Letting Go (Harry Styles AU)

Chapter 49: Not Without You

AN: Double update! I just added chapter 48 about five minutes ago so if you have no idea how Tori and Nat are doing, stop, freeze and go back. Trust me. Also, this chapter was supposed to be in Harry's POV, but the more I thought about it the more this made sense :) Happy reading. You're going to love it. 

@tastelikestars, girl this is for you. May it be worth the 5-year wait. 

Natalie: 2 weeks post surgery

A few days later, I was sitting across the porch swing, drawing our view of the lake so that I'd always remember what it was like to look across it and see Chickasaw. How the pier was aligned perfectly in the center of the long dirt road that leads up to the office, ten tiny cabins lining each side. How the cliffs jutted out from the right, covering half of the boathouse and how blue the lake was after a summer storm. About ten minutes into sketching the outline, Harry and Connor walked out of the boathouse in their swim trunks. They started pushing each other a bit before taking off in a sprint down the pier and cannonballing into the water.

I grinned, remembering when Harry had pushed me into the lake fully clothed that first weekend. I had hated him so much back then. It seemed like a lifetime ago now.

"Here you go, Nat." Ben opened the screen door with a pillow and an ice pack in his hands. He carefully lifted my leg, placing the pillow beneath it and then handed me the ice pack to put on my hip. "I wrapped it a few times so your stitches don't get wet." He explained.

"Thanks."

"How are you feeling?"

"Alright." I shrugged, looking past him to see the boys floating on their backs in the water. I blushed thinking about the first time Harry and I did physical therapy in the lake and he made comments about my lime green bra beneath my t-shirt.

Curse all these memories. Why was it so hard?

Suddenly, a hand waved in my face. "Natalie," Ben called out, taking his hand away when he finally had my attention.

"Huh?"

He grinned, staring out at Harry and Connor across the lake. "Something over there interest you?"

I swatted his arm with my sketchbook.

He shook his head and shrugged, sitting down next to me on the edge of the swing. "I was trying to tell you that I have a lead on a new job."

"Wait really?"

"Yes. There's an opening for program manager at a camp in Tennessee."

I dropped my pencil. "Tennessee?"

He nodded. "The owners seem nice and it's on the Ocoee so there are a lot more mountains and water sports involved. I think it would be a lot of fun."

I swallowed heavily. Moving to another state? I knew it was a possibility, but I guess I hadn't let myself think of what would actually happen to us once Chicksaw ended. It was so stupid, we only had two and a half weeks left here.

"And," he nudged me lightly, "they have an open position for a Senior Counselor."

I looked back out across the lake. Harry was now standing on the pier, leaning against one of the posts and laughing at Connor who was talking animatedly with his hands moving all over the place. My stomach dropped. I didn't want to leave them, not yet.

"If you want to take it, that is. You don't have to."

I laughed lightly, but my heart was beating a mile a minute. "What else would I do?" I whispered.