Happily Ever After?? (Third in the Through The Dark And Free series)

Chapter 6

Julie woke up and looked at her phone to check the time. It was only 5:45 am. She sighed and rolled onto her back. She had been tossing and turning for awhile, and even though it was god awful early, she figured she might as well get out of bed. She could spend some quiet time alone before Harry woke or Anne or Gemma did. She was restless; she could tell by the chaos in her dreams. She often wondered if there was a way to reprogram her mind. It raced constantly and caused her to be unsettled quite frequently. But sometimes, it was just so much worse than others.

She carefully got out of bed to not disturb Harry and grabbed her things to take a hot bath. Maybe some essential oils or a bath bomb with nice calm, relaxing scents would help. She started the bath water and looked through the vast assortment of scents the bathroom was stocked with. Whoever stocked the house after they'd build it was very detailed. She probably spent 15 minutes reading the anticipated effects of the scent before deciding on a combination she believed would smell good and calm her mind. She hoped a drop each of rose and sandalwood would do the trick.

She pulled up her hair and stepped in carefully, sliding down into the bubbles forming from the bubble bomb she used. It felt good as the water surrounded her body inch by inch. Harry had gotten the biggest and best bathtub for the master bath. After a few minutes, she decided she didn't want to get out. She closed her eyes thinking she might dose off, but as soon as she relaxed, her monkey mind would start racing again, so she just gave up and concentrated on enjoying the warmth around her.

Julie refilled the bath a second time with hot water when the initial bath cooled down and then finally removed herself from the warmth after about 30 minutes. She towel dried her hair, pulled on her shorts and tank and wandered barefoot downstairs. She made herself a coffee and went and looked out the back patio doors. The sun was just starting to peek out over the lake, so she opened the door, slid on her flip flops and wandered slowly down to the lake. She pulled up a lounge chair, kicked off her sandals, pulled her legs up and settled comfortably into the chair. She sipped her coffee and watched in awe as the sun fully emerged over the lake.

Julie wrapped her hands around the cup and let her mind wander. Things had been so good for quite some time now. After Niall and Amanda's wedding, she had finally understood that Harry was her safe place the moment he had that car waiting for her. She hadn't looked back since. Events had gone warp speed since the moment they got back. He released his first single, then his album, did promo for that, then moved onto promo for Dunkirk. As soon as he'd finished that he worked extremely hard on the first part of his tour, making it as perfect and intimate as possible for his fans. But the tickets sold out so quickly, it left so many fans without opportunity to experience a concert that he had immediately decided he would do an arena tour shortly thereafter. So after the holidays, he went right back into planning the bigger tour, embarked on that, and only now had their lives become quiet. And the future was unknown.

Julie took a deep breath. She wasn't sure how to deal with that. How to deal without knowing what came next. She had finished her book, but no one knew if it was going to be edited and published yet. She wrote a few more songs for JoJo and then wrote with some others, which was a new concept for her, but the process was enjoyable, and she'd learned a lot working with others in the industry. If she admitted it, she was exhausted. Trying to keep up with Harry and his tour, trying to finish up the book, and then trying to sell songs so she didn't feel like such a leach on Harry's money. He didn't mind, he never minded, but she hated it. Luckily she had made enough to at least feel like she was contributing something.

Julie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She jumped a bit when she heard Anne's voice behind her.

"Good Morning, sweetheart." Anne said with a smile, pulling up a chair beside Julie. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She looked out over the lake. "It's beautiful out here."