Chapter 99 : "Holmes"

T A T E

When dinner was ready, we walked to the dining table to have eat together.

"Aunt Josie is a really great cook. I must say she's better than mum." Harry playfully says.

"Don't tell mum I said that." He adds.

Aunt Josie and I were laughing together but I as I look at Gemma, she was just plainly looking at me while she was already starting to eat.

"Oh Harry you always compliment my cookings. Thank you but I think you just miss it." She says while chuckling.

"No aunt Josie, it is really good." Harry insist.

I smile.

"You gotta try this sweetheart." Harry placed a piece of tenderloin on my plate. "That's a family recipe." He smiles at me.

"Thank you." I tell him.

"So, what are your plans tomorrow?" Aunt Josie asks.

"Well, I'm actually planning on touring Tate around town. I wanna show her where I grew up. I'm also planning on introducing her to my cousins so I hope Jake is around." He answers her.

"Oh don't worry. My son just got back from university and I'm sure he's staying with his brother." She smiles at him.

Harry glares at Gemma. "I didn't know Gemma was around town." He speaks before putting a piece of meat into his mouth.

Gemma glares at Harry then at me then stares back down at her plate. I can really say that she doesn't like me and she hates me ten times to the power of one thousand. She hates me even more because I left Harry and now she hates me so much because I got back with him.

"Well Gemma has been here for two days now. I even thought you planned this together." Aunt Josie answers with her happy voice tone.

After dinner, I decided to help out aunt Josie in washing the plates while Harry and Gemma were talking by the living room. They're probably talking about me and how we got back together. But Aunt Josie was a talker and she was keeping me entertained. She talked to me about how Harry was when he was a kid, how his classmates would bully him a lot because he was always called a wimp and how they'd make fun of him because his dad left them. But hearing all those things about Harry's past just makes me sadder just by listening to it because after all those bullying he had been through, he's still a nice man when he was grew up.

She also mentioned that when Harry was growing up, he had a hard time because most of the times his father was away and their mum had custody of them. I don't know what really happened to his mum and his dad because aunt Josie didn't wanna talk about it too. We talked about me as well, she asked about my family and my friends and where I grew up. She asked me to teach her some Spanish words and I was really having a great time with her. It didn't feel like we were even washing the dishes.

"Wow. You two are really getting along." Harry catches our attention when he stood by the doorway of the kitchen.

Aunt Josie and I were laughing together.

"She was just teaching me Spanish words and some Spanish dishes." Aunt Josie answers.

"Mind if I let Tate go with me for a sec?" Harry asks.

"Sure. We're almost done anyways." Aunt Josie answers him with a smile.

"Tate. Cmon." Harry walks up to me and grabs my hand.

"But Harry the dishes still aren't done." I say.

"It's really okay Tate. Just go with your boyfriend I'm sure he has a lot of plans to do to you tonight." She smirks.

I just kept laughing with Harry as we excused ourselves out of the kitchen. I noticed him putting on that old school player where you put the pin over that huge-ass CD and the music begins to play. He looks back at me with a grin plastered on his face. He's smiling cheekily.

"This song sounds old." I commented.

He chuckles. "It is old. But I love this song."

"So it's classic." I say.

He nods. "The song is Sleep Walk way back in 1959 by Santo & Johnny."

I smile at him. "Wow. It is way old." I chuckle.

Harry suddenly takes my hand and says, "And I have a very nice idea in mind. Cmon lets go."

"Go where?"

He begins to pull me towards the sliding door of their house's backyard and I was just letting him. I watch as his fingers entwined around mine and

"What are you really thinking?" I ask him.

He chuckles. "You will see. Cmon."

As soon as we reached the backyard, the vast night sky above us were filled with sparkling stars that welcomed both of us and I couldn't even look away from it. The sky looked very beautiful and bright. I felt the little grasses brushing against my ankles as I walked together with Harry. My head was still looking up at the stars as I hear the loud music coming from inside his house.

"You know..." Harry catches my attention.

I look back at him.

"I always love it when you're seriously focused at something. You have this thing you do with your lips. You kind of bite the corner of your lower lip and its freaking sexy as hell." He compliments.

I chuckle. "You noticed that." I covered my lips.

He takes both of my hand to his. "No, don't hide it. It's sexy. Swear."

I smile at him while the two of us stand in front of each other and just stood at the center of their backyard.

"What's really going on Harry?" I ask him again.

"We..." He purses his lips together before saying the next words, "... are going to dance."

I gaped. "Dance?"

"Slow dance. Waltz. Samba. Hiphop. Breakdancing." He begins to smirk as he pulls me in to his body which makes me laugh against his chest. "We can practically dance anything you'd like." He adds.

"Oh Harry you're really a dork and that's what I loved about you. Really." I cheekily smile at him before kissing his chin.

"Let's just feel the music and dance." He says.

I nod.

Slowly, he placed both of my hands around his neck and his hands carefully gliding down over my hips. Harry begins to make little steps as we start to move along to the slow beat from one Harry's favorite classical song. My cheek pressed against his right chest and as our bodies pressed close against each other. He slowly moved his head down as he travels his green eyes at me.

"My mum and dad used to do this. I'd always watch them when I was a little boy." He says.

I smile weakly.

"But things just went out of control and it lead to dad leaving us. I... Hated that part of my life. I hated when every time I come home from school, they're already fighting and yelling at each other. Gemma was the only one who comforted me through all of it. It was also hard for her for sure because she was the eldest and she had to take care of me but it was harder for me because I was too young back then." He narrates.

I look up to Harry and pulled my head to face him fully. "But your dad will always love you no matter what. And he'll always be your father."

He nods at what I said.

"I used to hate my dad too because there was one time in our lives mom caught him cheating. But you know what my mom did?" I smirk.

"What?"

"She asked dad who to choose, is it going to be his mistress or us. Of course he'd choose us. I would shut him out of my life if he chose her. Years then mom was diagnosed with cancer and it was so heartbreaking because we did know our money won't be enough for her treatment and her medicines. Since then our family ties for even closer than ever." I narrate to him too.

I half-smiled as I look back at his eyes. "I guess after all that's happened to my family, I can always say that they will always have my back no matter how bad my decisions go in life."

I placed my hand over his chest. "That's why I think your dad will always be there for you wen if your mom divorced him and she's already married to someone else. He'll always be your dad. And Gemma?"

I breathe. "Gemma will always, and I meant consistently, be rooting for you. She will always watch over you and the critic the people around you because she doesn't want you to get hurt again. You've been hurt when your dad left you and she's just making sure you won't feel that same pain again when you fall in love."

He smiles and cups my cheek. "I know she'll always worry for me and she nagged at me again for being with you but then she said she knows how much I'm in love with you."

Harry kisses my forehead. "That's why she's also kind of happy for me."

I chuckle.

We continued to dance the night away.

"Sleeptalk cause I miss you

While the memory of you

Lingers like a song

Darling I was so wrong

But I'll be right some day

The night fills my lonely place

I see your face

I know I miss you so

I still love you

And it drives me insane..."

The following morning, Harry and I stopped to a few places of his hometown. First off we stopped by his old school where he mostly spent his childhood there. He said so many things to be about it and I just literally enjoyed meeting his old teachers. Then eventually we stopped at this chapel that he'd usually go with his mum and Gemma. We also made a stop at the town's park, this small museum where everything about Holmes Chapel's history was and of course we made a stop at the bakery where he worked for. It was really fun when we got there.

I met the owner of the baker who just truly loves and adores Harry so much. I could see how important she is to Harry too. She was so nice and funny and so entertaining while Harry was on the good mood too. He even wore an apron like he was an employee, he helped in mopping the floors and selling bread to the customers. He was kind enough to take photos with a few people who asked for pictures with him. He even let me join in.

I see how Harry loves the people residing in his small hometown. I see how much he gets so excited when he shows me around where e grew up and the places he's been through here. I see how much he adores everyone in his life and how he makes them feel special in his little ways. He just treats everyone equally despite having a huge status in life. He's so humble and so simple that it makes me even fall more in love with him and I can't believe love could get stronger and stronger. I've never felt this to anyone but God I just don't know how I love him so much. It's crazy when I think about it.

By six in the evening, Harry and I went to meet some of his cousins and I was so surprised to see that most of his cousins were really really good looking! Some of his good ole friends from way back were around too. They got a small get together in a restaurant for Harry being home again after a few months of being away. Harry was being his usual happy self who was busy talking to everyone in the room but he didn't left me out. He was even introducing me to everyone that we cross path with. He was so proud of having me as his girlfriend and I could see it when he looks at me in the eyes when he tells everyone about it. I was feeling so overwhelmed by how proud of he is to have me.

Today, I was so happy that there weren't much paps that was here who'd be trailing down our ass. That would ruin our day being together, though there were a few fans who came up to him, I was still happy that we'd get to do things like this together at his hometown. Harry can be himself freely. Today was such a happy day.

I walked my way down to grab myself a glass of water while Harry was busy taking a quick shower upstairs. We were about to sleep since we're leaving for Spain tomorrow by nine AM. As soon as I was about to finish my glass of water, Gemma walks inside the kitchen and looked back at me intently. She takes a few steps towards me and I slowly stepped aside so she could get what she wanted to have in the fridge.

"How was today?" She asks as she pours herself a glass of milk.

I gulped. "Today was fun."

"Yeah? Heard Harry was touring you around town. And they had a get together that they threw for Harry. Nice." She speaks so calmly.

I nod.

"You met all our cousins?" She asks.

"Yeah. They're all really good-looking and musically inclined. Talented." I commented.

She just nods at me.

I take a deep breath in and said, "Harry invited you to come over so you could join us but he said that you were too busy today."

"If you're thinking that I did ditch it intentionally, I didn't. I just wanna clear that one out." She says.

I nod at her. "Okay."

"Look Tate." She stands right across of me from the kitchen counter. "I had an orphanage event that I attended to that's why I couldn't go."

I nod again. "Okay. I just hope you and I could get along Gemma. I really wanna reach out to you. I really wanna talk to you but you scare me and you intimidate me so much to the point that I think you really really loathe me."

She chuckles. "I don't hate you."

It felt like the biggest thorn was pulled out and I could breathe again. Normally.

"Seriously I don't. Okay I admit that I hated you for leaving him and for hurting him. I hated you because you accepted money from the management but Harry cleared that out for me. You had bigger reasons why you left and that's because you were worried about his future. That's very kind of you, you did it to save Harry even though it was going to hurt you and make a lot of people hate you for doing it." She says.

I breathe heavily and just nod at him.

"I knew what the management was capable of doing every possible thing but despite all that I can see how you love Harry. And I can see how he loves you and trusts you so much." She adds.

Gemma takes my hand and calmly smiles. "I know you think that I hate you or I'm mad at you but I'm not Tate. I admire you for staying strong after what people are saying about you for dating my brother."

She grins. "But hell that knucklehead is in love so who am I to stop him when he's so in love?"

I chuckle.

"Love him right for me this time and don't leave him. Don't hurt him. Or I swear to god I'll tit-punch you." She says so sternly.

I wanted to laugh but then she was so serious.

"I don't wanna see my brother cry over some woman who left him because of this and that. He thinks that because of his huge-ass fame people who loves the most leaves him because they can't take the pressure of everything. So stay with him through whatever." She adds.

"I will Gemma and I'm not planning on leaving him anymore." I answer.

She smirks. "That's great because I really wanna know you better."

My lips widen with her words.

"Harry has never opened up to anyone this much as he has done for you. My brother had never brought any woman here at Holmes. So I think he's deadass serious with you Tate. Please don't hurt him again." She warns me.

"I won't Gemma. I promise this time."

"I don't open up to Harry's women too so you're the second one next to Anastasia. Don't make me regret trusting you, Kavanaugh." Gemma speaks before leaving me inside the kitchen.

Honestly?

This has been, so far, the bestest day ever of my entire life!