Chapter 5 #2
Unfortunately, I didn’t get his initial reaction, as I was too stunned by the little girl desperately trying to undress in the middle of my living room.
“Daddyyyyy,” she whined, her arms raised, head hidden somewhere in light pink fabric. “Help!”
“Did you remember to open the buttons?”
“Noo, I forgot,” Hazel said, her voice muffled by her sweater. “Help, pleaaase!”
Theo quickly helped his daughter get back into the sweater, then unbuttoned two buttons at the back of her neck, then helped her out of her sweater and into a shirt that was so big I was ninety-nine percent sure it was an old one of his.
“Look, Luci, I have a painting shirt, too,” she said, proudly puffing out her chest before pointing at me and my paint-stained clothes. “Just like you. Can we start now? I want to start decorating the tree!”
Jumping up and down, she pointed at the big canvas towering a good few inches over her that had the outer silhouette of a Christmas tree sketched onto it. It’d been a spur-of-the-moment idea, a step up from the art class I’d held at the community center.
“You might want to take off your socks, too,” I suggested.
I’d prepared for this. The floor was covered in tarp, and I’d turned the heat higher. Hell, I even had a couple of shirts I usually wore while painting, ready just in case.
“And you definitely need a ponytail before you go anywhere near fingerpaint,” Theo added, holding up the purple scrunchie.
“Fine.” She sighed. “But hurry, I want to start!”
Theo made quick work of Hazel’s hair, tying it into a neat ponytail with ease.
My heart fluttered.
Damn, who knew competence was so damn sexy?
“Do you want to change into one of my shirts?” I offered Theo, nodding to the back of my couch where I’d placed my spare painting clothes. “I’d hate for you to ruin your shirt.”
Because he looked sexy as hell in it. The navy-blue Henley brought out the blue in his eyes, and the way it stretched over his chest… delicious. It’d be a damn shame if it got ruined.
“Uhm… yeah…” Theo gave me a grateful smile. A blush crept onto his cheeks, leaving them bright red. “Is it okay if I use your bathroom?”
Thinking back at the way I’d made a fool of myself undressing in front of him last week, my ears heated, and I quickly nodded. “Sure, you shouldn’t have trouble finding it.”
“Be good, Hazel,” Theo told his daughter, then gave me one last smile before hurrying out of the living room.
“So, Miss Hazel, what do you think? You wanna start decorating our very own Christmas tree?”
She nodded rapidly.
“Okay. I’ve got a lot of paint over here, and there’s a bit of glitter over there—but that’s for later. We need to paint first.”
“And you need a ponytail first, Luci,” she said, her face all serious in a way that made her look like a mini version of her father. “Daddy says you can only use paints if your hair is safely tucked away.”
“If your daddy says so.” Winking at her, I tied my hair into a messy bun using the elastic I always wore around my wrist. “And what now?”
Hazel tipped a finger against her bottom lip. “I think… I want to do the garland and the ornaments. You and Daddy can do the tree. That’s the boring part. I want to do the fun parts.”
Snorting, I grabbed palettes for both of us. “Show me which colors you want.”
Hazel grinned, pointing at various shades of red and purple, and we went to work.
I happily smeared different greens onto the huge canvas, trying to create layers with the paint to better show shadows and highlights, while Hazel happily started lathering on a deep red for the garland.
“Can I add glitter later, Luci?” she asked, just as she smushed another glob of paint onto the canvas.
“Of course. I think glitter makes everything better.”
“Me too!” Hazel turned her head away from the canvas for a moment, giving me a huge grin before turning back to the canvas. Her dark brown ponytail swished through the air, narrowly missing my palette.
Phew. That was lucky. Though the green would match her hair beautifully, I doubted her dad would be happy about the mishap.
We continued to work alongside each other in comfortable silence. Her small body vibrated with joy whenever she picked a new color and started slathering it on.
The painting didn’t look professional by any measure, but it was fun.
Running the back of my hand over my forehead, I wrinkled my nose at the cold, slimy feeling of paint it left behind.
The scent was off. Usually, the unmistakable smell of acrylic paint would hit my nose right about now, but the finger paint was different.
I didn’t really like it, but I also didn’t hate it as much as I’d expected.
“Oh, wow, you’ve covered a lot of ground,” Theo said, whistling through his teeth.
Hazel and I turned to him in unison, but while she grinned at him, I just froze because the shirts that were a loose fit for me?
Yeah, not loose at all for him. Instead, the worn-thin fabric stretched deliciously over his chest and biceps.
Fuck, it looked a little like the shirt might rip at the seams if he inhaled too deeply.
Not that I’d mind.
Yeah, I so wouldn’t mind.
“Daddy, we were careful; we didn’t make a mess on the floor,” Hazel said, crossing her arms and making a mess out of her shirt. Oops.
“You’re right, Hazel. How can I help you?”
Hazel immediately launched into a lengthy description of her vision—one that involved so much glitter I doubted I’d even have enough here—then ordered her dad to start with the tree topper since I was apparently doing a good job with the green and didn’t need help.
When the doorbell rang about ninety minutes later, we were still working on the canvas, all three of us covered in nearly as much paint as the painting in front of us.
“Fuck. That’s gotta be the pizza,” I said, wiping a few curls out of my forehead. “I completely lost track of time. Uhm… do you want to go wash up in the bathroom real quick?”
Theo lifted his head from where he’d been painstakingly applying yellow and white paint to imitate a string of lights. His eyes widened as he took me in, but it was when he spotted Hazel that they got big as saucers.
I got it. The ponytail had been a good idea, but by now, it’d basically gotten a dip dye. I didn’t even want to start on the way her face was bright red—and not from shame or embarrassment. Nope. She’d mixed her very own shade of red right on the skin of her cheeks.
“I doubt it’ll be quick,” I heard him whisper.
The doorbell rang again, and I hurried over to buzz the delivery guy in, my stomach fluttering with nerves. I’d definitely underestimated the amount of paint that would end up on Hazel.
Hell, I probably should’ve known better. I always got paint all over me. Then again, that was me, and I tended not to be a good measurement for others.
Wiping my hands on my shirt, I opened the door to take the pizza from the delivery guy and returned to the living room.
It was still empty, so I placed the cardboard boxes on my coffee table and headed to the kitchen to get cleaned up and grab a couple of plates.
Ten minutes later—well, eleven minutes and about fifty seconds, but who obsessed over the time—a very wet Theo and a rosy-faced Hazel emerged from the bathroom.
“We owe you a new bar of soap,” Hazel declared. Her dad buried his face in his hands in what seemed like a mix of defeat and shame.
“That’s okay,” I told them, trying to catch Theo’s eye to make sure he got the message. “You know, Miss Hazel, painting is my job, so I get dirty really often, which means I have to wash up a lot. So I always have a stock of soap.”
Tilting her head, Hazel skipped to where I was sitting on the couch, watching me with a scrutinizing gaze. “But Daddy said your job is helping Santa. That the elf clothes are your work clothes.”
Shit.
“Uhm, yeah, that’s right,” I started, begging Theo with a look to help me out here, but the absolute jackass was busy trying not to laugh.
“But… ahh… You see, Santa really doesn’t need my help year-round.
Mhm, yeah. So, I only help him in December, but have a different job during the rest of the year. ”
Hazel nodded, her forehead still wrinkled, eyes full of doubt. “I guess that makes sense,” she finally conceded.
I let out the breath I’d been holding and started loading up my plate with pizza. My stomach was rumbling so loudly it was a miracle Theo didn’t hear.
Fuck, I’d forgotten to eat again, hadn’t I? I’d grabbed a coffee on my way to the art supply store, but unfortunately, they were out of blueberry muffins, so I wanted to get one on my way back and… yeah, I’d totally forgotten.
“Hungry?” Theo commented, a bemused smile on his lips.
“Mhmm,” I hummed, already chewing the first bite. “Forgot to eat,” I said after swallowing.
“That’s not good, Luci,” Hazel said, shaking her head at me. “It’s very important to listen to your body and to eat when you’re hungry. Right, Daddy?”
Theo nodded, his face going all soft and gooey as he looked at his daughter.
Fuck. I wanted him to look at me the way he looked at her.
No, wait, that sounded creepy, right?
“You’re right, Hazel. Listening to your body is really important.”
She nodded again. “And my body says I need a lot of pizza.”
Chuckling, I watched as she grabbed a slice and took a huge bite out of it. Theo, on the other hand, was nibbling on his pizza as if he weren’t hungry at all. Which I guess was entirely possible. After a while, he slid closer to me until his knee gently nudged mine.
A shiver ran down my spine, and I bit my lip, trying to gather enough strength not to lean into him. I wanted to—desperately so—but I didn’t dare with Hazel right next to us.
“Thank you for this,” Theo whispered, his shoulder bumping against mine.
“You’re welcome.” I sounded lame, didn’t I? Yeah, definitely lame, but I didn’t know what to say. “I had a lot of fun.”
There. That was good.
“Me too. And considering the amount of paint I washed off my daughter, I think it’s safe to say that she had a lot of fun, too. Though I’m afraid we’ll have to visit you again for part two of this endeavor soon.”
We both looked at the painting that was drying a couple of feet away. It already looked awesome, but it definitely lacked glitter. I’d seriously underestimated how long it’d take to get the base done.
“I don’t mind. At all.” Winking, I grinned at him. “In fact, I couldn’t have planned it any better.”
Theo laughed, and there was that light nudge again, his eyes glittering with emotion. I couldn’t look away, even if I wanted to. He had me utterly enthralled with the way he was looking at me. All soft, but with an underlying heat.
I wanted to kiss him. Wanted to kiss that smile right off his lips.
I wanted to…
“Daddy, can I have a third slice?”
The moment broke as Theo turned his head toward his daughter. “What does your tummy say?”
Hazel’s face turned thoughtful for a moment. “My tummy says it’s still hungry.”
“In that case, go for it,” Theo said.
He didn’t look at me again, but he leaned in a little, his weight settling against my side. And today, that was enough.