The conversation during dinner flowed easily. Anne had let it slip that it was actually Harry's idea to have us over. I was almost sure I saw Harry glare at her when she mentioned it, but he covered it quickly by shielding his face with his cup when he took a drink. Maybe he wasn't upset with me after all, he did seem a lot more relaxed compared to how he'd been after his band practice.

Harry cracked a few jokes, some had me laughing into my napkin to keep from spitting food out all over the table. Each time I laughed particularly hard, Harry would have this smirk on his face, like he was proud of causing me to nearly choke on my dinner. Cheeky bugger. I wanted to wipe that adorable grin off his handsome face. It was really starting to annoy me how cute he was. Why couldn't he have been ugly? It would make things so much simpler. Why couldn't he have had a unibrow, or buck teeth, or...something. Anything that would keep me from wanting to know what it would feel like to have his arms wrapped around me, his breath on my neck and his low voice murmuring into my ear.

After dinner, Anne and my dad went out to sit on the front porch with some tea. Gemma announced she had some school work to finish up on and retreated upstairs. I offered to help Harry clean up the dishes. After scraping off the uneaten food into the garbage we stacked the dirty plates next to the sink.

Harry began to fill both sides of the double sink with warm water, pouring some liquid soap in on the left side. Soon there was a layer of foamy bubbles floating across the water.

"I wash, you rinse?" Harry asked.

"Okay." I nodded.

He slipped a few dishes into the soapy water, grabbed a sponge and started to clean.

"Um, Harry?" I asked while I waited for a clean plate to rinse. I had to know if things were alright between us. I'd felt a little uneasy ever since that band practice.

"Yeah?" He said, not looking up from his task.

"I was wondering, were you upset with me for any reason when you walked in on Niall and I, when we were...you know..."

"When you were about to kiss." He stated bluntly as he turned his head toward me. His stare burning into me. His earlier lighthearted humor had all but disappeared. "No." He said flatly. The corner of his mouth lifted in a partial smile, but it didn't reach his eyes so it wasn't very reassuring.

"I just wasn't feeling well, probably because I was hungry." He shrugged and turned back to the dishes. He handed me a clean plate with a more genuine smile this time. I didn't feel the need to mention he was still cold to me after we had eaten the pizza. I knew he wasn't being completely honest about something, but if he didn't want to share more, then I wasn't going to push. This friendship of ours was still new and I didn't want to threaten it by making something out of nothing. If he really wasn't upset about it then I wasn't going to make it worse by creating unnecessary tension between us.

We fell into a silent pattern. Harry would wash a dish, then hand it to me. I would rinse it in the other side of the sink, then place it in the drying rack to my right. I heard Anne's laughter coming from outside, my dad must have told a joke. I never really thought my dad's jokes were that funny. They really were "dad jokes." But I was glad Anne found them funny. The sound of Anne's laughter got a bit louder and sounded like it was growing a little out of control. Harry and I found ourselves chuckling at her amusement.

"Sounds like she's enjoying herself." I mused.

"Yeah, she's been really happy lately. She smiles a ton." Harry said, smiling to himself.

"Same with my dad, I've never seen him happier."

"Well I guess that means we'll probably be seeing a lot more of each other." Harry said as he looked at me, catching my eyes. He smirked and there was something almost mischievous in the way he was looking at me, but before I could distinguish what it was he turned back to the sink. He handed me the last cup. As I began to rinse it, he reached under the water on his side of the sink, where the bubbles had all but popped away, to pull the plug.

Satisfied with my rinsing, I placed the cup in the drying rack. I then turned to put my hand in my side of the sink to pull the stopper, not realizing Harry was already reaching to do the same. Our hands unintentionally grasped each other beneath the water's surface. Time seemed to slow down for a moment. My breath caught in my throat as I took in the sensations. The water was warm and so was his hand. His skin was soft from all the time spent on the dishes. Was I imagining it, or were his fingers inching their way to entwining themselves with mine?

Before I could register if it was all in my mind or not, I pulled my hand from the water. I reached for a dish towel and began methodically drying my hands. Attempting, and probably failing, at being nonchalant about what may have been occurring under the water. Harry just finished pulling the plug, his eyes never leaving mine as I moved the cloth over my hands. He then stepped closer to me, his gaze burning into me. I could feel my heart beat speeding up. Then his hand came up between us, taking the dish towel that I had forgotten I was still holding. He took it and began drying his hands, his eyes finally freeing me from their hold as he turned away from me.

What just happened?

=O=

Sitting in the car with my dad, I started texting Kara as soon as we were on the road.

He said he wasn't upset about me and Niall. -Sadie

As I waiting for Kara to message me back I looked out the window at the streetlights as their glaring lights passed over the car in the night. Like a faithful friend, it doesn't take long before my phone vibrates in my hand and the screen lights up with her name.

He's lying, total guy response. -Kara

I giggled slightly as I responded.

Maybe...Talk to you tomorrow? -Sadie

Of course! x -Kara

I didn't tell Kara about what may have happened between Harry and I. What if I were imagining things? Maybe his fingers didn't move toward mine. Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe he didn't try to hold my hand. And maybe I was going completely insane.

Once we arrived home, I got ready for bed and climbed under my covers. As I reached toward my nightstand to plug my phone into it's charger, my phone buzzed, alerting me to a new message. I looked at the screen.

Pool party this weekend. Want to come? -Harry

A/N: Who wants to go to a pool party with Harry?! It's been a while since I've updated, longer than I'd like. I blame it on all the other amazing stories on here that keep stealing my attention away. I'd like to give a shout out to JenYarrington who is an amazing writer. I hang on her words. If you haven't, please head over and check out her completed story Doctor's Orders and also her new story The World's Most Eligible Bachelor, both star Harry!

Please let me know how you're liking this story! I'll be trying to update more frequently. I've been working on getting my timeline just right.

DCMurphy