The One For Him

The One For Him ~ Chapter Thirty

'It's hard'

'No it's not. I'll teach you'

'Really?', she grinned, her two front teeth missing. So adorable.

'Yes'.

'But you're always busy working', she frowned.

'I'll make time for you'.

'Okay', she peeped at me and whispered.

'Why is mommy grinning?', he glanced at me and smiled.

'She likes you', he whispered back.

'I like her, too'

Once we were inside, a woman in her late fifties came towards us.

'Alex, you're here', she smiled and was about to take the little girl from him but she hugged his neck tighter.

'No! I want to stay with Daddy!'

They laughed, I smiled.

'Olivia, Daddy's got a visitor. Manners?', the lady looked at her pointedly and she sighed.

'Okay', she let him go, went to the lady's arms and pouted. Even little girls are not immune to his irresistible charms.

The lady let her go and told her that lunch was ready. We saw her running towards another room.

'Aunt Mary, this is Clarissa. My fiancé', he introduced me to the lady.

'Nice to meet you', she was smiling. 'I'm sorry about that, the kids missed him so much'

'It's okay Ma'am', I smiled and swallowed. He has kids?! oh my! How many are they?! My mind started gulping.

'Call me Mary. We would want you to join us for lunch. We prepared home-made corned beef, spaghetti and fried chicken. Sorry but those were what the kids wanted', she laughed.

'That would be great', he said, still gripping my hand and we were ushered into another room where there are several people inside.

'Clarissa, I want you to meet the people who keeps the orphanage running', Mary started naming them and I nodded to each and smiled at them.

Orphanage?! God, I'm going to kill him! I glared at him and he was grinning. Ooh! He knew what I was thinking. Bad guy!

***

After lunch he took me on tour.

'This place is running for almost sixty years now. When granny died, I took over.

'What happened to them?', I took a picture frame with an old photograph in it.

'Some of them are working for the company. He is one of our board of directors', he was pointing at a little boy in the photo.

'They all have great futures. My granny made sure of that and I promised her I'll do the same thing to the youngsters'

'I know you can do the same thing'

'I hope so', he took a deep breath and took me to another room. This man loves kids and gentle with animals. What else can a girl asked for, huh?

'These are my favorites', we were standing inside a room filled with paintings.

'You remember the paintings in my house?'

I nodded.

'I took them from here. It was drawn by Miko and Brandon. I'll introduce them to you later. They love justice league cartoons. I gave then some of my comic book collections. You see these? these are priceless treasures. Some of these paintings are older than us. Have you heard of Josephine Montez?

'Yes', who wouldn't know of that famous modern art painter.

He grinned.

'She grew up here too?', I was bewildered.

'Yes. Aunt Josie has a great talent for painting that granny sent her to london to study arts there. Someday I'll let you meet her too'.

'You love coming here?' He nodded.

'This is my second home Claire. I grew up with these people', he gave me a sad smile. 'Most of these kids were orphaned or abandoned at a very young age. That little girl you met there lost her parents in a car accident. He was my friend. She was only four months old when I brought her here. That's why she calls me Daddy', he explained.

'You love her so much'

'I love them all but I love you most', he grinned.

He must have felt he was like these children. Orphaned and abandoned at a very young age. My poor baby. I went to him and hugged him tight.

'I love you mostest'

'Mostest?! Is that a word?'

'Yes, from my dictionary', I looked up at him and grinned. He was grinning too.

'You're cute'

'I know I am'

'Then I love you mostesest', he leaned down and kissed the tip of my nose. I sighed. I laid my head on his chest while the tip of his chin was on top of my head

'You're wrong, you know', I whispered.

'Why? What do you mean?', he whispered back.

'I'm lucky I have you'.