His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 143

#Chapter 143: New Friends, Old Enemies

Moana

I felt my heart sink as I saw my ex-boyfriend, Sam, staring up at me from the crowd. His eyes were wide and disbelieving; of course he knew that I wasn’t Ella’s mother. And of course he knew that I wasn’t Edrick’s real fiancee, as Sam and I had only broken up a few months prior. I could spin the story to make it seem as though Edrick and I quickly got engaged after I found out that I was pregnant, but if Sam said anything publicly about how I wasn’t really Ella’s mother, there was no way I could possibly hide that.

Although I wanted to run away and hide from embarrassment, I put on a brave face, continued smiling as Edrick asked me to, and went back to staring above the crowd just like I had been doing before. And soon, Edrick’s speech was over. We stepped down off of the gazebo as the crowd stood and made their way over to the picnic area for brunch, and now that I wasn’t standing in front of everyone, I felt a lot less anxious about Sam being here. I just hoped that he wouldn’t say anything to anyone about his past relationship with me, but at the same time, I had to have faith that Edrick would handle it if he did say something.

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” Edrick said, shooting me a smile and patting Ella’s head. We then turned to see a group of other kids who were already on the playground. A few of them had gathered at the edge of the playground area and were staring at Ella curiously. One of them waved at her, and Ella waved back.

“Can I go and play?” Ella asked, looking back and forth between Edrick and myself with wide, hopeful eyes.

Edrick nodded. “Go ahead. Come find me or Moana if you get hungry.”

Ella took off running to meet the other children, who immediately swarmed her and began asking all sorts of questions. She seemed to handle it well, which made me proud.

“She’s so good with other kids,” I said to Edrick as we watched Ella play. “She has no trouble whatsoever making friends.”

Edrick nodded. “Well, she didn’t get that trait from me, I’ll say that much,” he said with a laugh.

Suddenly, a female voice came from behind us.

“That’s a lie,” the voice said. Edrick and I both spun around to see a gorgeous woman standing behind us. She had long, black hair, tanned skin, and was tall and athletic-looking. She had on dark red lipstick and an attractive matching top and bottom set that made her look powerful and intelligent. As she spoke, she looked over at me with shining brown eyes that looked like caramel in the sunlight. “Edrick never had any trouble making friends when we were kids.”

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Edrick said with a laugh. “If it isn’t my old friend Mia. I didn’t think you would be here today.”

The woman, Mia, shrugged and smiled. “I got a little homesick. Decided to come home until I get sick of being here and get the itch to travel again.”

“And how long will that be?” Edrick asked. “A week?”

“Maybe less.” Mia’s smile widened, and then she turned to face me. She held her hand out for a handshake, and when I took it, her hand was warm. “I’m Mia. Edrick and I were friends growing up. I manage a few of his overseas branches.”

Much unlike Kelly, Mia was warm and inviting, and I immediately felt comfortable with her; although she was stunningly gorgeous, which made me a little jealous that she knew Edrick so well for so long.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I replied. “I’m Moana. Edrick’s…”