Fighting Fate

26. Remember Us This Way

Harry: I'm outside your house.

Hailey: Mum and Dad are still at Rachel's. You can come inside.

I walk downstairs and open the front door. Harry gets out of his hire Range Rover and locks it as he walks up my driveway. It's overcast today and a heavy downfall of rain comes every fives minutes. How ironic. 

When Harry gets to the front steps and starts stepping up them, I step to the side to let him in but he shakes his head.

"I won't be staying long. I just came to tell you that I want the paternity test done today. You kept this from me because you clearly thought you are better off on your own. I told you I would be here for you and I will be so if you need me I will get on a flight and come to you."

"You're flying out today?"

He nods. "Tonight."

I bite down on my lip and shake my head as I stare up at him. He looks away from me and focuses his gaze on the wooden door beside me. 

"Your tour starts in two weeks."

He shrugs his shoulders and presses his lips together, waiting a moment before replying to me. "I need to be with my mum right now. Those are two extra weeks I can spend with the only woman who hasn't broken my heart."

A deep pain strikes through my stomach and I hold onto the door for support. I look away from Harry because I don't want him to notice that I am in pain. When the awful feeling in the pit of my gut goes away, I take a deep breath and look back at him. 

"I know you are disappointed and I know that you are mad. You have every right to be. But I am still me. I am still the same person you fell in love with."

"If you loved me that much you should have told me the truth."

I open the door wider and step to the side. "Please come in."

He shakes his head. "I can't."

"Five minutes. That's all I ask."

With a deep sigh, he steps inside and I close the door behind us and lock it.

"Last week I sat on the beach. I had one hand on my stomach, feeling our babies movements. The other hand was supporting my body as I sat up. I was staring out at the ocean on the same beach I taught you to surf. Well, tried to anyway."

I smile at the memory. At first Harry was freaking out and didn't want to go out that far into the water because he was scared a shark would eat him. When I finally convinced him to come in, he quickly turned confident and cocky. He thought surfing would be a piece of cake. Those waves sure taught him a lesson when they knocked him over repeatedly.

Harry was getting absolutely smashed by the waves. However, he eventually stood up on that board. Even if it was for three seconds, he did it.

Harry riding those waves is so much like our relationship. We have had so many things crash into us and knock us down. The distance, the stress of our job, usual couple arguments, management, disagreements, rumours, lies. But we kept getting back up each time. 

But it got too hard. There was one massive wave that knocked us down for good and neither of us had the strength or energy to get back up again. We split apart. The wave we are riding right now is our biggest wave yet. 

"If you haven't noticed, I am too mad to find humour right now. What is your point Hailey? Get to it please. Quickly."

I pull out my phone from my back pocket. "I forgot about how much of a prick you are when you are angry." I tap on the photos app and tap my camera roll. I start scrolling upwards so I can get to the photos from 2013.