Breakeven

Chapter 82

We were late arriving at the arena and as we walked through the doors I could hear that the lads were already on stage. Sophie and I made our way up the stairs to where our seats were and I soon spotted our group and two empty seats right at the aisle.

As we slipped into our seats as discreetly as we could, Keira noticed me and stretched her arms out to me. I lifted her from Andi who had been holding her. She pointed to the stage, a look of awe in her eyes, "My daddy singing" she said to me with pride. "He is honey" I said as I held her tightly.

I glanced at Sophie who was watching me intently rather than focussing on the stage, I guessed that she was thinking of the interactions she would have in the future with her child. I smiled reassuringly at her, a smile that she returned before she turned towards the stage and contently watched the show.

Danny ran out into the crowd, I watched him battling through the floor before climbing up the railings to the seated area where we were. Andi and Victoria hollered gesturing for him to come over to us, but he didn't seem to notice as he walked through the seated area, stopping for photos and singing an occasional line to girls who just stared at him doughy eyed as he did it.

Adam, Jessica and Alleysha wriggled along the line of seats until the were stood at the aisle with me, I could see that they wanted to make a move towards Danny but I tried to keep them back feeling it was slightly unfair of us to take away any time he had available to his fans. Danny glanced up and saw that I was struggling to hold back the kids, he worked his way out to the aisle and nodded to me, giving permission for the kids to go to him. I nodded in turn to the kids and they ran down the stairs as Danny ran up them, meeting halfway. Danny gave the 3 of them a quick hug and then lifted Allleysha with one arm, never missing a lyric. They walked back up to our seats, Danny now unable to stop the fans from grabbing him as he walked so Sean was working double time.

As Danny reached the seats where we were, he put Alleysha down before walking straight past me into the row where he bounced a lot with Andi and Victoria as the song started to reach the end. He leaned over to kiss Ailish on the cheek, smiling like I haven't seen him smile in such a long time. And in the final bars of the song he walked back along the row, I expected him to just run off to make sure he was back on the stage in time for the next song but instead he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him as he gazed into my eyes, he moved his hand from my waist and gently stroked Keira's cheek, who was still sitting on my hip. And as the last word was sung he leaned over and kissed me, in the arena, in front of all his fans, something he had never done before.

I felt my cheeks flush red as I heard the screaming of the fans around us, for a few moments I was so swept up that I forgot I was stood with 20,000 people watching us and the screams soon brought me back to reality.

Danny made a fumbled apology to the crowd as he ran up the steps and disappeared through one of the exits. Mark and Glen went straight into the next song, ignoring the fact that Danny wasn't on stage with them as he should have been and after a slightly extended intro, Danny ran onto the stage to continue with the show.

This show, of all the shows I have ever seen, was by far the best. As the final song was sung, we all stood with our arms around each other, taking in the moment. Pride filled me like it never had before and before long the arena lights had come on and the stage was empty.