Page 10 of Manny's Surprise Baby

I could see she was flustered, so I schooled my face into a more pleasant expression. “She did seem nice.”

“Yeah.” She nodded, some tension leaving her shoulders.

When the doorbell rang, we both jumped. “That’s probably Pierce. The manny.”

She grimaced. “Okay.”

I was so relieved Pierce was finally here, I had to restrain myself from flying down the hall to the front door. When I opened it, Pierce stood there with earbuds in and a backpack. I found it odd that I noticed how his T-shirt clung to his torso and how tight his jeans were. He also smelled really good, like coconut shower gel or something. I wasn’t into guys, so I had no idea why all these little details were attacking my senses.

He tugged his earbuds out and tucked them in his jean pocket. “Hey,” he said, waiting for me to open the screen.

I shook myself out of my bizarre stupor and let him in. “Boy, am I glad to see you.”

He snorted. “Bet you never thought you’d say that to me.”

Smiling sheepishly, I nodded. “No I did not.” I led the way to Emily’s bedroom. Her door was open, and she still stood in the middle of the room, exactly where I’d left her. “Emily, this is Pierce.”

“Hey, Emily.” He moved slowly into the room, but he didn’t make any attempt to hug her. He instead looked around the room and frowned. “The color scheme in here is hideous.”

Emily’s eyes widened, but then her lips twitched slightly.

“Thanks a lot.” I shook my head. “I was explaining to Emily that we can paint it any color she wants.”

“That’s cool.” He glanced at Emily. “I never had my own room. You’re lucky.”

She nodded slowly. “Maybe when it comes to bedrooms.”

“Yeah. Sorry about your mom.” Pierce sighed. “My mom died when I was ten.”

She swallowed. “Really?”

I didn’t know anything about Pierce, so hearing about his mom was surprising. I crossed my arms and just observed the two of them.

“Did… did you go live with your…” She glanced at me. “Dad?”

He shook his head. “God, no. He was in prison.”

I grimaced, not sure I loved how the conversation was going.

“He was?” She looked mortified.

Pierce hung his head. “Yeah. It was embarrassing. Kids in school picked on me about it. I went to live with my grandma, and she was great. But she was really old, so I didn’t have as many years with her as I’d have liked. When I was seventeen she died, and I went out on my own. I didn’t want to be in Child Services.”

She covered her cheeks with her hands. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “All that bad stuff taught me to appreciate the good stuff.” He glanced at me. “You’re lucky you have a dad who wants you.” He smirked. “And he’s relatively young, so he’ll probably be around for a while.”

“Relativelyyoung?” I frowned.

“What are you, forty-five?”

“I’m thirty-five,” I said indignantly. As soon as I finished speaking, I noticed the mischievous gleam in his eye. “Very funny.”

“That was too easy.” He sat on her bed and bounced up and down, watching me.

“I’m glad I could entertain you.”

“Me too.” He twisted his lips. “I’m starving.”