19

Sean Peterson
“Back at school, Henry’s toe was injured too. His…his mom did something to his toe and he was fine. Can you do that to me too, Lauren? I don’t want pain.”
My hands stopped applying the ice pack on Ryan’s toe when I heard him say that as he sobbed. I couldn’t help but ponder over the fact that he was suffering; mentally.
Not just his father, he was missing his mother as well. Who wouldn’t?
“I’ll take all your pain away, buddy. I’m here for you.”
And my heart seemed to stop when Lauren mumbled soothing words to Ryan. The pain in her voice, I felt that. She too felt a sense of care for Ryan. There was no doubt that she had grown closer to Ryan in a very short time.
From the outside, she was unquestionably annoying, talkative, and sometimes immature, but from the inside, she was caring.
Probably it was a wise decision to bring her to my home to help me with Ryan. No matter how much trouble she had caused me, she effortlessly managed to gain the trust of people I love-and mine too.
“Let me do it.” She grasped my wrist to grab the ice pack from my hand. I passed it over to her without question as I knew Ryan wanted to be comforted by her. I took Ryan from her hold and sat on the couch with him on my lap.
“Don’t cry champ.” I rubbed his back and she crouched down to treat his toe. My gaze got transfixed on her constricted face. She had her eyes fixed on Ryan’s toe as she gently dabbed the pack on it. I saw her wince when Ryan flinched because of the pressure she had applied on his toe. I couldn’t help but admire her sense of care.
After almost fifteen minutes, Ryan’s sobs died down and he raised his head to look over at Lauren. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, Lauren.” She raised her head.
“Are you sure?” She asked softly. All of a sudden, Ryan sat straight on my lap and hugged Lauren which made her stumble and she steadied herself by placing her hands on my thighs, making my legs jerk in response. Damn!
“Yes. Thank you, Lauren. You are the best. I love you.” He said loudly. I would have been utterly stunned by Ryan’s confession if my whole attention hadn’t been on Lauren’s hands that were pressing my thighs. Numerous nasty thoughts and images spiraled in my mind. I held the urge to groan out loud.
I flicked my eyes from her hands to her face. The pain on her face had vanished and she smiled-no grinned. She pulled herself out of his hold and kissed his cheek. What a lucky boy!
“I love you too, buddy. You are my sunshine.” She said as she raised her hands and squeezed his cheeks. I didn’t have anything to say I was busy smiling and admiring their cute interaction.
“You know what? As you confessed your love towards me, I’m gonna treat you with chocolate. Wait here, I’ll be back.” She grinned and made her way to the kitchen.
“Hey, champ. I’ll be back too.” I settled him on the couch and followed Lauren into the kitchen. Honestly, there was no reason for me to follow her. My legs forced me to do so.
She opened the fridge and took chocolates out and turned, and-I came face to face with her extremely angry yet beautiful face.
I frowned thinking as to what had happened to her. Not even a minute ago she was grinning ear to ear and now she was burning in anger. I stood rooted in my place as I didn’t want to burn in the fire of her anger.
Abruptly, she slammed the chocolate bars on the counter, taking me by surprise. “I want to meet Ryan’s mother.” She snapped.
Huh?
“How could she leave her child alone? Don’t she have a sense of responsibility?” By now she was breathing heavily, her chest going up and down. I gulped the dirty thoughts. I had to.
She glared at me. Uh, why me? I did nothing wrong.
“Her son is missing her and she never thought of meeting him; not even once? I swear she isn’t leaving without fractured bones if I ever get to lay my hands on her.”
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
She unwrapped the chocolate bar and stuffed it in her mouth. A smile broke on my face as I watched her in amusement. Putting my hands in my pant pockets I cautiously sauntered towards her and stood at a notable distance from her, and observed her as she kept on doing one thing she’s fond of; rambling.
“You know what? I’ll strangle her neck.” She took a bite of the chocolate. “She should be ashamed of herself.” Another bite.
“She will regret leaving -my Ryan alone.”
My breath hitched. Did she just call him hers?
Another bite.
“What was Ryan’s fault that she left him? He’s such a sweet child and how could anyone think of…” Her voice cracked a bit. I felt her; the sorrow she felt for Ryan was inside me as well.
I too wanted to teach Samantha, Ryan’s mother a lesson. I too wanted to lash out at her for running away with money, for leaving her son alone. For not having even an ounce of respect for a deceased person; her husband. I had sources and resources to find her but I never initiated anything. That money-hungry bitch was not good for Ryan; she was better away from my family.
“She needs to learn how to be a mother and I’d be the one teaching her. I’ll show her what she lacks. That stupid good-for-nothing woman!” She mumbled.
I did not doubt her ability, at all. Lauren definitely could teach Samantha how to be a mother. As she wasn’t a mother but she was looking after Ryan as one.
I wanted to comfort her, embrace her, tell her that everything in Ryan’s life would be fine as now I was with him. And I swear I had slowly shifted near her to embrace her in my arms but she again started cursing Ryan’s so-called mother, bringing me back to reality.
“No, why should I teach her anything? I wish she burn in hell. What say, Mr. Peterson?” She looked at me in bitterness.
Again Mr. Peterson? Sudden annoyance surged inside me.
“Calm down. No need to turn your hulk mode on.”
“Stop calling me hulk.” She scowled as she squinted her eyes.
“First stop calling me Mr. Peterson.” I scowled back, glaring at her with the same intensity.
“Yeah, sorry. I forgot… Sean.” She heaved a sigh.
I smile appeared on my lips. In all honesty, I accept that I was stealing glances at her all day. I was reminiscing about the kiss all time. It was as if the slight act of mine had taken my composure away. On one hand, I was satisfied that she had no idea about the kiss as it’d have created awkwardness between us, but on the other hand, I wanted to do something-anything to go closer to her again.
I didn’t know what came into my mind that I told her to address me with my name. Maybe it was the only thing that could help me take a step closer to her-for the meantime of course.
I mentally cursed myself for going insane over a girl who was my employee, but I couldn’t help with the attraction I felt towards her. And I would be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to her. I was… a lot.
The kiss had stirred my insides, making me want her more. Perhaps a real kiss this time? In all consciousness, needless to say.
I was snapped out of my reverie when I heard the crushing of wrapper. I glanced at her to find that she had already finished the whole bar of chocolate.
“Lauren?” I said. Oh, how I loved saying her name.
She looked at me, unknown as to why I had called for her.
“You do realize that the chocolate you ate was for Ryan?”
She suddenly gasped as she glanced back at the empty wrapper in her hands. “Oh, shit!” She then raised her eyes and narrowed at me. “It all happened because of you. It was you who got me distracted in forming a revenge plan.”
I gaped at her. Did she…? What? This when she annoys me! At one moment she could have me drowned in her eyes and the very next moment she could annoy the hell out of me.
“I figured that you have got the guts to talk back to me, to your boss.” I reminded her.
“Well, then don’t make me do things you don’t like.” She took out another chocolate bar from the fridge and walked out of the kitchen, leaving my jaw hanging in the air.
Ugh! How could I get myself attracted to this unbearable woman? I wasn’t like this before. I used to push these types of women away. And I couldn’t even snap back at her! Why?
What have you done to me, Lauren Hart?
I was going to follow her into the living room but was stopped by the buzzing of my phone. I rolled my eyes when I saw Daniel’s name flashing on the screen.
“What?” I snapped as I pressed the phone against my ear.
“When?” Came his shot question.
“Not yet,” I answered back. I knew he was talking about meeting Ryan. And the most amazing thing, I hadn’t told him or Xavier that grandma had already left.
“But Sean-”
I hung the call before he could say any further. Shaking my head I walked back to the living room and found the two kids giggling over something I had no idea about.
Kids!
I made my way upstairs but stopped when Ryan called for me.
“Uncle Sean, would you like to watch a movie with us?”
Us? With her after what happened minutes ago in the kitchen? I thought not. And I do not watch movies.
I turned to face them. “Ryan I’m sorry but-”
“Ahem.” I had to stop when I heard the clearing of the throat. I raised questioning eyebrows at her already narrowed eyes look.
“He’ll get upset.” She mouthed.
“No, he won’t.” I mouthed back.
“He will.” She again mouthed back.
“I am not watching any movie. That’s it.” I mouthed back, narrowing my eyes.
“Why can’t I hear you speak?” My eyes snapped to Ryan’s confused face.
“Uh, Ryan-”
“Buddy, select the movie as your uncle agreed to watch it with us.”
What? When?
“Yay!!” Ryan jumped and took the remote control in his hands.
She ran up to me and grabbed my wrist. “Don’t say no. A movie won’t hurt your eyes.” She forcefully dragged me to the couch.
And I kept on blinking, blinking, and blinking, thinking about what had just happened?
Did she order me? When did I give her enough liberty to order me around?
“I see that you have been forcing me to do many things these days,” I stated firmly when she adjusted Ryan next to me and she slumped on his other side, making Ryan sit between us.
“Uh, I forgot to bring popcorn.” She ignored my comment and dashed to the kitchen.
I huffed. Guess, I had no other choice left.
“What are we watching, champ?” I asked.
“Dumbo.”
Great. Disney. I was stuck for the next few hours.
Two and a half hours later, I found myself slumped lazily on the couch and dumbly staring at the screen with drooping eyes. I fought to keep my eyelids open. I couldn’t understand how the baby elephant with oversized ears got converted into stupid speaking toys. Oh, yeah, we were now on our second movie in a row; Toy story 4.
By now Ryan was almost lying on me as he had his head placed on my lap and he was staring at the TV screen with utmost interest without blinking. I lazily turned my head to my right to find Lauren sprawled on the couch with her head resting on the armrest and her legs touching the floor, and she was munching on her popcorn. How could she find that position comfortable? And I lost the count of bowls of popcorn she had munched.
She too was deeply engrossed in the movie. I wondered how could she stay without speaking for so long? She hadn’t spoken much in the last few hours.
My face turned into a scowl. I could have finished so much of the work, but no, I was sitting with them, watching something I wasn’t interested in. The reason? One and only, Lauren Hart.
I wanted to slip away in the middle but she had Ryan wrapped around her finger. Her one look and he understood that he had to stop me from slipping away by looking at me with those innocent, puppy dog eyes.
It was not long before she felt my gaze on her and she looked at me with raised eyebrows. She thought I wanted popcorn because she raised the bowl and offered me some. I shook my head in denial to which she shrugged and again settled her eyes on the screen.
When is this torture going to end? I asked myself mentally.
Halfway through the movie she abruptly sat in a sitting position, startling me and Ryan.
“Uh, where’s my phone?” She searched for it in her pockets. “Have you seen it?” She asked me.
“Why would I know about the whereabouts of your belongings?” I could have replied with a simple ‘no’, but I wanted to annoy her as much as she had annoyed me by forcing me to watch the movie. I knew I was going to get a sharp retort.
Was it just me or was I using too much sarcasm? Without any doubt, I was. Her influence again! One more thing that had never happened to me before.
“I asked you a simple question. You should reply to me with an equally simple answer.” There, she retorted.
“No.” I gave up. I didn’t want to put on a fight with her again. I flicked my eyes back to the screen, still slumped on the couch with my head resting on the backrest. Sitting for two hours and doing nothing had made me lazy.
“Was it hard to reply with a simple ‘no’? Then he says I speak too much.” She started to mumbled under her breath but I could hear her.
“Will you shut up?” I snapped, not removing my eyes from the screen. But did she stop? No, she kept on babbling.
“I think it’s in my room. I’ll go and bring it.” Before she could stand up, Ryan got on his feet.
“I’ll bring it.” Saying that he ran upstairs.
“Ryan, your toe hasn’t healed yet. Stop.” She was about to run after him, but I stopped her by grabbing her wrist.
“Let him do it. He isn’t deeply injured. He’ll become sensitive even to light bruises if you don’t let him heal on his own.”
She reluctantly nodded her head but had her eyes fixed on the stairs.
All of a sudden, the ringing doorbell resonated inside the house. I quickly looked at the wall clock. Six-thirty in the evening. Who could it be?
“I’ll get it.” Lauren almost got out of my hold but I gripped her wrist tightly.
“I’ll go. Stay here.” I stood up from the couch and walked towards the door.
I opened the door-only to step back in shock.
“Surprise!”