Here We Stand [H.S]

105.

I smiled at her, catching the way her hand clutched around mine gently.

"I know he does." I whispered, "And I love him too, so much."

"I know you do, and as his mother, I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see him happy Izzy."

I blushed slightly, feeling my cheeks burn at her compliment.

"I hope you don't think that I'm one of those overbearing mothers that has to know everything that her children do, because trust me, there are some things that I do not need to know or hear."

I grinned, unable not too as she referenced to last night yet again.

"But, they're my kids y'know? I want them to come to me and talk to me about that sort of stuff, and in a way, not so much with Gemma's boyfriend I guess, but with you I feel a little differently. I'm not sure why... well, I am, I guess I just want to take care of you too."

"Gemma has a boyfriend?" I retorted, to which Anne realised she had slipped out and covered her mouth.

"Oh don't tell Harry, for God sake." she muttered, laughing as she leaned back; "For being the youngest, he doesn't half tease her when she's dating or seeing someone. He'll make her life a living hell."

"They're quite funny, them two." I grinned, picturing the scenario of him winding Gemma up and her smacking him across the head violently until a fight broke out between the two of them.

"They're very, very close yeah." she smiled, "But anyway, let's not talk about them for a second. I meant what I said, I do feel a little bit differently with you and I've said it before, but I'm here if you ever need that chat... y'know, the mother/daughter thing. I'm not your mother and I never will be, but if I can help you in any way then I can and I will."

"Thanks, Anne."

She smiled at me, tilting her head and shrugged her shoulders at me, just as the waiter turned up and took our orders swiftly.

"So, anything?" she teased me, "We have all the time in the world, I'm in no rush."

I smirked, unable to hide the fact that I found her firing questions at me continuously so amusing.

"There, was a couple of days when I ignored him... for what he did."

She nodded, "He told me about that."

"He did?"

Of course he did, he tells her everything, remember?

"And I told him how stupid he was. Incredibly stupid. But I understood his reasoning, even if it did upset you a little."

"It didn't upset me, it enraged me." I admitted, a little too easily.

"I heard it, honey." she smiled at me, to which I ducked my head and remembered that she had been just downstairs when it all kicked off between us; "Look, like I said, his heart was in the right place but he... just went about it the wrong way. I told him that. It's my job to tell my son when he's out of line, and I guess we sort of share that position now."

I looked up at her, confusingly.

"He adores you, Izzy. I see the way he looks at you sometimes and it fills my heart with such joy and pride, and it swells with love the way I see him with you... the way he talks about you when you're not there, and it was then that I realised that he wasn't my little boy anymore. He's grown into this man overnight, and he loves you with everything that he has... and it makes me so proud to know that I've brought up somebody who can love someone so openly like that."

I licked my lips, unable to look at her because the emotion riding through my veins was too much for me to bear.

"I made my peace with the fact that Harry grew up very quickly when he left home at sixteen. I wasn't ready for that, but in retrospect, it got me ready for other things that came later on in life. I never expected him to meet the love of his life at 21, I never expected him to be so madly in love with another woman and I never expected to share him with her and the entire world so quickly." she paused, stopping herself.