Deserve [H.S.]

Chapter 25

PLUMMET

To say Noah and Harry missed each other would be an understatement.

Harry was enjoying his time with his family, though. As soon as he saw his mother, Evelyn, and sister, Chloe, in the airport, they were both running towards him to give him a hug. A wide smile was on Harry's face as he let go of his belongings and hugged them back just as tight, with one arm around Evelyn and the other arm around Chloe. Evelyn was clearly crying as she greeted her son, which Harry just playfully rolled his eyes at and hugged her tighter.

As Evelyn drove them home from the airport, she was asking all kinds of questions. Harry would have felt bombarded by the constant questions, but he had kind of gotten used to answering them, thanks to Noah.

Speaking of Noah, she was quite the topic of discussion in the car. Harry had told Evelyn over the phone a while ago that he had a girlfriend named Noah, so Evelyn was eager to follow up on that and ask him all sorts of questions.

"So, Harry, darling... how's Noah?"

Chloe was sitting in the passenger seat, so she turned around to look at Harry in the backseat with an eager smile on her face.

Harry just laughed and used his knuckle to brush against the tip of his nose two times. "She's good," was all he said in response.

"Mum was hoping you'd surprise us by bringing her," Chloe said, enjoying being able to tease her little brother.

"Her family is really important to her so I didn't want to impede on anything by asking her to come with me and take her away from her family on Christmas."

Evelyn let out a playful sigh before saying, "that's fair enough, darling. I do want to meet her soon, though, okay? Either with you two coming here or me flying over there."

The thought of Evelyn and Noah together made Harry smile to himself, because he already knew they would get along amazingly.

"Yeah, we'll make something work."

A momentary silence lingered as Chloe had returned to sitting forward in her seat and Harry gazed out the window to his side.

"She seems to make you really happy," Evelyn said, glancing up at Harry through the rearview mirror.

Harry cleared his throat before saying, "yeah, she does."

-

Noah and Harry messaged each other any chance they got and the first time they FaceTimed while apart was on Christmas Eve. Due to the time difference, though, it was already early Christmas morning for Harry, but late on Christmas Eve for Noah. The jet lag was still affecting Harry, so he was awake quite early and figured it was a good time to talk to Noah.

When she answered his call, she was already in bed, lying on her side with the covers pulled up to her chin. Harry, however, was sitting up against his headboard, shirtless, despite the cold English winter. His mom always kept the house nice and warm.

"There's my munchkin," he said with a gravelly tone, indicating that he had recently woken up. He had a cute smile on his face and his eyes looked sleepy, too, especially when he brought a hand up to rub at one of them with his knuckle.

"Hi, handsome. I miss you," Noah pouted, cuddling even more into the pillow for some sense of comfort, as if it was him and his warmth encasing her.

"I miss you, too, baby. Where are you?" He didn't recognize her surroundings, so he was just curious.

Noah let out a little yawn before answering, "in the spare bedroom at my mom and Dominic's house. Everyone else is asleep, even Holden, which is a miracle. He's too excited for Christmas so he wanted to stay up all night."