See You Again - Niall Horan

Chapter 39

We woke the next morning and set up for Riley’s birthday party. Even though his birthday wasn’t for a couple of weeks, my family wanted to celebrate while we were in North Dakota since they wouldn’t be with us for his actual birthday. I made Niall blow up balloons until he was blue in the face while I cooked. Riley didn’t understand the concept of the party but enjoyed the chance to eat cake, as did Niall. When it came to opening his presents, he didn’t quite understand what to do so Niall and I had to help him open them. And once they were open, he cared more about ripping and crumpling the wrapping paper then he did about the actual presents.

After the party was over, we packed our things along with Riley’s new toys and drove to the airport. We were flying to Los Angeles to join the boys for an award show and then we had three more weeks of tour before we could go home.

Once we landed, Jake and a couple of the other bodyguards met us and took us to the hotel everyone was at. We were bombarded by a large group of reporters outside the airport that we had to push through. Riley became scared with all their camera flashing around us and when they wouldn’t back up. He was crying and tears were rolling down his reddened cheeks as we walked to the waiting car. I held his head to my chest and covered his ear with my hand trying to lessen the noise. Niall placed his hand around my waist and was rubbing Riley’s back, shielding us from everything around us as the bigger men with us pushed us through the crowd.

After we finally made it to our room for the night, it took us a long time to get Riley to calm down and go to sleep. The next morning came way too early for either of our liking when Riley thought he was hungry. Since we had a meeting about the awards show tonight in a little bit, after we ate, we walked down the hall to the room it was going to take place in. Throughout the whole thing both Niall and I couldn’t stop yawning. When it was over, Louis asked, “What were you guys doing last night that you’re both so tired?” He smirked.

“It’s not what you think. Riley got scared last night at the airport and it took us most of the night to get him to settle down so we hardly got any sleep.” I shot back.

“Well then why doesn’t Riley come hang out with Uncle Liam so the two of you can take a nap?” Liam said when he picked Riley off the floor.

“That would great Liam but you don’t have to if you don’t want.” I replied.

“No I would love to. Gives us some time to bond.”

“Thanks so much. I’ll have Niall bring some of his food and toys to your room.”

Liam took Riley with him as Niall and I returned to our room. He grabbed some food and toy and picked the diaper bag from off the floor and walked it to Liam’s room. I laid down on the bed and was already dozing off when he returned. He slid in next to me, grabbed the comforter and covered us up. He crawled closer to me and held me as we both napped for a couple of hours.

When I woke up, Niall was next to me looking at his computer. “Have a nice nap?”

“I did. What about you?”

“It was fantastic.”

“What are you looking at?” I said when I saw pictures of palm trees and beaches on his computer screen.

“I was researching some places for a vacation.”

“A vacation?”

“Yeah, we haven’t had a vacation as a family. I mean we have visited each of our families and been places but it’s never been just the three of us. Someone is almost always around. So I think we need to take one.”

I smiled at him. “When were you thinking?”

“Right after we are done here in the US. We would fly out right after the last show was over.”