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.”

Morgan doesn’t help,” I said, to which all of the children began to protest loudly, some even going so far

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

of protest became even louder as some of the boys even

stepped away from Edrick, shaking my head as I felt my face get hot. Next, I showed

of flour into this bowl,” I said, “and

enough, we had enough cookie dough for an entire army. Sophia took half of the children as a group, helping them to roll the

to have taken a

a ball

have a

“I do,” Edrick replied.

she focused on rolling 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

opened his mouth to speak, but the words

across the room, “That’s

her shoulders and dug into the bowl of cookie dough to grab another

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

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

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

running after the little boy. “Don’t eat

children erupted into laughter again. When I looked up, I saw that

…

were 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

generous with their money when it comes to human orphanages like this one. I really thought–” I watched as Sophia blinked back a few tears. “–I thought that we would have

silent and appeared to be thinking,