AllFreeNovel
Share Us
FIVE
MIA
She was standing in the kitchen when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. They were too heavy to be the children, so she knew it was Tharon, and her heart skipped a beat.
She tried to ignore it because she knew her place. She was the nanny, and a romantic relationship with the kid's father was wrong. Besides, it wasn’t like he liked her that way, so the thought was just dumb.
She smiled as he entered the room and waved a hand. “Good morning.”
He rubbed at his eyes, clearly still sleepy, as he trudged toward her. “What are you doing up so early?”
“I thought I’d make breakfast,” she said, waving her hand over everything she pulled out. She wanted to be the type of nanny who was fun, and so far, she was.
He looked at her pancake batter and the eggs she pulled out. She’d pulled out various fruits to cut up and some meat to cook. She was planning to cook a large meal to start everyone's day off right.
“You have quite the selection,” he said with a gentle smile. “Reminds me of my wife.”
Her fingers froze as she grabbed an egg. She knew his wife had died, but she wasn’t entirely sure how. She was always too afraid to ask, or she thought it was never appropriate to bring her up.
Tharon noticed the shift and gave her another gentle smile. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No.” She waved her hand. The last thing she wanted was for him to shut down when he was opening up. “Don’t apologize. I just … You’ve never mentioned much about her before.”
He shrugged and slid past her toward the table, pulling a chair out. “I try to push her into the back of my mind most of the time. And it’s not because I don’t want to think about her because I do. I loved my wife.”
Her heart felt a twinge hearing his words, but she understood. He loved his wife with all his heart, and she died. Why wouldn’t he admit that he loved her?
“It’s just hard to talk about her sometimes because I know how much she’s missing,” he admitted, swallowing. “She would have wanted to see the twins grow up. Her dream was always to be a mom, and she never had the opportunity to achieve it.”
She smiled. She’d seen a few pictures of her. She was a gorgeous woman who looked like she would have been a loving mother. She was the type of person everyone would envision when they spoke about a mom.
“I’m sure she would have been proud of everything you’ve done so far. You've raised the kids amazingly well.”
He looked up at her, seeming lost in his head. He cleared his throat. “She used to cook like this. She’d get up early before I had to leave, and when I would tell her she made too much, she always said she needed to be prepared for when we had a full house of kids and all those mouths to feed.”
She smiled. “My mother used to say things like that.”
“And did she?"
“Have a bunch of mouths to feed?” She shrugged. “I was her only child. My father ended up leaving us when I was three, so she never got the chance. But she cooked every morning, and we always had leftovers.”
She looked down and poured out some pancakes. “It was nice. Nothing else mattered when she cooked, and when I got up, she put her full attention on me. I don't think the food really mattered. It was just her presence that I loved.”
The room fell silent for a moment before she looked back up at Tharon. He watched her flip pancakes when his eyes flickered up toward her. She felt her heart skip a beat, and her skin felt hot.
She shook it off. “If you don’t mind me asking, how did she die?”
“Complications with her pregnancy. And the birth. Everything was fine until it wasn’t. The doctor said there was nothing they could have done. I wasn’t even aware that her pregnancy was risky.”
She looked back at him, seeing a hurt expression on him. “She didn’t tell you?”
He shook his head. “No. When we found out she was expecting, I think she wanted me to keep her dream alive. So, she kept it to herself. I was angry at her for a while afterward because I should have known, but thinking back on it, I know she did it because she didn't want to waste time when she already knew what the future held.”
She felt a little bad and could imagine the twin’s birth. It was supposed to be the most amazing day of his life, having children and starting a new chapter of their lives. But instead, his wife died, leaving him with the babies.
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching across the counter and placing her hand on his. “I can only imagine how that felt.”
He gave her hand a squeeze back, and she felt warmth from it.
