Much like yesterday, Mr.Styles stayed in his office for the majority of the day, only coming out to have lunch with us and to check on the kids every so often. I didn't mind though, I found myself feeling timid and quiet whenever he entered the room we were in.

During lunch, I let Mr.Styles do most of the talking with the children. It's not that I was uncomfortable, I just didn't know what to say and I didn't want to say anything stupid in front of him.

It was 4 now, I just finished putting Daniel down for his second nap, and I was preparing a tiny snack for Penelope to eat.

"Anastasia.. are you going to be staying with us forever?" Penelope asked as she colored on a piece of paper on the dinner table. I glanced at her, she continued to color nonchalantly.

"I don't know about forever... But we'll see at the end of the week, honey." I continued to chop up some string cheese and fruits for her to eat.

"Hey girls." Mr.Styles said as he walked into the kitchen and headed straight for the fridge, he ran his hands through his hair repeatedly.

"Hi daddy!!" Penelope grinned lovingly at her dad. "Look at my drawing!" Penelope lifted up the paper that she was carefully working on, I placed the plate of snacks in front of her, along with a cup of milk. Mr.Styles walked over to where I stood and he inspected the drawing that Pen was holding up, my eyes followed his and stared at the painting.

"It's you, me, Danny, mommy AND Anastasia!" She grinned. Sure enough, there were 5 figures that could be made out to be us. I looked at Mr.Styles, his eyes were sad as he stared at the drawing but he disguised it with a smile. A smile that could fool his kids, but not me.

"It's beautiful, peanut. You are so good at drawing!" His voice was cheery, but I could hear the sadness that lied underneath. I was sure it was because she had included the absent mother in the drawing.

"Can we put it on the fridge??" Penelope gave him puppy eyes and he chuckled with a nod.

"Of course." He took the paper from her hand and placed it on the fridge with magnet, I watched as he stepped back and stared it a little longer before clearing his throat and turning to me.

"I was thinking we could all go for a walk once I'm done with work? Unless you need to leave, of course." Mr.Styles opened the water bottle he grabbed from the fridge before Pen interrupted him.

"Oh no, it's alright. Yeah a walk would be nice." I agreed, I looked out the window, the sun up and the trees shook slightly from the wind.

"Great, there's a park nearby that we can go to, Daniel should be up around 4:45 and I get off of work at 5, so we can head out around that tine." Without another word, or a chance for me to respond, he walked out of the kitchen and back to his office I assume.

Penelope munched on her snack and my eyes gazed back to the drawing she did, it's silly but I was glued to it.

I walked around the kitchen island, standing in front of her drawing and inspecting it. My eyes narrowed as I looked at each person in the drawing. I smiled at her attempt to draw pants and t-shirts for everyone. The smile on my face quickly faded once I caught glimpse of their mother. The entire drawing itself was very vibrant and colorful, the clothes she drew on all of us were colorful and bright, everyone except her mother. She was in all black. A very different contrast from the rest of the drawing. It seemed almost sinister. I decided against asking Penelope why she chose to the colors she used, even though I was really itching to know.

~~~

"I'll get Penelope dressed in outside clothes, you can change Daniel." Mr.Styles, who was now wearing jeans, a plain white shirt and a grey zip up jacket, picked up Pen off the living room floor and went off to her room.

After getting Daniel into a new diaper and some outside clothes, I put some extra diapers and a change of clothes for both Pen and Danny into their diaper backpack and threw it over my shoulders.

"Alright Mr.Styles, let's go!" I shouted once I tied the laces on my shoes. Daniel squirmed in my arms but I held onto him tightly. "Sorry, bud. Gotta put you in the stroller now." I booped his nose. I walked to the garage where Harry and Penelope were waiting for me. Harry helped buckle Daniel into the stroller and he also took the backpack off my shoulders and tucked it at the bottom of the stroller.

"You remember the rules Pen?" Harry knelt down, Pens tiny hands in his large ones.

"Always stay by your side, or Anastasia's. Do not go with strangers, even if they say they're your friend. If I hear you yell the word sunflower, it's an emergency and I need to find you." Penelope recited out loud, Harry nodded with a smile.

"Attagirl." He pinched her cheek and rising back to his feet. He extended his arm out to the driveway. "After you, m'lady." I nodded and pushed the stroller with Daniel in it. We walked peacefully towards the park, Penelope talking about anything and everything to her attentive father.

Harry and I don't talk much in general, only business, things with kids, small talk. But it's only been two days so what can I expect, I don't really expect him to tell me about his personal life and he doesn't expect the same from me surely.

"You know, Daddy. Trees are really old." Penelope spoke, matter-of-factly. "Almost as old as you!" She pointed at Harry who dramatically gasped and clutched his heart.

"Ouch, Pen. I'm only 30, I'm not old." He pouted down at his daughter who giggled up at him, also causing me to let out a small chuckle at the cute little interaction.

The park came into view and there were lots of kids and families out at the moment. There was even a couple food trucks parked to the side of an open field. We went to the playground and let Penelope play with the other kids, Mr.Styles and I sat on the park bench with Daniel next to us.

"It's so nice out." I sighed happily, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the cool breeze.

"Yeah, it's nice to get out of the house, my eyes are going crazy staring at a screen all day." He pinched the bridge of his nose under the sunglasses he wore. I nodded in agreement.

"I don't know how you do it, that's why I decided on a career that didn't focus on me staring at a screen the entire day. I also hate sitting still for long periods of time, I go crazy." I laughed. He raised an eyebrow at me curiously. "Oh, right. Well you know, I'm majoring in early education. So instead of staring at a screen all day, I'll be having me ears talked off by 6 year olds." I shrugged. He laughed next to me.

"You'll definitely get some practice in with Penelope. Boy does she love to talk." We sat in silence for a bit, keeping an eye on Penelope as she made friends with the other kids on the playground. I took Daniel out of the stroller and placed him on my lap, I bounced him on my knee slightly and he instantly started to giggle.

"Dada." Daniel said and pointed at Mr.Styles. I smiled, "Is that your dad?" I tickled his stomach a little causing him to giggle. A silence fell over us once again.

"Anastasia." Mr.Styles said softly beside me, I quickly turned my head to look at him, confused as to why he sounded like that when he said my name. "I think we should talk about some things." He said cautiously. I furrowed my eyebrows and my heart dropped at his words, scared that I had done something to upset him.

"Yesterday when you came into my office.. I'm sure you had seen or at least heard me.. sniffling." He said, not wanting to use the word crying. I straightened in my seat, turning my body to face him as he spoke. "Then earlier today, Penelope drew that drawing... And I'm sure you were confused as hell at why she drew her mom the way she did." He gave a weak halfhearted chuckle.

"You've had this look on your face the whole day.. A look of pity." He spoke. I shook my head at his words, I was confused today, but pity was not one of the emotions I felt. I could feel that something was wrong, that I didn't understand completely.

"You're probably wondering what happened to their mum." His voice was low, he spoke slower than normal. "It's easy for me to fool the kids, but I figured you'd be able to catch on." He sighed. I fidgeted in my seat awkwardly, not expecting him to bring up the topic this early on in the job, but I guess it is something that needs to be addressed.

"I know sad eyes when I see them." I spoke honestly, I saw them every time I looked in the mirror. "It was Pen's drawing.. Just made me curious on what happened to her." I admitted sheepishly.

"There was an accident." He said simply, my eyes widened at what he was saying. Their mom didn't just leave, she died.

"6 months ago. Danielle was out late at night, coming home from a late shift when- some idiot kid was texting and driving. Speeding down a side road, it was over almost instantly." He looked at the ground as he spoke.

"My life's been a mess ever since. I can't seem to do this whole single dad thing very well. My mum and sister have been helping a lot, but they live back home in the UK so they can only come every so often. That's why I was in desperate need of a nanny." His sunglasses blocked my view of his eyes, but I knew that they were glossed over.

"Danny was still so little when she died, you know? And then there's Penelope who knew her mum was gone but she couldn't understand why or where she went. It's been absolute hell." He said.

My heart broke for him, he had lost his wife. The love of his life, the mother of his children. You'd never be able to tell just by first glance, the way he carries himself and the way he cares for his children. He hides it well.

"For what it's worth, your kids are amazing. I'm not just saying that to kiss your butt. I've babysat lots of kids in my lifetime and I know good kids from bad kids, and yours are definitely angels. That doesn't just happen from nowhere, you're doing great as a father, Mr.Styles." I said to him truthfully. "I'm sorry about your wife." I added in at the end. "She was a beautiful women and clearly an amazing mother as well, from what I can tell." I nudged him a little. He chuckled and nodded, sniffling up the snot that dared to come out his nose.

"Yeah.. she was. I try to be strong for the kids, but some days are harder than others. I don't think I'll ever truly be able to move on, you know? She was taken too soon. But I know what she would want for me and for the kids, she'd want us to be happy and not be stuck in sadness at the loss of her life." I only nodded at his words, not trusting my voice to speak confidently. Here Mr.Styes was, being vulnerable and open with me and I had no idea how to handle it.

My body shivered as the wind picked up a little. Goosebumps rose on my arms and I cursed myself for not bringing a jacket today.

"Here, you're cold." Mr.Styles shrugged off the grey zip up jacket he wore and handed it to me, grabbing Daniel from my arms. I blushed slightly, unsure if this was appropriate but gratefully accepted his jacket. There's no harm in it, I'm cold and he's being kind.

"Thanks.." I slipped it on and instantly felt warm, inhaling his scent that stuck to his jacket.

"It looks like it might rain.. we should head back home soon." He looked up at the sky, I looked up myself and didn't realize how dark and cloudy the sky got. Must've happened within the last few minutes and from the looks of it, it's rolling in fast.

"Penelope! It's time to go!" I shouted, I stood from the park bench and headed towards the busy playground. Penelope whined at my request but grudgingly made her way off of the play set.

"Sorry, bug. Looks like it's gonna rain, we gotta get back home so you little love bugs don't get sick. " We walked back to Mr.Styles who already had Daniel in the stroller, the top drawn all the way over, just in case it did rain.

We hastily started our walk back to the house, 2 minutes in it started to pour rain.

"Great." I mumbled to myself. Penelope squealed and Mr.Styles scooped her up into his arms.

"Come on, let's go, we're almost home." He said loudly over the sound of the rain. We ran back to the house, as careful as I could considering I was pushing a child in a stroller. Once we were back in the garage we shook off our wet shoes. Penelope making remarks of how soaked she was. I looked at the sight of all of us and couldn't help but laugh.

"We look ridiculous." I pointed out, hiccuping in laughter. Mr.Styles joined my chuckles and drew back the top of the stroller to reveal a completely dry Daniel.

"Well, at least this little one isn't drenched." Mr.Styles unbuckled the infant from the stroller and told Penelope to run inside for some towels.

"You probably shouldn't go home today, looks like it's gonna storm for the rest of the evening." He looked at his phone, turning the screen to me. I groaned, he's right I shouldn't go home but I didn't bring anything with me to stay the night.

"I didn't bring any extra clothes.." I sighed.

"It's fine, you can borrow some of mine, I still have some of Danielle's clothes, you could wear those too." He said. I furrowed my eyebrows. For some reason the thought of wearing his late wives clothes didn't sit right with me..

"You can just borrow mine." He spoke again, interrupting the thoughts in my brain. I nodded hesitantly.

"I'm gonna make a call to my roommate to let her know I won't be coming home tonight." He nodded his head and I made my way inside and scurried to my room. I quickly called Tina, letting her know that I would be staying the night here due to the storm and only because of the storm, dismissing any dirty thoughts that fluttered in her brain.

I heard a knock on the door and I said my goodbyes to Tina. I opened the door and Harry stood there with a some clothes in his hands, "There are towels in your bathroom as well as shampoo and soap and all that stuff. You can leave your wet clothes on the floor, I'll throw them in the wash for you." I nodded and took the clothes from his hands, thanking him once again for his generosity.

After my warm shower, I threw on the black shirt and grey sweats Harry gave me. The sweats pooled at my ankle, obviously way too big. I may look absolutely ridiculous, but at least it was comfortable. I hand washed my underwear and blow dried it so I could wear something. I threw my hair back up in a bun, adjusting it slightly so I didn't look like a complete mess.

Exiting my room I could smell food being cooked in the kitchen, Mr.Styles stood in the kitchen in his own sweats and a t-shirt, cooking over the stove. The kids were in the living room playing together, Disney music playing through the small speaker on the side table.

"Need any help?" I asked, leaning against the doorway. Mr.Styles turned to look at me and instantly started to laugh. "Hey now. It's not nice to laugh at people." I pointed my finger at him. He raised his hands up in defense, trying to stifle his laugh but failing.

"I'm sorry, you just look tiny in those clothe. You're basically being swallowed." I looked down at the outfit one more time and nodded in agreement, letting myself laugh with him.. "You can help chop these onions." He said pointing at an onion that he started to cut, moving over to the stove to stir whatever he had cooking.

"Smells good.." I hummed as I made my way over to the cutting board, picking up where he left off.

"My cooking skills are minimal, I hope you're not expecting Gordon Ramsay type of cooking." He laughed. He turned to tell the small Alexa speaker to play music, Fleetwood Mac started to play and I smiled at his choice of music. I glanced at the kids every so often, just to be sure they weren't getting into things they shouldn't.

Despite the rain pouring outside and beating softly on the windows, I could hear Harry singing along to the music under his breathe, barely above a whisper but just enough for me to hear it. Even as soft as he was singing I could tell he had a beautiful voice and I wanted him to never stop.

~~~