He swallowed. “I’m so sorry.”
I blinked. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not,” he instantly replied. “I’ve never laid a hand on a woman in my life, and to hurt the woman carrying my baby... it makes me sick with myself.”
Oh, God.
“Look, I’m more pissed about the fight you got in with me brother than gettin’ a knock from you. You didn’t mean to hit me. It was me own fault for tryin’ to stop you and James.”
Kane lowered his hands away from my face and lifted his head. “That still doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“If you’re goin’ to feel like shite, then feel like it because you almost killed me brother.”
Kane rolled his bright blue eyes. “He hit me first.”
“So? You couldn’t be the bigger man and back off?”
Kane grunted, “He was gunning to hurt me, Aideen.”
“He doesn’t like you, and he found out you fathered me unborn child, it’s not like it was completely unreasonable.”
“I don’t like him either, but do you see me attacking him or any of your other brothers when I see them?”
It was a rhetorical question so I stayed mute.
“You’re silent because you know I’m right,” he huffed.
“Maybe so, but it still doesn’t change anythin’. You really hurt James, Kane.”
“He hurt me too, Aideen. Do I not matter?” Kane snapped.
“That’s not fair.” I frowned. “You do matter; you’re the father of—”
“I only matter because I’m the kid’s father?”
Uh.
“Please, I don’t want to do this.”
“Tough shit,” Kane snarled, “because I do.”
Here we go.
“Before yesterday I was just a woman you could barely tolerate. Stop tryin’ to make it out to be more just because I’m growin’ your kid. You pretty much hate me, Kane.”
Kane lifted his hands up to his head, ran them through his hair, then turned and walked over to the window in my sitting room. He placed his hands on the windowsill and stared through the pane of glass. “Before yesterday you were a woman I could barely tolerate, and today you’re a woman I can still barely tolerate, but that’s not all. You’re also a woman who gives me daily life-saving injections. Do you think I would let someone who I hate jab me?”
I didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.
“What?” Kane asked as he turned to face me. “No smartass reply?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Give me a second, I’ll think of somethin’.”
Kane lightly shook his head. “I don’t hate you, and I know you don’t hate me. We aren’t friends, not even close, but we are closer than we were before I found out I had diabetes. That has to count for somethin’, right?”
“Yeah, it does,” I said then widened my eyes when I thought of his diabetes. “Your second injection!”
I had given him his first injection this morning before we went to my father’s house, but I never gave him his second.
Kane held up his hands. “It’s okay, I have my kit with me.”
I noticed then that he was paler than I would have liked and it made me mad at myself. I took on giving his injection to him as a responsibility and I flaked on him.
“I’m so sorry, I forgot—”
“Hey,” Kane cut me off. “You have a lot on your mind—don’t worry about me.”
“I can’t help it,” I murmured, then widened my eyes because I didn’t mean to say it out loud.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “You can’t help but worry about me?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I sometimes wonder what will happen if you don’t get your injections on time or if you have to wait a day or two for them.”
Kane blinked at me. “That’s kind of nice.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Freakin’ meself out is nice?”
He snorted, “No, but that you freak out over something to do with me is nice. You never usually worry about me.”
I pointed at my stomach. “That all changed yesterday.”
Kane’s eyes dropped to my belly. “Everything changed yesterday.”
“Yep.”
He looked up at me then looked around my apartment. “It’s small here.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m aware of that. It’s one bedroom because it’s just me, but now that it’s not going to be just me, I’ll have to figure somethin’ out. I’ll find somewhere bigger that’s within me budget.”
Kane stretched his neck. “Or you could just move into my place. That’s still an option. We have three bedrooms that no one is using now that Dominic, Damien, and Alec don’t live there anymore.”
I shook my head. “We’re civil today, Kane. That could change tomorrow. I don’t think makin’ such a huge decision right now is a wise choice.”
Kane shrugged his shoulders. “Well, the offer is on the table. Take me up on it whenever you want.”
I wouldn’t.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Kane nodded his head then reached down and took out a black pouch from his pocket. I walked over to him and held my hand out. He gave me his insulin kit and got to work at unbuttoning his trousers.
I gasped, “Wait!”