His Nanny Mate By Eve Above Story
Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Art Lessons

Moana

As I walked around the room and helped the children with their art, I suddenly heard the sound of thefloorboards creaking in the doorway. Thinking that it was Sophia coming to check on how everythingwas going, I looked up with a smile.

That smile quickly faded, however, when I realized it wasn’t Sophia, but was in fact Edrick who wasstanding there. He had an indiscernible expression on his face and stood as still as a statue in thedoorway with his hands in his pockets, his eyes locked on mine for several long, palpable moments.

Was I seeing things, or had the cold Alpha billionaire finally realized the fault in breaking his promise tohis daughter?

But before I could even process the fact that he apparently seemed to have changed his mind forwhatever reason, Ella snapped her head up and gasped loudly.

“Daddy!” she exclaimed, jumping up out of her chair and running up to him. “You came!”

Edrick put on a smile and scooped Ella up, hugging her tightly and planting a kiss on her cheek whilethe other children also threw down their paint brushes and ran up to him. “Mr. Morgan!” they shoutedexcitedly, jumping up and down on their toes as they swarmed around him. Much to my surprise, Edrickset Ella down and then proceeded to greet each and every child… By name, no less.

“Hello, Clara,” he said, pinching the little girl’s cheek. “Hello, Matthew. Nice shirt you’ve got on today.Joshua…”

While all of this went on, I just stood there in a state of abject shock with wide eyes and an open mouth.It seemed that the Alpha billionaire changed his mind after all and wound up keeping his promise to hisdaughter; that didn’t mean that I wasn’t still furious with him, not only for initially breaking his promisebut also for reeking of women’s perfume and being passed out drunkenly on the couch, but my attitudesoftened toward him a little bit as I watched him being so kind with the children.

Finally, Edrick stood and looked straight at me. “Am I interrupting an art lesson?” he asked.

“Um… Well—” I stuttered, still taken off guard.

Before I could get my words out, thankfully Ella stepped in. “We’re painting flowers, daddy,” she said,grabbing his hand and leading him over to her work station while the other children returned to theirpaintings.

“Oooh.” Edrick stuck his hands in his pockets as he peered down at his daughter’s canvas, whichcontained anything but a flower at this point. “That’s very good, Ella,” he said.

Ella grinned. “Are you gonna paint with us?”

“Oh, honey, I don’t know…”

“Pleeease?” Ella begged, clasping her hands together.

Edrick finally shrugged and nodded, letting out a sigh. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll paint with you.”

Even though I was supposed to be mad at Edrick right now, the fact that he agreed to join the lessonmade my attitude toward him soften even more. Without a word, I walked over to the supply cabinetand grabbed a spare apron for him to wear, then handed it to him along with a small canvas and apaintbrush. “There are paints on the tables,” I said, gesturing around.

Edrick silently took the apron and hesitantly put it on, then made his way over to one of the tables andsat down. He looked comically large in the chair that was meant for a child, causing the other childrento giggle and point. But, much to my surprise, he only smiled and began to spread paint on his canvas.

Soon, we had all returned to our lesson. The children seemed to be having even more fun now with theAlpha billionaire, who painted rather sloppily and wound up splattering quite a bit of paint on hissleeves. The children pointed and poked fun at him, but he didn’t seem to mind the paint getting on hisnice white shirt and only laughed along with them, poking fun at himself as well.

The lesson went on for much longer than expected because of this, but I didn’t mind. Soon, I’d almostentirely forgotten about the perfume and our subsequent argument and only found myself smiling andlaughing along with Edrick and the children. The Alpha billionaire was a surprisingly bad artist, andalmost seemed as though he’d never even picked up a paintbrush before in his entire life. Watchinghim struggle was endearing, and at one point I watched with a tear in my eye as one of the childrenwalked up to him and put her little hand around his while he painted, guiding his hand along thecanvas.

Finally, however, the lesson had to come to an end. I clapped my hands to get the children’s — andEdrick’s — attention, then instructed them to get up and walk around to look at everyone else’s artwork.

“Remember, no touching,” I said, watching as the children milled around and looked at their peers’artwork. Edrick stood as well and joined them; he almost looked like a big kid on his own, wanderingaround with his hands clasped behind his back. It admittedly made me smile a bit, and I didn’t evenmind that he seemed to be avoiding eye contact with me.

Finally, the group stopped at Edrick’s station last. There was a long silence as the children stared downat his artwork, which was a sloppy mess that didn’t even remotely resemble a flower.

Just then, Clara pointed her stubby little finger and giggled. “Mr. Morgan,” she said, “don’t you knowwhat a flower looks like?”

“Yeah,” Joshua added, “that looks like a… hm…”

“It looks like a hot dog! With hair!” Ella yelled, causing the children to erupt in a chorus of giggles. Ifinally walked over and looked down at the painting; it did, in fact, look like a hot dog with hair. The‘stem’ of the flower was thick and red, and the ‘petals’ were just big brown swirls that resembled a mopof curly hair. If he’d added a bun and a smiley face, and maybe some arms and legs, it easily couldhave been a children’s cartoon character.

Stifling a laugh, I opened my mouth to tell the children to be nice… But before I could, the Alphabillionaire threw his head back and laughed loudly, slapping his paint-covered hand on his apron. Hislaughter caused the children to laugh even more, and even brought a smile to my face; I wasn’t sure if Iwas smiling more because it was funny, however, or if I was smiling because it made me happy to seethe cold werewolf CEO so full of joy.

“I guess you’re right, now that I look at it,” he said finally, wiping away the tears that formed in his eyesfrom laughing so hard. “I guess I’m not an artist, am I?”

Edrick then turned to look at me. His steely gray eyes, which had just been full of mirth, softened as welooked at each other. I could sense an apologetic air about his expression, and it made my heart fluttera bit.

“Well,” I said finally, clearing my throat, “everyone can be an artist with plenty of practice.”

Edrick nodded. “Maybe my skills will get better with more of your lessons, Miss Moana,” he said.