I shook my head clear and focused on what everyone else was saying.
“She’s right, Ryder,” Bronagh said. “He needs to take them. You can’t baby him.”
Alec butted in then. “We aren’t babying him, Bronagh! We’re being considerate. He doesn’t like needles. End of fucking story.”
“Hey!” Alannah snapped at Alec. “Don’t talk to her like that!”
“Don’t shout at him, Lana,” Keela sighed.
Alannah glared at Keela. “Tell him to back off Bronagh then.”
What the fuck was going on?
Everyone was turning on one another.
“It would help if you all stopped talking about me like I’m a fucking invalid. I can hear what you’re all saying, and I can make my own damn decisions when it comes to my body.”
Branna moved to the opposite side of the bed and stared down at Kane. “Do you want to die?” she bluntly asked. “Because that’s what will happen if you don’t take the insulin daily.”
“Branna, fucking stop!” Ryder shouted.
It frightened me to hear Ryder raise his voice at her.
“No!” Branna bellowed right back at him. “I love him, damn it! I don’t want him to get sick again!”
I rubbed my hand over my face.
This was bad.
I looked at Kane as everyone argued amongst themselves.
“Kane?” I mumbled.
He looked at me, his face passive. “I know what you’re going to say.”
“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.