It was only three days before the move, and I couldn't stop thinking about seeing Victoria driving through the neighborhood. I couldn't believe that out of all the suburbs around the twin cities, we had chosen to live in the very same subdivision as that conniving witch. I hadn't seen where she actually lived yet, but it was fairly obvious she lived nearby as she drove down the street at least twice a day.

I decided not to mention anything to Harry. I didn't want him to think about her and I doubted that she would really present a problem. He had enough on his mind that I didn't want him to worry about my silly insecurities.

I arrived at the house and renovations were in full swing. Zayn had a crew of at least ten men working long days to get some of the necessary work done before we moved in.

As always, the girls ran out to the back yard to play, and I carried a sleeping Danny into the house and laid him down in the pack 'n play that I had brought over for this exact purpose.

Outside of the house, the construction noise had been overwhelming, but inside it was much quieter. As soon as I put Danny down, I heard soft music. Wait, no, it wasn't music from a radio, it was singing. Someone was singing.

I crept quietly to the door of the kitchen and heard Zayn quietly singing,

Your hand fits in mine like it's made just for me

But bear this is mind, it was meant to be

And I'm joining up the dots with the freckles on your cheeks

And it all makes sense to me

I know you've never loved the crinkles by your eyes

When you smile, you've never loved your stomach or your thighs

The dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine

But I'll love them endlessly

I stood there stunned for a moment and then realized that Zayn didn't know I was listening. I stepped into the kitchen to make myself known and he stopped singing immediately and looked up at me, flustered and embarrassed.

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but Zayn, your voice is amazing! I'm not exaggerating – you are an exceptional singer!"

He smiled a little and looked at the ground, mumbling a quiet thank you.

"I'm serious!" I emphasized my words. "I don't know if you had a calling to go into construction, but I really think you could make it in the music business."

"Nah, it's just a hobby," he said, smiling again. And then he quickly diverted my attention to what he was working on. "I hope you don't mind. I found something for you to add to your kitchen....or dining room. Wherever you want it.

I looked behind him and saw that he had been cleaning up a gorgeous antique pie safe. "Oh, my gosh! Where did that come from?" I gasped.

"An estate sale," he replied. "It's kind of an obsession of mine. Finding and restoring antiques. Maybe that's why I like this job so much." He shrugged. "I was thinking that I could stain it to match the wood in the kitchen, if you'd like."

I felt a bit awkward about the lovely piece of furniture in front of me. "Um, can I pay you? I mean, how much did you spend on this?"

"No, please, consider this my gift to you. It's great working for your family, and this is a big job. So, it's just a little token of my appreciation."

"Wow, thank you so much!" I said, wondering whether it would be okay to hug him. I mean, it was an extremely thoughtful gesture, to be sure. Finally, I just leaned in and gave him a quick hug and then hurried out.

Later in the evening, while firming up plans with Maggie, I mentioned the pie safe. She was understandably alarmed.

"Lise, that's really...unusual." I could tell she was trying to find exactly the right word, but I knew what she meant. A contractor wouldn't normally go to the lengths that Zayn had gone to for me.

I sighed. "What should I do?"

"Nothing," she said. "Just say thank you and move on, I guess. Just be careful, okay?"

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be careful about. The guy was going to be at my house every day for the next several months, and in three days, I was moving in. I couldn't exactly avoid him.

"I'll try," I assured her.

After a whirlwind of last-minute packing, I was at the airport once again. Harry told me he would take a cab home, but I insisted on picking him up. That was the fun part about airports, in my mind – standing outside the security checkpoint, waiting to catch a glimpse of a beloved friend or family member. In this case, it was my hotter-than-hell husband. Holy crap! When I saw him, I almost fainted. He was definitely getting some sun in Los Angeles, and he looked fabulous.

When he saw me, he quickened his pace to reach me. Then he threw his arms around my waist and lifted me up to his lips for a kiss. I loved it when he did that.

"I missed you," I said, my lips only centimeters from his.

"I missed you, too," he said, kissing me again. "Let's go and move into our new house!"

"Oh, sure, you arrive for the easy part," I joked.

He playfully slapped my bum on the way out of the airport.

When we got back to the house, the children all but attacked their Daddy. He was tired and sweaty from the trip, so they easily convinced him to get into the pool with them. I took Danny to change and put on my swimsuit, too.

As we all splashed and frolicked in the pool, I realized this would probably be the last time we swam together at this house. I was beginning to feel nostalgic, having lived here for over ten years and having brought all my babies home to this particular home.

I must have had a far-off look in my eye because Harry asked if I was okay.

"Yeah, just remembering all the good times here, you know. I mean, it wasn't all good, but it was my first house and the kids all started their lives here."

Harry just hugged me for a little while. Then he pulled back and kissed me deeply while Danny paddled around us in his little pool float.

Soon we heard all the girls giggling and Grace yelling, "Daddy's kissing Mommy!"

Harry pulled away and laughed with the girls. "Well, that's how it works, you know. Daddies kiss Mummies. And sometimes they do this!" He said, picking me up by the waist and throwing me back into the water.

The girls all screamed with laughter while Harry and I engaged in a full-on water fight. Pretty soon, they all joined in and we truly enjoyed our last swim together at the "old" house.

Later in the evening, Aurora came and sat by me while all the other children were occupied.

"My other dad lived here, right?"

I was a little surprised that she remembered Eric, but she was 3 ½ when he left, so it made sense that she would have a few vague memories. And of course, Harry and I got married when she was six, so she remembered that he wasn't always "Daddy."

"Yes, honey. But he left when you were very little."

"Why did he leave?" She asked.

Oh, dear God. How on earth was I supposed to answer that? I closed my eyes and thought frantically. Finally, I said, "He just wasn't ready to be a dad yet."

"Will Daddy ever leave us?" She asked quietly.

Really? I thought we were way past this.

Luckily, Harry overheard her last question as he walked into the room. He knelt down in front of Aurora and said, "Rory, I will never, ever leave you. I promise. In fact, I wanted to be your Daddy the first time I met you."

"Really?" She giggled.

"Yes, love. Now don't you ever worry about that again. We're a family and we're staying together forever." Then he pulled her close and hugged her tight.

I couldn't possibly describe my feelings at that moment. I had always been in awe of Harry's unusual commitment to my family; scratch that, our family. But every now and then, I was reminded of what a gem he really was.

Aurora asked about how we met and we both started telling her little parts of the story, purposely leaving out the fact that Daddy was still in high school at the time. We'd have to explain that at a later time, but for now, she enjoyed the re-telling of our romance.

The day of the move finally came. Harry left early in the morning to bring the kids to Maggie's house. When he returned, the moving truck was already in the driveway. Charlie was on hand to help, but Courtney was already at the school, setting up her classroom for the kindergarteners who would arrive in just a few days.

The movers made light work of the job at hand. It was certainly different than when I had first moved into the house and had to beg, borrow and steal not only manpower, but pickup trucks as well to move in my meager possessions.

When we arrived at the new house, I was surprised to find that Zayn was there since it was Saturday. But I was pleased to finally introduce him to Harry.

"Zayn, this is my husband, Harry. And Harry, this is Zayn."

The two shook hands and immediately began chatting about England. I left them to talk while I tried to make sense of the deluge of boxes being brought into the house.

To make matters worse, the delivery truck arrived from the furniture store. Harry and I had decided to buy new furniture sets for all the kids' rooms, but clearly we hadn't thought the delivery through. It wasn't exactly the best time for them to come and set up new furniture, but it was a little too late to change that now.

Soon, I had several people asking me about things all at once and I began to feel a little overwhelmed. Even though I had boxes clearly marked for specific rooms, the movers were just piling boxes high in the dining and living rooms. I decided not to complain and instead, I just grabbed boxes and started moving them to the proper rooms as fast as they came in.

Once the boxes and furniture were moved in and the movers had left, I began unpacking the kitchen, thinking that we would most realistically need the kitchen supplies first. I picked up a particularly heavy box, but apparently I didn't have a firm enough grip on it because it slipped through my fingers and crashed onto the floor.

"Shit," I muttered, knowing that was the sound of my good china breaking. I cursed myself for not being more careful while I pried open the box to assess the damage. I began carelessly digging around in the box and managed to slice the palm of my hand.

"Shit!" I cursed again, trying desperately to find something to stop the considerable amount of blood that was now flowing out of the cut. I grabbed a roll of paper towel and began wrapping it around my hand, but the blood kept coming through.

Harry must have heard the commotion because he came rushing in and then freaked out just a little when he saw all the blood. "Oh, my god, Lise!"

Charlie and Zayn came rushing in when they heard Harry, and they both gasped at the sight of the blood-soaked towels.

"What happened?" Harry asked as he gingerly pulled my hand away from my chest to try to figure out how bad it was. He unwrapped the towels enough to see the cut and promptly declared, "You need stitches. Get in the car now."

I tried to protest, saying I would just bandage it up. There was far too much work to be done at the house for me to go and get some stupid stitches. But Harry threatened to carry me to the car, so I reluctantly went along with him.

Once I got into the passenger seat, Harry reached over and buckled my seat belt. When I began to sob, he looked at me with grave concern. "Does it hurt that bad?"

"No!" I wailed. "It wasn't supposed to be like this! This day has been chaos!"

"Oh, love, it will be okay. We'll get it done. But first, let's get you taken care of." He leaned over and gave my cheek a quick kiss and then quickly drove us toward the hospital.

Since I had a substantial amount of wadded up bloody towel wrapped around my hand, it was deemed by the ER staff that I was an actual emergency and they got me right in to stitch my hand up.

After the stitching was done, a nurse came in to give me instructions to care for the wound and a prescription for a painkiller. She left the room to get my discharge papers and I sighed heavily. "We have to get back to the house so I can finish unpacking," I said dismally.

Harry came close and positioned himself between my knees while I still sat on the exam table. He took my face in his hands and said firmly, "You are not doing any more work today."

"But Harry-"

He stopped my mouth with a kiss. He deepened the kiss and I responded by opening my lips enough to let him slide his tongue against mine. Even though I was a mess, I let myself enjoy the kiss and I was soon overcome with desire for my husband.

"Harry," I whispered.

"To be continued later," he grinned. "We'll go back to the house to lock everything up, and then what do you say we get some takeout, go back to the old house to spend one last night there?"

"There's no more furniture at the old house," I said.

"We'll get some blankets and camp out in front of the fireplace."

"Okay," I whispered in happy defeat.

When we arrived back at the house, we discovered that Charlie had cleaned up the bloody mess and managed to salvage some of my china. He also took the liberty to unpack most of our dishes.

"Charlie," I sniffled, feeling a little weepy from the stress of the day and the painkillers I had taken. "I can't believe you did all this."

"No problem, sis," he said, hugging me. "I'll see if Courtney can come over and help tomorrow, okay?"

I nodded wearily. Harry grabbed some blankets from one of the boxes and we got back into the car.

By the time we reached home, I was sound asleep.

"We're home, love. For one last night," he whispered.

We went inside and Harry spread out the blankets and a feast of Chinese food that he had picked up on the way home. I must have slept through that.

After we'd eaten our fill of lo mein, fried rice and spring rolls, I laid my head on the pillow, still feeling drowsy.

Harry cleaned up the food. Then he started a small fire and laid down next to me. "How's your hand?" He asked.

"It's not too bad. The narcotic painkiller probably helps," I laughed.

"Good," he said quietly. He slid his hand slowly over my waist and then he pulled me carefully to himself, being careful not to disturb my bandaged hand. He squeezed me tighter and started kissing my neck and then my earlobe.

I sighed, feeling relaxed by the contact with my husband. His touch was so soothing; it was just what I needed. He slowly moved his lips across my cheek, planting small kisses along the way and then finally capturing my lips with his in a deep kiss.

I slipped my good hand under Harry's t-shirt and ran my hands slowly over his abs, feeling them flex and twitch under my touch. I slowly shifted my hand and dragged it along the waistband of his jeans. Then I slid my fingers inside of his waistband, causing him to chuckle.

"Hey, now," he said, grinning.

I laughed, knowing it turned him on when I teased him like that. "Do you remember the blizzard?" I asked.

"Of course," he said, squeezing me again.

"I think that was when I realized I really liked you," I told him. "And I couldn't figure out what to do about it since you were still in high school. I felt like such a creep," I laughed.

"What do you think now?"

"I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me," I said, laying my head on his shoulder.

"Same here," he said. "Except I knew way before you did."

"You only knew me for a few months before that," I said.

"I knew pretty much when I first met you," he said, kissing me again. "Love at first sight, darling."

"It didn't take me long to figure out that you had a crush on me. It was the night I saw Eric at the soccer game and you drove us home. You were pretty obvious," I said, teasing him a little.

"But I got you, didn't I?"

"You sure did," I said, pushing myself up to sitting.

Then I carefully slung my leg over his hip and straddled him.

He chuckled and said, "What are you doing?"

"This," I replied, leaning down to kiss him. I sat back up and dragged my fingers up and down his sides.

He laughed and pushed my hands away. "That tickles."

So I lifted the hem of his t-shirt and pulled it up. He hoisted himself up on his elbows and let me pull it over his head. Then he laid back down and let me explore his tattoos. I never tired of running my fingers over the designs.

After a few minutes of letting my hands wander, he reached for my shirt and pulled it off in a flash. But he snagged my bandaged hand in the process and I winced.

"Oh, sorry," he said, taking my injured carefully in his and kissing my fingertips one by one. "It's our last night here," he said. "Let's take advantage of it, shall we?" Then he carefully rolled me off of him and laid me down on the blankets.

We undressed each other quickly and simply enjoyed each other, along with the fact that there were no children, no interruptions, and a crackling fire. We took the opportunity to give ourselves to each other and to re-connect in a way that we both needed.

And we made love.

More than once.

It was the best way to say good-bye to our old place.