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He swallowed. “I’m not saying that.”
“Get a nurse,” Mitchell said. “I’ll pay whatever.”
“I’ll sort something out.” Jackson would rather brand his eyeball than beg for charity from them.
“You better,” Mitchell warned. “I don’t want to be hearing you’ve gone and got yourself a girlfriend while letting our mother fade away.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend. Even if I wanted to—which I don’t—I wouldn’t have the time.” Half true. He didn’t have the time. “So would you quit?”
A knock sounded on the door. He stifled a groan. Why couldn’t a person be on time instead of insisting on being early? “I need to go. That might be the realtor.”
“Are you kidding me?” Mitchell said.
Cooper shook his head. “I can’t believe you’d do that without consulting us.”
“Consider this me consulting you.” Jackson pushed against the headache pounding in his forehead.
“This isn’t the way,” Dermott said. “We can sort something out.”
“You got a realtor?” Ellie looked at him, disappointment shining in her blue eyes.
Aw. Not Ellie. He couldn’t stand her looking at him like he’d betrayed her. Even if it felt true. “Just to find out our options.”
The knock came again. “I gotta go. Talk again soon.”
“But—”
He cut off Cooper’s protest with a press of the keyboard.
“Don’t open the door,” Ellie begged as he rose from his seat. “Whoever it is, say you’ve changed your mind. The boys are right. This isn’t the way.”
“I’m sorry, Ellie. We need to know our options.”
“I don’t want this to be an option,” she yelled as he left the room.
Neither did he. But unless God dropped the equivalent of manna from the sky, it seemed his options had just about dried up.
He sucked in a deep breath, shoving his hands through his hair. “God help us.”
Then he opened the door.
CHAPTERNINE
Lexi swallowed. “Uh, hi.”
Jackson stared at her, and she took that moment to remind her soul that what he’d said two minutes earlier about not wanting a girlfriend wasn’t to be taken personally. Even if it felt a little personal. Because right now, this wasn’t about him. This was about his mother. She lifted her chin. That’s right. She fixed friendliness on her face.
“What are you doing here?”
“Hello to you too, Jackson.”
He rubbed his bristly jaw. “I mean, hey, Lexi. I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I wasn’t expecting to be here either.”
He half closed his eyes, as if she might be a mirage. “Then what?” He winced.
“You okay?”
