His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 42

#Chapter 42: Avoidance

Moana

When I went to bed that night, I made sure to set my alarm a little earlier than normal. I was so intrigued by Edrick’s strange behavior that I wanted to test him a little, so I woke up as soon as my alarm went off and made an effort to run into him first thing in the morning, when he would often sit in the dining room or in his study with the door open to look over financial reports.

I left my room quietly and noticed that there was a soft light emanating from the dining room already, which meant that Edrick was there. Smirking to myself, I walked over to the kitchen.

“Good morning,” I said as I passed him. “Coffee?”

He was silent for a moment before slowly raising his eyes to me from his paperwork, then shook his head. “No, thanks. I’ve already made my own.”

I narrowed my eyes as I studied him. There was no coffee on the table in front of him.

“Drank it all already?” I asked, gesturing to the empty table.

Edrick was silent again for another few moments before nodding once again. “Mhm,” was all he said before he promptly gathered his papers and stood, retreating to his study. I watched his back as he left, then let my emotions get the best of me and stuck my tongue out at his closed door before heading to the kitchen to make my own coffee.

I went about my usual day with Ella. But that evening, as Ella and I were playing in the living room after dinner, Edrick walked past with hardly more than a kiss on the top of his daughter’s head before he retreated to his study once again.

“Where are you going, Daddy?” Ella called after him. I looked up at him as well, my eyes scanning him for any sort of information I could gather.

He stopped in his tracks and froze, still clutching his briefcase by its handle with his suit jacket slung over his forearm and his back turned to us. I could see his hand shifting on the briefcase handle, as though his own daughter asking why he wasn’t giving her any attention was an egregious sin.

“Daddy?” Ella called again.

Finally, Edrick turned around — but only halfway. “I have some work to do, Ella,” he said.

“But…” Ella pushed out her lower lip in a pout, as she often did when she wasn’t getting her way. “You just got home. You always play with me when you come home.”

Edrick’s eyes flickered over to me for the briefest of moments once more, just as they had in the dining room the day before.

“Yes,” I said, holding his eye contact. “You just got home. Why don’t you rest for a while?”

Edrick shot me a look that almost seemed as though my words had burned through his very flesh like fire before he spoke. “I’m really sorry, Princess,” he said, averting his gaze and looking back at his daughter. “I just have a lot of work to do. I’ll play with you tomorrow, alright?”

Ella let out a small whimper, but nodded in solemn agreement. “Alright. Promise?”

“Promise.”

I couldn’t hide my glare as Edrick turned around and retreated to his office once more. The fact that he was so unwilling to be around me that he wouldn’t even spend five minutes with his daughter after work was simply unfair to her. If this went on for much longer, I would have no choice but to confront him about it; he could be as distant with me as he wanted to, but it wasn’t right for him to mix Ella up in our drama.

In fact, over the next few days, it became increasingly obvious to me that Edrick was avoiding me. He never played with Ella in the living room anymore, and always seemed to go out of his way to leave any room that I was in within five to ten minutes of being there. He even began to let Ella into his study to play with him, which was incredibly uncharacteristic considering the fact that he had declared his study a child-free zone — unless it was absolutely necessary for Ella to enter — on my second day of working for him.

On the third day, I had begun to have enough of the Alpha CEO’s strange behavior. Was I really so awful that he couldn’t stand my presence for more than five minutes at a time?

…

It was the evening of the third day of this nonsense. Ella and I had just spent the last hour preparing a nice meal, not just for ourselves, but for Edrick to share with us. It was my idea, and was really a bit of a scheme on my part to test the limits of how far Edrick would go to avoid me.

Ella was elated to show him all of her hard work when he came home, and had even gone so far as to put on one of her favorite dresses to mark the occasion. She insisted that I dress up as well, so I complied and put on a nice dress and a small amount of makeup. Admittedly, I wanted to look nice as well, and found myself subconsciously putting more effort into my appearance than I had planned.

Edrick’s ayas flickarad ovar to ma for tha briafast of momants onca mora, just as thay had in tha dining room tha day bafora.

“Yas,” I said, holding his aya contact. “You just got homa. Why don’t you rast for a whila?”

Edrick shot ma a look that almost saamad as though my words had burnad through his vary flash lika fira bafora ha spoka. “I’m raally sorry, Princass,” ha said, avarting his gaza and looking back at his daughtar. “I just hava a lot of work to do. I’ll play with you tomorrow, alright?”

Ella lat out a small whimpar, but noddad in solamn agraamant. “Alright. Promisa?”

“Promisa.”