Learning to Love

Chapter 6 - Meeting The Guys

"So the others will be here soon..." Gerard started tentatively, probably not wanting to startle Zoe again, "Frank's flight arrived earlier than we thought it would, and Mikey and Ray are picking him up from the airport so all three of them will be here in about ten minutes."

Zoe looked at me, so I can gave her an encouraging nod and smile. She took a deep breath and nodded, looking at Gerard.

"Okay then, I'm excited to be meeting them."

"They're excited to meet you," Gerard said, the corner on his lip turning up into a half-smile.

"Are you two girls going to sit down?" Lindsay giggled. I realised we were just loitering at the door to the living room. "Make yourselves at home already," she said.

There were two seats left, one next to Lindsay on the smaller of the two sofas and one in between Gerard and Bandit on the bigger sofa. Zoe took the seat next to Lindsay, she seemed more comfortable around her than Gerard, probably because she was more parental and maternal. I was more comfortable around Gerard for that exact reason.

As soon as I sat down Bandit crawled over to me and sat on my lap, giggling in delight.

"Do you like Peppa Pig?" She asked, looking at me sincerely. It was adorable.

"Eh, I prefer Pingu," I replied back, just as serious.

"Me too!" She clapped her hands together and laughed.

"Oh c'mon, tellytubbies is obviously the best show," Gerard joined in on our conversation. Bandit and I looked at each other with disgust and turned to him.

"Tellytubbies is awful, it's so unrealistic," I replied, as if he were insane.

"Oh and a talking penguin is?" He said, putting his hand on his hip sassily.

"Um, excuse me," I said, "he doesn't talk, he just goes 'noot noot'"

"Noot noot!" Bandit yelled, giggling again.

Gerard opened his mouth to argue but the sound of knocking interrupted him.

"Ahh that'll be them," Lindsay said, "now if you're finished arguing about children's television, would you mind answering the door?" She asked Gerard.

He looked a little confused for a moment, as if only just realising what he had been doing, before shaking his head and getting up to greet his guests, chuckling along the way.

I looked to Zoe, who was just staring at me incredulously.

"What?" I started defensively, "I like Pingu..."

"Uncle Mikey!" Bandit yelled before shooting off my lap like a rocket into the man's arms. He caught her, laughed and swung her around in his arms. He was followed shortly by Ray and Frank, with Gerard railing behind all three of them.

"Hello boys," Lindsay said, going over to hug all three of them. Gerard pouted slightly so she hugged him too, rolling her eyes as she did, before going into the kitchen to make some coffee for everyone. At the same time, Bandit had consecutively jumped on all three of the guys, demanding their attention before running back to me and sitting on me.

With the pleasantries out the way, Gerard stepped round the others and gestured to Zoe and I. "We have some new members of the Way family. This is Zoe and Taylor."

"Hi," Zoe whispered shyly. I waved a hand nonchalantly, going for the 'couldn't care less' strategy.

"It's nice to meet you both," Ray said.

"Thank God you didn't go for basic kids, these two look like our kinda people," Frank said, looking between the two of us appraisingly.

"I thought I was only getting one niece or nephew, I feel outnumbered now," Mikey teased.