The man smirked. "I told you, you need the right technique."
Seeing her still frowning, troubled, he put down his dough and walked behind her.
Encircling his arms around her body, he handed her a sheet of dough and held her hands, teaching her motion by motion.
"Look there. Don't press down on it too hard, otherwise you can't turn it. With this hand, twist it just a little, and you get the pattern. Now, with that feeling, turn and pinch. Isn't that simple?"
To her surprise, having him literally teach her hands-on made it really easy.
Taking her hand again, Archie taught her how to wrap several dumplings in the same matter.
When they got to the fifth one, Natalia couldn't hold it in and said, "I'll try one myself."
Archie blinked and nodded. "Sure. Go ahead."
She took the dough carefully and started pinching with the same feeling as when he'd just taught her.
Soon, she'd made a dumpling.
It wasn't as perfect as when he'd taken her hands, but you could at least call this a normal dumpling.
She was overjoyed as she raised the dumpling to his eyes, beaming, "Look, I've got it!"
Looking at the woman's simple, happy smile, her joy infected him, and his own contentedness leaked out of his deepening gaze.
He nodded. "I have a smart wife."
The sudden compliment embarrassed Natalia.
She rearranged her sidelocks and chuckled, "You taught me well."
She'd forgotten that, having wrapped dumplings for the entire while, her hands were covered with flour. Her gesture brought two white streaks across her cheeks.
Like a shy kitten.
Seeing that, the man's eyes deepened further as he pressed a hand against the back of her head and kissed her hard on the lips.
The kiss was far too sudden. Natalia jumped, then looked around in a panic.
She bumped him off with her elbow, stammering, "What are you doing? This is the old household! Grandma and Aunt Faye are outside!"
Archie chuckled. "So what?"
Natalia glared at him.
"You've got some nerve saying so what! What if they see us?"
"We're a legal couple, Natalia. They can't do anything about a kiss."
"..."
He said that, but Ariana and Faye were both there, and even if William wasn't showing himself, he could come over at any moment.
If they really saw her, she would probably die of shame.
Archie knew that she got flustered easily. Seeing her blush down to the roots of her ears, he smirked and stopped teasing her.
Taking off his gloves, he said, "It's still too early for dinner. How abut I take you out for a walk?"
Natalia looked at the time. It wasn't even six yet, so it really was early.
So she nodded. "All right."
The two put their gloves away and went out hand in hand.
In the mansion area near the old McCarthy household, most of the people living there were from the four great families.
Over a decade ago, when they'd started moving out of the barracks, eighty percent of them had moved to this area. So this was basically another set of barracks.
The two walked out, where passersby all greeted Archie.
"Hey there, Archie!"
"How are you doing, Archie!"
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