His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 56

#Chapter 56: A Good Match

Moana

Just as Sophia was going to ask if I was going to dance, her eyes caught something behind me and her face lit up. “Kelly!” she exclaimed, waving over my shoulder. “How nice to see you!”

I felt myself tense, as did Ella, who was still holding my hand. I turned around slowly to see Kelly approaching. I hadn’t noticed before from where I stood and because she was standing behind the podium, but her dress was inappropriately tight and low cut for a charity gala, and she appeared to already be tipsy as she walked up to us. She brushed right past me, as if I wasn’t even there, and walked straight up to Sophia.

“Thank you so much for your donation,” Sophia said, smiling widely and holding her hand out for Kelly to shake.

Kelly gave Sophia’s hand a half-hearted — and almost disgusted — squeeze and swirled the bubbly champagne around in her glass. “It’s my pleasure,” she said.

I was still surprised that Kelly, of all people, would donate any money at all to a foundation for human orphanages, but perhaps she really wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought. “That’s very kind of you,” I said.

Kelly looked over at me as though I hadn’t been standing there at all, and as though she only noticed me when I finally spoke. “Oh, Moana,” she said, flicking a strand of blonde hair over her thin shoulder. “I didn’t know you were here… You know Sophia?”

I nodded, but before I could say anything, Ella suddenly spoke up. “Moana grew up at the orphanage!” she exclaimed excitedly, unaware of the implications of revealing something like that. Kelly’s eyes immediately narrowed, and as she looked at me, her gaze felt as sharp as a dagger.

“Is that so?” Kelly asked. As she looked at me, I sensed a hint of mocking humor behind her icy eyes.

“It is,” I said, choosing to not let her nasty demeanor take hold of me as I pushed my shoulders back proudly. “Sophia was, and still is, an angel for caring for children as much as she does.”

Kelly paused for a long, uncomfortable moment. “It’s funny,” she said, licking her lips and taking a sip of her champagne, her eyes still fixed on me over the top of the glass, “I actually didn’t know that at all when I originally donated to my close friend’s foundation.”

I supposed that was why she donated so much; if she had known that Oceanside Orphanage was the orphanage that I grew up in, I was certain that she wouldn’t have donated anything at all.

Then, as though a switch had been flipped, she perked up when she saw Edrick walk across the dance floor ahead of us. “Well, I’m going to dance,” she said, her voice breathy. “It was a pleasure seeing you both.” I watched, unconvinced by her platitudes, as she sauntered over to Edrick.

They spoke for a minute, then walked over to the dance floor and pressed their bodies together closely. Knowing now that I was carrying Edrick’s child in my belly, I felt even more jealous than I had on the day that I first met Kelly — but I had to push those feelings down, because as both Edrick and Selina said, I was just the nanny. I wasn’t a romantic option for him, and I likely never would be.

Sophia, however, seemed to have a different opinion of Kelly — one that was likely blinded by her large donation.