Gracie suddenly shrieks, and reality quickly sets back in. When I pull away and turn to the beautiful little girl, my eyes widen and I instantly shoot up straight. “Oh no! No, no, Gracie. Come back here!”
I push off Greyson and rush over to the sneaky little baby crawling away with two big paint tubes in her hands. Two very open paint tubes that squirt out onto the floor every time her hand presses down.
I take her into my arms and sit down on the floor with her on my lap while trying to take the tubes away from her. She laughs and tries to move her hands away, squeezing tighter every time I attempt to get them. Paint leaks from the top of the first tube as I try to remove it from her grasp.
She starts hitting me with the second tube right in the face, sending green paint onto my cheek and hair. I quickly shut one eye, not wanting to get some in it. “Oh my God! Greyson! Help me!” I shout with irritation while he simply sits back, laughing as he watches this disaster take place.
“I told you this was a bad idea.” He chuckles, walking over slowly as if he has all the time in the world.
He kneels beside us as I continue to fight off Gracie, who has taken it upon herself to put as much paint on me as possible. He grabs one of her hands and tries to open her tiny fist while I hold the other.
“What the heck? Why is this so hard?! How can a tiny little thing like this have such a death grip?!” he says, huffing as he continues to try, squirting more paint on us with every failed attempt.Like I said earlier. Hulk.
After a few more tries, he finally gets them away from her and lets out a deep breath. “Jesus. That was more intense than my workouts.”
When I dare to open my eyes after having shut both, I find all three of us with paint smudges and splatters all over, a giggle slipping past my lips as I look around at the mess we’ve made.He was right; not the best idea.
“Well… it seems Cece and Sy aren’t the only ones who need to stay away from paint.” I laugh harder as he joins along.
He sits back on his calves with a sigh and a soft smile. But in doing so, his foot somehow hits the plate filled with glitter, causing it to flip over and project a cloud of glitter all over us.
WORST. IDEA. EVER!
I gasp and instantly start coughing as I inhale some glitter powder. “Oh”—cough—“God!”—cough.
Greyson throws his head back as a burst of laughter explodes from him, his hand pressed against his chest, still holding the paint. Heavenly bliss pours from his lungs like a beautiful melody. “This is gonna be a B to get out,” he says when his laugh begins to die down.
“Oh, Wolf…” I shake out my hair quickly and huff when I see all the little sprinkles falling. “You have no idea.”
Chapter thirty-one
Emma
Samantha or Samuel?
~ Five Days Later ~
“At what time did he say he’d get here?” I ask Cecilia as we finish picking up the toys and replacing everything in her living room.
We put down the kids half an hour ago and now wait to meet their new nanny. It was a lot easier than we thought it would be to get a male nanny. Turns out there aren’t as many, and we just so happened to fall on one whose current contract was terminating at the end of May. So we thought we’d snag himup for then even though we don’t technically need him until our foundation is up and running.
“We agreed on 1:30 p.m., and it’s just about that, so he should be here any minute,” she says while folding a throw blanket over the back of the couch. “I wonder what he looks like. It sucks there was no picture in his file, but from the information we got and all his glowing recommendations, he seems almost too perfect for the job.”
I snort. “He’s probably a dorky perfectionist. But even I have to admit those recommendations were impressive.”
She laughs in return. “You’re right. He probably is.” She places her hands on her hips, sighing while looking around at her now very clean home. “You want a glass of wine while waiting?”
I shake my head. “Nah, I want to seem professional.” I lift my head higher and brush my red hair behind my shoulders.
“Yeah, good idea.” She walks over to the kitchen and checks her phone.
The doorbell suddenly sounds through the house at that exact moment. “I’ll get it,” I call out as I quickly walk over and pull the door open with a bright smile on my face.
“Hel—” I begin before my eyes finally catch onto the man standing before me. “Holy shit...”
“I thought you wanted to seem professional?” Cece says with a giggle as she comes around me to greet the new nanny as well. “Oh, dear God…”
The man chuckles and delivers a teasing smirk.
