Leo had a smile on his face when he brought himself to a comfortable position. He never had this excited yet happy feeling within himself just by staring at the face right in front of him.
It was morning and the sun rays managed to seep into his room giving it a wonderful golden glow. But nothing in his room shined brighter than the woman sleeping next to him who had the lovely skin colour of bronze that shined brilliantly in the morning sun.
Carly had joined him last night after she had watched a movie with Angel, Eric and Oliver. By then, it was already late, Kim had left a good two hours ago and almost everyone in the house had gone to sleep, except from the two love birds, of course.
It was good she came, Leo thought to himself as he continued to stare at her. She was still sleeping and she looked beautiful, no doubt in his mind that she was. He wished time could slow down so that he could look at her for just a little while longer. Sooner than later, he would have to wake her up.
He stretched his hand and ran it through her lovely silky black hair. For an African American, her hair was gorgeous. He tucked away a strand of her hair that was on her cheek. When his hand brushed over her cheek, ever so gently upon pulling it away, her eyes slowly flew open.
"Morning, sleepy head," said Leo with a smile.
She didn't respond as she smiled through her sleepy eyes and closed them again. She still looked so beautiful with that goofy smile on her face, he thought to himself. Leo chuckled.
"It's already morning?" she asked as she opened her eyes again and looked at him.
"Sadly, yes," he replied. "You know what that means."
Carly groaned like a little girl who didn't want to wake up to go to school as she covered her head with the bed covers.
Leo continued to chuckle. "Come on, you know the drill." He sat up and uncovered the bed cover covering her head.
"Fine," she said as she gave up and sat up on the bed. "I really hoped that I could stay a little longer."
"You're right. But I better get you out of here before anyone wakes up. It might be a weekend but there are still a lot of early birds around here."
Carly smiled at him. "Like you?"
"Like my dad. Come on, we better hurry."
They both got out of bed and got dressed into their nightwear covering themselves with their sleeping gowns. They sneaked out of Leo's room and they tiptoed all the way to Carly's.
"Thanks," said Carly in a low voice when they got to the door. "I'll continue sleeping and we will meet later on."
"Great, I'll see you soon," said Leo as he smiled.
Carly gave him a simple peck on the cheek and quickly went in her room. For a moment, Leo couldn't help but stand there for a moment, lost in thought, until he realised that he had been standing there looking at the door. He smiled at his stupidity as he made his way back to his room.
Just when he got there, he changed his mind and thought he really needed a cup of coffee.
He made his way downstairs and before he could make his way to the kitchen when he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard a noise coming from the kitchen.
He wondered who could be up at this early hour. He knew his dad was always an early bird, but when it came to the weekend, Leo knew he wouldn't be awake for another hour. He made his way to the kitchen and what he saw, shook him a little.
Angel was standing by the kitchen counter where she had put up the coffee maker to make some coffee. Her presence somehow didn't matter to him, but there was some thing that shook him the moment he got there.
Angel was standing, and not on a wheelchair.
Sensing someone's presence, Angel turned to the door. When she saw Leo, she neither gave an angry look nor a smile.
"Morning," she greeted as she turned back to the machine on the counter.
"Morning," Leo somehow managed to say. "You're up early."
"I just had to."
"Ummm," Leo still couldn't believe that Angel was standing in front of him. He expected her to be still on her wheelchair. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Thought of taking a walk to strengthen my legs a little."
The coffee maker soon finished making her coffee and the room became slient. Angel went over to the cupboard next to the sink to get a mug. There was a slight limp in her walk, but all in all, she seemed okay and not in much pain.
Just as Angel was heading back to the coffee maker, she noticed Leo's eyes on her. She turned to look at him.
"Why are you looking at me like you've just seen a ghost?" she asked.
"Uh..." Leo hesitated. "I'm just surprised that you're walking."
"Why? You wanted me confined to a wheelchair forever?" Angel raised an eyebrow at him before she turned towards the coffee maker and went over to it to pour herself a cup.
"Umm, no. I'm just surprised, that's all."
"The doctor said I should start walking around to strengthen my legs."
Leo just nodded his head but he was still in shock. He expected her to be confined to her wheelchair a little while longer.
"You still don't seem happy that I'm walking again," said Angel, bringing Leo back from his thoughts. "I hope you don't think that this will get in your way of things."
Leo was the one to raise his eyebrows this time around. "What do you mean?"
Angel took a sip of her coffee as she leaned on the counter and placed her hand on it. "You know what I mean. I know Carly didn't sleep in her room last night. She spent her night with you."
Leo retaliated, "that's not true."
Angel smirked and Leo felt his cheeks heat up suddenly. He cursed himself from the inside still not understanding why he was feeling like this.
"Tell it to the person who is now able to walk up the stairs," she said.
"Does that matter? Carly is a grown woman, you know?"
"Carly is a grown woman, yes, but that doesn't mean she knows that what she's doing might lead her into trouble."
Leo shook his head. "I don't think I want to talk about this with you."
"You're right, Leo. It's early in the morning and I would rather walk around the garden to exercise my legs rather than talk about something that I know I don't have any control over."
Leo was a little shocked to hear Angel talk like this. Was she finally giving up, allowing Leo and Carly the chance to be happy? Or was she playing some kind of mind game?
She slowly made her way to the backdoor of the house still with her coffee mug. Leo continued to look at her and something came up in his mind.
"How do you know, Carly's room?" Leo asked suddenly.
Angel stopped upon reaching the door and slowly turned to look at him.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked politely. Leo wasn't buying it.
"The time you came into this house, you were still in your wheelchair and you never made it up the stairs. So how do you know where Carly's room is?"
Angel smiled at Leo. "Yesterday when Carly came home and after we argued in the study, she invited me to come over to her room since she wanted to show me what she bought from the mall. With the help of two of the house helps, they got me up the stairs and when they helped me back down afterwards."
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to, Mr Detective," Angel gave him a fake smile. "I don't have to prove myself that I'm telling the truth because you would never believe me and it will clearly be a waste of my precious time."
Angel turned back to face the door and unlocked it. When she swung the door open, she turned to look at Leo.
"I'll be heading out for a stroll in the garden. I would have liked if you would accompany me, but, as usual, things wouldn't end so well, would it?"
Leo didn't have to answer that question and Angel didn't expect him to. She slowly walked out of the kitchen as silently as she could and closed the door behind her.
Leo stared at the closed door and he couldn't tell if he was angry at Angel like he always has or he was just surprised that she was able to walk around again. Either way, he forgot about making coffee and went back to his room, feeling utterly disturbed.
***
In an hour's time, almost everyone in the McDonell mansion was awake. At the breakfast table, Mr McDonell and Amanda were having their breakfast. Leo and Eric soon came to join them.
"Morning grandma, morning dad," said Leo as he sat beside his grandmother.
"Morning," said Amanda.
"Morning," said Mr McDonell who was looking at his daily newspaper.
"Hope you all slept well," said Eric as he sat opposite Leo and Amanda.
"We did," said Amanda with a smile. "And I can see you two boys slept well too."
"I sure as hell did," said Eric.
"And Leo has this smile on his face," said Mr McDonell. He might have been looking at the newspaper, but he was pretty observant.
"Do I?" Leo asked.
"Of course, dear," said Amanda. "That smile is even making you look more handsome."
Leo continued to smile. And he knew the reason why. He noticed his cousin looking at him across the table. Leo couldn't help but feel that Eric knew the reason too.
"Do you have any plans today, boys?" Amanda asked as she drank her tea.
"No, granny," Eric replied as he got two slices of toast. "It's a weekend after all."
"I just wanted to know. It would be nice to spend some quality time with you two handsome grandsons of mine."
"You would," said Leo. "We aren't going anywhere."
"Lovely."
A few seconds later, just as Leo was pouring tea from the teapot into his cup, Angel walked in.
"Morning, everyone," she greeted.
Upon hearing her voice and seeing her face, Leo spelt some tea on the table. Some almost poured on his trousers, but he was very lucky.
"Oh, my, careful, Leo," said Amanda. "You would have got burnt."
"I'm fine," said Leo as he cleaned up the spelt tea with a napkin.
"Oh, morning, Angel," said Amanda, then she gasped. "I didn't realise that you're walking and not on your wheelchair."
Eric quickly turned to look at Angel and he also looked surprised. Mr McDonell smiled at Angel. Leo groaned as he realised that all that he had seen earlier wasn't a dream.
"Yes, the doctor told me that I should start walking to strengthen my legs a little," said Angel.
"Well, that's good," said Mr McDonell.
Eric stood up from his seat and drew out a chair next to him for Angel.
"You can take a seat here," said Eric.
"Thank you, Eric," said Angel as she slowly but gradually made her way to the table and sat down.
"It's good to see you walking again, dear," said Amanda.
"It does feel good, Amanda," Angel smiled.
"So does that mean you will be going back to work anytime soon?" Mr McDonell asked.
"I've been given more time from work to recuperate before I go back."
"Okay, then. If you don't mind, I would like to talk to you about something. And Carly too. After breakfast, that is."
Angel nodded her head. "Of course."
Leo couldn't help but feel that something was up. Could it be that his grandmother had told his father about Angel working at the company? Leo hoped she hadn't. And if she did, he hoped his father had disagreed with her and that he wanted to talk to Angel about something else.
Angel poured herself a glass of juice and looked up at Leo who had looked away after he realised that he had been looking at her since she sat at the table. Angel ignored him as she got some toast.
While the others continued to have breakfast, Oliver and his mother, Diana, joined them.
"I'll be in my study if you need me," said Mr McDonell as he drank the last of his coffee. "Angel, you can join me in the study when you're done."
"Yes, I would," said Angel.
Mr McDonell soon left the dining room.
"I see that you're not sitting on your wheelchair, Angel," said Diana.
"Yes, I'm not."
"That's nice," said Oliver. "It would be so much easier now taking you around."
"Why? You want to take me around the house? I never got that opportunity since I wasn't feeling too well."
"Yes, I would."
Angel smiled at Oliver, sitting next to her. "Charming."
"I'm afraid that's the one thing all the boys have in this house, charm," said Diana. "And sadly, no one can say no to them."
"Well, it doesn't work on me," said Amanda.
Almost everyone at the table laughed, except Leo.
"You can take me around the house after I'm done talking with your uncle, okay?"
"Yes."
Leo soon found himself standing up, ready to leave the table. He had had enough of his breakfast and he certainly had had enough of everyone talking about Angel.
Surprisingly, Angel also stood up from her seat at the same time as he did. The two of them looked at each other for a moment.
"I'll be going to see Mr McDonell in his office now," said Angel as she drew away from the table.
"You'll find us here," said Amanda.
Before Angel could find her way out of the dining room, Carly soon came in. And she paused upon seeing her sister, standing on her own.
"Wow, Angel," said Carly with a surprised look on his face. "You're walking again."
Angel only smiled. "Yes," she said. "You should have your breakfast and come to the study."
"To the study? Why?" The excited look Carly had on her face, soon disappeared.
"Mr McDonell wants to have a word. You'll find me there."
Angel made her way out of the dining room while Carly stood there wondering what Mr McDonell wanted to talk about.