The Long Road Home || h.s. au

Chapter Thirteen

 "Thanks for givin' us the Friday off, boss," Sia snickered, resting her head back against her towel. They were out on the lawn, going through a more intense yoga routine than they had at the beginning of the week. Sia had requested a bit of a leisurely stretch before they got started, since it was such a nice day. She just wanted to enjoy the sun in peace for a few moments.

"Oh, shut up," Harry laughed, shoving lightly at her shoulder, jostling her side to side gently.

Sia laughed. "Oh, don't pretend like yeh don't like the title. Besides, I do actually appreciate the extra day off. Feel like I've been working for three weeks straight."

"Best three weeks of your life, though," Mitch piped up from his place under the shade of the awning attached to the back of the house. He had his feet kicked up on the wicker coffee table, a crime novel in hand, glasses perched on his nose. They had tried to entice him into joining their yoga session, but he had vehemently disagreed and plopped down in the chair with his book.

"That's neither here nor there," Sia argued. Really, for her career, the three weeks had been amazing. It was nearly unheard of that a twenty-three year old had a producer credit on an album by such a big name artist, so she would be eternally grateful to Jeff for including her on this project. For her personal life, however, it had been a bit of a rollercoaster. Hopefully all the lows were behind her, though.

It had been a few days since her and Harry had had their little heart-to-heart on the beach, and it had been a pretty smooth, comfortable few days. It was sort of humourous how easily they had fallen back into being friends. Sia had thought, at best, it would have taken them another week or so to whisk away all the awkwardness that had plagued their relationship before. However, she was pleasantly surprised when she'd woken up the following morning, and Harry was greeting her in the kitchen with a friendly greeting, an already-prepared cuppa, and a bowl of his overnight oats that she'd always loved. They'd taken their breakfast out into the backyard and chatted in the pale morning light. It looked like it was going to rain that day, and they reminisced on the stormy mornings in that they had shared back in England.

Much of the rest of the week had gone the same way, with Harry and Sia in much better moods and actually joking around together. Jeff Azoff had shot them a slightly concerned yet amused look in the studio the next day when Sia had piped in over the speaker into the booth to tease Harry about the note he'd horribly missed, and they'd both cackled about it for a few moments before Harry did another take. Mitch did all he could to hide his pleased smiles whenever the two of them did something that made the other laugh. He was sure this is what their dynamic had been like before everything had fallen apart between them.

Harry and Sia did a bit more of a rigourous yoga session that morning, seeing as they had the whole day off and nothing else planned. Mitch watched on, with a little trepidation and worry, as they twisted their bodies into some shapes he was sure were not supposed to be possible. They even did a thing where Harry hoisted Sia into the air, balanced by her lower back on the flats of his feet and his hands cupping her shoulders and she stretched back, her hands planting on the floor besides Harry's head. Mitch barely held back a grimace.

After they'd done a few cool down stretches, they each went and took a shower to get prepared for the day. They didn't have any official plans, but they'd decided earlier that morning that it was a good day to get some sightseeing in while the weather was nice. There were some beaches that Mitch had wanted to visit, and Sia knew there had to be some cool little coves around the island where they could all get some privacy. Maybe even do some cliff jumping if the water permitted. It was going to be a weekend of relaxation, and everyone was really looking forward to it.

After her shower, Sia braided her hair and put on a simple white bathing costume under a pair of denim cutoff shorts and an old Van Halen t-shirt she'd had for way too long. It had been so whole riddled at one point that she had to cut at the hem and make it a crop top to make it functional again. That was one thing her and Harry had always had in common: they'd wear their favourite pieces of clothing until they were worn and falling apart just because they loved them so much. She'd actually been the reason for quite a few of the holes worn into Harry's shirts over the years, and she wasn't sorry. The clothes were well loved.