sleep. I’ll be right back,” I assured him.
I walked out of the room and left the door open and light on while I went to brush my teeth and get ready for bed.
If it weren’t for Ira, I would sit there in front of my computer until the sun came back up in the morning.
I was overworking, putting too much effort into work although I wasn’t much appreciated at my job.
It’s the same company I worked as a civil engineer for, but ever since I moved here, the branch I was at never really welcomed me.
Not that it mattered as I had my own office and didn’t interact much with the others, but it would be nice to at least have normal conversations and no one looking at me with raised brows if I had to present my newest projects.
It was a pain in the ass to do those things, but I somehow managed, and in the end, it was Ira I got to come home to.
I was lucky enough to have my mother close by, and she took care of him every single day that I couldn’t.
Ever since Dad left, Ira was her happiness and motivation.
Besides, Ira loved his grandmother, and I knew he was safe with her.
Once I was done, I walked back into my bedroom and turned off the light, then got into bed and let Ira crawl over me to make himself comfortable on me.
He wasn’t so little anymore, but I was over six feet, and when he was a baby, he used to sleep on my chest almost every night.
It was a pain getting him off and hoping he wouldn’t cry, but he wouldn’t sleep anywhere else other than my chest.
This time, at three years old, only half of his body was on me, and his legs spread out next to me on the mattress.
I made sure to cover him fully so he wouldn’t get cold at night, and once we were both comfortable, a relieved sigh escaped me.
“Goodnight, Ira. Daddy loves you.”
“Okay,” was his response.
The concept of love wasn’t what a three-year-old should know, and I took his okay as a confirmation that he at least heard what I said.
He had only just turned three, but for his age, he had a wide vocabulary which he put to use daily.
Not when he was tired, but I could have full-on conversations with him, even if not everything was comprehendible on either side.
At least he did speak.
Chapter Three
Rooney
I was up way too early the next morning.
Normally, I tried to sleep in so I would be energized to study all day, but something told me to get up and head to the closest bakery and get Wells and Ira some freshly baked croissants as an apology for last night.
I still had this bad feeling inside of me and I wanted to show him that I wasn’t like Evie.
Not to make her look even more annoying than she already was, but one of us had to be the nice neighbor, right?
Besides, I couldn’t stop thinking about Wells last night.
As tired as he looked, he was still insanely handsome, and the fact that he was a single dad made him more attractive.
Not just his looks, but his character was great too.
After taking a quick shower, getting dressed, and driving to the nearest bakery to grab a few baked goods, I headed up the stairs to his apartment at exactly eight a.m.
I could hear footsteps coming from inside, and I hoped I wasn’t too late to get them breakfast.
I knocked on the door just in case one of them was still sleeping, and after waiting a few seconds, the door opened.
Wells stood there in his sweatpants but with no shirt on, and I had to take a look at his upper body because I was still just a twenty-year-old college student who enjoyed looking at men.
Sue me.
“Rooney,” he said, surprised to see me this early in the morning.
“Hi! I hope you didn’t have breakfast yet. I got you and Ira something from the bakery. I wanted to say sorry once again for last night,” I told him, giving him an apologetic smile.
He looked at the box in my hands, then he smiled and shook his head. “You shouldn’t have. That’s very kind of you. Thank you, Rooney.”
I let him take the box even if he was a little hesitant at first, but once he got over my little present, he tilted his head to the side and pointed inside.
“Would you