Into You Series: The Complete Collection

28. Harry

CHAPTER 28

HARRY

Two months later

“ T hat has to go.”

“But that’s my new shirt!”

“New relative to what?”

“Those pants.”

“You wore these pants six years ago.”

“You noticed?”

Nia flushes red and tosses the shirt in the open trash bag. “It’s old and ratty, Ian.”

Ian smirks from his chair and reaches out his long leg to tap her butt. Nia throws him a quick glance, but there’s not a speck of fury in it.

They’re spring-cleaning, though ‘spring’ is a loose term. It’s two weeks into January, and that is Nia’s dedicated time to clear the house of everything that doesn’t ‘spark joy’. I think she’s been watching too much of that organization show with the lady who prays to homes or whatever it is she’s doing.

Ian leans back in their bedroom lounge chair, and I’m on the floor sitting cross-legged with Cara in my lap as she writes in the new coloring book she received as a holiday present. She’s completely in her own world. She’s calm. It’s much better than endless movies.

I’ve been trying new things this year.

New year, new me? Isn’t that what they say?

Cara and I went to see the Christmas lights in the city for the first time. I took her ice skating, which I’d also never done before. I was lucky Cameron and Grace decided to come with us. Grace is a natural, perfectly angelic with the way she flies across the ice. She was able to lead Cara from one side of the rink to the other while Cameron and I struggled to stay right side up with Oliver. But it was worth it to experience the five seconds of exhilarating terror as I flew across the ice before falling back down to my ultimate place on the ground.

Cara and I also went camping, just the two of us. We roasted marshmallows and looked up at the stars. I made up constellations and their stories because I couldn’t name a single one other than the Big Dipper. I told her about a princess locked in a castle and how one day she broke free from the dragon all on her own, riding a pony off into the sunset. I never said I was the most original storyteller, but I was somehow able to convince Cara about the so-called princess constellation from some mishmash of stars and she enjoyed it all the same.

Once Cara was asleep in the tent, I crawled out to look at the stars on my own, trying to find my pretend constellation, wondering if maybe Saria was looking out from her van seeing the same sky.

I mean, of course she was. Everyone looks at the same damn sky. I’ve just been watching too many romance dramas.

I’m trying to spend more time with family, and not just so Nia can babysit, but to get out there and try to be a better me, so I chose to spend my Saturday with Nia and Ian while they—or rather, Nia does the spring cleaning.

“What about this blazer?” she asks, holding up the jacket between her thumb and forefinger. “You hate blazers.”

“Nope, put it back, Polly,” Ian says with a smile. It’s endearing, and I watch as she gives him a side smirk in response to her nickname and places the blazer back on its hanger and into the keep pile.

There’s a buzzing, and all three of us feel around our pockets for our cell phones. It ends up belonging to Nia, who scans her phone, her face dropping.

“What’s up?” Ian asks.

“It’s nothing. Just a work email.” Nia’s eyes shoot over to me, and she bites her lower lip before peering up through her lashes. “Saria starts Monday.”

The name alone sends my heart into overdrive, and a billion questions break through a barrier I’ve been keeping closed tight. It’s where I’ve been storing Saria in my heart, secluded and away from everything else. But that just got shot to shit.

Before I can open my mouth, Cara has already stopped coloring.

“Saria is back?” she asks, her mouth gaping open a little. I told her Saria moved away, and I left it at that. After she asked me a couple times and I kept giving the same answer, she stopped asking. I had almost forgotten that this might mean just as much to her as it does to me.

“I think so,” Nia says, trying to put on her sweet aunt voice, but I know it’s more like kid gloves for me and my stilled heart.

“She’s getting rehired?” I ask. “I thought she quit.”

“She went on leave, actually,” Nia says. A small smile tugs at her mouth and my head swims. Saria made a contingency plan. She had a plan , not some half-baked idea. A real, adult plan.

“You didn’t tell me that,” I say. “You should have told me she was going to come back.”

“She’s back!” Cara says, looking up at me. I smile down at her, but the nervousness isn’t completely gone. I should be as ecstatic as she is, but it’s just not that easy.

Where do we go from here? I don’t even know.

“I honestly didn’t think she’d come back, so I approved it,” Nia says with a shrug. Even Ian lifts an eyebrow at her, a sly smirk growing on his features. “What? It costs nothing to keep her on file, and I’m the only one who sees employee headcount anyway.”

“Oh, Polly, you rebel, you.” Ian shakes his head, but I can see fire that sparks in his eyes as he gives my sister a once-over. I try to throw that look into the mental garbage can.

“So, what are you gonna do?” Nia asks.

“I don’t know,” I admit. I notice Ian looking at me expectantly, but what he wants me to say, I’m not sure. “What would you do?”

Ian and Nia exchange a look that makes her blush. She averts her gaze from him and continues sifting through the closet of clothes.

“Just don’t wait too long,” Ian says, reaching out to clap me on the shoulder. “If you want her now, get her now.”

“Daddy, let’s go see Saria!” Cara says.

I pat the top of her bun and inhale sharply.

“Yeah, maybe, pumpkin. We’ll see, huh?” Then I think of what’s happening soon and I sigh. “She’s probably just here for Noah’s wedding.”

“She’s working again,” Nia says. “That’s not a short-term thing.”

I twirl my pinky through Cara’s curls. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be bothered.”

“And maybe she does,” Ian says. “Don’t count yourself out. Let other people do it for you. Life is a lot more rewarding that way.”

I exhale for what feels like the thousandth time and wrap my arms around Cara, hoping maybe some of her positivity will osmosis into me. Even with her giggles, I only feel slightly more comforted.