Summer’s temper flared. She came to see him because she heard that he had injured his hand. Why did he give her an attitude?
“Leonardo, listen. I’m giving you another chance to speak.” She went up to his desk and forced her hands down on the documents that were spread across the desk.
Leonardo pinched his brow. “I really need to finish my work.”
That was fine. At least, his attitude was a lot better now. She would not harp on it, but she was still worried about his hand. “Are you really all right?”
“I’m fine.” His expression was a little weird, though.
Summer was still doubtful, but she left the room. On her way down the stairs, she bumped into Ava.
“Mrs. Emerson, is Mr. Emerson’s hand all right?” Ava sounded her concern.
“He didn’t hurt his hand.” Summer thought for a moment, then asked, “Ava, why did you say he hurt his hand? He was still all right when we returned from the old residence.”
“While I was sending dessert to your room earlier, I accidentally bumped into him in the corridor, and he covered his hand as though it was very fragile. So I reckoned he had injured his hand.” Ava then mumbled to herself, “If it’s not an external injury, it could be an internal one.”
Summer pondered for a while and asked again, “In the corridor? When he was coming out of the bedroom?”
“Yes.” Ava frowned, looking worried.
Summer had a light-bulb moment when she finally realized what was going on.
She looked at Ava and said, “I think I know why. No worries, his hand is all right. He isn’t hurt.”
“Oh, really? That’s a load off my mind.” Ava then turned around and left.
Summer glanced up the stairs.
She then touched her flushed cheeks as she sat down on the sofa. She had just given him a kiss on the hand.
Why did he react as if his hand was injured?
Oh, dear…
…
During dinnertime, Leonardo noticed that Summer was staring at him.
When she tried to take some veggies from a plate, she dropped a small chunk of it on the table. “Summer, what’s wrong with you?” Leonardo asked.
“Huh?” She looked down, saw a chunk of veggies on the table, and put down her chopsticks. “Did I drop it?”
Leonardo looked askance at her, his expression telling her that he thought she was pretending.
She felt a little embarrassed.
She did not know she had zoned out. She was just trying to figure out why a person with such a cold temperament could behave that way, especially when it came to the way he looked at her; it was loving yet a little silly.
If he was not looking at her with disdain, it meant that he had her in his heart.
She truly still could not figure out why he behaved like that. A thought then popped into her mind: what if she asked him to wash his hand after dinner? She just could not shake the notion from her mind.
After dinner, she looked at him and said, “Let’s go and wash our hands.”
He gave her the same loving-yet-silly look. “Maybe you should go and watch a movie with Douglas.” Following that, he got up and left the dining room.
“Hello, there!” Douglas waved his hand in front of Summer’s eyes.
She looked up at him, and just as she was about to speak, Douglas shook his head in derision. “The way you stared at Leonardo earlier… It looked like your eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets.”
“Really?” She reached to touch her face. She was not even conscious of that. Did she really stare at Leonardo the entire time during dinner?
“Leonardo must be on cloud nine now.” Douglas shifted his chair so that he now sat closer to Summer. “Even if you are infatuated with him, don’t show it. You should have played hard to get with him.” It was as if he was a veteran in the field.
Where did the kid learn all of that from? Summer interrupted him. “You’re wrong about me. I didn’t show it. Couldn’t you see that he was the one crazy about me?” His reaction after she kissed his hand was an example.
Douglas’s mouth twitched. “It was just an illusion.”
“When I told him to wash his hands, he refused. Let me tell you, earlier…” Summer suddenly hesitated. She did not want to tell him about the hand-kissing part. He was too young for that. If she told him about such a thing, it could have an adverse effect on him.
Douglas looked at her as though she was pitiful. “It would have been more normal to ask him to go to the toilet together.”
Summer did not know what to say. Perhaps it was all in her head.
…
The online discussion about Adams’s dog abuse incident continued to worsen.
Some dog lovers had gotten furious over the incident, and they even bought their way into the hot search topic for that purpose.
As if that was not bad enough, he was further implicated in a tryst with a married woman in a hotel.
From his dog abuse incident to the sexual scandal, things seemed to continuously pop up.
Fearing that Douglas might see the news about Adams, Summer watched a movie with him to keep him occupied, then instructed him to trim the lawn.
She was dressed in a down jacket and holding a hot-water bottle in her arms while she was sitting and watching Douglas manicure the lawn.
In the meantime, Leonardo worked his fingers to the bone until the day before New Year’s Eve. He received a call from the old residence, calling him to go back there for the New Year celebration, but Leonardo stood his ground.
“I’m not going,” he told Summer. She knew he would simply refuse because of her. However, Leonardo was working in Emerson Corporation now.
He still needed to make up with his father, Michael, one way or another.
“Let’s go back there this New Year,” Summer said. “Just for a week.”
Leonardo frowned. Summer cut in before he could utter a word. “What could go wrong if you’re with me?”
Startled by what Summer said, he put his hand around the back of her head and kissed her. When their lips finally parted, he stroked her hair and uttered an “okay” with a low voice.
Douglas saw them kissing when he came down the stairs with his bag over his shoulder. He covered his eyes as he shouted, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is adult stuff, man!”
Summer tried to push Leonardo away, but he did not let her go. Instead, he grabbed a cushion and hurled it toward Douglas.
Vaulting over the handrail, Douglas dodged the projectile.
When he looked up again, another cushion hit him in his face before he could give Leonardo a smug look. Instead of retaliating, Douglas complained.
“Summer, look, your husband’s bullying me!”
She chuckled, and before she could say anything, her mobile phone rang inside her pocket. She took it out and pushed Leonardo away.
“Let me take this call.”
As Leonardo let go of her, she got to her feet and went aside.
“Who is it?” she asked on the phone.
“Summer, I guess you won’t be coming home for New Year’s Eve this year, am I right? I wish you a Happy New Year, then.”
Summer’s face collapsed. She did not need to ask to know that it was her.
“Vicky!”