The Nanny

Nutella Hot Chocolate

Whoever said counting sheep helped you fall asleep was lying.

Or they didn't have a mind boggling nanny they lived with that was filling up their mind.

Or maybe they didn't hear the quiet noises coming from their kitchen at 3 am.

Either way, I was blaming the sheep's ineffectiveness for me being out of bed before the sun to see what was going on in my kitchen.

I knew it was Aria, I had heard her bedroom door open about ten minutes ago so either Jamie had learned to climb out of his crib, walk, and open the door in the last hour since I had seen him or his mummy was having a tough time going to sleep.

It wasn't the first time I had heard her rustling around at night either. This had been going on the last few nights.

What I wanted to know was why?

Even as I stood, sleepily, leaning against the doorway leading to the kitchen with squinted eyes, I asked myself that question. My hand unconsciously rubbing my bare stomach as I silently watched her flit from one corner to the other searching through the cabinets like she was looking for something with only the light coming from the refrigerator as any form of illumination.
I had to admit she made a rather adorable image in her ridiculously large shirt that completely covered the tiny shorts I could only see when she reached up and knee high tube socks. Her normally neat straight hair was up in a severely messy bun on the very top of her head but it suited her. She was actually very, very... sexy.

Stop it Harry.

Shaking those thoughts out of my half asleep mind I decided to make my presence know as I cleared my thought and rubbed my eyes before switching the lights on.

It was almost comical, the look on Aria's face, when she spun around hands barley peeking out of the long sleeves and clutched to her chest with eyes squinted at the new brightness engulfing the room. She had literally flown around to face me and it took everything in me not to laugh at her clearly startled self.

"What are you doing?" I asked, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing at her ridiculously wide eyes.

"I..um... I..." She bit her lip and scratched the top of her head adorable before furrowing her eyebrows. "Did I wake you?"

A yawn escaped my mouth as I pushed off the wall and walked towards the center island that separated us before leaning on my elbows so I was practically bent over and looking at her before shrugging. "Not at all. I'm always up at this time just hanging around."

"I am so sorry." She apologized quickly catching on to my slight sarcasm.

I don't know if it was our little bonding thing that happened the other day when the boys and I set up Jamie's room or what but Aria had been a lot nicer to me. I liked it, probably more then I should.

The oddest thing happened then, she actually looked shy. It was so out of character for her. I don't think I had ever seen her act this way around me... or anyone really, well maybe Zayn but he had that effect on women. I normally did too but never with Aria, until now.

It was so odd, in fact, that it actually woke me up a bit. I stood straighter as she looked down at her hands that were picking at the too-long sleeves while she stepped one foot over the other.
She looked like a little girl that was upset.

"Aria, is everything okay?" I asked before I could stop myself. There was a strong possibility I was reading her wrong and I would get some sort of snide retort for asking.

But I didn't.

Instead I got her looking up at me through her lashed as she, once again, bit her lip. I would never admit how undeniable sexy that was either.