Chapter 89: Art Lessons
Moana
As I walked around the room and helped the children with their art, I suddenly heard the sound of the floorboards creaking in the doorway. Thinking that it was Sophia coming to check on how everything was going, I looked up with a smile.
That smile quickly faded, however, when I realized it wasn’t Sophia, but was in fact Edrick who was standing there. He had an indiscernible expression on his face and stood as still as a statue in the doorway with his hands in his pockets, his eyes locked on mine for several long, palpable moments.
Was I seeing things, or had the cold Alpha billionaire finally realized the fault in breaking his promise to his daughter?
But before I could even process the fact that he apparently seemed to have changed his mind for whatever reason, Ella snapped her head up and gasped loudly.
“Daddy!” she exclaimed, jumping up out of her chair and running up to him. “You came!”
Edrick put on a smile and scooped Ella up, hugging her tightly and planting a kiss on her cheek while the other children also threw down their paint brushes and ran up to him. “Mr. Morgan!” they shouted excitedly, jumping up and down on their toes as they swarmed around him. Much to my surprise, Edrick set Ella down and then proceeded to greet each and every child… By name, no less.
“Hello, Clara,” he said, pinching the little girl’s cheek. “Hello, Matthew. Nice shirt you’ve got on today. Joshua…”
While all of this went on, I just stood there in a state of abject shock with wide eyes and an open mouth. It seemed that the Alpha billionaire changed his mind after all and wound up keeping his promise to his daughter; that didn’t mean that I wasn’t still furious with him, not only for initially breaking his promise but also for reeking of women’s perfume and being passed out drunkenly on the couch, but my attitude softened toward him a little bit as I watched him being so kind with the children.
Finally, Edrick stood and looked straight at me. “Am I interrupting an art lesson?” he asked.
“Um… Well—” I stuttered, still taken off guard.
Before I could get my words out, thankfully Ella stepped in. “We’re painting flowers, daddy,” she said, grabbing his hand and leading him over to her work station while the other children returned to their paintings.
“Oooh.” Edrick stuck his hands in his pockets as he peered down at his daughter’s canvas, which contained anything but a flower at this point. “That’s very good, Ella,” he said.
Ella grinned. “Are you gonna paint with us?”
“Oh, honey, I don’t know…”
“Pleeease?” Ella begged, clasping her hands together.
Edrick finally shrugged and nodded, letting out a sigh. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll paint with you.”
Even though I was supposed to be mad at Edrick right now, the fact that he agreed to join the lesson made my attitude toward him soften even more. Without a word, I walked over to the supply cabinet and grabbed a spare apron for him to wear, then handed it to him along with a small canvas and a paintbrush. “There are paints on the tables,” I said, gesturing around.
Edrick silently took the apron and hesitantly put it on, then made his way over to one of the tables and sat down. He looked comically large in the chair that was meant for a child, causing the other children to giggle and point. But, much to my surprise, he only smiled and began to spread paint on his canvas.
Soon, we had all returned to our lesson. The children seemed to be having even more fun now with the Alpha billionaire, who painted rather sloppily and wound up splattering quite a bit of paint on his sleeves. The children pointed and poked fun at him, but he didn’t seem to mind the paint getting on his nice white shirt and only laughed along with them, poking fun at himself as well.
The lesson went on for much longer than expected because of this, but I didn’t mind. Soon, I’d almost entirely forgotten about the perfume and our subsequent argument and only found myself smiling and laughing along with Edrick and the children. The Alpha billionaire was a surprisingly bad artist, and almost seemed as though he’d never even picked up a paintbrush before in his entire life. Watching him struggle was endearing, and at one point I watched with a tear in my eye as one of the children walked up to him and put her little hand around his while he painted, guiding his hand along the canvas.
Finally, however, the lesson had to come to an end. I clapped my hands to get the children’s — and Edrick’s — attention, then instructed them to get up and walk around to look at everyone else’s artwork.
“Remember, no touching,” I said, watching as the children milled around and looked at their peers’ artwork. Edrick stood as well and joined them; he almost looked like a big kid on his own, wandering around with his hands clasped behind his back. It admittedly made me smile a bit, and I didn’t even mind that he seemed to be avoiding eye contact with me.
Finally, the group stopped at Edrick’s station last. There was a long silence as the children stared down at his artwork, which was a sloppy mess that didn’t even remotely resemble a flower.
Just then, Clara pointed her stubby little finger and giggled. “Mr. Morgan,” she said, “don’t you know what a flower looks like?”
“Yeah,” Joshua added, “that looks like a… hm…”
“It looks like a hot dog! With hair!” Ella yelled, causing the children to erupt in a chorus of giggles. I finally walked over and looked down at the painting; it did, in fact, look like a hot dog with hair. The ‘stem’ of the flower was thick and red, and the ‘petals’ were just big brown swirls that resembled a mop of curly hair. If he’d added a bun and a smiley face, and maybe some arms and legs, it easily could have been a children’s cartoon character.
Stifling a laugh, I opened my mouth to tell the children to be nice… But before I could, the Alpha billionaire threw his head back and laughed loudly, slapping his paint-covered hand on his apron. His laughter caused the children to laugh even more, and even brought a smile to my face; I wasn’t sure if I was smiling more because it was funny, however, or if I was smiling because it made me happy to see the cold werewolf CEO so full of joy.
“I guess you’re right, now that I look at it,” he said finally, wiping away the tears that formed in his eyes from laughing so hard. “I guess I’m not an artist, am I?”
Edrick then turned to look at me. His steely gray eyes, which had just been full of mirth, softened as we looked at each other. I could sense an apologetic air about his expression, and it made my heart flutter a bit.
“Well,” I said finally, clearing my throat, “everyone can be an artist with plenty of practice.”
Edrick nodded. “Maybe my skills will get better with more of your lessons, Miss Moana,” he said.
