A Second Chance

Chapter 25

Nicola's POV

I was wrong.

Remember how I said I can just avoid Gabriel and his house is big enough for me to do that.

Well, I was so very wrong. He was impossible to avoid. He was everywhere!

The girls and I would play hide and seek, he insists on playing with us.

We would watch disney Princess movies, he would watch each and every one of it with us.

Tonight would be my second night here, and the girls had wanted to eat cookies and watch Moana after dinner. So right now, we are baking cookies while the girls sat at the counter eating their dinner.

Emma had been given the day off as Gabriel and I were both here to take care of them. She had decided to use the opportunity to go buy birthday presents for the girls.

Before I could start making the cookies, Gabriel had come in, announcing that he is the best cookie maker in the world and had turned the kitchen upside down making a cookie mixture, which looked seriously questionable from over here.

I was looking at the mixture, trying not to make a face and he caught me and he snorted at me, "I will have you know that I have made cookies plenty of times and its always tasted awesome.

This is what it's supposed to look like. You guys just do it wrong."

"Do we?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him.
Yb
"Yes! Cookies are supposed to be soft and gooey and slimy..." He said in a very bad italian accent with exaggerated hand jesters, which made the girls giggle at him. They had finished their dinner and were now just sitting and watching him.

"Daddy, you are silly," Bella said, giggling more as he lifted the wooden spoon up and mixture dripped down from it, all liquidy.

His eyes had widened, looking at me panicked, which made me burst out laughing.

"No,no. You're the world's best cookie maker. I'm sure your cookies are going to turn out great." I told him, giving him a devilish grin.

"Of cause I am," he said, scowling at me and then puffing his chest out, trying to look confident, which he was failing at miserably.

The girls and I fell into a fit of laughter, making him shoo us out of the kitchen, saying that we were distracting him.

"Daddy is being so silly today." Livy said, still giggling as she went into the living room plopping down on the sofa.

"Yeah.. I didn't know he could be silly." Bella said as she sat down next to her.

"What are you both talking about? Your father was always silly." I told them, picking up the remote and plopping down on the sofa right next to them.

"No, he's not." They said together, getting distracted as Moana came on the tv, leaving me wondering as to what they meant.

Gabriel had always been silly and up to a lot of antics when we were growing up. He could be serious when he wanted to, even arrogant at times, but most of the time, he was laid back and lots of fun.

True, I hadn't seen him relaxed and happy since I saw him after six years, but I thought he was just being aloof and distant towards me.

Were the twins trying to tell me that Gabriel has been like that to everyone? Maybe he had been like that after Sarah's death.

Yeah, that must be it. And that's perfectly understandable, I thought as I looked towards the kitchen, seeing him working on the dough. Feeling someone watching him, he looked up and smiled, and I gave him a hesitant smile back.
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