effervescent | m. hummels & r. lewandowski

[ chapter five ]

Dedicated to stacy-01 whose comments make my day.

Clara had been in total awe of Mats. She wanted to see him 24/7 and go places with him only. Eversince he had taken her to the park that day, she had grown a strange liking towards the man, always talking about him and how she wanted to go around the city with him.

Thankfully, she didn't speak about him in front of Robert. I didn't want Mats getting involved in any of our problems, who knew what Robert would think if he found out about his teammate hanging out this much with his daughter and his wife.

With Robert, you never knew how bad things could take a turn.

"Mommy, can Mats come here today? I want to watch Up with him, he promised me." Clara came running into the kitchen with her favourite teddy bear clutched tightly to her chest.

Her black hair was down on her shoulders, bangs covering her forehead and falling into her eyes.

Before I could respond to her, a knock on the door interrupted me. When I opened the door, I saw Mats, in all his beautiful glory, clad in a grey sweater and black jeans, standing in the door frame, a big bag of God knows what in his hands.

"Mats! You came!" Clara shouted and clung to his leg, the smile never leaving her face.

Since Mats was too tall for her, he bent down and came to her eye level. He kissed her cheek, "I promised, didn't I, Lewandowski junior?" He said with a laugh. While the two talked like fast friends, I stood in the hallway, trying to figure out how quickly these two had gotten so smitten with each other.

My mouth was agape so when I saw Mats striding forward and pushing my jaw up with a finger, I blushed red like a tomato. "Don't be so jealous beautiful, you and I are friends too."

He sent a small wink in my direction and turned to Clara. "These are for you, Lewandowski junior. Don't eat them all at once okay?" He pushed the bag to Clara who happily took it and screamed after seeing whatever was in it.

"Chocolates! I love you!" She jumped up and down until Mats picked her up and both shared a laugh together, with me still looking at them like a pathetic creep. "Why don't you go start that movie while I talk to your mommy for a sec, hm?" He looked at Clara who nodded joyously, obviously too happy about starting her movie already.

Or maybe it was Mats' presence that made her happy.

"Why are you doing this?" My voice was rude but it was the least of my worries. I didn't want him to make my daughter happy and then leave her to cry when he was gone.

She had already suffered enough because of Robert.

"Why am I doing what?" He raised an eyebrow at me, confused.

I threw off my apron and made my way to him, suddenly feeling too exposed in my black tights and a grey half sleeved tee. My hair was pulled in a fishtail.

To sum it up, I looked like a wreck.

"Why are you getting so attached to my daughter, Hummels?" I could tell he was taken back when I called him by his last name, but it wasn't for so long as I had hoped it would be. He strolled even closer to me and made me look into his eyes, holding my gaze at all times.

"Tell me you hate me being near her and I'll go." Was all he said, making me even more confused. "If you don't want me around her then fine, I'll go, you're her mother. But tell me, is that what you really want?"

Silence, pin drop silence.

"That's what I thought." He replied to my silence. I really didn't mind it but I also didn't want her getting hurt when she got too attached to him and he wouldn't be there. After all, he was a professional footballer with a very tight schedule.