I'll Be Your Strength - Nathan Sykes (ON HOLD)

Chapter Sixteen

Nathan and the lads were busy doing an interview, which I knew before we arrived, so we all went straight to his apartment. Once there, Darren ran around like a crazy monkey, playing with his cars, kicking his ball, and just generally running from room to room. Myself, Jorgia and Stacy sat on the sofa with a cup of tea and had a chat. Stacy was being really off with us, only talking every so often. Most of the time she was on her phone.

I sat Darren at the dining table when it was tea time. I made us all a curry. I had text Nathan to see if the lads were coming over and they were, of course. HUGE pot of curry on the go.

I had just put Darren’s tea out when I heard laughter on the other side of the front door. I breathed in and continued to put out the curry. The door unlocked and the voices got louder.

“Yeah, and then he was like ‘Oh my God, how could you – Hi!” Nathan said before turning to see Jorgia and Stacy on the sofa

“Hi, Im Jorgia” she smiled sweetly at the lads, I could see her through the door to the kitchen. I could tell she was trying her best not to fan girl. Stacy muttered hi and continued on her phone. “Tiff’s in the kitchen. She has a surprise for you”

“I smell Tiff’s curry. Oh yum!” Tom said as he came into the kitchen. He kissed me on the cheek and took a piece of chicken off one of the plates. He stopped and looked at Darren, “Who’s that?”

“This is Darren” I smiled, “This is Tom. Say hi Darren”

“Hi” he muffled with a mouthful of rice

“Does Nathan know he’s here?” Tom whispered to me. I shook my head as Nathan came through to the kitchen

“Hi babe” he smiled and gave me a hug. He looked over my shoulder and saw Darren. He then looked back at me with a ‘Really?’ sort of face.

“Yeah. I guessed since we went public it would be good for you to meet Darren” I smiled at him, my arms still round his waist. The rest of the lads came in, said hi and sat down at the table to eat.

“Could have warned me. Just a bit shocked” Nathan smiled at Darren as he high-fived the lads, “What do I say?”

“Hi? Maybe” I laughed as I pushed him towards the table.

I grabbed the last two plates and put them down in front of Jorgia and myself on the table. “Darren, this is Nathan” I introduced them to each, “He is very special to mummy”

Darren looked Nathan up and down before going back to his rice, “You going to say hi?” Darren shook his head. I looked at Nathan who looked a bit hurt, “Don’t worry. He’ll be fine in a bit” I comforted Nathan before digging in to my tea.

Evening came and I popped Darren in his carry cot in the bedroom. I walked back out to Nathan, Jorgia, Stacy and Jay in the living room. We put a DVD on and chilled.

“What if Darren never likes me?” Nathan whispered to me half way through the film

“He will. It’s just all new. He’ll be fine tomorrow. We’ll go to the park or something” I smiled at him, kissed him on the cheek and snuggled into him. Nathans arm wrapped around my shoulder as he gave me a gentle squeeze.

The next day, Stacy and Jorgia went off to do some shopping, leaving me, Nathan and Darren some “family time” as Jorgia put it. It was weird to think that 5 months ago I was a single mum, now I have a fantastic boyfriend who could be my future husband, who could be my sons’ future stepdad. What would his real father say? Would he care?

We went to the park for a picnic and to play football, plus other games. I set up the picnic while Nathan played with Darren. Darren was so much better today. He was laughing and playing with Nathan, which made me smile. I watched them for a while as Nathan raced Darren to the football. Nathan then scooped Darren up and hung him upside down; all the while Darren was laughing his little socks off. This was my family. This was going to be my future…was it too early to be thinking about that?

Darren sat on my lap as we tucked into the picnic. Darren munched all the grapes and was now on to the cheese sandwiches,

“What’cha thinking?” Nathan asked as he took a sip of juice

I looked down at Darren and back to my ham sandwich before looking up to Nath, “It’s perfect”

“What is?” Nathan asked, sounding confused. I let a tear roll down my cheek before answering

“This. Everything. It’s everything I could have wanted, and more!” I smiled as Nath wiped the tear of my cheek

“I love you” he whispered to me, looking deep into my eyes

“I love you too” I let the words slip out my mouth before I knew they were there. Nathan came closer and kissed me softly on the lips before pressing his forehead against mine.

“I’ve got the studio at 3, but after that I’ve got a couple days off. Wanna go away somewhere?”

“Erm, yeah. I mean, I’ll have to see if my mum don’t mind watching Darren of course” I smiled

“Kay” he smiled, our foreheads still touching

“Daddy, juice please?” Darren said. Me and Nathan both looked down at him, then at each other. Did he just say daddy? Nathan picked up his juice and passed it to him, “Thank you” he then sat quietly while having his drink.

He had. He had called Nathan daddy. I was unsure what to do. I mean, I could just leave it. I didn’t force him to call Nathan daddy. But if I do leave it I’m saying that it’s fine to call him daddy. If I correct him, he’s only going to be confused. Right...

“No. Nathan” I said, gulping hard

“No” Darren sighed, “Daddy” he said it in a way in which he knew this was correct and there was no arguing with him. Well, I corrected him but he still insists on calling him daddy…that’s fine by me…Wonder if Nathan felt the same?