this?”
He looked at the bottle and puckered his lips, thinking about his answer. “My coworkers put together a basket filled with things like that for my fortieth birthday. Have had that bottle for two years now, but never had an opportunity to open it,” he explained.
I smiled at him. “I’m honored.”
“You should be,” he grinned, taking another sip and placing the glass on the coffee table. “Speaking of birthdays…Ira’s fourth is coming up in a few weeks. He’s been asking to have sleepovers for a while now, and I was thinking to let him invite a few of his friends to come over that night. You’re invited too, of course,” he said.
“I’d love to come! Oh, I have to get him a present and I could make him a cake!”
“You don’t have to do that, Rooney. It’s hard enough to find a cake with no sugar in it, and I don’t want you to stress about a recipe Ira actually can eat lots of.”
I puckered my lips and tilted my head. “Hey, have some trust in me. You’ll have to stress about enough things that day, so let me take it off you. I’ll figure something out.”
His smile didn’t meet his eyes sometimes, and I wondered what really bothered him. Surely, it wasn’t the fact that I wanted to make a cake for Ira.
I reached out my left hand to cup the side of his neck, and with my thumb I brushed along his stubble gently. “Let me take care of the cake,” I told him in a serious voice.
He eyed me for a while, then his unsure smile turned into a grin. “All right, fine,” he said, chuckling. “No need to growl at me.”
His hand squeezed my thigh and then he pulled me closer to his side.
And now that I knew about Ira’s birthday coming up, I already had an idea of what to get him.
“How’s work?” I asked, looking straight into his eyes and letting his hands move along my leg to pull it over his lap.
I loved knowing he wanted me close and I liked his gentle yet determined touch.
“I went through with my plan of starting early and getting out a few hours earlier in the evening, and it worked pretty well. I got to spend more time with Ira, which is great. I might keep that up for a few more weeks until I’m done with the project.”
I nodded and smiled at him, then studied his face for a while before talking again. “Is it hard for you to leave Ira with your mother for a whole weekend?”
“Saying goodbye isn’t easy, but I know he’s gonna have lots of fun with her, and I don’t mind spending some time on my own. Or with a beautiful girl like you,” he said, his tongue licking his bottom lip.
His compliment hit hard and right in the chest, leaving me speechless for a few seconds.
I cleared my throat and moved my hand into his hair, gripping it gently and softly pulling at it, knowing he’d like that.
“You said you had a few things planned this weekend. Do I get to know what?”
“Well, first I thought we could head into town and find a nice place to eat lunch together, and after that I was thinking of letting you choose what we’ll do. I don’t really know much about you other than you like art, so maybe the museum would be a nice place to go.”
I didn’t wanna tell him that I’ve been to the museums around town too many times in my life, but they had different exhibitions every other month, and I haven’t been in any of them in a while.
“Sounds good to me. Maybe I can teach you a little bit of what I learned in school,” I suggested, grinning.
“Perfect. That way I’ll know exactly what you’d be happy about getting for Christmas or your birthday.”
I laughed and shook my head. “If you wanna make me happy on holidays and birthdays, all you need to do is give me food.”
“What about art supplies?”
“As long as it’s something I can actually use, or eat, I’ll accept the presents.”
“Good.” He reached for his glass and took a few sips, then he squeezed my thigh again with his other hand and nodded to the kitchen. “Let me go check what I have in the fridge. Now that you mentioned food, I’m starting to get hungry. You don’t have any preferences, right?”
“No, I’ll eat anything.”
Pulling my leg off his lap,