Sunny
She was met with two blank stares from Maddie and Hailey, who were still in their pajamas with hair tousled from sleep. It was the school holidays, so they had slept in.
“Who wants to be my first official taste-tester?”
Hailey immediately thrust her hand into the tray, grabbing a fistful of muffin.
“Steady there, girl! Let me dish them up first.”
As she transferred muffins onto a plate, Liam strode in, looking characteristically gruff in a worn Kansas City Coyotes T-shirt and athletic shorts. Sunny noticed his thick, muscled legs and quickly averted her gaze.
“Everything okay?” he grunted.
“Just another fun-filled morning!” Sunny replied brightly.
Liam shook his head slowly, grabbed the morning paper and a mug of coffee, then disappeared again without another word.
Sunny forced herself not to feel deflated. Baby steps.
Getting two energetic kids dressed, fed, and ready for the day took nearly an hour and every last bit of Sunny’s bubbly energy. By the time she finished, she felt drained.
As if on cue, Beth, the cleaner, popped her head into the room, amusement dancing in her eyes.
Although she didn’t live in the household, she came almost every day for a few hours to help dust and clean the sprawling house.
In her sixties, Beth had the sprightly energy of someone much younger.
Her dark brown hair was streaked with white, but her face glowed, remarkably free of lines and wrinkles.
“Rough morning?” she asked.
“Just a moderate disaster today!” Sunny shot back with a wink.
Beth joined her at the kitchen counter. As the two women laughed over the children’s wild antics, Liam reappeared, looking as surly as ever.
“Everything okay with the girls? They seemed… riled up,” he remarked, staring pointedly at the whipped cream hand prints on the kitchen island.
“Just high spirits!” Sunny said breezily. “Maddie was a trooper putting away the breakfast things, and Hailey barely cried when her muffin ended up on the floor. All in all, I’ll take that as a win.”
Liam appeared nonplussed as he observed Sunny’s cheerful demeanor. With a grunt, he brushed past them toward the hall, only to halt abruptly at a deafening crash from an adjacent room.
The three adults hurried into the dining room just in time to see Hailey standing frozen, panic etched across her face.
At her feet lay the shattered remnants of what had once been a decorative vase, with wildflowers scattered across the hardwood floor.
Maddie had backed into the corner of the room, attempting to blend into the wall.
“Hailey Grace Anderson!” Liam bellowed, causing them all to jump. “What did you do?”
The little girl’s eyes widened with fear as she shrank back against the large mahogany dining table in the center of the room.
“I…I didn’t mean to, Daddy! I was just trying to…”
“That was your mother’s favorite vase,” Liam spat, his voice dangerously low. He raked a hand through his unkempt hair, emanating a menacing energy.
Alarm pulsed through Sunny. She felt unnerved by Liam’s severe expression, sensing that his thoughts were consumed by more than just the broken vase.
Hailey had gone pale, looking down and folding into herself as if expecting to be struck. Surely, he had never hit the child?
Summoning every ounce of her courage, Sunny stepped between the two Andersons, hands raised in a placating gesture.
“Hey now,” she said, turning to Liam. “Accidents happen, especially in a busy home with little ones.” She flashed her most disarming smile. “Why don’t I clean this up, and we can do something fun with the girls?”
Liam’s chest heaved as if he’d run a marathon, the words seemingly bouncing off him. Hailey whimpered quietly behind Sunny.
Time for drastic measures.
With a dramatic flourish, Sunny executed a perfect cartwheel across an undisturbed patch of floor.
“Look at me, I’m a ballerina! It’ll be a miracle if I don’t break everything in this room!” she exclaimed in an exaggerated French accent, her arms flailing at her sides.
A high-pitched giggle escaped Hailey’s lips. Beth shot Sunny an amused look. Liam glowered at them for a moment before snatching up pieces of the broken vase from the floor.
Sunny’s tactic appeared to have worked. Her seemingly bizarre action broke the tension and shifted the focus away from poor little Hailey. Although Liam remained sullen, his attention was no longer on reprimanding his daughter.
“I’ll handle this. You keep an eye on the girls,” he instructed Sunny before striding out of the room, still clutching the shards.
A tense silence followed, broken only by Hailey’s hitched breathing as she stared after her dad with wide, stricken eyes. Sunny gently beckoned her over and enveloped the little girl in a warm embrace.
“We all get a little angry sometimes, don’t we?” she murmured softly, stroking Hailey’s wild curls. “But you have to be careful.” Over the girl’s head, she caught Beth’s approving nod.
“He gets upset about Mama’s things,” Hailey explained meekly. “I think it’s because he misses her too much. I miss her, too.”
“I know, sweetheart,” Sunny reassured, tightening her embrace. “I know. But your dad loves you and your sister more than anything in the world. I could see how sad the broken vase made him, but not as sad as he will be for making you scared. He just needs a little time to calm down.”
Hailey pulled back to look at Sunny with her soulful eyes.
“You think so?”
“I know so,” Sunny affirmed with a wink.
“Why don’t we make him one of those nice hot chocolates he likes, to say sorry for the vase?
Maybe add a few of those pretty marshmallows.
Hot chocolate is all the rage in Paris,” she added in a mock French ballerina accent, pronouncing “shocola” and “Paree.”
Hailey erupted into fits of giggles again, a sparkle returning to her eyes.
As they walked to the kitchen, Beth fell in step beside Sunny.
“Thank you for that,” she murmured under her breath. “I don’t know what to do in those situations. Liam gets so… haunted… by little things, especially if they’re connected to Kate. It’s been really hard on all of them.”
Sunny wrapped an arm around the older woman’s slender shoulders.
“It’s not easy for anyone,” she said. “As the hired help, it can be tough to know where to draw the line, as I’m sure you understand.”
Beth nodded in sympathy, as if she had experienced it herself.
“You’re a natural,” the cleaner said. “I think you’re just what his family needs right now.”
Beth reached down and patted her hand, wetness glistening in her eyes. The heaviness in the household was affecting her, too.
For now, the storm had passed, and peace had returned to the Anderson home. Liam received the hot chocolate from his youngest daughter with a warm hug and a genuine smile. Hailey beamed with pride as she handed it to him, all under Sunny’s watchful gaze. Small steps.
For Sunny, the rest of the day was a whirlwind of organized chaos — keeping the girls entertained, tidying up the epic messes that only little girls with oversized makeup sets could create, and sneaking in a few quiet moments to rest while the girls were distracted.
Yet through it all, Sunny felt more settled and confident with her place and purpose here.
These sweet children were still grappling with immense trauma, and their dad was drowning in a grief Sunny couldn’t begin to fathom. If she could be a steadying presence, bringing a little affection and humor, then she didn’t care about the money. Well, no too much, anyway.
As evening settled over the elegant home, Sunny approached Liam’s study door, carrying a plate of snacks: cheese fingers with artisan crackers and a handful of grapes. She had noticed that his brooding left him hungry; who knew being forlorn and moody could expend so much energy?
The solid oak door was closed, but she could hear muffled sounds from within. She raised her fist to knock with her free hand, but curiosity got the better of her. Sunny eased the door open just a crack to peek inside — and froze at the sight before her.
Liam sat in his plush leather armchair, cradling the shattered pieces of a vase tenderly in his large hands.
Tears streamed down his chiseled cheeks as he gazed down at them, his shoulders shaking with quiet sobs.
In that moment, the tough hockey star facade was gone; he was simply a man, overwhelmed by profound sadness he couldn’t process.
Embarrassed and suddenly very self-conscious, Sunny pulled away from the door, heat rising to her face as she retreated silently down the hallway. No one should intrude on grief like that; it was too private, too raw.
Her heart pounded in her chest, and her breathing quickened.
She paused to catch her breath and organize her swirling thoughts.
She would do her utmost to support the girls, but some scars ran too deep to heal.
Liam’s pain was an ingrained part of him, and the girls, along with Sunny, would have to learn to live with it.