Her name is Miriam, after Alex's mother. We all call her Mimi. I'm not sure exactly what shade they'll be when she's grown, but her eyes are big and beautiful and green. Alex says she has my perfect mouth. She has dimples. I never knew I could love someone as much as I love that tiny human.
Something went a bit wrong, and she'll be our only, but that doesn't matter. Watching them now, Alex and Mimi and Bean, as they play on a faded quilt beneath a shady tree, I can't imagine wanting or needing anything more.
I still think about my other daughter. Annie sends me a short email once in a while. No details, just letting me know Mari is well. Olivia sent me a photo she snapped at a school event last year, but I've asked her not to send more. She looks so much like me and Mum. It was too hard to see.
Bean is learning to play the piano, and he's still an avid swimmer. He gave up baseball when we started to spend more time in Europe, but he's become a football – as he now correctly calls it - star. He's got good friends everywhere we have a home. He'll never call me Dad, and I wouldn't want him to, but I am as much his parent as Alex, and he makes us proud.
Alex. My love and my light. Quite possibly my saving grace. She's as excited as I am about the movie. I'll be filming in the Boston area and we'll have nearly eight months in Janesport. She'll be able to work at the store, spend time with the Lowells and Lisha, and Bean will have a year at school. It'll be good for her, for him, for us. Another winter at Maiden Point. Mum and Gemma are already talking about coming for Christmas.
The late summer ocean is breaking over Maiden Rock. My family surrounds me, laughing, safe and happy. I've found the sweet spot, balance, peace in the midst of a hectic life.
It's not a fairy tale, but it is a bloody good story.
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The Maiden in Winter // Harry Styles Series #4
FanfictionOn a blustery November weekend in 2012, Harry Styles visited the seaside village of Janesport, where he met young Alex Griffin working in her parents' general store. Over a decade later he has returned, to recover from two grueling years of Love on...
