“What?” I asked.
“Kane, you need to take the insulin. You’ll get sick if you don’t,” he said, mimicking my voice perfectly.
I snorted. “Yep, that was pretty much it.”
Kane frowned. “I don’t do needles, Aideen. I just don’t.”
Why?
I wanted to ask why so badly. It seemed much more than a simple phobia of needles, but I didn’t want to push him.
Ryder moved past Branna and leaned down to Kane. “What can we do to get you to take the insulin shots?”
“I. Don’t. Do. Needles,” Kane repeated through gritted teeth.
Oh, forget this.
“You don’t,” I said, “but I do.”
The room went silent.
“Wh-What?” Kane stuttered, as he looked back to me.
I blew out a breath. “I’ll give you your injections every day. You let me do it once; will you let me do it every other time, too?”
Kane stared at me with unblinking eyes. I felt everyone else stare at me too.
“Why would you want to help me?” he asked, his face falling.
Good question.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I enjoy arguin’ with you, and I need to keep you around for that so I guess I’m doin’ this for me own selfish needs. Sue me.”
Kane grinned a little when his brothers chuckled and the tension in the room eased.
“Aideen, thank you, but I don’t—”
“Hey,” I cut him off and smiled when he looked at me. “Me and you?”
Kane licked his lips and whispered, “Me and you.”
Oh, my.
Me and you.
Now that got my heart rate going.
I playfully winked. “We got this.”
Kane stared at me long and hard, and I saw him crack and give in to me before he realised it himself.
“What do you say?” I pressed.
Kane looked around the room, then to me and said, “I say okay, babydoll.”
It’s been eight days since Kane left the hospital, but only nine since he collapsed so that meant everyone was still taking things easy around him. Even me. I limited our arguments to one a day just so he didn’t wear himself out. He hasn’t been necessarily weak since he got home, but he tired easily, even with his insulin injections. His tiredness aside, we could all see the change in him thanks to his medication. It was slowly building him back up to his old self.
His health was improving everyday, but his attitude? Yeah, that worsened with each passing minute. He agreed the day he woke up in the hospital to let me give him the injections every day at home, but that was easier said than done. He was on two insulin injections a day, which the doctor said was his minimum. Kane consumed a lot of calories and was active even when he wasn’t feeling good so the two injections were needed for him. It might even jump to three a day when he was eventually well enough to work out again, but for now, it was two a day and getting the insulin into him had been hell. Absolute hell.
I worked in the local primary school full time. I taught second-class students and worked from eight thirty in the morning to three in the afternoon, except for Fridays when it was a half-day and I finished up at one in the afternoon. Kane’s timetable for his injections was one jab in the morning, and one jab in the afternoon, after he ate. I worked it around my work schedule, so the past week I had been arriving at Kane’s house at eight in the morning to give him his first injection, then I’d come over on my lunch break to give him his second.
It was difficult and I’d resorted to doing ridiculous things just to take his mind off the impending injections. The lowest level I stooped to was flashing my boobs at him just to fight off a panic attack I was convinced he was going to have. He worked himself up over the injections, and a couple of times he repeated for me not to ‘stab him’ and I had no idea why. I was extremely curious as to why he repeated those same words to me, but when I asked his brothers about it, they told me to ‘drop it’ so I did.
For the time being anyway.
It was Friday afternoon, and I had just arrived at the Slater residence after coming straight from work. Keela let me into the house. She came over to check on Kane, but he was in his room behind his locked door so she was leaving. She stopped to talk to me since I was there and I used the time to vent to her.
“I came here this mornin’ on me way to work and do you know what he did?” I asked Keela.
She shook her head.
“He wouldn’t let me into his room to give him his injection. I have no idea what is up his arse, but he needs to get rid of it so I can give him his damn insulin,” I stated and pushed loose strands of hair that escaped my hair clips back from my face. “I’m gettin’ grey hairs stressin’ out about him and worryin’ about his injections. It’s not even funny how childish he is being.”
Keela shook her head but said nothing.
“I thought since he agreed to let me give him his injections that he would be reasonable, but he isn’t. He has been nothing but difficult,” I said to Keela. “He is rude, mean, and a complete arsehole to me. I’m this close,” I held my index finger and thumb a hair away from one another, “to stabbin’ him in the fuckin’ eye with his insulin pen.”
Keela’s lip twitched. “If anyone can get him to take his medicine, it’s you, Ado.”
I groaned. “I don’t know why, all we do is argue. Literally. It’s all we do. It’s all we’ve ever done.”