"Wait you're leaving me?" Harry pouted.
"I promised Tabitha and Poppy I'd spend the day with them." Piper said. Harry continued to pout and reached out wrapping his arms around her waist and bringing her back against his chest.
"What am I supposed to do while you're gone?" He questioned.
"You could spend time with your mom and sister? Brother-in-law and step-father?" She proposed. "The options are endless really." She said.
"Can't believe you're leaving me to fend for myself."
"You'll find something to do. Now I'll see you later." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and off she went.
"Is uncle Harry your boyfriend?" Poppy asked sipping her hot coco.
"What makes you say that?" Piper asked.
"He smiles at you like my dad smiles at my mum. I think he likes you." She said whispering loudly.
"Ah. Well he's not my boyfriend." She said shaking her head.
"Why not? He's really nice. I promise." Poppy said innocently.
"I know he is. I do like him." Piper admitted.
"I think you should tell him you like him." Poppy said.
"Alright my curious little munchkins, are we ready to start making our way back?" Piper asked. The two girls nodded and cleaned the bench off.
"Oh dear, let me help you with that." Piper said rushing over to an elderly woman struggling with her bag of groceries.
"Thank you kindly." The older woman smiled as Piper gently took the bag from her.
"Did you need some help getting everything inside? I'd hate for you to have to make multiple trips." Piper said looking back and forth between the car and the house.
"Oh no, I couldn't you to do that. I appreciate the offer though." The woman said shaking her head.
"You didn't ask, I offered. It's no trouble really. Even got 2 helpers with me." She said motioning to Poppy and Tabitha.
"Well if you wouldn't mind."
"I assure you, it's no trouble. Come on girls." She said rounding Poppy and Tabitha up. She handed lighter items to the two girls and took the heavier items for herself.
"Your daughters are so well behaved." The woman, Mary Sullivan as she'd introduced herself, said as they dropped the bags of groceries off on the kitchen island.
"Oh, they're not my daughters." Piper laughed.
"She's uncle Harry's girlfriend!" Poppy exclaimed.
"Yeah!" Tabitha chimed in right afterwards.
"That is not true, girls we went over this." Piper rushed, feeling her cheeks heat up.
"Well I saw you kissing him yesterday." Poppy shrugged. All pretty much the same thing in her mind.
"My my." Mary laughed as Piper flushed red. These two young girls were quite a laugh and apparently kept Piper on her toes.
"We just..." Piper didn't really know what to say.
"No need to fret dear." Mary said putting her at ease.
"You have a lovely home." Piper said looking around.
"Yes, it's just me in this big ol' house, my Artie passed in the beginning of the year." Mary said looking around as well.
"I'm sorry to hear that." Piper said sadly.
"Thank you. He was a wonderful man." Everywhere she looked Piper could see photos of what looked like a younger Mary with a handsome man next to her. In some photos there were some children, and adults in other photos, and it was clear that it was their children.
"Your children?" She asked looking at a particular photo.
"Yes, Jr. and Samantha." Mary nodded.
"Do they visit often?" Piper asked.
"Yes, they both live in town with families of their own. Everyone is coming here for Christmas Day, part of the reason I bought so much food. 7 grandchildren between them." She said.
"That's a lot of grandkids." Piper said wide eyed.
"Jr. had 3 and Sammy had 4." Mary smiled.
"You must be so proud."
"Oh yes. Love them all to bits." Piper and Mary shared a smile.
"Piper! Look at all this music." Poppy said from the other room.
"Poppy, it's rude to go through someone else's things without asking." Piper said rushing over. The girls were staring at a shelve stacked with CD's and vinyls.
"I'm sorry, I saw a kitty and followed it in here." Poppy said sadly.
"It's alright dear, no harm done. You can look through them if you'd like." Mary said to the girls. They grinned big and nodded before each taking a stack.
"Be careful girls." Piper warned.
"Yes Piper."
"You're good with them." Mary said.
"First time I've had them by myself. They wanted me to take them for coco at the bakery where Harry used to work. Said it's the best coco in town." Piper said smiling.
"At the Mandeville bakery?" Mary inquired.
"That's the one." Piper nodded. She might've been a bit confused at how Mary knew but she remembered Holmes Chapel was a bit smaller than London and there weren't many bakeries in town.
"Harry? As in Harry Styles?" Mary inquired further.
"One in the same. Was he popular in town?"
"Quite. All the girls loved him. He was handsome and extremely polite." Mary shook her head with a small laugh. "Even my Sammy, who's quite a few years older than him, admitted he was attractive." Mary laughed holding a hand over her chest.
"Oh wow."
"She would go to the Mandeville bakery a lot, she swore it was because their biscuits were delicious but I swear it's because she thought Harry was delicious to look at." She laughed. "He was always so charming."
"Sounds like his reputation precedes him."
"He was something. Broke everyone's heart when he moved to London. But after what happened with Candice no one was surprised." Mary shook her head sadly.
"Oh?"
"That young girl broke his heart. He was head over heels in love with her and she just...clearly her mother never raised her right." Piper awkwardly shuffled as she watched Poppy and Tabitha. She didn't know how to respond to what Mary had said. "She said she saw you and Harry kissing." Mary said suddenly.
"I uh..." Piper really didn't know how to respond to that.
"Christmas miracles do exist. He finally moved on from that...awful girl." Mary smiled.
"Piper look! Uncle Harry has this CD." Poppy said pointing to a vinyl on the shelf.
"Yes he does." She nodded. She briefly remembered him holding it and talking about it but she couldn't remember when.
"Oh that was one of Artie's favorite albums. I could never stand it to be honest." Mary said waving her hand at it. "I wouldn't be surprised if we had multiple copies of it." She chuckled to herself.
"I think Harry mentioned something about that album." Piper said.
"You can have any of those if you'd like. As a thank you for helping an old lady out." Mary said.
"Oh no I couldn't. Those belong to your late husband." Piper said quickly
"Please, I have a bunch of his stuff. I promise you I won't miss them. In fact, it does me good know they would go to someone who would appreciate them instead of into a landfill." Mary smiled. "They just sit there all the time. No one listens to them."
"I still feel wrong." Piper said.
"How about this, feel free to look through them with the girls and if you see one you like, it's yours, but if you don't then there's no harm no foul." Mary shrugged. Piper gave a small smile and nodded.
"Can we take this one Piper?" Poppy asked holding up a CD.
"We'll see. We don't want to take advantage of Mary's kindness now do we?" She asked.
"What's that mean?" Poppy asked tilting her head.
"It means we don't want to take more than she's willing to give." Piper said and Poppy nodded. Piper flicked through the vinyls before landing on a familiar cover.
"I had this CD when I was kid." Piper smiled to herself as she looked at the album. She gently place it to the side and continued looking through everything.
"Thank you Mary. I'll be sure to stop by again before we head back to London." Piper smiled as she led the girls outside.
"Please do. Give my love to Anne and Robin." Mary waved.
"I hope you have a lovely Christmas with your children and grandchildren." Piper said.
"Merry Christmas Piper and merry Christmas to you two angels." She said leaning down to smile at Poppy and Tabitha.
"Merry Christmas." They said in unison.