Trace

Chapter 63

EL'S POV

"Harry?" I close the door to the hallway behind me as I step into the waiting room.

My voice is quiet, and my mind is confused. Who is this little girl asleep on his lap?

Harry's eyes pop open, and he seems to have forgotten there is a small child cuddling against him, or maybe he didn't know she was there in the first place.

He looks a bit startled when he sees her tiny figure, but his body immediately relaxes, letting me know that he was aware that she was on his lap before she fell asleep.

"How'd it go? Are you alright?" whispers Harry in a raspy voice.

I smile and nod and walk over to him.

"They want to check up with me in three weeks, just to do a final run-over," I tell him.

I take a step closer.

"Who's this?" I mouth to him, my finger pointing toward the blonde girl.

Harry taps the girl's shoulder.

"Gracie, Gracie, wake up, love."

For some reason, I feel a fluttering in my stomach in the sweet way he talks to her, and the way she beams up at him when she arouses from her sleep.

Her eyes dart to me.

"El!" she squeals, hopping off Harry's lap and wrapping her arms around my waist.

I am taken aback by this bold action, feeling as if I have met her before, though I am almost positive I have not.

Harry chuckles and runs a hand through his brown hair.

"My name is Gracie," the child informs me.

"Hi, Gracie," I smile broadly.

She looks at Harry's lap and freezes, but looks to the ground and sighs in relief.

"Teddy! What are you doing down here?"

Gracie brings a small teddy bear which she has picked up from the ground and hugs it close to her chest.

Harry stands up from his seat and whispers something into Gracie's ear, making her giggle. This is the first time I have ever witnessed Harry interacting with a young child, and I am not sure how to feel about it.

The way he smiles at her and the way she stares up at him fills my insides with joy, but for some reason, I cannot help but feel some sort of sadness towards it. Perhaps it's more of a longing, a longing for the little girl to be my child, and Harry talking kindly with his little girl.

"Are we ready?"

Harry's voice snaps me out of my imagining mind.

"Yeah," I smile.

We say our good-byes to Gracie- she gives us both two hugs before we leave the clinic.

"So what was that about?" I ask Harry, wants we are outside.

He shrugs, "I was just waiting for you and she walked up to me and started talking. I felt bad for her because she was crying a little about being worried about her mum."

"What was wrong with her?"

He opens the car door for me and shrugs again.

"I don't know. But I can relate with her being afraid that something is wrong with your mother and you don't know what."

He closes the door. I buckle in my seatbelt and wait for him to get into the car and start it up before I continue on the conversation.

"You do?" I ask him, after he puts it in drive.