Chapter 28
Katherine arrived at her apartnt floor, exhausted and deadbeat from work. Dragging her feet out of the elevator, her uniform was unkempt, her hair was ssy—strands flying around. She could pay a million to soak in a hot spring right now.
Just get inside, shower, sleep. Total concentration.
But life seed to plan another thing for her. As she opened her door, it was Aaron she saw. She blinked the tiredness from her eyes quickly and darted back to the door to make sure she hadn’t entered another apartnt.
Seeing her apartnt number was correct, she walked back in to see Aaron chuckling.
"Are you that surprised to see that you couldn’t believe your eyes?"
"I wasn’t expecting you," she shot back, sneakily running her hand through her hair to smooth it out a little—she knew she looked awful. "But how did you get in?" she asked truthfully. She didn’t expect the nanny would allow him into her house—she needed to talk to Ms. Janet.
Aaron’s lips curled up in a musing smirk. "I have my way."
"We opened the door for him!" Jasmine grinned, while Hanith nodded in agreent.
Katherine placed her hands on her hips in a mock stern tone. "Haven’t I warned you against opening the door for strangers?" she asked playfully.
Jasmine pouted, her arms crossed on her chest. "But Uncle Piano isn’t a stranger."
Katherine laughed. "Okay, okay," she waved her hand, "just make sure to give a heads-up in the future," she said, stifling a yawn that wanted to escape as she walked to her room.
After getting a long-ass shower, she changed into her casual wear, put on her flip-flops, and went to check what the kids were up to now.
Katherine paused at the door, leaning against the fra as her chest clenched at the sight of the trio looking so familiar. Jasmine was answering a question animatedly while Hanith scribbled slowly.
"Is this correct?" he asked shyly, while Aaron nodded and ruffled his hair.
Aaron’s presence felt oddly natural in her ho, with his reading glasses on and him monitoring the children’s howork, solving it for them, and cheering whenever they got the answer right.
Aaron, noticing her presence, waved for her to co over with a warm smile. The tiredness she had felt earlier evaporated as she sat on the chair Aaron pulled out for her.
"Mommy, see!" Jasmine showed Katherine her math sheet. "I got everything!" she said proudly, and Katherine laughed, pinching her cheek softly.
Katherine didn’t know how Aaron did it and made Jasmine do the howork by herself without throwing a tantrum. This was the first.
Jasmine and howork didn’t always belong in the sa sentence.
"I did it myself," she boasted, raising her face as she looked at Aaron expectantly.
"That’s my girl," Aaron said, and Jasmine grinned widely, clearly loving the praise as he quickly placed a kiss on her forehead.
Aaron quickly turned to Hanith, who was trying to pronounce so words from his book. He smiled warmly and leaned in.
"You know letter A sounds ’a’ as in b-a-t, right?" he asked softly, adjusting the fra of his glasses while Hanith nodded gingerly. "Then the sound ’a’ is here also. So letter ’v’ sounds like what?"
Hanith responded in a small voice.
"Good. Letter ’n’ sounds like what?"
Hanith gave a response again.
"Good. Now pronounce the letters together. V A N is what?"
"Vaaan." He muttered, yet Aaron heard it and grinned.
"That’s my boy! You got it!" he praised. "Now use the thod to read the words."
"I am up. Up on the van. I go up. Up on the van." Hanith read out.
Katherine watched how impressively Aaron guided Hanith to read without help, stuttering, or making a mistake. It was the first ti. Hanith finished the whole paragraph, stopping when there was a need to join words together.
Katherine’s eyes widened in shock before she rose to her feet, clapping her hands imdiately as the surge of emotion buzzed in her.
"That was perfect, baby!" she cheered, while Hanith bead happily, then turned to Aaron, who was waiting to high-five him.
"Just rember the trick—know the sound pronunciation," Aaron reiterated softly, and Hanith nodded.
Jasmine clapped also, joining the excitent, jumping around as Hanith leaned into Aaron with a small proud smile.
After finishing the howork, the kids ran off to brush their teeth and change into their pyjamas. Katherine gathered their books, putting them into each respective bag, then she paused, looking at Aaron surprisingly—seeing him in another light.
"You are unexpectedly good at this," she said, starting a conversation. She didn’t know he had it in him. The room was too silent between them, and she didn’t like how she was fidgeting in his presence.
"This?" he looked up at her.
Katherine nodded, gesturing to the table vaguely. "Helping the children with the howork, explaining while being patient," she shrugged.
"Ah!" Aaron chuckled softly. "It’s not that I’m good," he said sheepishly. "I’ve been studying books on parenting. Watching those parenting videos—the ones that start with ’5 ways to get familiar with your kid’ on YouTube." he admitted, a little embarrassed, his ears turning red.
"That’s good," Katherine comnted.
"Yeah," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Sincerely, I got jealous of how Mathew handled the kids. So I want to be better," he said. "Not just for them—" he trailed off, not sure if he should say it, but mumbled the last part, "for you also."
The last whispered part caught Katherine off guard, as a peaceful yet rigid silence descended on them. The air shifted between them, both staring at each other as the thumping of their hearts could be heard.
Aaron moved his hand gently and placed it on Katherine’s own on the table, squeezing it softly, and he smiled when he noticed she didn’t pull away.
"I’ll try and do my best to be the best father to the children. They won’t lack, and they won’t regret having in their life. I vowed," he enunciated, his eyes staring deeply into Katherine’s, and he hoped his eyes could show the intensity of his honesty and truthfulness.
He raised their joined hands together and placed a soft kiss on them before standing up like a gust of air and walking out.
Leaving Katherine’s heart pounding profusely, her lips parted with shock at the simple yet tempting action.
Her cheeks flad red, and she abruptly stood from the seat, patting her cheeks softly.
"No, no, no!" she mumbled, pacing subconsciously in a random direction in the living room.
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