Hayden couldn’t believe her eyes. Noah was such a little boy and he was supposed to be home. How
could he suddenly appear in front of her?
The hotel staff walked over to check on them. With gestures, he asked what was going on with this
child. Hayden picked Noah up to hold him in her arms and explained to the staff in fluent English, “This
is my friend’s son. He should be staying in this hotel. I’ll take the boy to him later. Please don’t worry.”
Seeing that Noah had been attached to Hayden, the hotel staff didn’t doubt anything else. Then he left
with a relief.
As soon as the staff was gone, Hayden put down Noah.
Squatting down, she asked, “Noah, why are you here? Where’s your daddy?”
Noah glared at her, answering vigorously in sign language.
Considering that he couldn’t speak, Hayden changed the way of asking. “Did your daddy come here
with you?”
Noah nodded.
Hayden frowned. “Do your daddy and you stay in this hotel?”
Noah nodded again.
“Then why are you here alone?”
Upon hearing her question, Noah immediately pouted, unhappiness written all over his face.
Hayden wondered if he was suffering from any grievance.
She felt helpless. Since she couldn’t understand his sign language, she pulled out her cell phone and
dialed Joseph’s number directly.
“I’m sorry. The subscriber you dialed cannot answer the call right now. Please...”
The call was not connected. Only a mechanical voice came from the other end.
Hayden frowned, wondering what was wrong with Joseph. How could he leave his son alone here?
And he even couldn’t be reached on the phone.
While she was wondering, she saw Noah’s neck was red all over from the corner of her eyes.
“Noah, what’s wrong with your neck?”
Hayden hurriedly pulled open his collar to check. Then she saw not only his neck but also his chest
was bloody red. It was obvious that he had got sunburn. After a long time, Noah took over her phone
and type his explanation to show her.
“Yesterday afternoon, Daddy took me to play on the seashore. It hurts under the sun.”
Hayden couldn’t believe that Joseph had arrived here in the afternoon yesterday.
Now she couldn’t care much about it. When she caught a glimpse of those sunburn marks on the little
boy, she felt terribly sorry for him. “Your daddy even didn’t know to do something to screen the sun for
you.”
Noah curled his lips, looking more pitiful.
Hayden felt sorry for him, so she decided to deal with his sunburns first before thinking of how to find
Joseph. Otherwise, Noah would have his skin peeled off in two days.
Back to her room, when she was applying the after-sun medication for Noah, the doorbell of her suite
rang.
“Noah, stay still. I’ll go open the door.”
From the peephole, Hayden saw Joseph’s ever expressionless face. Then she pulled the door open
and snapped, “Why are you here?”
“Is Noah with you?” Joseph asked firmly.
“Shouldn’t you be with your own son?”
“Isn’t he here?” asked Joseph again.
Hayden almost went furious. “Joseph Beckham, what kind of father are you? You’ve brought Noah out
for a vacation, but why can’t you pay more attention to him and take care of him? Don’t you know he
was sunburned?”
Joseph’s expression slightly changed. “Let me have a look.”
“Of course.”
As she spoke, Hayden subconsciously made a way to let him walk into the suite. However, she didn’t
notice that the man had a slyness flashing through his eyes when he walked in.
Joseph pulled one of Noah’s chubby hands and carefully looked at the sunburn marks on his body.
With a frown, he said, “Don’t go out today.”
“What do you mean by ‘don’t go out today’?”
Hayden cast a glance at him and said crossly, “Don’t you know there’s something called the sunscreen
lotion? Even if you don’t, you should know the sunshade cap and sunblock shirt, right? I just asked
Noah. Under such strong sunlight yesterday afternoon, you just let him play with a pair of swimming
trunks on the seashore. Why didn’t you yourself go there?”
Joseph looked at her.
He explained solemnly, “Firstly, it’s so easy to make the sand into the Great Wall, so I’m not interested.
Secondly, the sunlight was too strong.”
“Ho!” Hayden was completely speechless. “You know the sunlight was too strong, but why did you let
Noah play under it?”
She just felt that Joseph was a father who could least be able to take care of his son.
Seeing that Hayden kept scolding Joseph, Noah tugged her sleeve and showed her the line he had just
written.
“I’m starved.”
Only then did Hayden return to her senses.
She frowned and said, “Noah is hungry. As his father, you don’t know. You are too engaged with your
work. Isn’t your son more important than your work?”
“I understand what you said. Just now I was ordering food downstairs, but...” Joseph’s eyes were
darkened, his gaze falling on Hayden. “Just in a blink of an eye, Noah was missing.”
Hayden heard that and her heart tightened. She gaped at him and realized what she had done just
now.
If Joseph was indeed downstairs just now and she didn’t take away Noah, the hotel staff would take
care of the boy and sent him back to Joseph. However, she decided by herself and took the little boy
upstairs with her, so it made Joseph look for his son for a while.
Recalling her attitude just now, Hayden felt her heart jump to her throat. Awkwardly, she coughed and
explained uneasily, “Well... I saw Noah got the sunburns, so I brought him upstairs to apply some
medication for him. I didn’t know you were downstairs at that time. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right.” Joseph looked as aloof as usual. Seemingly he didn’t take her blame on him to his heart.
Reaching out to Noah, he said, “I’ve ordered the meal downstairs. Noah, come to have lunch with me.”
Noah hesitated for a while. He pulled Hayden’s sleeve, hinting at Joseph with his eyes.
Joseph glanced at him and then Hayden.
He said, “Noah wants you to join us.”
Right then, Hayden was in the hotel alone. She didn’t know when Freddie and Stella would come back
from the sea. Compared to eating alone, she’d rather have lunch with this little fellow. Hence, she didn’t
refuse.
During lunch, Noah asked where Stella had gone.
“Oh, she went sailing with Freddie. They went to an uninhabited island nearby.
Upon hearing it, Noah looked quite envious. He looked at Joseph expectantly.
Joseph took a sip of the tea.
He said in a flat tone, “You can’t swim. If you go there, you can only pile things with the sand on the
beach. It doesn’t matter where you pile.”
“Why? Noah, you also want to go there?” asked Hayden.
Seeing Noah nod, she suggested, “Mr. Beckham, why don’t you take him there. I heard that island is
not far from here. It’s only a ten-minute boat ride from the pier.”
Joseph pondered for a while. Looking down at Noah, whose eyes were full of expectation, he thought
for a moment and nodded, “OK. Let’s go there after lunch.”
“That’s right. Since you’ve brought him out for fun, you can’t let him stay all the time in the hotel, can
you?”
Hayden was quite happy with Joseph’s attitude. Although he was not capable to take care of his son,
he was willing to listen to others with an open mind. It seemed that he was not hopeless.
After lunch, Hayden pulled out a jar of the sunscreen cream from her bag and handed it over to
Joseph.
“Take this along. Apply once every hour for Noah. Don’t let him get the sunburn again.”
Joseph didn’t take it over
He said seriously, “Noah means you’ll come with us.”
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