All of a sudden, Bria swung her arm in Amelie’s direction and hit Amelie on her hand. Amelie was taken by surprise, and her phone slipped out of her fingers. “What happened, Bria?” Amelie turned to check on Bria first.
Bria simply shrugged before scratching the back of her head. The young girl looked like she didn’t know how she had bumped into her mother either. “Let me carry her,” Amelie said as she glanced at Leo. Leo handed the child over without saying much. Then, he bent down to pick Amelie’s phone up for her. “Here you go,” he said.
Amelie nodded in appreciation before she took the phone from him and chucked it into her handbag. Soon enough, the bus arrived at their destination. The teacher directed all the children into the nursing home, and the dean of the nursing home delegated some cleaning duties to all of the parents and their children.
Even though Bria’s leg was injured, she insisted on being a part of the activity. Amelie hesitated for a while before she went to the toolshed and approached one of the staff members there. “Can you give us some cleaning tools?” she asked.
“Sure.” The staff member handed Amelie some tools, and her eyes lit up with admiration when she saw Bria. “You’re still helping out even though you’re injured, huh? That’s so nice of you,” the staff commented. Bria simply responded with a shy smile.
“How many sets of tools will you need?” the staff member asked.
Amelie hesitated for a while. “You can give me two sets,” she finally said.
“Three, please.” A man’s deep voice came from behind Amelie right after she finished speaking. Amelie was shocked when she turned to see Leo standing behind her. She had assumed that Leo was just there to spend time with Bria and that he wasn’t going to take part in any cleaning activities. Leo, on the other hand, didn’t seem to realize the look of surprise on Amelie’s face. He extended his long arm over her and took the tools on her behalf.
“Let’s go,” Leo said as he walked toward Bria and headed off with her. Amelie was left speechless for a while. She eventually hurried after them. The three of them were sent to a flat and cooling piece of land outdoors, where there was a layer of tree leaves scattered all over the ground. “Let’s sweep all of the leaves toward the middle first,” Leo suggested after looking at their surroundings.
Both Amelie and Bria nodded before they got to work. Bria was wheelchair-bound so she couldn’t move around much, but she was still earnest as she swept up all the leaves in her area. She giggled to herself as she worked on her task. Meanwhile, Amelie stole a few glances at Leo while they worked. She was genuinely curious—she had never seen Leo clean up after himself in her whole life, and she was nearly convinced that Leo didn’t even know how to hold a broom.
However, to her surprise, he was dedicated to his task. He even seemed to work the broom with ease. He had taken his suit off and rolled his sleeves up. His posture was upright, and his arms looked strong as he swept the leaves—he looked like he had walked out of an oil painting. “Mommy’s checking Daddy out. Hehe…” Bria giggled with her hand covering her mouth.
Amelie blushed before she quickly lowered her head to focus on sweeping the leaves. A married couple with their twin boys were cleaning up the area beside them, and the two boys were extremely naughty. They were fooling around, and their parents had to shout at them every now and then. The twins’ parents shook their heads helplessly as they sent envious glances in Bria’s direction. They wished their children would be as focused as Bria.
Right then, the twin boys ran in Bria’s direction with two shovels that they had found somewhere. They both stuck the shovels into a thick pile of leaves before they sent the leaves and a few rocks flying into the air. Amelie saw the rocks flying in Bria’s direction, and she instinctively threw herself over Bria. Amelie could hear the rocks knocking against one another as they flew up into the sky, and she could already imagine how much it was going to hurt when they landed on her back.
Thud! Thud! A few consecutive sounds came from behind Amelie. She let out a soft grunt, but to her surprise, she didn’t actually feel any pain from the rocks hitting her back. All she felt was a looming figure above her. Amelie turned a little to notice the man’s long legs behind hers. When she spun around, she realized that Leo had protected her with his own body. The thuds didn’t come from the rocks striking her back, but when the rocks struck Leo!
Amelie froze when she realized what just happened. This is the second time Leo has saved me today. Doesn’t he hate me? Why does he… Does he remember who I am now? Amelie parted her lips to question him when the twin boys’ parents rushed over. “Are you guys okay?” The parents wore apologetic and remorseful looks on their faces, and they kept apologizing to Amelie.
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