His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 13

Nanny and the Alpha Daddy
#Chapter 13: Birthday Outing
Moana

Despite everything that happened that day, Edrick still requested that I spend the night with him. I made sure to put more distance between us this time, hoping that we wouldn’t wake up in each other’s arms again in the morning.

When I woke up, my cardigan was still on and Edrick’s side of the bed was empty. I heard the shower running in the bathroom, so I let out a sigh of relief and took it as my chance to get up and leave the room before I would have to talk to him. Not only was it still awkward to look him in the eye with our new arrangement, but I was admittedly still a little upset with him for yelling at me publicly the day before.

I quickly got up and made the bed, opening the curtains out of habit to let some sunlight into the room before I put my slippers on and headed out.

“Moana?” Ella’s little voice said, the second I walked out of the room. It made me jump a bit. I wasn’t expecting her to be standing right outside the door.

“Good morning, Miss Ella,” I said, managing a smile. “Are you feeling better today?”

Ella nodded, but her eyebrows were scrunched together and her eyes were narrowed suspiciously. “What were you doing in my daddy’s room again?”

“I, um…” I stammered, realizing that I couldn’t use the crepes for breakfast excuse two days in a row.

“Good morning, Princess!” Edrick said from behind me, brushing past me to scoop Ella up off the floor. Her look of concern and confusion quickly turned into a wide grin.

“Daddy!” Ella exclaimed, giggling as Edrick blew a raspberry on her cheek. “Where are you taking me for my birthday?”

I let out a sigh of relief to know that Ella seemed to have completely forgotten about seeing me coming out of her father’s room; I had also forgotten that today was her birthday. It had been mentioned in the packet of instructions given to me on my first day, but I had admittedly been too busy to look at it too closely since then.

“Well, Princess,” Edrick said, carrying Ella toward the dining room for breakfast, his muscles bulging through his white button-down shirt and his hair still a bit damp at the ends from his shower, “Daddy has to work today.”

Ella’s smile faded and she began to pout. “On my birthday?”

“I know, sweetheart,” Edrick replied. “But Moana will do something fun with you today. And I’ll be home later to have dinner and give you your presents.”

“And cake?” Ella asked.

“And cake,” Edrick replied.

…

After Edrick left that morning, Ella was — unsurprisingly — quite sad that her father couldn’t spend her birthday with her, so I tried to come up with something fun to do that would lift her spirits.

“How about we play a game?” I asked, to which the little girl shook her head and folded her arm across her chest, sticking her lower lip out in a pout.

I sighed, trying to think of something else, but every option I offered her was met with indignant refusal. I knew she just wanted to spend the day with Edrick, and nothing would really make up for that.

Finally, I resorted to looking at some local attractions on my phone; although Selina and the maids were nervous about what happened before, they did finally concede to Ella’s begging and told me that I could take her out so long as I stayed with her the entire time and didn’t let go of her hand for one second, which was understandable. I knew that Selina still didn’t trust me, but when I suggested going to a theme park for her birthday, Ella was too excited for even Selina to say no to the outing.

“The driver will take you there,” Selina said to me as I put Ella’s sun hat on to protect her face. “And the bodyguard will be watching at all times. Don’t lose her again.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” I replied with a sigh, feeling a little annoyed at the housekeeper’s blatant mistrust of me. I knew I messed up royally by leaving Ella’s training to visit the orphanage when I should’ve been keeping an eye on her, but I wanted to prove to everyone — and myself — that I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.