starting to feel bad that I was attacking him instead of the company that made those new pumps.
Rooney got up from the bed while Dr. Cole put a new infusion set onto Ira’s belly and then he attached the tube and pump so the insulin could start flowing into his body whenever it was needed again.
“All set. Ready to go home, Ira?” he asked, and Ira quickly nodded with a wide smile.
“Have a nice day then, and I’ll see you very soon for a checkup, okay?”
“Okay, thank you.”
I smiled at my well-behaved son and said goodbye to Dr. Cole, and once he was out of the room, I let Rooney help Ira get dressed while I grabbed all the gifts and balloons to take back home.
“Are you hungry, buddy?” I asked, looking down at him as we walked down the hall, him holding Rooney’s hand.
“Yes,” he replied.
He hadn’t had anything other than water and a smoothie from the hospital since early this morning, so I thought a drive to Divine for some delicious pasta and maybe even a dessert was much needed.
*
The afternoon went by fast, and in a blink of an eye, Ira was back in bed with his favorite Hulk next to him.
“Sure you don’t wanna sleep in my bed tonight?” I asked.
If it were up to me, I’d keep him right next to me until he’s eighteen, but the brave little boy he was, he shook his head and said, “I wanna sleep in my bed with Hulk.”
“All right. If you need anything, you know where to find me.”
I leaned in to kiss his forehead, then let Rooney who was sitting on the edge of the bed with me give Ira a goodnight kiss as well before we both got up.
“Sleep tight,” Rooney whispered, and Ira waved at us before we went out of his room.
“I’ll be checking in on him every half an hour,” I muttered, walking into the kitchen with Rooney.
“He’s okay, Wells. You need to relax a little bit and take deep breaths. You’re agitated,” she said, rubbing my arm to show her affection.
God, I loved this woman so much, but despite that, I still felt there were things we needed to discuss.
I pulled her to me and cupped her face in both hands, making her look into my eyes and stay close to me with her body pressed against mine.
“Wanna go to bed and talk? There wasn’t much talking going on between us today,” I said.
“Yeah, sounds good,” she replied, knowing this couldn’t be avoided.
I smiled, hoping to show her that I wasn’t too miserable, and after leaning in and kissing the tip of her nose gently, I nodded toward the hallway. “Come on.”
I took her hand and let my fingers move through hers to hold onto her, and when we got to the bedroom, we both took off our clothes and hopped into bed.
After getting comfortable and all cuddled up, I turned my head to look at her, brushing her long hair back to see her face in the moonlight.
We looked at each other for a while before I finally started talking.
“How long have you known you loved me?” I asked, needing to know to not boost my ego, but to find out if this silence between us could’ve been avoided.
It wasn’t only her though.
I was dealing with the same shit, and if I had only slapped myself in the face, I would’ve realized sooner that I wanted to be with her.
“That evening we met in the hallway, when you went to drop off Ira at your mother’s…later that night I slowly started to see things clearly,” she whispered.
So I had read her right that day.
She was close on making a decision, yet we weren’t able to make a fucking move.
“I could’ve been holding you for the last four days,” I replied, keeping my voice low.
A smile appeared on her beautiful, natural face, and I cupped her jaw to hold her head in place while I leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth.
She didn’t ask me the same question which only showed how much she lived in the present and didn’t like to think back to what has been.
That was okay, because she damn well knew I’ve loved her already at the time.
“Promise me we’ll be open about our feelings and thoughts from now on. I don’t wanna second guess every little thing because I can’t read your mind. I promise you I’ll be honest. You’re mine, Rooney,” I whispered