"Of course," I nodded in confidence. "I'm so excited to live with you again, and I don't even care where that place is, but it's just...there's so many memories here, y'know? Like, this was both of our first ever apartment in general, let alone our first place together. Everything happened here."
A soft, sentimental look washed over his face as he started glancing around the room. It was like I could see the memories coming back to him as his eyes shifted up to the ceiling. He wrinkled his nose with a sniffle. "Shit, now you're gonna get me started."
"Sorry," I chuckled, holding the side of his neck to brush my thumb under his jaw. "What I do know, is that 'home' isn't a place, but the people who make it that way. You and Charlie are my home...I just wish we could take the place with us too. I want it all."
He laughed as he pulled me in to bring his lips to my forehead. "We can make memories in a new place, though, yeah? Just think of all the rooms we still need to fu–"
"Harry," I scolded with a laugh, but I know he wouldn't have finished that sentence in front of Charlie anyway. He just wanted to make me smile, and it worked.
"But really," he chuckled softly. "This new house...it's gonna be great in its own way, Stella. We'll get to be a family, all three of us. You two will be safe and won't have to worry about paparazzi or even fans potentially showing up here to try and get a photograph for some stupid article, we can take walks around the neighborhood, and we can teach Charlie to swim in the summer when it's time, she'll have a yard to run around in, and we can be together. That's the most important part, and I just wanna take care of you both, y'know?"
His little speech only brought a fresh round of tears as I reached up to kiss him. At the smacking sound, Charlie turned her head and pursed her lips to have one in return. Harry laughed as he complied, earning a cheesy little smile from her until we were both laughing.
"You're right," I nodded, smiling at the space. "I'm gonna miss it so much, but I just wanna be wherever you are. If that's a Hampstead mansion, I guess I can suffer through it."
He laughed at me, stealing two more kisses from my lips. "Good, I'm glad."
With a heavy, humming sigh, I turned to Charlie. "Are you ready to go home, baby?"
"Ready," she confirmed, and that only further proved my point about "home" being more than just a house. For her, home was wherever Harry and I were, and now she got to have us in the same one. Soon enough, she'd come to realize just how special that is.
"Let's go, then," I nodded, taking the first step back toward the stairs. My emotions were too high to pay the other rooms the same amount of attention, but I had already taken pictures before and after the movers came and left. Not to mention the thousands that resided in my camera roll, starting with the first move-in day. Somewhere, I still had that picture of a shirtless, sweaty Harry carrying our first shared mattress up the stairs.
Harry locked up after us and followed Charlie and me toward the car. I was sad to find that Mrs. Sykes was out of town, but I texted her my goodbye and promised that I would bring Charlie around to see her every once in a while, and saved her address so that we could send her letters in the mail. Being an elderly woman and all, she was fond of those.
"Say bye-bye house," I said to Charlie.
"Bye-bye house!" She waved and kicked her little legs in her car seat, and her optimism made me feel better as Harry took my hand to hold over the center consul. He gave me a reassuring squeeze, followed by a kiss on the back of my hand as he started to drive us to our new home.
I think what would really help, was the fact that all of our friends were coming over tonight to not only celebrate the move, but my birthday as well. In retrospect, I suppose receiving a bought and paid-for mansion for a 24th birthday present wasn't the worst thing in the world, and certainly not what I was expecting at this age.
Chapter 82
Start from the beginning
