Hired for Harry Styles (EDITING)

Chapter 29

Harry's POV

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As we walked out of the sushi place we were attacked by the paps from every direction. I hadn't even noticed them when we were in the restaurant. I grabbed both Grace and Milly's hands and kept them both close. Seeing Milly's horrified face made me feel so guilty; she was only fourteen and being attacked by a load of grown men with flashing cameras shouting in her face. I wasn't happy about Grace dealing with this either, especially after what happened in the sushi place.

I pulled the two girls down the street as quickly as I could to try and get away from the hounding paparazzi. After walking for a while, I gave up trying to loose them so walked into the first shop I saw.

When we'd all calmed down from the shock of what just happened, I realised that we were in the same jewellery shop that Grace and I had been in yesterday.

It was pretty big in here, kind of like the tardis - small on the outside but huge on the inside.

I smiled when I saw Grace standing over near the window and admiring the jewellery. She jumped slightly when I placed my hand on her shoulder, and she turned round, smiling.

"Whatya lookin at?" I asked, resting my chin on the top of her head, aware of the paparazzi outside.

She turned her head up to me and I kissed her nose. "Nothing," she smiled and turned round to face me. Patting my shoulder, she walked past me and over to her sister who was looking at some earrings. I was about to go and join them both when I saw something familiar. Placed in the middle of three other necklaces was the same infinity sign necklace that she'd seen yesterday. Getting a closer look, I could see the beautiful detail. A silver chain kept together a stunning silver infinity sign pendent, rimmed with tiny little diamonds. I squinted my eyes to make out the writing which was also written in small diamonds. G&H. I chuckled at the coincidence. It was very cleverly made, the pattern not breaking even with the letters added in.

"Harry." I hadn't noticed Milly next to me. My tore my eyes off the necklace and focussed on the petite girl next to me.

"If you ever propose to Grace, then please can you buy her this ring?" she looked deadly serious while saying this which was unusual.

"Why's that, miss?" I queried, raising an eyebrow at her.

"It reminds me of the ring that dad got mum." She smiled sadly and looked lost in thought. I wrapped my arm round her waist and gave it a squeeze.

"I'll make sure to keep that in mind." I gently picked up the ring and studied it. It was gold with miniature diamonds scattered round the whole thing and then three larger diamonds on top.
Now that Milly had said that, it made me wonder if I was ever going to have to propose to Grace. Or if maybe there would come a time when I did really want to propose to her. Samantha was in control and I remember her mentioning thy she can force a fake proposal. I was so angry at the time that it didn't really hit me how little input I would have towards the next eight months of my life. I was happy with the turn out though; glad that Grace wasn't some complete bitch and I would get to spend the eight months with a nice person. Well done Samantha, you chose well.

..

I watched silently as the trees whizzed by, my head resting on the window and my fingers tapping along to the song playing on the radio. Grace had kindly offered to drive us all home as both Milly and I were exhausted.

I was a little worried about Grace. I didn't know for sure what happened in the sushi place but I'm guessing it was some kind of anxiety attack. I remember Niall used to be the same only Grace's looked more extreme. She definitely said she didn't get them anymore and it was weird that she had a random one, something must have triggered it.

Another thing on my mind was Luke. Luke. I didn't like that name, it seemed too bad boy. It reminded me too much of my old friend Luke Broad. Luke Broad was the reason I almost got expelled from my secondary school. Luke Broad and a whole lot of peer pressure. I dismissed the memory with a shake of my head.

"Who's Luke?" I spoke up after the long, comfortable silence.

"Hm?" Grace seemed to snap back into reality when I spoke. Her blue eyes darted over to me before focussing on the road again.

I checked behind me and saw a sleeping Milly. "Who's Luke?" As soon as I spoke, Grace's body tensed. I could tell she was trying to play dumb on this one but her voice was too shaky to have me fooled.

She cleared her throat before speaking. "Luke? Luke who?" I noticed her breathing increase and she kept playing with her hair, tucking and un-tucking it from behind her ear.

"I don't know, that's why I asked." I replied being hard on her and not taking any of it.

"How do you know about him?" She hissed at me but her facial expression showed her to be more scared than angry.

I thought about what to reply with, deciding weather I should blame it on Milly or lie to her but I figured that if I told anything but the truth then Grace may get suspicious.

"Milly mentioned him."

"That little- I swear to god just ignore anything she said about him he's in the past." Grace said hurriedly and I got that he was someone that their family didn't like to talk about, what with Milly looking guilty about bringing him up and now Grace saying this.

"Ok." I paused, thinking. "Well then I need to get to know you more. So tell me about your past." I pressed on and I saw Grace's frustration.

"Harry. Seriously. I-I can't." She replied, squeezing the steering wheel firmly.

"Why can't yo-"

"Can we just drop the whole topic!?!" She cut me off by raising her voice, something that I wasn't used to.

"No. We can't." I stared at her and she clenched her jaw. "Why don't you want to talk about him? What's he done that's so bad?" I noticed that she flinched at what I said.

"You don't want to know Harry."

"I do-"

"No, trust me. You don't." She denied but it only intrigued me more.

I paused for a while to let her clam down and let me think.

"Tell me his name." I said after a while.

"Luke."

"His full name, Grace."

She took a deep breath before answering. "Luke Radcliffe."

Even to say his name made her shiver.

"How do you know him?" I quizzed.

"School." She responded bluntly.

"And what did he-"

"I really don't want to talk about him Harry." She let out a short breath in annoyance. "There's no need to waste my breath talking about him, okay. It just brings back bad memories and I don't want that, especially at the moment."

She seemed genuinely upset and she was literally begging me to stop asking so I did. But it wasn't over.