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“Go check on William for a moment. Please.”
Whoa. Did Ian just say please?
“You’ll watch over her?” Jack asked.
“You know I will, mate.”
When he’d left the room, she turned to Ian. “Um . . . what was that?”
“Jack’s mum died of cancer,” Ian replied.
Maggie winced. “She did?”
“She ignored the pain she was in. Just pushed the pain aside and just kept going. He was away at school and had no idea. Until one day she collapsed. The cancer was eating her from the inside out. Stage four. If she’d just done something when she first started feeling ill and in pain, then there was a good chance she could have lived.”
“Oh no.” Tears filled her eyes.
“Yeah. Jack doesn’t let himself care about many people. Me, my brothers, and Jameson. That’s about it. Until you. Which means that he’s taking this hard. We’re going to ensure that you are taken care of. We haven’t done a very good job so far. Time to change that.”
“He doesn’t care about me. Not like he does you guys.”
“No, not the same as he does us. It’s very different.”
Right.
And she shouldn’t be upset by that. She’d known Jack for less than two weeks.
“He’s all good,” Jack said, coming back into the room. “Have you gotten the truth out of her about her pain levels?”
“It was an eight,” she confessed. “It’s now down to a six.”
“Does this happen often?” Ian asked. “This sort of pain?”
“No. Rarely. I just . . . haven’t been paying close enough attention I guess.”
“Taking care of yourself, you mean,” Ian countered. “That stops from now on.”
“It sure does. Where the fuck is Jameson?” Jack snapped.
“He should be here soon,” Ian said.
“You really didn’t need to call Jameson. I’m fine.”
Okay. Wrong thing to say, apparently. Both of them glared down at her.
She shrunk back slightly. She really didn’t like having them both upset at her.
“I’m doing the best I can. Please, don’t be mad at me. Please.”
29
“Fuck,” Ian muttered under his breath. “Little girl, we didn’t mean to upset you.”
She glanced up as she felt someone touch her leg. Jack gave her a worried look. “You need to learn to lean on people. To ask for help.”
“It’s not very easy. I’m used to doing everything myself.”
“Please try,” Jack said to her.
