HARRY POV
The list of reasons why I loved Grace only seemed to get longer every single day, but high up on that list was the way she clung to me when she slept. Even on the nights she was mad at me and told me not to touch her if I wanted to keep my hands, she'd still manage to subconsciously find her way to my side of the bed without me having to do any coaxing at all.
As I lifted my head from the pillow now, I could see more than half of our Alaskan King sized bed was vacant, and I had about three inches of space on my side. If I made any movement toward the right at all, I'd hit the floor and Grace would come right down with me with the way she had her arm slung across my chest and her leg hooked around mine.
All I could do was turn my head toward hers to see her face on my pillow, trying to keep from laughing at how cute she looked with her cheek squished into the fabric and her naturally pink lips slightly parted. She looked just like Nora.
And while I would have loved to stay there with her until she was the one who decided it was time for us to wake up, today was her birthday and I wasn't quite as prepared as I should have been, or as I would like to be. I knew it was coming up, but I had been so busy that it stayed in the back of my mind until last night, and she hadn't even mentioned anything about it at all. I don't think she was expecting much from me, which only made me feel worse.
So as carefully as I could, I started to slip out from under her grasp, moving slowly to let her arm and leg fall to the mattress. Lucky for me, she was deep enough in her sleep that she adjusted to the change easily even as I raised the duvet back up to cover her, leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek when I couldn't help myself.
I took a quick shower first and changed into just a jumper with trousers rather than a suit, brushed my teeth, grabbed my wallet and keys from the dresser, and silently drew the curtains so the sun wouldn't wake her up before she had a chance to do that for herself...or until Nora came wandering in the bedroom.
As I headed down the hall, I made a pitstop in her room next, and I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head at the way she looked. Her pink duvet was pushed all the way down cover just one of her feet, and she looked like a starfish as she laid on her belly and kept her arms and legs stretched out on either side of her to take up the whole bed. She was Grace's daughter, no doubt about it.
I crossed the room to cover her with the duvet again, moving her wild hair out of her face to see her breathing through parted lips and puffed out cheeks just like her mum. When I kissed her the same way, she pouted and smacked her little bow shaped lips before nuzzling her face into the pillow again.
Before leaving the house, I made myself a cup of black coffee to go and only glanced at the emails that came through on my phone last night. God forbid something insane happened today or tonight, I didn't want to spend any time working so I could put the whole day's focus on Grace. That was the plan, anyway.
The first order of business as I got in my car was to call Maria, and she was more than happy to agree to watch Nora tonight. I asked her to bring an overnight bag just in case, though I wasn't sure where we would end up tonight. The plan was not to sleep in Beverly Hills, but sometimes Grace went through phases of not wanting to leave Nora overnight when I had suggested we randomly get a hotel just to have some alone time, so I was going to leave it up to her.
My next phone call went to Marco, the manager of the restaurant I owned in Malibu. I was already rolling my eyes at the way he answered the phone like I was the president calling; the man was almost more stressed out than I was.
"Hey, I need a favor tonight," I said.
"Okay."
"I need you to clear all reservations tonight. The place needs to be empty."
