**Nicky’s POV**

I stormed out of the house and following Dylan to the back yard.

“Dylan Michael! How dare you?!” He spun around quickly and shouted right back at me,

“How dare I what, Nichole?Worry about you? Not want you to leave?How dare I what?!”

“Momma and Daddy haven’t told me what to do since I was eighteen years old, you damn well don’t get to tell me what to do, and you certainly don’t get to speak to them like that! I am going to be working for him…do you understand that? You just made a jack ass of yourself, and me, IN FRONT OF MY BOSS!! And Gemma…oh my god, Dylan…she is your friend too. Why would you act like her home is not good enough for me? She has been the best friend I have had in my entire life and you were awful to her. You are unfucking believable, do you know that? Unfucking believable! This is something I have wanted to do since I got out of college. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime for me, why can’t you just be supportive of it…of me?” Dylan sighed, and rubbed his hands over his face then he looked at me and said,

“Why do you have to move away, Nick? You’ve done this sort of work for years here, why do you have to leave?”

“We’re going to be building this from the ground up. That’s something I have never done and I’ll be working really close with Harry getting this started, I need to be where he is. And I know you understand there are international laws that govern this. Legally we can’t base this here, it has to be there.” At that moment I started to cry, “More than that though, I want to do this. I need to do it. This is what my heart is telling me I should be doing. And I need to know you will be behind me. I need my brother to support me. Please.”

“Promise you will come home?”

“Dylan…of course…this ranch is in my blood, I’ll never leave it. I will be home so much you will get sick of me.” He moved over to me and wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head,

“I’m gonna miss you, Nick.”

“I’m gonna miss you too, Dipstick.” He chuckled a bit and said,

“That boss of yours, Mr. Boy Band…he better keep things professional with you, or so help me…” I elbowed him in the stomach and said,

“You mind your own business, Dylan Michael. Besides, he’s got models falling at his feet, what would he want with a country girl like me?”

**Harry’s POV**

“Harry, Gemma,” Jimmy said as he stood up, “Come in the living room and let’s talk about this foundation. Carolyn, leave the dishes for Nichole and Dylan. You come sit with us. I know you have questions, too.”

Jimmy Davies was definitely the “man of the house.” What he said was law. I could see it in the way Carolyn stopped clearing the table and left the mess for Nicky and Dylan. We could hear Nicky and Dylan shouting at each other but their parents didn’t seem to be bothered, nor did Gemma. Something told me it wasn’t the first time my sister had witnessed this. It was a bit disconcerting for me though. Gemma and I never fought like that. We’d disagreed, of course. But I couldn’t imagine either of us shouting at each other like that. Not as adults anyway. It really bothered me, and I couldn’t understand why. But, if everyone else thought it was ok to leave them to it, then I suppose I would have to as well. It wasn’t long before the sound of the back door opening was heard and Nicky came in the room. Her face and eyes were red, so I could tell she had been crying. I felt very protective of her suddenly and wanted to go find her brother and find out what his problem was, and why he’d make his sister cry. It turned out to be unnecessary though, because he came in behind her. His face was quite red as well, but he seemed a bit defeated and complacent.Looking over at me he cleared his throat and said,

“Harry, Gemma, I’m sorry I lost my temper. It’s no excuse, but Gemma you know how I worry about Nicky. But, she’s pretty smart…smarter than I am, that’s for sure…so if she feels good doing this, then I am behind ya’ll one hundred percent.”I stood up and extended my hand to him and said,

“S’ok, mate. I know what it’s like to have a sister a lot cleverer than I am. It doesn’t change the need to want to look after them though.” Dylan shook my hand and I told him, “I promise to look after her, ok?”

“It’s all I ask, man.”

Gemma rolled her eyes and said, “You men, like we can’t take care of ourselves.”

Everyone in the room laughed and we turned back to the conversation. I noticed Gemma move over so Dylan could sit next to her on the sofa and I raised my eyebrow at her. She gave me a look that told me to mind my own business and tilted her head towards Nicky, who had perched herself on the arm of the chair I was sitting in. I looked up at her and she smiled softly at me, her brown eyes still red and shimmering from crying before. She mouthed the words “Thank You” to me. I felt my heart tighten in my chest for a moment. I closed my eyes, bringing myself back to reality and turned back to the conversation.

While we talked about the foundation and my vision for it and what Nicky’s part in that vision would be, I looked around the room we were seated in. The entire house had a comfortable, lived in feel. It was old, but well taken care of. Nicky explained on the drive here that this home had been in her family since the 1940’s. Her grandfather grew up in this house, so did her father, and now she and Dylan. There had been plenty of renovations over the years, but the house never lost that “ancestral home” feeling. There were pictures of family hanging on the walls and displayed across the mantle. They were mostly all of Dylan and Nicky at all different stages of childhood. But also grandparents, great grandparents and others were displayed as well. This was the kind of home I could see these younger versions of Nicky and Dylan running through, Carolyn scolding them for running in the house. Large family gatherings were held here. I could feel the love coming from every part of this house. It was definitely a place that was meant to be a family home. Nothing like the house I lived in while in LA, or even the place I had in London. I was never in either place long enough to even really consider them homes. They were more like “bases of operation” if I was honest with myself. I only really felt home, when I was at home with my mum and Robin, or with my dad. So, I could understand why this place brought such peace to Nicky’s life. Like me, her touchstone was her family and her home.

<.><.><.>

It was 2am and I was still up, staring at my tablet, trying to focus on emails, but failing miserably. I looked across the room to the other bed in the room and Gemma was sound asleep. I had trouble sleeping, which wasn’t unusual for me. I spent so much time in hotels and traveling, I never knew what time zone I was in half the time. After 5 years of that I developed a problem with insomnia. And it didn’t help that the house was eerily quiet. I was used to background noise of some kind, or lights coming in from the window, something. Out here, in Nicky’s home, I could hear animals howling in the distance, cows, owls. It was all surreal to me. I’d become to accustomed to living in cities, I suppose. It made me wonder how Nicky was going to adjust to London. I looked back at my tablet but I just couldn’t handle dealing with any of that at the moment. Deciding I needed a drink, I quietly opened the door, so as not to wake Gemma and made my way downstairs. I noticed the light was on in the kitchen as I walked in I saw Nicky standing in front of an open cupboard rummaging for something. She had her hair up in a messy bun on her head and a long tie-dyed t shirt. As she reached up for something higher, I realized she wasn’t wearing shorts…just her knickers. I cleared my throat so she would know I was in the room.

“Hells bells!” she exclaimed, as she jumped back, pulling her shirt down, “Harry, you scared ten years off me!” I couldn’t help but smile, that accent would be the death of me. I was certain of it.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were in here. I just came for something to drink.” She smiled at me and asked,

“Trouble sleeping? Gemma said you had a problem with that. I was gonna make some tea, would you like a cup too? Chamomile helps me sleep.”

“Sure, that’d be nice.” Then she pointed to the cupboard, motioning me to get cups down as she filled the kettle. She reached up to grabbed the tea and I couldn’t help but look at her again. She had a gorgeous ass, and nice toned legs. I knew I was wrong for looking, but well…it was an amazing view. I was glad I was wearing loose track pants. I probably looked a little too long, because I was caught mid stare,

“Eyes up, Mr. Styles.” She said and felt myself turning red. She grinned at me and said, “you watch the kettle a moment, I’ll go put some shorts on.” And she slipped past up and went up the stairs quickly. About then the kettle whistled and I jumped. I turned back around laughing at myself. Smooth, Styles…really smooth.

We took our tea out on the back porch, sitting next to each other, staring out at the pasture behind the house.

“I like to sit out here at night and just listen to the sounds,” she said, taking a sip of her tea, I watched her just staring out into the night. She seemed so at peace. I felt like I was stealing her away from what she loved the most in the world. And it was breaking my heart.

“Will you miss this place a lot when you move, Nicky?” I asked. She turned to me, her brown eyes shimmering, even in the dark I could see she wanted to cry thinking about leaving home. It took everything in me not to reach out and pull her into my arms.

“Of course I am going to miss home. Don’t you miss home when you are gone?” She asked, rather bluntly.

“Yes, I suppose I do. I miss my mum and Robin, my dad, Gemma, my friends…”

“But you still go, and you do what you need to, because your family, your home…they will always be there for you.” I just nodded at her. I knew, I could always come home.
“The work we are going to do, Harry. It’s important. All my life, I have wanted to help people, people that didn’t have what I had. Not just here in my home town, or in my country. I believe everyone in the world deserves to live their best life. Deserves to have an education, a home, safe drinking water…children deserve to play and not worry about where their next meal is coming from. Parents shouldn’t have to listen to their children cry from hunger. Or watch them die from simple diseases that could’ve been prevented with a simple immunization.” The tears were rolling down her face now, the passion she felt was coming off her in waves and I felt myself getting choked up as well, “So yes, I am going to miss home. I will miss this ranch so very much. But my heart is telling me, this is what I should be doing now. You and me, we have important work to do. My home will be here when I come back.”

Notes

I hope ya'll are enjoying the story so far. Please let me know what you are thinking. Harry out in the ranch lands of Texas? Interesting.

I have a picture to show ya'll. This is field of bluebonnets. Bluebonnets are my favorite flower. Being a Texas gal myself, how could they not be? This is what I see in my minds eye when I write about the bluebonnet field behind Nicky's house.