trepidation | h.s

part sixteen

maybe go back and read chapter four before you read this one!!

Lydia Styles

"Daisy, c'mon—" I whine as my daughter smacks the spoonful of food in my hand away from her mouth. She was refusing to eat right now and it was really frustrating.

"Baby, it's good." Harry says to Daisy from behind me as I sat on one of the chairs, his hands resting on my shoulders as he stood tall.

"I don't know why she's being so stubborn." I murmur as I defeatedly place the spoon back into the bowl of mashed up food.

"It's because she's your kid." Harry says jokingly while giving my shoulders a brief squeeze.

"Very funny."

He chuckles softly and comes around the front of my chair, grabbing my wrist gently and bringing me to stand up so he could sit in my place then allow me to sit on his lap.

The park incident happened a couple days ago, and Harry was pretty quiet afterwards. I know that it's a really big trigger for him, the idea of children being hit. And I think now that he has his own kid, it just affects him ten times harder. He would be crushed if anyone did anything to Daisy and a lot of that comes from his own trauma.

I hate seeing him feel that way. It makes me so sad because all I ever want is for him to feel nothing but happiness.

"Okay, game plan." he says, making me look over my shoulder with a small questioning smile, waiting on him to continue. "I'll distract her and you try and get some food in her mouth."

I toss my head back with a laugh as I pick up the spoon again. "Alright, here goes nothing."

I scoop some of the food into the spoon.

"Daisy." Harry softly says her name from over my shoulder.

She watches him with wide admirable eyes as I slowly get ready to bring the plastic spoon to her mouth. Her closed lips slowly spread into a smile, then a fully opened mouth laugh.

I could only assume that Harry was making funny faces at her to make her laugh. What I wouldn't give to be able to see his expression right now.

I take the opportunity to bring the spoon into her mouth, her lips closing around it and her face scrunching up momentarily as the unexpected taste hit her tongue. She brought a small chubby hand to her lips and wiped them herself, looking at me like I had just committed a crime, but at least I got her to take one spoonful.

"It worked." Harry smiles from behind me.

"But now she knows our trick and she won't fall for it again. She's too smart." I chuckle under my breath.

"We'll get her to eat at dinner later." he says as he grabs the bowl from my hand, patting the side of my hip so I'll stand and let him up.

He walks over to the sink as I go to grab Daisy from her highchair.

"We both know you get your stubbornness from your dad, right?" I quietly say to her as I lift her into my arms and onto my hip.

"Eliza's still coming over for dinner right?" Harry asks as he cleans the bowl that once contained Daisy's uneaten food.

"Yeah. She's bringing Eli so hopefully Daisy will have a play partner." I reply, looking at my daughter on my hip and smiling.

I love having our whole group together, it brings a warm comforting feeling and it just makes me feel good knowing we're all safe and together.