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“No putting yourself down. You are incredibly beautiful. And I won’t hear you say otherwise. Open up.”
She shook her head.
“You’ve only had two bites. Open up and I’ll tell you why else I watch you.”
She quickly took the next bite of food. This time, it was a piece of cauliflower.
“Why?” she asked after swallowing.
“Because I want to keep you safe.” He didn’t want to tell her this next part, but he owed it to her since she was eating. He gave her another piece of chicken. “And because I have this feeling that if you’re out of my sight, something will happen to you. And that fucking terrifies me.”
It was also stupid since he couldn’t watch her all the time.
She gaped up at him. Fuck.
“You can pretend I didn’t say that if it scares you. It’s not rational.”
“No. I understand what you mean. My mom . . . I felt like she died because I . . . because I wasn’t there to take care of her.”
“Baby, you know that’s not true, right?” He didn’t actually know what happened to her mom, just that it couldn’t have been Isa’s fault.
“I know that logically. She went to the hospital and she never came home. I don’t even remember her being sick.”
“Was it cancer?”
“A heart attack.”
Fuck. That sort of thing could be hereditary. He’d need to make sure she was getting regular check-ups.
Isa rubbed her chest. He’d noticed her doing that a few times these past couple of weeks. Was it an anxiety thing? Maybe it was due to reflux?
“Baby, are you all right?”
“What?” she asked, looking at him in confusion.
“You’re rubbing your chest.”
“Oh yeah. Sorry. I’m fine.” She dropped her hand, giving him a sheepish smile. “What . . . what were we talking about?”
He eyed her with concern. “If there’s something wrong, you need to tell me.”
“I’m fine.”
“Remember, no lies.”
She bit her lip. “I really think it’s nothing. I’m not ready to talk about it.”
Fuck. He wanted to protest. But he was the one who’d told her that she could tell him if she didn’t want to talk about something.
“You’ll tell me if it becomes a problem. Understand?”
She eyed him. “Yes. I want to go to bed now.”
Yeah, she looked exhausted. But she’d barely eaten anything today.
“One more bite.”
Isa gave him such a sad look that he almost fell for it. But he knew what tricks Littles would use in order to get out of doing something they didn’t want to.
