His Nanny Mate By Eve Above Story

Chapter 32: Sweet as Sugar
Moana

The children all began to cheer once Edrick agreed to stay longer so that we could make cookies. I lifted my gaze from Clara to see the Alpha billionaire standing in front of me, but he wasn’t looking at me; he was looking at the children.

We all made our way down to the kitchen. I lingered at the back of the group, still in utter shock as I tried to wrap my head around Edrick’s sudden change in demeanor. Had the tour of the orphanage and seeing how disadvantaged children lived given him a bit of compassion?

Once we were in the kitchen, I put on an apron and started to get out the ingredients to make the cookies while the children watched hungrily, licking their lips in anticipation for the sweet taste of sugar in their mouths.

“Do you like to bake, Mr. Morgan?” Clara asked, standing on her tiptoes as she gripped the edge of the counter to see.

“No,” Edrick replied, avoiding eye contact with the little girl. “I don’t.”

“Not even cookies?”

“No, not even cookies,” Edrick said. Then, in a slightly lower voice: “I’ve never baked anything.”

The children erupted into gasps, causing me to stifle a laugh. “Here,” I said, grabbing an extra apron and tossing it to Edrick. “I’ll teach you.” Edrick caught the apron and gave me a puzzled look while the children exploded with a chorus of giggles.

“I think I’d just mess it up,” he replied. “You can do it.”

“There will be no cookies if Mr. Morgan doesn’t help,” I said, to which all of the children began to protest loudly, some even going so far as to push Edrick toward me with

said; it almost seemed as though he was holding back a smile. He shrugged off his suit jacket and put the apron on, coming over to me. Without thinking, I reached out and rolled his sleeves up for him. Our eyes

one of the older kids shouted. “They’re gonna kiss!” Now, the group’s cries of protest became even louder as some of the boys

get hot. Next, I showed Edrick which ingredients to pour into

into this bowl,” I said,

group, helping them to roll the dough into little

Morgan?” Clara said — she seemed to have taken a

rolled a ball of dough between

have

“I do,” Edrick replied.

a wa d of cookie dough into a misshapen ball between her tiny hands, then slapped it down on the tray with an unprecedented amount of force for such a small girl. Then, she turned toward Edrick and looked up at him inquisitively. “How come you never bake with your mom? If I had a mom,

but the words didn’t seem to

interjected from across the

drooped her shoulders and dug into

by surprise once more, “it’s alright.” He bent down to Clara’s level and looked at her with unexpected honesty in his eyes. “My dad doesn’t always think that boys should do the same things that girls do,” he said. “So, I grew up thinking that if I tried to ask to do things like bake with

girls to play however they wanted and to try new things. I grew up not only baking and doing traditionally feminine things, but I also had all of the opportunities in the world to try traditionally masculine hobbies. I couldn’t imagine not being allowed to try those things just because of my gender, but it explained so much about Edrick’s personality… And it made me dislike

of the little boys, who was sneakily stuffing raw cookie dough in his mouth, suddenly spoke up. “That’s dumb,” he said, his voice

the

laughter again.

…

out of the oven and the children were happily stuffing their chocolate-covered faces. Sophia led Edrick and I to the door; we hadn’t realized it, but we had been there so long that the sun was already

donation means the world to us. We’ve really been struggling lately — the government isn’t so generous with their money when it comes to human orphanages like this one. I really thought–”

reached out and squeezed Sophia’s arm. Edrick fell silent and