Leonardo carried Rosie up, just like how he carried Summer—princess-style. However, due to her small size, she just lay in his arms, feeling uncomfortable. As she started kicking, he held her in a way that she could sit up in hisarms.
Carrying Rosie with one hand, he freed the other to open the door to his reading room. As he went in, he looked at the aftermath and was in thoughts. After he had done his thinking, he put Rosie down and squatted down to clean up the mess.
Rosie probably did not like how messy the entire place was. She tiptoed to one side and climbed onto the couch, stroking her soft tiger toy as she watched Leonardo doing his stuff. After just a few seconds, she became restless and curious.
“Daddy, what are you doing?”
“There’s stuff everywhere. I’m picking them up.” He did not look at her.
“Oh, let me help.” She slid down the couch and ran up to Leonardo excitedly, imitating what he was doing and picking up the papers that were strewn all over the place.
However, she did not stack the papers nicely like what Leonardo did. Instead, she held and crumpled them in her arms, then only she proudly handed them to him.
“Here you go.”
Leonardo took them and patted her on the head. “Outstanding. Now, go play on your own.”
“Okay.”
Her mouth twitched, feeling that cleaning up was not fun at all. She was more into colorful and lovely toys than those papers printed with black ink.
As Leonardo finished picking up the documents and putting them back to where they belonged, someone knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” His voice sounded frosty.
“It’s me. Is Rosie still inside? I’ve made her a cup of hot milk. It’s time for her to take a shower and sleep.” It was Summer outside.
Only then did Leonardo realize that it was close to ten at night. Looking over at Rosie, he saw Rosie listening attentively.
Sitting quietly on the couch, she tilted her head with her eyes moving in their sockets. Obviously, Summer’s voice had attracted her attention.
“Didn’t you hear that? Who’s looking for you?” Leonardo smiled.
She raised a finger to her mouth, looking surprised. “It’s Mommy. It’s milk time.”
“She’s not your aunt anymore, eh?” Leonardo appeared surprised.
“You said, Mommy.” Rosie talked a little too fast and did not care about grammar. Supposedly she was saying, “You told me that she’s Mommy.” She then jumped down from the couch.
“I’m going to open the door!”
Leonardo looked on as she scurried to the door, then stood on her toes to open the door with much difficulty. He let her be. Taking the file folder in his hand, he walked around behind the desk and locked the folder inside the bottommost drawer under the desk.
When he looked up again, Rosie had successfully opened the door and greeted her mommy.
Summer held a cup of hot milk in her hand, rooted to the spot when she heard how Rosie addressed her. It was not after a few moments that she came out of her daze, looking at Rosie in disbelief.
“What did you just call me?”
“Mommy.” Probably Rosie had sensed the change of expression on Summer’s face. She appeared a little startled.
Summer could not believe her ears; this was the moment she had been waiting for.
“I-I made you hot milk…” Summer stuttered as she squatted down to hand the cup of milk to Rosie.
Rosie’s eyes brightened up. She reached to take the cup in her hand and drank from it. Worrying that Rosie might not grab the cup properly, Summer reached to help her hold the cup as she gulped down the milk. After that, Rosie raised the empty in front of Summer.
“I’ve drunk it all!”
“Rosie is awesome! Do you want more hot milk tomorrow night?”
“That’s great!”
Still raising the cup in her hand, Rosie turned her head and looked for Leonardo. Summer followed her eyes and found that Leonardo had come up and leaned against the door frame, his arms folded in front of him, looking at Rosie calmly.
Having gotten a compliment from Summer, Rosie was expecting the same from Leonardo.
“Look, Daddy! I have drunk it all!” There was a circle of milk around her mouth.
Leonardo’s lips curled up on both sides as he wiped the milk stain on her mouth. “Did you say thank you?” There was a subtle hint of joy in his voice.
Rosie looked back at Summer. “Thank you, Mommy!”
The first time Rosie addressed her as Mommy, she had been wondering. Rosie could not possibly change to call her Mommy on her own. Leonardo must have said something to her.
She started to feel that Leonardo was a complicated person, whom she found hard to understand. He was arrogant, sometimes a little childish, and even thoughtful.
Summer had a hard time making out her feelings as she glanced at Leonardo.
…
After cleaning up Rosie, Summer coaxed her to sleep. After that, she left the room and saw Leonardo right outside.
He had apparently taken a shower, too, as he was now wearing soft casual wear. He did not look that intimidating anymore.
“Thank you,” Summer said after she took a deep breath. She reckoned that it was Leonardo who had changed the way Rosie addressed her. She did not know why he did that, but she appreciated what he had done.
Rosie seemed to like her very much. But compared to Leonardo, who had been Rosie’s guarding angel all this while, Rosie liked him even more. That was for sure, and also why Rosie listened to Leonardo.
The door to Rosie’s room was open ajar. Leonardo nuzzled it open more to take a peek inside. Rosie was cuddling her soft toy, sound asleep. He pulled back his eyes and glanced back at Summer.
“Only the childish would show gratitude with mere words.”
After saying that, he turned around and left, not bothering to check her reaction.
She was transfixed by what he said. Was Leonardo still holding grudges against her because she said he was childish? She suddenly felt like she had to rewrite her understanding of him.
Should a person of Leonardo’s stature not be this calculative? Then why did he harp on every word she said? Not only that. He even turned around and spat the words back at her.
Back in her room, Summer just could not wrap her head around it. So she called Jessica.
“Summer!” Jessica’s voice was still that sunny and energetic.
“I have a question for you, Jessica.”
“What is it?”
Summer heard Jessica pouring what sounded like water into a glass. She pondered it for a moment, then phrased her question in a more subtle mode.
“What kind of person is he? I mean Leonardo.”
There was a sudden violent cough on the other end.