she’s twenty. Don’t think there could ever be anything more than a friendship between us.”
“Oh, don’t make it about age, Wells.”
I couldn’t start fighting with her about this.
Hell, I didn’t need a relationship to be happy.
I was happy.
Luckily, Ira came to my rescue and changed the subject from Rooney to comics.
“Can you read this to me, Grandma?” he asked as he walked up to her with the comic book in his hands.
“Of course, sweetie. Come here.”
In the time she read him a few pages of the book, I set the table and got everything that we needed out for breakfast.
I also made some more of Ira’s Hulk juice, and once that was poured into a cup, I sat down to finally start breakfast.
“Drink up, buddy,” I told him, pushing his cup toward him and sticking his favorite straw inside.
“Thank you!” he said, making my heart melt every damn time when he was polite without me having to tell him to be.
I was raising a real gentleman, that much I knew.
“If you want, I can come pick up Ira tomorrow morning since my yoga classes got canceled for the next few weeks.”
“Yeah, that would be great. I’m trying to get into work earlier than usual from now on so I can leave before five. Ira’s up at six most mornings anyway, and instead of him not letting me sleep, I’d rather get up and go in early.”
My mother nodded and mixed herself a bowl of muesli. “So you can have breakfast at grandma’s house tomorrow. How does that sound, Ira?”
“Sounds good!” Ira replied, holding up a thumb and then continuing to drink his Hulk juice.
Good.
Going into work early meant not having coworkers bothering me for a few hours, and I would have half of the afternoon to spend more time with Ira.
Rooney
“Don’t tell me you’re going back downstairs to him,” Evie said with a deep frown between her brows.
“You’re up already. That’s new.”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed a cup from the cupboard to pour coffee I made into it.
“The party last night was lame. Good thing you didn’t come. AJ made out with some freshman. Wasn’t fun to look at.”
Why would I care?
Looked like he moved on, just what I hoped would happen after our talk.
“I promised Ira I would paint with him this afternoon while Wells gets some work done. I’ll be home later tonight so we can have dinner together,” I suggested.
“So you’re babysitting him now?” she asked. “Is he at least paying you?”
“Evie, as much as I love you, can you please not pick at every little thing I’m doing in my life? Wells is a nice guy, and Ira is a sweet kid. They’re a great distraction from studying, which you should do today by the way. That assignment we had in art history isn’t easy, and it should be done by Wednesday.”
“I know, I know. I’ll start working on it today, don’t worry. And maybe I’m picking at everything you do because I’d want to have an older guy-friend myself. Minus the child.”
I raised a brow at her and chuckled. “Older friend or lover? I know you. You’d try the man out, have an opinion about him, then throw him away like you do with all the other guys you ever had sex with.”
“No, I’m being serious. You’re not the only one having daddy issues, you know? Mine doesn’t really love me,” she said with a shrug.
“I don’t have daddy issues. But I do enjoy Wells’s company a lot. He’s easy to talk to and he doesn’t pressure me into doing things I don’t wanna do.”
Evie puckered her lips and leaned against the counter with her arms crossed over her chest.
“If you really wanna keep him at a distance, I might just come downstairs with you and apologize to him personally for being a brat.”
“You can apologize, but you won’t stay. I really like him, and I think you two should get along. He’s a hard-working man and I can only imagine how hard it was for him to have trouble falling asleep with you blasting loud music up here.”
“All right! I’ll apologize. But if he ever makes a move on me because he realizes how good I look, I won’t hold back.”
I doubted he would ever try and get Evie’s attention, but them being on good terms was a start.
I didn’t like people who disliked each other for the stupidest reasons, although Wells had a good one.