[ tres ]
Valerie drove back to her house and led Toni inside with his son. She hurried to the kitchen with the footballer and his crying son in tow. Once there, she rapidly grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and poured milk into them. Handing one to Toni, she instructed with a gesture of her head, "The microwave is over there. Go heat it up and give it to your son before he wakes everyone in this house." Her parents' bedroom was on the far end of the top floor and there was no risk of waking them. But the service was just down the hall and she didn't want them to see her with a guy in the house or else she could get in trouble with her parents.
Toni took the glass of milk in his hand and took it to one side of the room where there was a microwave oven on the countertop. While the milk heated up, he sat his son on the kitchen island and held the crying child there. Valerie went to a crystal bowl of fruit on the kitchen table and grabbed a banana for her mother.
She half-ran up the stairs and down the hall to give her mother the food. Her fist collided with the door to knock and soon came her mother's voice, "Come in."
Valerie pushed the door open to find her parents were already in their pajamas and under the covers to sleep. Closing the distance between herself and the bed, Valerie said, "I hope you appreciate all the trouble I went through, mom. You know, I had to fight someone to get that last gallon of milk." She informed, adding a bit of drama to her story.
"Of course I do." Her mother replied with a small smile.
"Well, goodnight." Valerie waved goodbye and kissed her mother on the cheek after she handed her the milk and the banana. Looking to her father who was reading a book, she added, "Goodnight dad."
He nodded a response and she left the room, running towards the kitchen.
When she returned, she was stunned to see the little boy who had been crying minutes earlier was now soundly sleeping in his father's arms. Valerie eyed Toni suspiciously, "You didn't knock him out with something, did you?" Valerie could expect anything from a Real Madrid footballer.
"Of course not!" Toni said in a whisper, his voice outraged. "Are you crazy?"
"Come on, Alemán." She sighed, grabbing her keys to the automatic gate in her hand. With the other, she patted him on the shoulder a bit too hard. "I'll walk you back to your car so you won't get lost or something."
-
Toni was actually able to get sleep that night and in the morning, he got Leon ready for day care. Since Toni was living in Madrid and knew no one else to watch his son, he searched the best day cares in the city and came up with one that was in the local primary school. With Jessica gone, he would have to drop off his son each day before practice.
Before entering, Toni got down to eye level with his son and explained to him, "You're going to stay here with the nice care taker until I get back. Promise you'll behave?"
The little boy nodded his head.
"Great." Toni smiled and straightened up, grabbing his son's tiny hand in his before pushing the door open to allow himself inside.
When he reached the front desk, he almost wanted to turn around and leave. There was Valerie with her golden clonde hair pulled back into a pony tail and she wore a childish apron with bunny patterns on it. She smiled at him, but her smile dropped when she realized who it was. Narrowing her eyes at him, she asked, "Are you following me around?"
"You're not that important." He countered.
"Seems like it since you're stalking me." She argued back.
Toni scoffed. "I am not stalking you. This was the best day care center I could find."
"Damn right it is." Valerie said proudly.
"What are you doing here?" The German footballer wondered. "You don't need the money."
She shrugged her shoulders like it was nothing. "My parents built this school and my mom is the principal. So she asked me to check in to make sure things are okay. And since I love children, I thought I would volunteer for a while."
"So you love children, but you hate adults. Is that it?" He concluded from her behavior towards him.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" She responded with a question of her own.
Suddenly remembering he had practice, he said, "Oh, right." He slung a red backpack with firetruck patterns off his shoulder and handed it to Valerie, "Here's all his favorite toys and books, and his favorite blanket. I'll be back in the afternoon to pick him up."
She grabbed the back pack and put it on a rack of belongings behind her after slapping on a sticker with the name Kroos on it. "Before you can leave," She began calmly, "Let me just run you by the basic rules. You check in here when you drop off your child. The price for child care is one thousand five hundred euros per month, with that money we will provide care, food, and anything the child may need. When you pick him up, you must sign out no matter how much of a hurry you're in. And no one else but you is allowed to pick up the child unless you presonally allow it. No written permission will be allowed for another person to take the child, even if that person is your own mother. Also, you must attend the monthly parent meetings. We basically just have a room where we showcase things the children have created during art classes."
Toni nodded his head. "I agree."
"Okay, you may go." She told him.
The German footballer hugged his son and went out the door, leaving him with Valerie.
She went around the reception desk and grabbed his hand. Leon had already met her twice, but still walked hesitantly, as he was a child and didn't really understand what was happening. Valerie took him behind the desk and sat him on the chair next to her. "I'm the only one at reception, so we have to wait until someone comes from the playrooms to get you." She told the child. While they sat there, she phoned one of the other workers and they took Leon to play with the other children.
Valerie sat at her desk, waiting for Sergi to answer her text message until her shift at the reception desk was over.
-
im on an updating spree. though i should be studying for my asian history quiz. but i still have an hour before the class starts. anyway, i hope you all like the update. thank you so much for reading and supporting this story. maybe in the next chapter i'll include something about ashley and marc ^.^ i was really thinking about it.
-clary xx
