The tall, handsome stranger

Life with the Armitage's

I'm sorry for such the long delay between updates and thank you to anyone who is still reading this story, it means a lot.

I want to try and finish this story up soon so expect smaller chapters with large time gaps between each so I can progress through family life a bit quicker.

Anyway I hope you enjoy.

7 years had passed since Richard and Megan brought Ollie home and lots had happened in that time. Ollie was now 7 and a new baby had been added to the family. A little girl named Mia.

Ollie had grown into a fine young boy, eager and excited about the world he lived in. He enjoyed school, had many friends and played football for his local team to which Richard was a typical footie dad, shouting and cheering along the sidelines every weekend. Ollie was the spitting image of his father; dark hair, a strong posture and the same cheeky smile but he had inherited his mother's eyes.

Mia on the other hand strongly resembled Megan. She had the same hair and same facial features and same sense of humour, much to Richard's delight. He loved the fact his little girl was a mini version of the woman he loved and he couldn't quite believe that she was 5 now.

And in those years following Mia's birth the family had been on many holidays, trips and days out, celebrated many birthdays and had wonderful Christmases. Richard's career was successful as ever and the family was content.

And most importantly Richard and Megan's love was still as powerful and soul consuming as it had been 8 years ago when they had met.

Today was Mia's first sports day at school. The whole school was split into their year groups and once in their year groups they were split into different teams (the students' houses) to compete in various sports against each other and have an overall house winner. Ollie was very excited as was Richard who couldn't wait to watch Ollie play football and watch his little girl running about in an egg and spoon race. Megan had the camera ready and the proud parents cheered on their little ones.

As the final races came to end the headmistress announced there was one last race to be had, a new race had been added, the father's race. The children were all very excited to hear that their fathers' could run against the others to see whose dad was the fastest. Ollie and Mia came running over begging Richard to participate. Richard was reluctant, he'd kept in shape but he couldn't stand the thought of embarrassing his children if he came last or fell over or did something silly. But when he looked at the excitement of his children and the gleam in Megan's eyes he could hardly refuse.

"Alright alright, I'll do it"

He kissed Megan's cheek before making his way over to the start line where the other dads had begun to line up, eyeing each other up and down as their competitiveness began to take over.

The dads were ready, the whistle was blown and off they went. Racing down the track, Richard took a strong lead, his long legs speeding off in front of a lot of the dads. Ollie, Mia and Megan were cheering loudly from the sideline. The cheers of all the children caused quite a racket as the dads neared the finish line. Richard could feel himself getting tired. At school he always did longer distance running than the shorter sprints like this one but he was determined to win for his family.

He was nearly there, the finish line was only a few metres away but out of the corner of his eye he could see one of the other dads' catching him up. He couldn't let him win so he pushed just a bit further and then he as across the line.

He had no idea who had won and clearly neither had the spectators because they all were quiet, with baited breath waiting to hear.

"It was a close call but the winner of our first father's race is..."

"Richard Armitage"

Ollie and Mia screamed as they came hurtling towards Richard who picked them up and twirled them about. Megan was so happy to see the scene before her as Richard walked over, a huge smile on his face as he leant down to kiss her.

Their family certainly was perfect.