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Chapter 104

When I feel like I'm strangled
You treat me like an angel
Show me all different angles
And I never, ever felt that way, uh
When you leave, I don't wanna try
And if you stick with me, I'll be fine
'Cause your love's rubbing off on me
Tell me how'd you get so heavenly?

— The Neighbourhood, Heaven

. . . .

At the suggestion of Anne and Robin, the five of us head out for lunch. The restaurant is within walking distance of my apartment so we set out on our walk. The restaurant was okay, but it was nice to be able to sit back and relax after the last few days of bending over boxes.

After an hour of sitting around talking to Harry's parents at the restaurant, we head back, and then they have to leave to head back home. Both of them hug us goodbye and leave the apartment.

"Lilly, come here," Harry yells from his spot on the couch. She races out of the bedroom and halts at her father's feet. He whispers in her ear and she glances at me then nods with a tiny grin on her beautiful face.

Harry reaches his hand between the wall and the couch to pull out a medium-sized bag that resembles the one he gave me a couple of days prior. Lilly takes it from his hands and passes it off to me. Gunther, who they brought along in his cat carrier, is in my lap purring as he rubs his little head against my hand.

"This is from Lilly."

"You didn't have to get me anything, Lilly."

She rests her little hands on my legs as she watches my every move with wide-open eyes. I don't think she's even blinked since she's handed me the bag.

My hand wraps around a thick book and when I pull it out, it's a white covering with crayon and marker drawings on the front and back. Looking from the top of the book down into the pages, there are thin gaps between each page. However, opening the front cover, I come to discover that it's a homemade scrapbook from the picture pasted to the page.

The photo was taken the day of Harry's family's picnic at his parent's house. We had just gotten out of the water to take the picture. Lilly's sat on Harry's knee with the ends of her braids dripping and her bright floaties still wrapped around her upper arms. I'm at Harry's side with an arm cupping his waist and his is on my shoulders as we smile at Anne taking the picture.

I flip through more pages of mostly me and Lilly with the occasional ones of her and her dad. Another one of my favorite pictures is from our vacation to the beach. The sun is setting behind us as we stand alongside the tide. Lilly's in Harry's arms on his hip with her head resting on his shoulder. I'm stood on his other side with my head replicating Lilly's. It's such a beautiful picture, and I completely forgot that it was taken.

Throughout each page, she wrote the names of who all are in the picture along with little images of hearts and stars. It's incredibly detailed for a six-year-old with color spilling from each page. It's so beautiful that I start tearing up.

"I love it, Lilly. Thank you."

However, her angelic face drops, and she pushes a few straggled tears away with her fingers. Then she asks almost on the verge of tears as well, "Then why are you crying?"

"Because it's the best gift I've ever gotten. Thank you, Lilly."

She crawls up onto the couch from her kneeling position on the floor by my feet. She cuddles up close to my side and hugs my arm with her head nestled into my side. I continue flipping back and forth to recollect all of the beautiful memories that the three of us have shared over the course of these months, and I just pray that even through the many years of schooling I'll be going through, we'll make many more.