Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Thirty-Three

Niall

"Chloe, come on, you'll be late."

Watching with a fond smile on his face as Chloe helped to serve a customer, assisted by his boss, Niall gestured towards the door, swinging her swimming bag in his hands as he waited for the seen-year-old to jump down from behind the counter and pull her coat on. Slipping his hand into hers, Niall gave Chloe a smile as they headed towards the door, allowing Chloe to tug him down the street and towards the bus stop before he asked, "Looking forward to going back, poppet? Coach said when I called you didn't miss too much and should be able to go straight back to the group."

Nodding, Chloe stopped pulling Niall towards the bus stop and slowed down to her normal pace, taking her swimming back from him and swinging it around as she walked. "Yep. I haven't been in ages, though. What if Coach changes his mind and moves me back down?"

"He won't, Chlo. You'll be fine." Letting go of Chloe's hand to find his wallet as the bus approached, Niall tucked one of her curls behind her ear, catching her hand before she old run onto the bus ahead of him and making her stand along with him as he paid before they found seats, sighing imperceptibly as the seven-year-old grabbed the window seat. "And anyway, if you do get moved down to the other group, it's not the end of the world, there's plenty of other kids your age in the lower group..."

Making a face, Chloe nodded again, kicking her legs beneath her seat and staring out of the window before she asked, "Didn't you say that Liam was coming to practice and was going to watch with you and the other parents?"

"I did. That's not a problem, is it? He's your dad and he wanted to come along, so I figured it'd be okay." Watching Chloe to judge her reaction, Niall gave her another smile as she shrugged, taking her apathy as a good thing and wrapping his arm around her, turning to stare out of the window with her and taking up his daughter's usual hobby of spotting other buses and beating her at her own game, letting Chloe win after she began to frown at him.

*********

Releasing Chloe's hand as they entered the swim centre, Niall let her run on ahead as he paid for her lesson, looking around for any sign of Liam and checking his phone before he sighed and began to follow after Chloe. Wincing as the familiar scent of chlorine hit him as he entered the changing rooms, Niall waited outside the cubicle with Chloe's school shoes peeking out from under the door, taking her bag from her once she emerged in her swimming costume and fumbling for locker money before he followed her down to the pool, watching for a second as she jumped into the pool, grinning over at Chloe once she'd resurfaced only to have her stick her tongue out at him and gesture for him to retreat upstairs to the viewing balcony with the other parents.

Checking his phone again as he made his way upstairs, Niall smiled slightly as he noticed a text from Liam, detouring and heading back to the main entrance to the swim centre to find Liam hovering around the entrance, Paddy stood hanging around behind him sheepishly. Electing to ignore Paddy for the time being, Niall gave Liam a small smile, slipping his and into Liam's and trying to not overthink things as he said, "It's great to see you. Chloe's already down in the pool, but you're free to stay and watch the lesson with me and some of the other parents..."

"Yeah, that sounds good. It's great to see you too, by the way. Mum and Dad wanted me to say hi for them — they've gone back to Wolverhampton now, but I think they're planning on coming up again soon to see Chloe." Tightening his grip on Niall's hand, Liam followed him through to the viewing balcony, trying not to noticeably stare at him as they sat and Niall pointed out which group Chloe was part of, looking away as Niall caught him only to have Niall grin at him and shuffle his chair slightly closer to Liam, regardless of the way Paddy was still hovering around, having found a chair of his own.