The mate of his nanny

Chapter 160: A Scene Worth Painting

Moana

On the day of the painting class, Ella and I were both elated. Edrick kept his promise and took the day off of work, and after breakfast we were on our way.

The class was held in a beautiful park in the uptown area of the city by a lake. Edrick parked the car on the street and we each held one of Ella's hands as we walked over. I couldn't help but smile as we approached, with my plein air easel folded up and tucked under my arm. The air that day was beautiful with a nice breeze, and as we approached the little lake I could see that it was teeming with all sorts of wildlife: ducks swimming around in search of breadcrumbs, little frogs jumping off of lily pads, and turtles sunning themselves on floating logs.

The lake was surrounded by large weeping willow trees whose long fronds swayed in the breeze. It really was like a picture straight out of a storybook.

As we approached, there was already a group of other families gathered by the picnic area. A woman was standing at the front of the group and setting up a demonstration easel facing the lake, and while she did, I noticed that the other children were running around like wild little animals.

I didn't blame the children for acting so rambunctiously. There was a spread laid out on one of the tables filled with all kinds of fruit and sweets, and it seemed as though the children already had their fair share of sugar. Even Ella, who normally would have been excited to play with other kids, halted in her tracks and looked up at Edrick and me with an apprehensive look on her little face. Even she was a bit taken aback by the sheer amount of energy surrounding the place; it seemed like some of the parents were genuinely trying to wrangle their children, but some other parents also seemed to be ignoring their kids as though this was more of a romantic date for them to go on while their kids could run amok around the lake.

"Hello!" the teacher called, waving at us excitedly as we walked up to join the group. She looked down at my easel, and her smile widened. "It looks like you brought your own supplies! Are you a painter?"

I felt myself blush as the other attendees turned to look at me. A couple of werewolf women gave me snide looks. I could only imagine what they were thinking about a family of a wealthy and famous CEO with his supposedly human fiancee, their half-breed daughter and the half-breed baby growing in her belly. With our security guard standing a little ways away and the fact that our faces had been plastered all over the news recently, I knew that the other couples recognized us. The teacher, however, thankfully treated us just like everyone else with kindness and warmth.

I shrugged in response to the teacher's question. "I wouldn't consider myself much of an artist, but I do draw and paint sometimes," I said, wanting to be humble.

"That's a lie!" Ella suddenly chimed in. "She's really good at art! She even teaches me how to make art sometimes!"

The teacher grinned. "Is that so?" she said. "Well, maybe if I get tired today I'll let your mommy step in to teach the class." She said it in a joking manner, but it made me blush even harder; not to mention the fact that she referred to me as Ella's mother. I still hadn't talked to Edrick about it just yet.

I set up my easel, and the teacher gave Edrick an easel with supplies to use. Ella even got her own miniature easel, which was placed next to Edrick's. I was slightly behind the two of them, which gave me the perfect view of them. The way that they looked was more stunning than just the view of the lake, in my opinion.

However, the other children were still too rambunctious. The teacher patiently tried to get their attention, but it didn't seem to be working since most of the parents weren't paying much attention. I felt a little bit bad about it as I watched her get somewhat frustrated as she tried to get them to settle down so she could begin the class.

Finally, when Edrick and Ella both shot me a concerned look almost in unison, I decided to step in.

"Hey, kids," I said, approaching the group of children who were now on the verge of wrestling in the dirt next to the lake, "it's time to start painting. Don't you want to have a souvenir to bring home later?"

The children suddenly stopped their play-fighting and looked up at me as I spoke. I could already see that they were listening more to me than even the teacher, which was no surprise; I had always been good with kids. I didn't know why, although now that I knew I was a werewolf I had begun to wonder if it was an ability of mine. But pacifying children wasn't a werewolf ability that I had ever heard of, so I simply figured that it was just because of my experience with children.

I had, after all, been the one child to help Sophia around the orphanage a lot while I was growing up and I had always enjoyed taking care of the younger kids.

"Come along," I said with a smile. "Let's go paint."

The kids seemed to be listening. They calmed down and made their way over to join their parents, and as they did, the teacher, Edrick, and many of the other parents looked at me with shock. I felt a bit embarrassed by the attention as I made my way back over to my easel, but I was just glad that we could start painting now.
The teacher began the lesson, which was to paint a scene of the lake in front of us. She began by teaching everyone how to paint the perspective of the lake, using simple terminology to explain things such as foreground and background.

As she taught, however, I just couldn't get my eyes off of Edrick and Ella. They were both focusing so hard on their paintings, and I noticed now for the first time that they were both left-handed. Between the little bow on Ella's sun hat and the way that Edrick's white shirt rippled in the breeze, it was too beautiful of a scene for me to ignore.

And so, I added a little something extra to my painting.
The art class was a lot of fun. The other children turned out to be little angels now that they were calm, and Ella even seemed to make friends. When we were finished, the teacher came around and looked at everyone's paintings. She stopped in front of everyone's easels and pointed out to the class how beautifully they did — she even did the same in front of a toddler's easel, which was just a giant splotch of color. It made me smile, and it made me want to come back to another one of her classes.

At the end, she came to look at my painting. Her eyes widened a bit as she looked at what I had painted; I had painted the lake, of course, but I also added Ella and Edrick in the foreground, standing together as they painted on their easels.

The teacher looked over at me.

"This is gorgeous," she said. "You were being too humble earlier. I love how you added something special to you."

Edrick seemed to get curious. He came over, and when he saw my canvas, he said nothing; instead, he only blushed a deep, scarlet red.
I couldn't help but laugh a little.

On the ride home, I gingerly held my painting in my lap while Ella chattered nonstop about how much fun she had.

"Can we hang up our paintings together?" she asked, her voice practically a squeak from her level of excitement.

Edrick nodded, and I noticed that he glanced over at my painting again. "We can even get them framed," he said with a warm smile. I felt my face turn red, and was reminded of what Olivia had said about him. I was believing her less and less; why would he go to the trouble to frame and hang our artwork together if he just planned on kicking me out once the baby was born?

Ella seemed pleased with this, and let out a satisfied sigh.

"I hope I can go to lots of classes someday," she said, staring winsomely out the window. "I had so much fun with the other kids."

Ella's words admittedly made me feel a little sad. She really had so few chances to experience what it was like to be a regular student. Even her weekly training sessions were one-on-one.

When I looked over at Edrick, he seemed to be looking at Ella thoughtfully. I hoped that he was coming to the same realization that I had come to.