Those Three Words: A Single Dad, Billionaire Boss Romance(13)

The spoon in her hand clatters loudly back into the dish as she lifts her eyes to meet my gaze.

“I wasn’t being rude, Miss Silver.” She spits my name out like it’s bitter. “Mr. Hayes will be eating later, as he always does. Eleanor knows this and knows not to bother him. She’s been told this several times.” She looks down her long, thin nose at Eleanor as she says the words.

“I’m sorry, sweetie.” I reach out a hand and hold Eleanor’s in mine as her bottom lip quivers. I’m not sure if it’s in response to Miss Perry’s condescending tone or the fact that her daddy isn’t going to eat dinner with us.

“How about after dinner we play on the piano? I can teach you how to play ‘Mary had a Little Lamb.’ How does that sound?”

Eleanor nods and her pouty lip turns upward into a smile as she shovels another bite of pasta into her mouth, red sauce gathering at the corners.

“Mr. Hayes prefers silence in the evenings,” Miss Perry says as she picks up her plate and stares at me. “Perhaps you can play the piano another day.” She spins on her heel and walks out of the kitchen.

“Don’t listen to her.” I nudge Eleanor’s shoulder. “She’s just grumpy she wasn’t invited to play with us.”

Eleanor giggles and we both go back to eating our dinner. After we finish, I clear our plates and walk over to the massive freezer.

“Let’s see what we can find for dessert.” I glance around and find several pints of ice cream in the door. I hear the scrape of Eleanor’s chair on the floor as she jumps down and runs over to look at the ice cream flavors with me.

“Cookie dough!” she shouts as I read off the flavors to her. “No, cookies and cream!” She’s overwhelmed with excitement, her little eyes shifting back and forth as I see her try to make up her mind. It’s adorable.

“How about a little of both?” I grab the pints and look through the cabinets till we find some small sundae dishes.

“You know what would really make this great?” Eleanor shrugs. “Whipped cream,” I whisper and her eyes light up.

“And sprinkles!” She claps.

“And sprinkles.”

I scoop us both up a small portion and top them with the whipped cream and sprinkles. We sit back down at the table and enjoy our ice cream as Eleanor tells me all about her dream pet kitten.

“And she’s white and fluffy and has a cute little pink bow.” She licks the whipped cream off her spoon that has run down her fingers. “And she says EEYOW!” She mimics the meowing of a cat.

“She sounds absolutely perfect. What would you name her?”

She scrunches up her face like she’s thinking through a math problem, taking the question very seriously.

“Um, maybe muffin or cupcake.”

“Have you ever had a pet before?” She shakes her head and it makes me sad for her. I grew up with a few different pets over the years, a dog named Rascal that we had for twelve years and two cats. Guppy and Walter both lived well into their mid-to-late teen years.

We finish up our sundaes and place our dishes in the sink before washing our hands and making our way to the sitting room where the grand piano is situated.

I still haven’t walked around this entire house yet. It’ll probably take me a week or two just to explore all the rooms. The sitting room, as Mr. Hayes called it, is to the right of the grand atrium of the house. It doubles as a library, with large built-in shelves filled with books that I have every intention of exploring at a later date.

There’s a fireplace so large I could walk into it in the front, center of the room along with several couches and chairs.

I pull out the bench on the piano and take a seat, Eleanor climbing up to sit next to me.

I start with some general lessons. “This is called a piano key, and this is middle C.” I point to the key and tap it a few times.

“Now you do it,” I say. She touches it softly. “You can press down harder,” I say and she does. A smile spreads across her face at the sound it makes.

“Miss Bridgette wouldn’t let me play the piano. She said Miss Perry said it’s not for kids.”

Miss Bridgette must be the nanny that worked here previously. I’m confused at her comment. Why would Miss Perry insist on not touching the piano when the ad clearly stated they wanted someone with musical experience? Miss Perry is starting to sound and seem a bit like an uptight woman who doesn’t care for children at all.

“Well, that’s just nonsense. Pianos are for everyone.”

Eleanor and I spend a few moments tapping around on the piano before she tells me to play her a song. We start with “Mary had a Little Lamb,” both of us singing along to it a few times before I start in with “Baby Shark.”

Eleanor laughs and belts the song at the top of her lungs, pretending to play along with me as she hits a few keys.

“Miss Silver, if you could please keep it down!”

Miss Perry’s shrill voice startles us both as we remove our hands from the piano keys.

“Mr. Hayes is working in his office just down this hall and that racket is absolutely distracting.”

She stands with her hand on her hip, the other pin-straight at her side.

“Apologies, Miss Perry.” I smile sweetly at her. “Eleanor and I will be heading upstairs momentarily to get her bath and play in her room for a bit before bed. Give Mr. Hayes my apologies?”