The Nanny
Everybody Knows
"Yes babe." I answered the husky voice on the other line of the phone balancing on my shoulder as I handed Darcy a juice box with one hand and held Jamie on my bouncing knee with the other.
Harry had been apologizing repeatedly on the phone for having to stay out a little later than planned because of some last minute interview that had been pushed forward to today for security reasons.
Apparently the station that was hosting didn't want to deal with camped out fans.
"I just hate that I have to cancel on our movie night with the kids." Harry continued.
"Babe, don't worry about it. It's not like we won't have more movie nights. Now I have to let you go because I have my hands full and I am at the park with the munchkins so I will see you later tonight, okay?"
"Alright baby. I am so sor-"
"Stop it." I rolled my eyes and crossed them making a face at Darcy who giggled while she drank her juice. "Your daddy is silly." I whispered conspiratorially to her.
"I can almost hear you roll your eyes at me over the phone."
"Goodbye now." I answered, ignoring his words.
"Bye babe."
With a giggle I ended the call and looked from Darcy to Jamie. "Alright kid-squad what are we going to do with our afternoon now?"
"Can we play on the swings?"
Her eager look and toothy grin had me chuckling and nodding my head as I gathered our quick picnic lunch and headed over towards the busy playground.
Children ran back and forth under the watchful eyes of their corresponding adults that happily I joined as I observed Darcy's pigtailed curls bounce behind her as she joined the others.
I took a seat on one of the vacant benches while she played, one hand pushing the stroller back and forth attempting to get Jamie to take a nap.
It felt natural, normal even to be here with the children, to have Harry calling to check up on us and promising to be home for dinner. We had become this little family unit and the longer I was immersed in it the more I grew attached to it. I never wanted this peace and serenity to end.
But alas, nothing last forever.
"Aria..."
I glanced up from where I was pulling a blanket over Jamie's now sleeping form to see Darcy running up to me with brows furrowed in an almost identical fashion as her father that made me smile softly.
"Yes baby?"
She glanced over her shoulder calling my attention to the woman across the playground on her phone talking animatedly while waving her hand around and staring right back at us, unabashedly.
"That lady said she knew my daddy."
I glanced back at Darcy for a moment before looking back up at the woman who was now looking back out into the parking lot behind her where I could see a sleek black car pull up and a few moments later a man sporting a long range, expensive looking camera around his neck jumped out.
They know.
It was probably because I had grown so used to the comfort of it all that I had actually forgotten how extraordinary Harry's situation was, and in turn our situation.
So I almost forgot what kind of trouble could be lurking when I was out with Darcy in public, especially with the fact that she was a major secret. As it turned out throughout our blissful month and a half of our tentative relationship, Harry and I had forgotten the strict precautions and evasive maneuvers to keeping that hidden, but seeing this man and eager, wickedly grinning woman make their way with a purpose towards us I knew the cat was out of the bag.
All I could hope was that Harry could handle this and that I could get us out of this immediate situation with minor damage.
"It's time to go angel." I said in a faux calm tone when inside I was actually frantic.
How did they find out?
I didn't have the time to think that over, however, right now my only mission was to get home and wait for Harry.
I snatched up the diaper bag beside me, placed one arm around Darcy to lift her onto my side and the other on the stroller before making my way briskly towards one of Harry's cars in the lot.
Damn it, he had to insist I take one of his cars. Shit this isn't going to be good.
Any hope of them thinking they may be wrong forgotten at the thought of the car waiting in the lot.
I managed to not stumble as I practically ran towards the car, the two suspected paps closing in on us as we had to walk in that direction to get to the Audi.
"Miss? Wait."
Yea right lady.
I glanced down at Jamie who was slowly waking up from his short lived nap and Darcy who looked a little rattled as she bounced at my side with her fingers stuffed in her mouth nervously.
"Hey baby," I said softly getting her attention. Large green eyes looked at me as I smiled reassuringly while keeping up my pace towards the car. "It's going to be ok, yea? Just ignore them. Don't talk to them baby ok. Let me get us home to daddy."
She nodded and over her shoulder I could see that they had finally reached us.
"Miss Reid is it true that you are dating Harry Styles? Are you two planning on getting married?"
I clamped my lips shut and held Darcy a little tighter while squeezing the handle bar to the stroller.
"Why was Harry hiding his children from the world?"
Darcy cried out as the man with the camera jumped in front of us almost causing me to fall over. I sneered and pivoted around him, wondering why in the world I had decided to park at the back of the lot.
I felt my inner mama bear flare up as Darcy leaned her head down and whimpered into my shoulder. I didn't immediately know why as my sights were set straight onto the car that was just a few rows away but as I turned to glare at the woman still spewing off asinine questions I widened my own eyes and suppressed my own whimper.
It seemed these two had called a few friends. More men with cameras' had joined the two instigators and the sound of clicking was heard mixed in with the cacophony of unintelligible questions.
Tears of joy threatened to spill over as we finally reached the car, the small swarm we had attracted surrounding us as I clicked the unlock button, yanked the backseat passenger side door open and placed Darcy in so she could climb over Jamie's car seat.
"Buckle your seatbelt baby." I said still not speaking a word to the annoyances behind me while pulling my now crying baby out of the stroller and placing him in his seat and securing him in.
I struggled with closing the stroller and for a moment seriously considered leaving it behind but right when I was going to kick the damn thing into the slowly growing crowed a kind older gentleman in some sort of uniform made his way through the throng of people shoving the protesting photographers and small group of observers away until he was in front of me, calmly closing the stroller and sliding it into the trunk.
"Go ahead, get those babies out of here. I'll get these twats to move for you."
All I could do was offer him a genuinely grateful smile and thank god for human decency as I climbed into the car.
Camera lenses pressed to the windows, snapping away shot after shot of both the crying children in the back seat.
It was in the relative safety of the car that my adrenalin began to make a decline and all I could do was rest my head against my knuckles trying to calm my pounding heart so as not to get us into a car accident, and try to tune out the shouting outside of the small car.
What the fuck was going on?
How did this escalate so quickly? You'd think I was Angelina Jolie at the park in LA. This was a quite neighborhood park, what the hell happened?
"Alright Darcy," I said after my breathing was slightly more normal and I could manage a weak smile as I tuned to look at the little girl. "Could you give Jamie his bear? I need your help oaky?
So I need you to be a big girl and get him to stop crying so I can get us all home alright?"
My nerves were already frazzled, Jamie screaming in the backseat was by no means going to help my get us home safely and maybe if Darcy was focusing on something else she would be calmed as well.
She nodded, wiping the tears from her cheek and grabbing the teddy wedged in between her and Jamie's car seat before holding it out to my crying son.
I could hear her mumbling to him as he calmed slightly and I began to make my way out of the parking spot hoping, but I wouldn't be to fussed, that I didn't run over any toes as I did.
The gentleman from before waved me out and shouted to the people around us, making a clear exit for me.
I didn't hesitate to run the stop as I spied some of our guest hopping back into their cars to follow us.
"Damn it." I hissed under my breath.
As much as I didn't want them to follow us, I knew I couldn't drive recklessly, but I also didn't want Darcy to realize that we were being followed either.
"How about we listen to the radio, kiddo?"
"Okay." Her small, cracking voice broke my heart but I managed a gentle, reassuring smile in the rearview mirror as I flipped on the first thing that was playing music.
The sounds of Adela's newest single filled the small space and I allowed my heart rate to calm farther with the help of her soothing voice.
My only goal now was to get home and ask Harry what the fuck was going on. How in the world did people find out about Darcy and know how to find us?
The drive continued with me singing absentmindedly to the songs that played while rotating my glances from the road ahead to looking at the children and the vehicles following us in the rear view.
"And it seems our little Hazza has a little family he's been keeping secret from the world."
My ears instantly perked at the words being spoken. I reached over and turned up the volume.
"Sorry ladies... Sources reviled recently that Harry Styles, of One Direction fame, has been hiding a very big secret from the world. Apparently the pop start has a couple children and a lady friend at home that he play house with."
The female radio host spoke like it was the hottest gossip ever.
It is hot gossip. I thought bitterly.
The male host made some comment about double lives and sad fangirls before egging his cohost on. "It appears that this lady friend, who was reviled to be Aria Reid, an American girl he met through mutual friends, and Styles have been living together with their two children, Darcy, a little girl, and Jamie, an infant boy..."
I tuned out after that, quickly pushing random buttons on the dash until the sound was cut off.
They knew our names.
They think that I'm Darcy's mom. They think Harry's Jamie's dad.
Fuck.
I glanced once again towards the back seat and Darcy was staring back at me with her little brow furrowed in the way that made me think of her daddy.
"Aria, why are they talking about us?"
"I don't know baby."
I have no fucking clue.
Harry had been apologizing repeatedly on the phone for having to stay out a little later than planned because of some last minute interview that had been pushed forward to today for security reasons.
Apparently the station that was hosting didn't want to deal with camped out fans.
"I just hate that I have to cancel on our movie night with the kids." Harry continued.
"Babe, don't worry about it. It's not like we won't have more movie nights. Now I have to let you go because I have my hands full and I am at the park with the munchkins so I will see you later tonight, okay?"
"Alright baby. I am so sor-"
"Stop it." I rolled my eyes and crossed them making a face at Darcy who giggled while she drank her juice. "Your daddy is silly." I whispered conspiratorially to her.
"I can almost hear you roll your eyes at me over the phone."
"Goodbye now." I answered, ignoring his words.
"Bye babe."
With a giggle I ended the call and looked from Darcy to Jamie. "Alright kid-squad what are we going to do with our afternoon now?"
"Can we play on the swings?"
Her eager look and toothy grin had me chuckling and nodding my head as I gathered our quick picnic lunch and headed over towards the busy playground.
Children ran back and forth under the watchful eyes of their corresponding adults that happily I joined as I observed Darcy's pigtailed curls bounce behind her as she joined the others.
I took a seat on one of the vacant benches while she played, one hand pushing the stroller back and forth attempting to get Jamie to take a nap.
It felt natural, normal even to be here with the children, to have Harry calling to check up on us and promising to be home for dinner. We had become this little family unit and the longer I was immersed in it the more I grew attached to it. I never wanted this peace and serenity to end.
But alas, nothing last forever.
"Aria..."
I glanced up from where I was pulling a blanket over Jamie's now sleeping form to see Darcy running up to me with brows furrowed in an almost identical fashion as her father that made me smile softly.
"Yes baby?"
She glanced over her shoulder calling my attention to the woman across the playground on her phone talking animatedly while waving her hand around and staring right back at us, unabashedly.
"That lady said she knew my daddy."
I glanced back at Darcy for a moment before looking back up at the woman who was now looking back out into the parking lot behind her where I could see a sleek black car pull up and a few moments later a man sporting a long range, expensive looking camera around his neck jumped out.
They know.
It was probably because I had grown so used to the comfort of it all that I had actually forgotten how extraordinary Harry's situation was, and in turn our situation.
So I almost forgot what kind of trouble could be lurking when I was out with Darcy in public, especially with the fact that she was a major secret. As it turned out throughout our blissful month and a half of our tentative relationship, Harry and I had forgotten the strict precautions and evasive maneuvers to keeping that hidden, but seeing this man and eager, wickedly grinning woman make their way with a purpose towards us I knew the cat was out of the bag.
All I could hope was that Harry could handle this and that I could get us out of this immediate situation with minor damage.
"It's time to go angel." I said in a faux calm tone when inside I was actually frantic.
How did they find out?
I didn't have the time to think that over, however, right now my only mission was to get home and wait for Harry.
I snatched up the diaper bag beside me, placed one arm around Darcy to lift her onto my side and the other on the stroller before making my way briskly towards one of Harry's cars in the lot.
Damn it, he had to insist I take one of his cars. Shit this isn't going to be good.
Any hope of them thinking they may be wrong forgotten at the thought of the car waiting in the lot.
I managed to not stumble as I practically ran towards the car, the two suspected paps closing in on us as we had to walk in that direction to get to the Audi.
"Miss? Wait."
Yea right lady.
I glanced down at Jamie who was slowly waking up from his short lived nap and Darcy who looked a little rattled as she bounced at my side with her fingers stuffed in her mouth nervously.
"Hey baby," I said softly getting her attention. Large green eyes looked at me as I smiled reassuringly while keeping up my pace towards the car. "It's going to be ok, yea? Just ignore them. Don't talk to them baby ok. Let me get us home to daddy."
She nodded and over her shoulder I could see that they had finally reached us.
"Miss Reid is it true that you are dating Harry Styles? Are you two planning on getting married?"
I clamped my lips shut and held Darcy a little tighter while squeezing the handle bar to the stroller.
"Why was Harry hiding his children from the world?"
Darcy cried out as the man with the camera jumped in front of us almost causing me to fall over. I sneered and pivoted around him, wondering why in the world I had decided to park at the back of the lot.
I felt my inner mama bear flare up as Darcy leaned her head down and whimpered into my shoulder. I didn't immediately know why as my sights were set straight onto the car that was just a few rows away but as I turned to glare at the woman still spewing off asinine questions I widened my own eyes and suppressed my own whimper.
It seemed these two had called a few friends. More men with cameras' had joined the two instigators and the sound of clicking was heard mixed in with the cacophony of unintelligible questions.
Tears of joy threatened to spill over as we finally reached the car, the small swarm we had attracted surrounding us as I clicked the unlock button, yanked the backseat passenger side door open and placed Darcy in so she could climb over Jamie's car seat.
"Buckle your seatbelt baby." I said still not speaking a word to the annoyances behind me while pulling my now crying baby out of the stroller and placing him in his seat and securing him in.
I struggled with closing the stroller and for a moment seriously considered leaving it behind but right when I was going to kick the damn thing into the slowly growing crowed a kind older gentleman in some sort of uniform made his way through the throng of people shoving the protesting photographers and small group of observers away until he was in front of me, calmly closing the stroller and sliding it into the trunk.
"Go ahead, get those babies out of here. I'll get these twats to move for you."
All I could do was offer him a genuinely grateful smile and thank god for human decency as I climbed into the car.
Camera lenses pressed to the windows, snapping away shot after shot of both the crying children in the back seat.
It was in the relative safety of the car that my adrenalin began to make a decline and all I could do was rest my head against my knuckles trying to calm my pounding heart so as not to get us into a car accident, and try to tune out the shouting outside of the small car.
What the fuck was going on?
How did this escalate so quickly? You'd think I was Angelina Jolie at the park in LA. This was a quite neighborhood park, what the hell happened?
"Alright Darcy," I said after my breathing was slightly more normal and I could manage a weak smile as I tuned to look at the little girl. "Could you give Jamie his bear? I need your help oaky?
So I need you to be a big girl and get him to stop crying so I can get us all home alright?"
My nerves were already frazzled, Jamie screaming in the backseat was by no means going to help my get us home safely and maybe if Darcy was focusing on something else she would be calmed as well.
She nodded, wiping the tears from her cheek and grabbing the teddy wedged in between her and Jamie's car seat before holding it out to my crying son.
I could hear her mumbling to him as he calmed slightly and I began to make my way out of the parking spot hoping, but I wouldn't be to fussed, that I didn't run over any toes as I did.
The gentleman from before waved me out and shouted to the people around us, making a clear exit for me.
I didn't hesitate to run the stop as I spied some of our guest hopping back into their cars to follow us.
"Damn it." I hissed under my breath.
As much as I didn't want them to follow us, I knew I couldn't drive recklessly, but I also didn't want Darcy to realize that we were being followed either.
"How about we listen to the radio, kiddo?"
"Okay." Her small, cracking voice broke my heart but I managed a gentle, reassuring smile in the rearview mirror as I flipped on the first thing that was playing music.
The sounds of Adela's newest single filled the small space and I allowed my heart rate to calm farther with the help of her soothing voice.
My only goal now was to get home and ask Harry what the fuck was going on. How in the world did people find out about Darcy and know how to find us?
The drive continued with me singing absentmindedly to the songs that played while rotating my glances from the road ahead to looking at the children and the vehicles following us in the rear view.
"And it seems our little Hazza has a little family he's been keeping secret from the world."
My ears instantly perked at the words being spoken. I reached over and turned up the volume.
"Sorry ladies... Sources reviled recently that Harry Styles, of One Direction fame, has been hiding a very big secret from the world. Apparently the pop start has a couple children and a lady friend at home that he play house with."
The female radio host spoke like it was the hottest gossip ever.
It is hot gossip. I thought bitterly.
The male host made some comment about double lives and sad fangirls before egging his cohost on. "It appears that this lady friend, who was reviled to be Aria Reid, an American girl he met through mutual friends, and Styles have been living together with their two children, Darcy, a little girl, and Jamie, an infant boy..."
I tuned out after that, quickly pushing random buttons on the dash until the sound was cut off.
They knew our names.
They think that I'm Darcy's mom. They think Harry's Jamie's dad.
Fuck.
I glanced once again towards the back seat and Darcy was staring back at me with her little brow furrowed in the way that made me think of her daddy.
"Aria, why are they talking about us?"
"I don't know baby."
I have no fucking clue.
YOOO!!! IF YOU DONT UPDATE I SWEAR...
9/3/16