Fuck. He was killing me with the child-like tone in his question. Despite last night’s misgivings,
before he was fully awake Corey was unable to deny his little side.
“We’ll see, sweetheart.” Corey nestled deeper under the covers as I turned off his alarm. “What
time do you have to leave for work?”
“Not until a little after eight.” His response was muffled by the blanket cocoon he’d created.
That gave us a couple of hours together before he had to leave. I could work with that.
After a quick pit stop in the bathroom, I headed to the kitchen, hoping he’d have something in the
fridge I could turn into breakfast. He’d admitted he wasn’t good about keeping himself fed, so I
wasn’t holding my breath. My boy needed more than cold cereal and coffee to get him through the day.
There wasn’t much, but he did have bread, eggs, milk, and some berries that looked about a day
away from going bad. I quickly cut those and dumped them into a saucepot with some sugar, then got
to work making him french toast. Even if he didn’t want to sink completely into little space, I could
still make him a treat for the day.
I was just finishing up when I heard him padding through the apartment. He looked absolutely
adorable scrubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Hey, baby. You ready for breakfast?”
He shook his head as he stumbled toward the coffee maker. I stopped him, stepping forward to
pull him so his back was against my chest. “You can’t live off coffee, Corey.”
“It’s worked so far,” he argued. When he squirmed, it was apparent he wasn’t really trying to get
away from me. “I’ll eat, but you kept me up too late last night.”
“Nice try.” I chuckled, turning him toward the stools set up along the pass-through. I cut his french
toast into strips and poured some of the berry sauce into a small bowl. “Eat first and then you can
have some coffee.”
“You’re mean.” There was no heat to the words. I leaned against the counter, watching as he
devoured the food I’d put in front of him. I cut the portion I had intended to eat and scooped it onto his
plate. “Thank you. Guess I was hungrier than I realized.”
“I figured you would be. You had a pretty good workout before bed,” I pointed out. His cheeks
turned an adorable shade of pink. I reached out to stop him when he started twisting the corner of his
napkin into a tight spiral. This was what I’d been waiting for and preparing to deal with. “Hey, if
you’re worried I’m going to be upset about what you told me last night, stop. I’m proud of you for
