The mate of his nanny

Chapter 80: A Little Kindness

Moana

After I put Ella to bed, I decided to read in the living room for a little while to relax. The summer evening air was pleasant, but it was also warm, which made me sleepy. Before I knew it, I had dozed off entirely.
However, I woke up the next morning in my bed instead of in the chair.

That was strange... I didn't remember getting up and going to bed, but I supposed that it wasn't entirely unheard of. I yawned and rolled over onto my back, feeling the morning sun stream in through my window and hit my cheek...

But then, I saw something next to me: a person.
I immediately yelped and jumped out of bed instinctually. I relaxed a little when I saw that it was Edrick and not some stranger, but what was he doing in my bed? He was still wearing his clothes and even had his shoes on.

As I stood there, my brow furrowed, Edrick's eyes suddenly snapped open and shocked me even further.

He looked around confusedly for a few moments, just as I had, before he came to the same realization that I did and abruptly jumped out of my bed. For several long, uncomfortable moments, we just stared at each other in disbelief from the opposite sides of my bed.

"Erm... I'm sorry," he said finally, running a hand through his hair with an embarrassed expression on his face. "I saw you were sleeping on the armchair last night when I got home, and I didn't want to wake you, so I carried you to bed. I... I guess I was so exhausted I fell asleep without even realizing it. I had a bit to drink last night."

Well, I supposed that that explained it. While it was strange, hearing that he cared enough to carry me to bed without waking me made my heart flutter a little. It was sweet, knowing that he would do something like that for me.

"T-Thanks," I stammered in response, feeling my face get hot.

Edrick only nodded, then abruptly turned on his heel and briskly walked out of the room.

I watched after him for a moment, watching as the door clicked shut behind him. Did the cold Alpha CEO really go out of his way to carry me to bed last night? The thought of it admittedly made my heart flutter, although the fact that he fell asleep in my bed was a little odd. Still, I figured that he really was just exhausted after running around all day, so I decided not to let it bother me and instead got ready for the day.

After showering and putting on my clothes, I woke Ella up and got her ready. Unfortunately, we couldn't go for our morning walk just in case we drew too much attention due to the tabloid, but Ella didn't seem to mind as we spent the afternoon playing inside and doing arts and crafts instead. By mid-afternoon, however, she had completely tired herself out and was starting to get cranky, so I took it as an opportunity to give her a nap and take some time to rest for myself as well.

Once she was fast asleep for her nap, I made my way over to the kitchen to make myself something to eat.

Much to my surprise, Edrick was standing in the kitchen when I arrived.

"I thought you were at work," I said, glancing at my watch.

Edrick, who was sitting at the kitchen counter with a sandwich on a plate and a newspaper in front of him, merely shrugged. "Meetings were short today," he said. I nodded, feeling my face get red as I remembered waking up next to him, and quickly turned my back to hide my face as I made my own sandwich.

Neither of us said anything. I methodically spread some peanut butter and jam on two slices of bread, then cut the sandwich diagonally and poured myself a glass of milk. When I turned back around, I felt my face go red again when I saw that Edrick was looking right at me over the top of his newspaper. When he saw that I noticed him, he quickly hid his face behind his newspaper again and cleared his throat.

"My family throws an end of summer banquet every year," he said, somewhat abruptly. "It's not for a few weeks, but Ella will of course be expected to be there, and by extension, so will you."

"Oh. Um..." I glanced down at my growing belly as I held my plate in one hand and my glass of milk in the other. Many of my dresses were getting to the point where my belly showed, aside from the couple of loose dresses that I had, but neither of those were anything but strictly casual.

"What's wrong?" Edrick said. "Do you not want to go or something?"

I looked up to see that he had set his newspaper down and was now looking at me intently. "No, no, it's not that," I reassured him, setting my lunch down on the counter. "It's just... Well..." I then gestured to my belly.

"Don't you have anything loose to wear?" he asked. "It's only a few weeks from now. You probably won't be much bigger by then."

I started to get worried that I was coming across as being ungrateful or too nervous, but I really didn't have anything appropriate for a Morgan family banquet. Even at the last party, when I wore Selina's nice dress, I still felt underdressed compared to the other wealthy partygoers.

"I'm sure I can find something," I said. "I just don't think any of my loose dresses would be appropriate."

Edrick frowned slightly. Then, he abruptly stood. "Can you show me?" he asked.

Once again, my face got hot. By now, I was probably beet red.

"You don't have to try them on," he said. "Just show me."

I was a bit confused as to why the Alpha CEO was suddenly so interested in my clothes, but I nodded and gestured for him to follow as I made my way over to my room. I opened my closet, which was already fairly sparse as I hadn't gone shopping for quite some time, and pulled out the two hangers that held my only loose dresses. One was just a plain linen dress for the summer heat, and the other would be too warm.

"Hmm..." Edrick scratched his chin, thinking deeply. "You're right. Neither of those will do. You might need to do some shopping; not just for the party, but in general. You're going to need maternity clothes soon."

"Um... I'll ask Selina to go with me someday, then," I said, turning and hanging the dresses back up. "If you don't mind me taking an afternoon off."

Edrick waved his hand dismissively and turned on his heel, heading for my door. "I'll take you tomorrow. You can get some high quality maternity clothes, as well as a nice dress for the banquet. It's important to have some nice clothes if you're going to be around the Morgan family from now on."

My eyes widened. Before I could answer, Edrick abruptly left after that. I stood still in the middle of my room, completely astonished that the cold Alpha billionaire just offered to take me shopping on a whim right after our relationship was nearly exposed thanks to the tabloid. Was he not afraid that we would be seen?

In fact, these past couple of days, he had been so kind to me despite everything and was even intending on going out into public with me despite the tabloid scare. Was he only trying to make up for the argument we had?