Nick raised a brow.

I laughed. "Yes, he stood up to Harry, it was pretty amazing," I admitted. 

Nick threw his head of light brown hair back and chuckled loudly.