Harry's mother is cleaning out her attic and has asked Harry to come to help her this Saturday.
Of course he said yes, he will always help is mum. When he has to leave early in the morning Alex looks at him with sad puppy eyes, Lou asks him to come back very soon and Josie curls herself around his body while she tells him she will miss him,he wants to stay with them but a promise is a promise so he leaves them alone.
Unlike he expected Harry has fun with his mum, they find old toys of his, his first guitar and even Playmobile that his mum immediately puts in some water and soap to clean for the kids to play with when they come over. His mother immediately accepted Josie and the kids, she adores Alex and Lou and loves it when they come over for just a couple of hours or the night.
Harry and his mum always worked well together, they are a good team and just after noon they are done so they put everything to throw away into Harry's Range Rover and go to the recycling centre to get rid of it.
When they get back Harry and his mother enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of carrot cake, Harry's favourite, before Harry goes to his place to shower and pack his bag to stay over at his girlfriends house.
When Harry arrives at Josie's house late that afternoon the front door is wide open. He thinks it's a little weird for them to leave the front door open like this and alarm bells start to go off in his head, he hopes it's just a mistake and that someone just didn't close the door well enough. A tad faster than normal Harry gets out of the car but he leaves his bag inside. He walks to the front door, knocks three times and slowly crosses the threshold.
"Hello, Josie? Lou? Alex?" he says loudly but everything is quiet, he takes a couple of more steps into the hallway and looks around, everything looks normal here but then his eyes fall on a little card with flowers which someone has put on the living room door with some tape. He takes a couple of steps so he can read what is written on it.
A big smile covers Harry face, looks like the kids made some kind of treasure hunt today. He takes the paper from the door, he already knows he wants to keep this, just because Alex and Lou made this for him. Harry keeps every note and drawing that Lou and Alex make for him in a box at his house. He loves both kids dearly, when they are at Ted's he misses them so much. The house feels quiet and so empty without them.
Harry takes a step back and closes the front door whilst he thinks about the clue.
'The room where he lost many times...' that has so be Alex's room, they often play video games together but Harry sucks at them and always ends up losing. He walks up the stairs to Alex's room, he looks around and on the white desk stands a little white vase with some sweet pea's, in front of the vase is another card
Harry takes the card with a picture of the flowers in the background and silver glitter on the side, and reads it, the sweet words warm his heart and he hopes the kids know how much pleasure they bring in his life.
He can get clean in two places, the kids or Josie's bathroom. First he looks in the kids bathroom but finds nothing only dirty laundry and an unflushed toilet. After flushing it he rushes to Josie's bathroom finding the next card on the white bathroom cabinet.
The person who made the card has drawn little hearts next to a picture of an anemone, it's so pretty, Harry is impressed by the the work the kids put into this but he is sure Josie helped with the writing and finding the right flowers.
Harry has to think for a moment about Lou's friend name, was it Iris? No Violet, is was Violet.
He runs downstairs because that's where the girls worked for their school project. His feet almost don't touch the steps, Harry is really enthusiastic by now and wants to know where all these clues lead him too.
When he enters the living room and looks at the wooden dining table, he immediately sees the pot with violets and a card with a beautiful painted cardboard frame.
Harry is touched by the beautiful words, he never realised they paid this much attention and he is glad they know he is here for their mum but also for them, he is loyal and completely devoted to them.
The place he cooks, that's easy he thinks while he walks to the kitchen with all the cards in his hands.
On the kitchen counter is a picture card with some white clover around, Harry is pretty sure they found it in the garden. He laughs with the card which was probably is made by Alex, the boy loves pink and he isn't scared to admit it any more.
He takes the card and walks to the garage where Josie keeps her rubbish, all neatly recycled into the right bins. He looks around and behind one of the bins Harry finds a glass vase with honeysuckle, Harry smells them and their sweet scent fills his nostrils.
He takes the honeysuckle into the kitchen and puts it on the kitchen table, he never took his coat of so he tries the backdoor to see if it is oand he is lucky.
He walks onto the terrace and looks around the garden, in the middle of the grass is another vase filled with beautiful yellow daffodils and a card in front of it. Harry looks around, he feels like there are eyes on him but doesn't see anyone, he knows Josie and the kids are hidden somewhere. He takes the picture of some daffodils, like all the other cards it's prettily decorated with confetti at the corners and hearts on the side. When Harry reads the text his eyes fill with tears, his heart is filled with love and is ready to burst out of his chest.
Harry never thought that the kids would be okay with him moving in with them. He has thought about it but he never really mentioned it because he and Josie have only been together for less than a year, he always thought they would think it's too soon. Harry looks down at the cards, tears streaming down his face, they made this treasure hunt because they want him to move in. Harry can't hold back a smile and turns around.
Josie, Alex and Lou are suddenly standing against the red brick back wall of the house, they look nervous. Lou is hopping from one leg to the other as though she needs to pee very urgently, Alex is biting his nails and Josie is chewing her beautiful red lips. Everyone is silent, Josie and Harry lock eyes but Lou startles them when she breaks the silence,
"Come on, Harry." the girl whines. "Will you move in with us?" Harry smiles and nods his head, that's all it takes for the kids to run to Harry followed by a smiling Josie.
Little Lou jumps in Harry's arms and throws her arms around Harry's neck. While he holds Lou with one arm Harry hugs Alex and ruffles his hair, knowing the boy isn't so keen on kisses any more. The kids are followed by their mum who puts her arms around the three most important people in her life.
"So you will come live with us, for real?" Josie asks, still smiling.
"Oh flower girl, there is no place I rather be than here with the three of you." Harry says before he bows his head and kisses her lips.
"I'm so lucky to have you three as my family, I love you all so much." Harry says with a smile before he hugs them closer.
~THE END~
A.N.: ❤️Happy Valentines Day❤️
Thank you so much for reading "Every Rose Has its Thorn"!
I hope you enjoyed it
All the love,
K. x