Learning to Trust - M.A. Innes Page 0,29

in the bathroom and he was talking to himself. Unlike our neighbor who sang on a regular basis, a happy Morgan seemed to like chattering about…trains, possibly.

It was a bit muffled, but he seemed to be making choo-choo sounds. It was no wonder he was so intent on getting a permanent space for his trains—they were clearly his favorite toy. Putting that mental note in the back of my head, I brought the bowls out to the living room and set them on the side table.

Looking around the space, I realized that if he was going to play in the living room, I probably needed to get a coffee table. Maybe one with storage for crayons and the trains…that was probably going to mean a trip to the furniture store again, but it couldn’t be helped.

Luckily, cooking at home was a lot cheaper than eating out and even eating on campus most of the time, so I was saving enough money that the furniture wouldn’t kill my budget.

“Don’t dawdle. Your food is ready.” I had to fight the urge to laugh as the sounds from the bathroom got even more frantic.

Turning on the television, I flicked around until I found a channel playing Thomas the Tank Engine. I wasn’t sure how old his little side was, but if he found trains exciting, I thought I had about a fifty-fifty chance of pleasing him with this.

Yes, I was right.

Morgan came charging out of the bathroom, but before he could ask about his dessert, the TV caught his eye. “Oh, Thomas.”

Yep.

“Come sit down so you can eat your dessert before it melts.” I wasn’t going to deal with melted ice cream everywhere, so I wasn’t going to let him dawdle.

Morgan quickly obeyed, sitting cross-legged in front of the couch. Since that made sense for his little side, I passed his bowl over before reaching for mine. He watched, completely absorbed in the show as he ate.

When he was finally done, he handed me the bowl and stretched out on the floor. After about half an hour it switched to something I wasn’t familiar with, but Morgan was just as taken with it as he had been with Thomas. When he finally let out a yawn, I took the bowls to the sink and rinsed them off.

As I came out of the kitchen, I realized he probably had a binkie or something somewhere that he’d enjoy. “Morgan.”

I waited and had to say his name again before he blinked and looked over at me. Before he could lose the little side of himself that seemed to be at the forefront, I spoke. “Where’s your binkie?”

He smiled before turning back to the show. “My drawer. And Barry, please.”

Well, at least his little side was polite.

Just telling me it was in his drawer was vague. However, since that seemed to be all I was going to get from him, I headed into his room and looked around. His desk and dresser didn’t seem like the most obvious place, so I walked over to the small nightstand.

With any other guy I wouldn’t have dared look in their nightstands, but I hoped, being little, Morgan’s would be a bit more benign.

I was right.

The small teddy bear was hopefully Barry, so I grabbed that and his binkie before closing it quickly and heading back to the living room. If he had anything more personal at the back of the drawer, I would be able to honestly answer that I hadn’t seen anything.

Handing him his toy and his binkie, I sat back down as he started to suck on it. In seconds, he was back to watching the show and was the most relaxed I’d ever seen him. Since the cartoon wasn’t particularly enthralling, I quietly pulled out my phone and started reading through one of the suggested books a professor had mentioned.

After a few chapters of the dry material, I looked up to see Morgan yawning, doing the occasional head bob. Yes, it was bedtime for both of us. It might not be terribly late, but I’d been up early and he’d worked hard nearly all day.

As the show ended, I reached for the remote and turned it off. Morgan’s head immediately turned in my direction and he gave me a pout around the binkie. Before he could take it out, I shook my head. “No, you had a long day and we both need sleep. Let’s go brush teeth and then off to bed.”

A huff came out around