Leonardo placed the carton on the working desk, his face as calm as a pond.
Even he had to pursue Summer persistently to get in. What gave Tim the right to enjoy direct access?
Leonardo hissed and gave Summer a quick glance before he looked away. He then opened up the box and took out the documents.
Ignoring Leonardo, Summer went to check on Rosie in her bedroom.
Rosie had been sleeping since the afternoon. It was nearly six in the evening now, hence Summer thought it was best that she woke Rosie up now. Otherwise, Rosie would not be able to fall asleep at night.
She checked the time and realized that Leonardo had come home early.
The moment she arrived before the bedroom, someone slowly opened the door from the inside.
Rosie emerged with her hair sticking out in all directions. “Mommy,” she greeted with a big yawn.
“You’re awake now!” Summer picked her up, sorted out her hair, and washed her face.
As they walked past the living room, Rosie greeted Leonardo, “Daddy.”
Her voice was a little too soft, probably because she was not fully awake yet.
Leonardo heard her and looked up, acknowledging with an “Mhm”.
A new working desk and bookshelf had been added to the living room. Rosie had probably noticed the difference; she still curiously looked back in Leonardo’s direction after she entered the bathroom.
When she finally came back out, Summer dressed her up in a jacket, and she scampered over to Leonardo after that.
She was just a few centimeters shy of the working desk’s surface. Stretching out both hands over the desk, she stood on her toes to check out what Leonardo was occupied with. “Whatchu’ doing, Daddy?”
She still could not say certain sentences very clearly, but Leonardo was used to the way she talked and knew what she meant.
“Working.” He did not look at her.
“Working on what?” she asked curiously.
Leonardo lifted his eyelids to look at her. Her hands were on top of the desk, and her neck was stretched as she tried to take a glimpse. However, doing that was too exhaustive. She pursed her lips and knitted her brows together.
Leonardo stared at Rosie for two seconds. Then he extended his hands and reached for her armpits to lift her onto the desk.
She looked nervous and grabbed Leonardo’s arms as he raised her up. It was not until Leonardo put her down on the desk that she breathed a sigh of relief.
“What are you sighing for?” Leonardo asked.
“I didn’t sigh.” Rosie shook her head from side to side and reached out to grab the documents on the table.
Leonardo pressed his hand on them. “Don’t touch.” His voice was as distant as usual.
Afraid, Rosie pulled her hand back and peered at Leonardo with wide-open eyes. She put her hands behind her as if Leonardo would whack her.
Not far away, Summer could not hold back her laughter as she took it all in. Smart little thing.
Rosie barely kept quiet for ten seconds before she went up to Leonardo to look at the document in his hand. She even tried to touch it.
Whenever Leonardo looked at her, she would quickly retract her hand.
Rosie was walking on thin ice, trying to test the waters.
She repeated her actions a few times, and Leonardo finally looked over at Summer. “Bring your daughter away if you’ve seen enough!”
Summer stood upright. “I’m going to prepare dinner. Please look after her, and don’t upset her.”
Leonardo quirked an eyebrow. He could tell from her voice that she was gloating over his misfortune.
Summer walked into the kitchen, and as Leonardo looked down at Rosie, she gazed up at him.
They were staring into each other’s eyes. After a while, Rosie touched her fingers together and whispered, “Daddy.”
She was very cautious, very much like Summer when she talked to an angry Leonardo last time.
Leonardo’s furrowed brows eased up, and he patted Rosie on the head. “Be good, and don’t touch anything. I’ll bring you your Opti-Morph.”
“Okay!” Rosie’s eyes brightened up instantly.
He brought the Opti-Morph toy car over to her, and she was obsessed with it. She rested her chubby legs on the desk, swinging them from left to right and mumbling to herself while fiddling with the toy car.
She did not even notice Leonardo after he stared at her for a long while.
This was their daughter.
What a shame, though; she looked more like him. It would have been better if she looked more like Summer.
…
Summer received a call from Jessica at night. Jessica and Carl were back in Hoover.
Summer and Jessica made plans to have lunch together the next day.
Now that Leonardo, Rosie, and her were living together and Leonardo had to go to work, she needed to bring Rosie along to meet Jessica.
As cheerfully carefree as Jessica was, she was quite thoughtful.
She knew that Summer was going to bring Rosie along, so she prepared a present for her.
“She has enough toys. She won’t be able to play them all,” Summer said softly.
However, Jessica did not care. “There is no kid who doesn’t like presents. Toys are supposed to be for fun. Would you say that you have enough clothes?”
Summer could not rebut her on that one; she truly thought that she did not have enough clothes.
“It’s not something expensive, after all,” Jessica said when she noticed that Summer was about to give in.
Indeed. What Jessica bought was not something expensive but meaningful and thoughtful.
They casually talked about what happened in the mountains.
“That elderly man was so nice.” Jessica nodded her head.
Just as Summer was about to continue, Jessica looked past her.
“What’s wrong?” Summer followed her eyes and saw Leonardo as well as Carl walking toward them.
Carl came up and straight away sat down beside Jessica with his hand on the backrest behind her. “Haven’t you ordered yet?”
Jessica turned and glared at his arm.
Carl immediately retracted his hand and placed it on the table.
Right then, a waitstaff placed some water on the table. Carl picked up a glass and gulped down the water, trying to hide his embarrassment.
Summer took their whole interaction in.
Summer and Jessica were sitting at a table by the window, with Rosie on the wall side and Summer on the isle side.
Leonardo came over and sat down next to Summer without any expression on his face.
She glanced at him. Without waiting for her to speak, Leonardo consciously answered the question that he knew she was going to ask. “I bumped into Carl on the way to lunch.”
Summer checked her watch and realized that it was about lunchtime.
She looked at Leonardo, and like him, she had no expression on her face. “It’s a forty-minute drive from Emerson Group to this place and half an hour to Tip Top Entertainment. How did you guys bump into each other?”
Summer was not about to believe Leonardo. His excuse did not hold up to scrutiny.