Promises

"Violet!" I screamed. "Violet!"

"What?! What?!"

"Addi said 'Mama'!"

"No way!" Violet shouted. "Did she say Auntie V?"

I let out a little snort. "She's only five months old, Vi. She can't even crawl, let alone say 'Auntie V'."

Violet appeared in the living room doorway with her cat under her arms. It was a pretty Siamese cat and her name was Mia, but I called her Nubby because it had a nub for a tail. It was a little shit though. We weren't fans of each other and we never have been. Addi loved her though. I almost felt like she rubbed it in my face that my own daughter liked her.

"Well," Violet started. "A girl can dream."

"I'm not trying to rush her growing up," I spoke. She let out a happy squeal and started kicking her legs. "Especially for Louis."

At the mention of Louis, my heart ached. There was still fourteen days until I could see him. It was fourteen days too many. If I could pack up mine and Addi's essentials and be on the go all the time, we would tour with him. I knew he missed seeing us every day and being able to hold Addi. Louis was my everything as was Addi and seeing the way he looked at her when we Skyped or the way he sounded when we talked about her, it broke my heart because I knew he was regretting going on tour. And that was the one thing I didn't want him to do.

"How's he taking the whole touring thing?" She dropped down on the couch and let Nubby Mia roam free. I shrugged, shaking a rattle in front of a babbling Addi. "He doesn't really talk to me about it, but Harry says he spends most of his time moping around."

She looked deep in thought for a few minutes before a smile broke out on her face. Oh man. That's never good. "What if I told you that Mum and Dad bought you two tickets that left the twelfth," she spoke.

My mouth dropped and my heart stopped. "Are you being serious or are you joking? Because if you're joking, I'll kick your arse."

Her hands were held up in defense. "I'm not joking. They're going to give them to you today."

My eyebrows rose. "And when do we come back?"

"You leave on the twenty fifth; the day of their Philadelphia concert."




After an awful nine hour overnight flight, we had finally arrived in sunny Florida. Addi would've slept the whole time if it wasn't for the screaming baby a few rows back. The parents didn't seem to get that there were other people on the plane that were trying to sleep. Their child screaming in turn made Addi fussy. She barely slept three hours. The other six she was fussy and squirming. As soon as we got off the plane, I gave her her pacifier and pulled the cover over her carseat, hoping she'd fall asleep. Now to get a luggage cart and find our luggage.

"Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

I grinned at the security guard. "Can you tell me where I can find a luggage buggy?"

He took a look at the carseat in my hand and grinned. "I'll do ya one better and go get ya one. Just stay put."

I cut him off. "No, it's fine really. I can go—" Now he cut me off. "Nonsense. I don't want you waking that baby of yours. Now stay put, I'll be back in a jiff."

That would have to be the nicest old American man I have ever met. So far, America seems all right. When the man came back, I thanked him and put the carseat on the carrier before making my way to baggage claim. I immediately spotted my big suitcase coming around. I grabbed it and grabbed the medium sized suitcase and duffle-bag right after.

"Now how am I going to do this?" I asked myself. Addi had yet to make a sound, so I knew she was asleep, so I didn't waste any time with setting her seat on the ground beside the buggy. The big suitcase was set flat on the buggy, then Addi's seat was put up against the back, then the medium suitcase was set in front of her seat, and the duffle-bag was set in the little basket. With her diaperbag thrown across my shoulders, I made sure to hold the handle of her seat before pushing everything toward the exit.

Someone must be here to pick me up. Now all I had to do was find said person.

Scarlett

"Paul," I greeted with a sigh of relief. "I've never been so glad to see someone."

He let out a deep chuckle. "Nice to see you too, Miss Scarlett. Now grab the little one and I'll push the buggy."

It took us all of ten minutes to get through the throngs of people and to the car. There weren't any fans or paparazzi here, so it wasn't that bad. What was bad was the long walk and the weight of my child and her carrier. As soon as we got in the car and Paul took off, I was out. It may have only been a half hour nap, but I would take it.


"Whose bags are these?"

"You're asking me like I'll know."

"Don't be a git, Niall."

I let out a quiet groan as I felt to my left to make sure Addi was still there. She was still laying on her back in the same spot I put her in. As soon as Paul had dropped us off at the hotel and helped me up to the room, Addi and I got comfortable on the bed and crashed once again. That was... three hours ago. Wow. I haven't taken a nap this long since I had Addi.

"Will you lot shut up?" I spoke. "'M trying to nap here."

"Scarlett?"

"No, it's Jim Morrison."

"Scarry!" Niall shouted, taking a running start at me. The sudden noise startled Addi awake. She let out a tiny whimper before letting loose. That tiny mouth of hers opened and out came an earth shattering scream. Niall and Louis winced, but it didn't phase me. Louis rushed to her aid while I rolled my eyes. She would be over this in a matter of seconds if we gave her a bottle. Me being the smart mother that I am, got up and quickly fixed a bottle. Louis was swaying from side to side with her in his arms and every now and then bouncing her. It didn't do any good. Now was my opportunity to stuff the bottle in her mouth, and I did just that. It took her a few seconds to realize it was in her mouth but once she did, the room fell silent.

"Holy fucking hell," Niall spoke up.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Language, Niall."

Louis turned to his bandmate with a glare. That's never good. "Way to go, you git. You woke her from her nap and now she's going to be cranky the rest of the day."

"Actually," I piped up. "She'll be fine. She's good about not being massively cranky."

I didn't mean to act like I knew everything about her or to make him feel bad for not knowing that kind of stuff. She was our daughter. My job just permitted me to be with her all the time whereas his didn't. And there was nothing wrong with that. I wanted my daughter to be able to have anything she wanted whenever she wanted, and I'm sure Louis wanted the same. But for that to happen, Louis had to work and work meant touring the world for months at a time.

"I'm gonna go get Harry," Niall commented. "He'll want to see Addi." And with that, he turned and left.

"'M sorry," I mumbled. His eyes traveled from our daughter to me. The hurt didn't go unnoticed. "What for?"

"For saying that. I didn't mean to make you feel bad." I pushed up on my toes and placed a kiss on the corner of his mouth. "I know how much you hate being away from her."

"It's fine," he said.

I shook my head. "But it's not."

"But it is."

"No it isn't, Louis."

"Just drop it, Letty," he snapped.

I'm not going to lie and say it didn't hurt my feelings that he snapped at me, because it did. It hurt more then it probably should have, but I haven't seen him in a few months and I figured he'd be happy to see me. But it seems as if he was the opposite. Instead of happy, he was grumpy. Instead of ecstatic, he was annoyed.

I let out an aggravated sigh. "Fine. Whatever."

The door to the hotel room burst open and in came Niall with Harry trailing behind him. Niall always had to make his presence known wherever he was. Whether it be his singing, his loud voice, or his boisterous laugh. Harry was the complete opposite. When he saw Addi, a grin spread across his face, but when his eyes traveled over to me and then Louis, his grin faded.

"Woah." We both glanced at him. "What did we just walk into?" Niall was chomping on a bag of crisps when he took notice to our change in attitude and annoyed faces.

"Are you lot fighting?" He asked, crumbs flying every which way with each word. Harry slapped his shoulder. "You can't just ask them that!" He hissed.

Niall held his hands up in defense. "'M just askin'! Jeez!"

Harry glared. "Well next time, keep your questions to yourself." He then grabbed the sleeve of Niall's shirt and started pulling him back toward the door. "We'll come back later. Text me in a bit, Scar, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure," I mumbled, shooting him a half assed grin.

So much for the start of a great vacation.


The couples that are "meant to be" are the ones who go through everything that is meant to tear them apart, and come out even stronger than they were before.