Motel 6 // n.h

[66] Meeting The Family

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Avery Holmes

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The next morning, we hopped off the plane and met with Niall's family at the terminal. I'd have been lying if I said that I wasn't nervous, because I was. We took a cab to Niall's small house and I smiled at how cozy it looked. The moment we got in the door, we were welcomed by his family.

"We've heard so much about you!" Niall's mom said.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Horan." I smiled politely.

"Please, it's Maura. And this is Aimee? She's absolutely precious!" Maura smiled down at her. Aimee squeezed my hand and stood a bit behind me, deciding that she was going to be shy today. I was just glad she didn't start talking about her underwear. "And this is Theo."

She was bouncing a small baby on her hip. He had blonde hair and blue eyes and reminded me so much of Niall it was crazy. He had a few teeth and a slight blush on his cheeks. Looking at him reminded me when Aimee was at this stage only a few years ago.

"Hi, Theo." I smiled. "Aimee's been talking about him a lot. I think she's getting tired of the grown ups around all the time." I glanced behind me and saw that Aimee had run over to Niall and was now talking to Bobby and Greg.

"... and that over there is my girlfriend, Avery. Ave, come say hi!" Niall called me over to them. I blushed and walked over, quickly waving to his brother and dad, who all had similar characteristics to him. "This is her daughter, Aimee. She's three and a half now."

Greg and Bobby finally glanced away from the television screen to say hello to us. Bobby stood up and gave us both hugs, explaining that there was a big Derby match going on at the moment. I assured him that it was perfectly fine and he mentioned something to Niall about how I was "a sweet young lady."

Thank God they like me.

I sat down beside Niall on the dark green couch and he wrapped an arm around me. I could see that Maura was in the kitchen making something and Theo was scooting around the kitchen floor. Aimee still hadn't warmed up to them yet and stayed on my lap, watching Theo from afar as he played with pots and pans. I could tell that she wanted to join him.

"Go play, baby." I whispered in her ear. "You're okay here."

"Will he bite me?" Aimee whispered back, looking at Theo like he was a little animal. I giggled and could feel Niall's chest rumble with laughter.

"Of course not, he's a baby Aims. You were a baby too once." I explained.

"Did I used to bite?" Her eyes suddenly grew wide with this new fascination that babies bit people. I sighed and fixed the clip in her hair.

"He's not going to bite you, Aimee. Go say hi for me, okay?"

She uneasily slid off of my lap and walked over to where Theo was sitting on the floor. He smacked a pan and it made a loud crashing noise that caused Aimee to frown. I had never seen Aimee around a baby before and hadn't any idea why she thought that Theo would bite her.

"Hey, say something." Aimee said as she sat beside Theo. He giggled.

"Mammy," Theo said.

Aimee took the spoon out of his hand and started to drum the various pots that were sitting around them before handing it back to Theo and waiting for him to do what she did. He ended up throwing the spoon across the room and Aimee sighed, frustrated.