Niall let out a howl of laughter. “You met Harry Styles and didn’t even know it!”
“He was wearing a cowboy hat!”
“You climbed Harry Styles’ tree, and he told you to get off his property!” Niall rocked onto his back on the couch, his legs splayed dramatically in the air. “Can’t believe you met Harry Styles of all people.”
Louis frowned into his now empty glass of whiskey. “So what? He was still a dickhead about everything. He almost destroyed your drone!”
Niall laid out fully on the couch now, an arm thrown over his face. “Christ, Uncle Hank, can’t believe you’ve been living next door to Harry Styles, and no one even knew.”
Hank scratched at his chin a bit. “Would have probably told ya if I’d known you’d think it was such a big deal.”
“A big deal? Yeah, it’s not everyday you find out that the biggest child star ever fucked off to live on a horse ranch next to your uncle.”
“It’s actually a horse rescue,” Hank said. “Well, horses and Lacey, of course.”
“The goat,” Hank answered. “Not actually sure why he’s got just the one goat. Never asked. She’s a handful though.”
Hank chuckled as though privy to an inside joke about it. Louis didn’t care about goats though and wondered how they’d gotten off track.
“Can’t believe all my uncle cares about is horses and goats.” Niall uncovered his eyes and turned his head towards him. “I guess it makes sense now though that Harry was so paranoid about the drone.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess.” Memories of screaming tabloid headlines flickered through his mind. “Probably would make anyone paranoid, but he could have apologized when he realized I was just, you know—”
“A dumb ass stuck in his tree?”
“Shut up, Neil. I wasn’t stuck! I was coming down just fine!” He thought back to that moment for a minute. “Huh, wonder if the other cowboy guy was his boyfriend.”
It hadn’t seemed like it by the way they acted and frankly by how Shawn had looked at him, but he was definitely good looking enough to catch the eye of a rich actor.
“Shawn?” Hank scoffed. “Nah, Shawn’s a local boy. Just kind of fell into the job and Harry’s decent at rescuing people and not just horses, I’d reckon.”
“And goats,” Niall added.
Hank nodded his agreement.
With a groan, Niall sat up and stretched. “Fuck, I’m tired. I’m gonna head to bed and nobody wake me up in the morning. It’s been fun but I don’t want to talk to anybody until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.”
Pleasantly drowsy from the effects of the alcohol, Louis headed to bed as well. It took him a while to fall asleep as he laid staring at the ceiling and thinking of a handsome cowboy who wasn’t who he seemed.
An enemies to lovers au where Louis is Niall’s songwriting partner and Harry is a former child star who just wants to be left alone and live out of the spotlight on his horse ranch.
Coming May 12 for @onedirectionbigbang | Featuring art by @missytearex |Subscribe here