Uncle Harry

-6-

Jack had really thrown himself into his work lately and stayed late hours in the shop, sometimes with his employees, sometimes all alone. With as much success he had been having, more people were finding him by word of mouth and online. He even started to add his talent in metalwork to his list of services. It seemed like maybe he should be hiring more men to keep up with the orders, but he wanted to keep the operation smaller in size and away from a corporate-like feel because he prided himself on the one-of-a-kind pieces that weren't like each other and were more of his own vision.

With him gone long hours, I felt more exhausted spending the majority of my day with Lily and not being able to tag team it with him. Not that I minded; single moms do it every day and probably with a lot more finesse than me. I would be so bored once she went to bed around 8:30 or 9:00. I cleaned the kitchen and put dinner leftovers in Tupperware so that Jack could take them for lunch and dinner the next day. After that, I pretty much had nothing to do besides watch television until I fell asleep.

Harry and I still held up our lunchtime calls and lately we had been talking and FaceTiming once Lily went to bed to keep me entertained. I started to realize that for a 31-year-old, who was extremely successful, attractive, polite and funny, he must have been really lonely to not have anyone to spend the nights with to the point where he had to talk to me instead. It almost didn't make any sense to me, but I enjoyed his company nonetheless. I noticed it took him longer to get from one point of his house to the other and through the screen I could see how huge it was. It was a little intimidating, but I guess he was right about having the room for us to stay with him. Flipping houses must have been a really lucrative business up there.

With Jack gone a lot of the time, I felt like we haven't been connecting like we usually did. I was afraid we wouldn't be on the same page sometimes because we never had time to sit and catch up on our days or future plans. Jack seemed enthusiastic about going to Stark Lake in June when I brought it up a while ago, but said he'd only be able to go for a few days, maybe four max, because of how busy he was. Because I didn't get to see him much, I never had to worry about my fear of accidentally thinking of Harry again while I was intimate with him. Even when he did come home before midnight, he would still be too exhausted to flirt, touch, or be close in any way. It was a first in our marriage and it was getting a bit weird.

"Looking at you could give me a seizure," Harry said, burying his head deeper in his black pillows in bed.

I was in mostly darkness on my plush couch, the change of the scenes on the show we were watching caused different flashes of color on my skin. "Then don't look at me."

"It's kind of hard not to when we're FaceTiming," he smirked, his eyes squinting sleepily.

"Shut up and keep watching." I smirked and turned my face back to the television to watch Vampire Diaries. "You're gonna miss the good stuff."

He hummed in response, clearly disinterested, but it was my night to pick what we were watching this time and we were already a few episodes in. "I don't get why she's even into this loser. He's not even a good vampire and feeds on squirrels. What a wimp."

"Could you please be quiet?" I rolled my eyes. "Besides, I like him. He's sweet," I mumbled mostly to myself.

He was silent for only a few minutes before chiming in again. "You know who's hot? Stefan's brother."

"You got a thing for Damon?"

"Yeah. He's the baddie Elena needs in her life to show her what a real man is. He could give it to her good." He wagged his eyebrows, chuckling under his breath.

"Harry, you're disgusting."

"I know," he sighed pridefully. The episode ended with a mild cliffhanger and we both stopped Netflix from playing the next episode. "But really, think about it. You know he's this safe, boring option for her. Sure, she's all into it now because it's something comfortable and they make sense on paper. Soon she'll realize this guy is a waste of time and she'll want to upgrade to Sir Smolders-A-Lot." Harry sat up for a minute and scratched his five o'clock shadow. As the blanket fell from his chest, I got a generous look at his well fit body. There were many tattoos inked across his tanned skin and toned muscles that I had no idea he had. "Look, I'm no idiot. There are eight seasons of this garbage on here. Of course she's gonna go for him at some point. It's textbook."