Blended Families

{6}

Two weeks later and we were completely moved in with Niall. His house was huge, I don't know what he does for work but wow! This place was big. Big enough that I could have a room, he could have a room, the girls could share, and my boys could share. Plus one big room he turned into a play center, where all the kids kept their toys.
We were all sitting together for dinner. Niall had made pancakes and passed them out to everyone. And they were delicious!
"Daddy, is Keegan my sister now?" Laney asked her dad.
"No, they are just living with us." He explained to the little girl.
"Good. If Laney was my sister then she couldn't be my best friend." Keegan told us. I smiled and finished off my pancakes. I got up and collected everyone else's plates that were finished and went to wash them off.
"Keegan, we're gonna have a sleepover!" Laney squealed. They both screamed and I peeked out to see them running off upstairs.
After I cleaned off all of the dishes I went back into the living room. On the floor Niall sat playing with Lucas.
"I miss when Laney was this little." Niall smiled.
"I know what you mean. Noah and Keegan grew up so quickly, I'm afraid if I shut my eyes Luke will suddenly become a teenager." I laughed lightly. I walked over and picked up Lucas.
"Say goodnight Luke." I told him. He looked at me then laid his head on my shoulder. Lucas doesn't talk really. He makes noises but he isn't really a talker, which I know isn't good since he is two but I can't force him to speak.
I took his upstairs and laid him down. I knocked on Noah's door but there was no answer so I just went back downstairs. Niall was sitting out on the deck out back. The door was open so I went out there and sat next to him.
"Here." He said, handing me a beer like the one he was drinking. I took it from him and took a big swig of it. It was silent for a moment before Niall spoke again. "It's great having you all here."
"Thank you so much for bringing us in." I told him genuinely.
"So are you going to tell me?" He asked.
"Tell you what?"
"Why you are here with your three kids and a wedding ring on your finger but there has been no word of a husband or the kids' father." He said. I looked down at my beer and swished it in the bottle.
"Well I don't know anything about Laney's mother either so I guess we're even." I said lightly. There was a long moment of silence. It was extremely awkward.
"I was in the band One Direction. We were huge and we toured everywhere and had millions of fans. We were the typical boy band. And eventually having our own lives got tough and Zayn decided to leave the group. We tried real hard to keep the band strong but it wasn't the same. It didn't even take a year and we broke up. We are all still really tight though, they are like my brothers.
"A while after I had kind of lost touch with myself. Despite all the money, I was living with my parents. I drank every night, not until I got drunk but I drank a lot. The boys, one after another, moved to the states. We always joked that we would and I guess we really did like it there. So I decided I would too. Nothing really got better. I felt like a bum. I had no wife, no family, no job. I didn't really have anything.
"Then one night I got drunk off my ass and I slept with this chick, I don't know why. The next morning I woke up and she was laying next to me. I didn't know her name, who she was, nothing. When she woke up I told her to leave and I never did catch her name. Then two months later she shows up at my door saying she is pregnant. But she didn't tell me she wanted us to be a family or anything. She said she wasn't planning on telling me. But she needs the father's consent to have an abortion.
"I told her no, I thought this is god's plan for me. This is my baby and this is what's going to keep me sane. So I helped her through the nine months of hell. And when she had the baby, she told the doctors to keep her out of the room because she didn't want to see her. She signed papers to legally give all custody of Laney to me. I named her. I don't know why I chose Laney, it was honestly spur of the moment. And I've never seen or heard from her again." Niall finished his story. I looked at him in awe. I would be never guessed he went through all of that.
"Your turn." He said, turning to look at me with a small smile.
"Well freshman year of high school, I met this guy, Sean, he was the love of my life. We went out, together all through high school. When I was 19 I found out I was pregnant. We were scared but extremely happy. And that's how Noah came along. Two years later we got married. Later we had Keegan and then I got pregnant with Lucas. Lucas was four months old when Sean was driving home from work. There was a semi that had taken a rough turn and it turned over. Onto Sean's car. He was taken to the hospital and was on life support for months. They told me, there was a small chance he would make it out alive. I could either pull the plug or wait for him to die on his own. I had a long talk with his family and we decided to let him go. Lucas was just about to turn one. I didn't think I could make it through raising three children on my own but I've been getting through it." I told him. He grabbed my free hand and squeezed it. I looked at him and smiled. We sat there in silence. And this time it wasn't awkward.