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Chapter 112

Hold love, hold me closer
Till we're old 'cause you know that in your arms I feel like
Home, love, take me over

— Léon, Come Home To Me

. . . .

Violet's POV

After getting back to the apartment from a walk around town, I sit down on my bed with my laptop and a list of the books I still need to order before classes start. I have some that I've already bought, but I just need to get supply shopping done and over with.

As for the apartment, I'm not where I want to be with decorating. I didn't have very many things to begin with, so the walls are quite bare, but I stopped to get more frames and a scrapbook on my walk today. I was thinking of how I wanted to lay out everything within the book and whether or not I want to organize the pictures chronologically in the order that we took them or just to have them sporadically pasted. There are so many pictures to do, but I'm so excited to recollect all the memories that we've shared together.

As I'm opening the shoebox of the first set of pictures, my laptop starts ringing and Harry's picture pops up for a video chat. I click the 'accept' button and impatiently wait for his stunning face to pixelate onto my screen.

"Hey, who's your day going?" He's standing in his kitchen at the island, most likely with the video chat being set up on his laptop. His hair is wet, and he's looking golden and tan in a white t-shirt.

"Great. I finally got all the supplies to make that scrapbook. I took a walk. I even organized my closet a little bit. What did you guys do?"

"Mum had us over, and we swam for a little bit. Lilly's getting the doggy-paddle technique down pretty well, but she's still struggling."

"That's great! Where is Lilly anyway?"

He tilts the laptop a little way and shows Lilly sitting at the kitchen table with cups of play-doh surrounding her in a spectrum of bright colors.

"There's my girl! Hi, Lilly."

She turns on her knees on the chair that she's seated at, and a shining, wide grin forms on her face. She returns my greeting and holds up a flat piece of play-doh in a strange, organic shape, but she looks so proud of it.

"That looks great, Lil."

She turns back to rolling the pink substance out on the table with a plastic rolling pin. Meanwhile, Harry turns the laptop back to have it centered on him as he's cutting up something for their dinner.

"I have something that I want to talk to you about," he says as he picks up the handful of strawberries to pour into a bowl.

"Okay."

He takes a break from chopping and leans against the counter. He looks off in the direction where Lilly's playing then says in a low volume, "A certain child's birthday is next Friday, and I'm throwing a party for her at Mum's house since she has the pool and a playset. Do you think you'd be able to make it down here for it? I wouldn't want you to miss it."

"Um...let me check."

I lean over to my bedside table to grab my planner for the year and search for the day of Lilly's birthday to see that the box is completely clear.

"I don't have anything going on that weekend."

"Thank God," he sighs heavily. "Also, Gemma was planning on having a dinner to announce the gender of the baby, and she wanted to have it around the day of Lilly's birthday so you'd be here."

His family is so loving, and to have the family of the man I'm dating try to include me as much as possible warms my heart. How did I get this lucky to find a well-rounded man to fall in love with that has such a grounded and supportive family? I would be lying if I ever said I could do better than Harry.