Second Chances {ManxMan}

CHAPTER 8

After Emmett disappeared, I gave the kids their snacks and got myself comfortable on the couch and stared at the huge television. I flitted through channels until I stuck to something random while eating some chips, it took an hour and a half before Katya was infront of me.

"Can you help us?" She asked softly, her hands behind her back and her lips pursed, I sat up.

"Sure," I offered her a smile and Duncan came and sat beside her standing place infront of me looking at me and the book she then present. I dusted my fingers off and put aside my chips to read through and flushed. "Oh, math." I cleared my throat.

I've never been a math person, and I wasn't going to begin now. What even was this? How can they make kids do this kind of stuff?

"Is this real?" I felt panicked. Duncan smirked and nodded as Katya only tilted her head. "Alright, I'm not going to lie to you, so here's my question. Is there any other homework besides this that you could do first?"

"We're left with English after this." Duncan supplied helpful and I sighed in relief.

"Yeah, let's do that first and finish it, then when your dad wakes up he can help with this one. Mmm? Sound good?"

Katya gave a small hint of a smile while my cheeks were flushed with uselessness. She took the book nodding.

"Okay." Duncan laughed and I glared at him. They went back to their place and opened English, I watched them for a bit before going over to sit with them, Katya gave me her book which had homework on what looked to be biology.

"Daddy always checks when I'm done." She whispered as she worked through English. I nodded then and took her textbook, looking up the answers at the back because I wasn't going to pretend I knew what the hell they make kids do these days.

It was pretty straight forward, a lot of it were drawings and simple naming questions. When there was an answer that needed correction I put a star next to it so she could review it and did the same to Duncan who surprisingly didn't make mistakes. It was usually Logan who helped with his homework so seeing this I felt oddly impressed.

They finished English and looked over their mistakes where they existed and then I checked the English. By the time all was finished with their mistakes taken care of I went to start dinner only for Emmett to walk in, heavy lidded and yawning and stretching. I offered him a smile.

"That must feel much better."

"What did I miss?"

"Well, you get to help them with math because I atleast did everything else."

"Math?" Emmett frowned. "Katya's good at that."

"Well, she needed help on a question and I was no help." I motioned towards them and he tilted his head. "I'll get started on dinner meanwhile."

"I..." He looked at me then, "I thought we'd order pizza." He said it almost like he was confused and a little lost on the matter and I chuckled.

"That could work," I smiled. "But I don't mind cooking."

Emmett then rolled his eyes and shook his head before grabbing me by the wrist. Again, so casual, so easy for him while my heart hammered and I felt warmer than normal. He plopped me onto the couch and handed me his phone on the delivering app.

Then he went over to the kids and sat Katya on his lap before asking where it was she needed help. Katya showed him, apprently she had taken the time to attempt to do it on her own while I had gone to attempt dinner and Emmett praised her on how well she did and corrected the last step before the answer which was where she got it wrong. He explained the process to Duncan too and within minutes they were finished.

I was distracted by how he handled the whole thing, watching him rub his daughters back and calmly, gently even direct her towards the answer. As I listened since they weren't far, I marveled at how good he was at explaining and how if I had had him as a teacher I'd have probably been a genius. I found myself snickering by myself picturing him as my teacher until things got a little too heated in my head and I had to snap out of it because Duncan hit my thigh.

"What you do that for?" The guy was glaring at me and I realised they had come towards me, Katya in her father's arms all looking at me.

"Did you order?"

"Oh, sorry, no. Uh," I started pressing at random. "You all okay with pizza?" There was an enthusiastic cheer as Duncan sat beside me to look and Katya wiggled out of her father's arms to do the same. "No allergies anyone?" I looked to Emmett who seemed taken aback by my question but nodded. We ordered two pizzas, Emmett paid for both since it was his phone app and his everything was connected so he just did the paying process. I offered to pay for half but instead he told me next time which thrilled me because that meant we'd definitely do this again.

"So, I actually only discovered your grocery store yesterday." Emmett confesses to me from the floor of his living room as we ate. The kids were eating by the dining room, Duncan talking animatedly. I immediately turned to Emmett with my mouth full and he grinned.

"What?"

"Chipmunk." He did something I didn't expect and boped my nose. I blinked in surprise, my chewing halted by the action and he looked towards the screen.

"I had gone to one a little farther," he continued," until I bumped into this mother from Katya's school, she lives closer and asked why I'd come so far....honestly it was the most uncomfortable ten minute conversation in my life."

I chewed quickly and swallowed nearly choking and took some water. "I can imagine, all the mom's adore you."

"You mean they want to horde me."

I laughed at his simple comment, so much that I fell back leaning on my one hand. "Here I thought you were oblivious."

"How can I? One of them even offered to spend the night after Katya's party, she wasn't very subtle."

"Ooh, that's extremely cringe." He shook his head and I realised that I had already eaten like five slices of pizza. I was still hungry but pursed my lips.

"Anyway, I've been here for a good two weeks and still haven't found time to actually get to know the area." He shrugged getting his second slice.

"Well, if you ever need a tour guide, I'm your guy." I looked down shyly plotting all the ways I'd get to spend more time with him.

"I'd like that, actually." I found him already looking at me, chewing slowly, his head tilted to the side and his big beautiful blue eyes staring right through me. I couldn't help study him, his hair had fallen into his eyes but not annoyingly, it was just perfect and his lips, they looked so plump, so kissable I wondered how it would feel to have them on me.

I blinked then as a hand waved in front of my line of sight and realised I had pictured him on top of me, as he is now, breathing my air and staring into my eyes, bending down to kiss me when suddenly I was brought back.

"You alright?" Emmett asked me and I blinked a few times, eyes wide.

"Hmmm?" I couldn't use my voice and he smiled.

"How old are your other boys?" He asked me taking another bite of pizza and I had to look somewhere else so as not to blatantly fantasize in front of him about him. Then I whispered so lowly because my voice literally didn't understand what I wanted it to do.

"18 and 13."

A/N
19 September 2021.