Delicate

Chapter 64

HAVEN MCQUEEN

"Say, 'Dada'," Harry holds Lily up above him where he's lying on the couch. "Just try and say it, angel."

I smile to myself as Lily babbles everything except for the word Harry's asking her to say, but she still looks so happy as she smiles down at him and squeals every time he brings her down to kiss her face. He wants them to talk so badly, but they're only five months old now. We're quite far off from any solid words from them.

"Not even for my birthday?" He tries to pout, but he can't help his smile as Lily tries to bite the tip of his nose.

The funny thing is that he swears forward and backward that he doesn't have a favorite baby, and I believe that...but Lily is quite often the one he's holding in his arms and playing with. He loves Jack to death and he's already expressed to me how excited he is to have a son, so I'm not even a little bit worried that he doesn't offer him the same attention. He just loves his baby girl, that's all.

"Speaking of your birthday, can you watch them so I can go change, please?"

"Yes," he laughs as I lower Jack onto his chest as well, and both babies are staring at him with their massive green eyes and blinking long black lashes. That makes him laugh harder, which makes me smile bigger as I leave them to head into our room.

Because Harry's wearing a semi-casual outfit of beige loose trousers and a striped orange and maroon wool jumper, I decided to nix the dress I was planning on wearing and go for my pair of high-waisted leather flare pants with a slightly cropped black cashmere sweater and low-heeled boots. My hair is in a ponytail to show off my diamond sunflower necklace, which I'm extremely keen to do.

I hear my mom and dad talking to Harry as I roll my perfume over my pulse points and grab my purse on my way out of the room. He's sitting up on the couch now, still holding Lily while my mom is now bouncing Jack in her arms. The babies both seem happy to see them, as always.

"What happened to the rest of your sweater?" My dad gestures to his midsection. "Looks like it shrunk."

I give him a deadpan expression for that dad joke. "You're super funny."

He smirks and takes Lily from Harry when he stands from the couch, but then his face falls into something much more serious. "Hey, have you two been keeping up with this new virus going around?"

"The corona thing?" I grab my phone from the coffee table to drop in my Gucci bag.

"Yeah, the World Health Organization declared it a global health emergency yesterday," he pats Jack on his little bum, holding him on his shoulder.

"Jeff was talking to me about it," Harry nods as he tucks his phone into his back pocket.

"Is it going to affect your tour? It only seems to be getting worse."

"Well, that's what he called to talk to me about," he gestures vaguely with one hand while the other remains in his pocket. "We're sort of playing it by ear, but I'm not sure what's going to happen."

"I thought it was more of a problem overseas, though?" I cut in, trying not to get too anxious about it.

"Well, it was, but there have been 9,800 cases and now it's spreading here, Germany, Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan so far. That's why it's gone global."

I wince and take Jack when he yells and reaches for me. "Well...should we not go to dinner? Is it really bad?"

"I don't think it's that big of a deal here as it is in China, is it?" My mom looks up at my dad in question.