Falling Like The Stars (Book 3)

Chapter 23 - Father and Son

'[Father:]
It's not time to make a change
Just relax, take it easy
You're still young, that's your fault
There's so much you have to know
Find a girl, settle down
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.'

'Father and Son' - Cat Stevens

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Emily and James caught a taxi from James's hotel back to Emily's apartment. On the way, she phoned Vanessa to let her know that she was on her way back home and thanked her profusely for everything she had done last night in looking after Alex.

James sat next to Emily in the back of the taxi, gazing out the window and getting serious de ja vu from the many times he had taken this trip before. He noticed a new music shop had opened downtown and caught a fleeting glimpse of himself on a huge poster in the window.

That was something he would never get used to seeing. It was crazy to think that a few years ago, he was still bouncing from bedsit to bedsit on the seafront in Redcar, unemployed, and incredibly depressed with no direction in life.

Countless bands had been formed and disbanded, numerous songs and EPs written, with no one to listen to them, endless pub gigs were played with virtually no one paying attention to him. It had been disheartening. All he had wanted was for someone to take notice, take him seriously, take a chance on him.

He hadn't wanted to take part on X Factor, but he thought it would be his one last shot to fame. In fact, he had applied and been on the programme twice, but the first time had been a false start. His nerves had gotten the better of him by far, and he'd had the worst panic attack of his life, leading to him ending up having to be emitted to hospital and medicate.

The second time hadn't been much better, but he had been medicated this time, and whilst he had originally thought it would be the biggest downfall to rely on medication, somehow being doped up and numb, playing like a deer in headlights, it had worked.

Most importantly to him, it had brought the family back together. His Mum and Dad hadn't spoken to one another in 22 years until the time of his audition. At first, they had been shocked, and refused to even acknowledge one another, but finally, once they had released that it had been fully planned by him and his sisters, they put their differences aside and focused their efforts on him and his future dreams.

His half-sister Neve, his youngest sister, had been so excited to meet Emily when they had been dating and subsequently gutted for him when they had broken up. She would probably be the first person he would tell about Alex. Having checked, it was OK with Emily first.

James was shaken from his thoughts by Emily's voice talking to him and realised that he must have zoned out with his own thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Em. I completely zoned out. What were you saying?" He turned his gaze from the window to the blonde haired, green-eyed woman sitting next to him in the back of the taxi they were in.

"I just said that if it was nice a little later, maybe we could take Alex down to the park near mine. He likes to see the ducks. There's a nice little coffee shop on the way there that we could stop off and get coffee from on the way." She smiled softly at him and hooked some hair out her mouth that had become stuck to the lipgloss on her lips.

"Sounds great. Whatever you want to do works for me. I have no plans for the day. I leave on Friday though and I'm flying back to London. It's little sister Neve's birthday on Saturday so we're going for a family meal."

"Is that the sister you told me about a couple of times when we were dating?"

"Yeah. We get on really well. She's my favourite sister." He laughed. "Don't tell her that, though. She really wanted to meet you when she found out we were dating. I'll probably tell her first about Alex. Th-that's if you don't mind, that is?"