Her stomach growled.
“Take some,” Jared urged.
She picked up a piece. She really should have eaten lunch because now she was so hungry that her stomach hurt.
Taking a deep bite she groaned as the melted cheese and pepperoni hit her tastebuds. And then she inhaled the piece until it was gone and she was licking her lips in satisfaction.
Although her stomach didn’t appreciate her eating that so quickly.
Next to her, Jared shifted position, placing his arm over the back of the sofa as he stared down at her. She turned to see that North was staring down at her as well.
“What?” she asked, her face heating. “I was hungry.”
“No more skipping meals,” Jared ordered. “You can’t afford to lose any more weight.”
Angie sighed. “I’m fine. It was just one meal. When I lived with my father, I’d often only eat once a day. And that was if Keira and I managed to steal some money from his wallet.”
“Wish that fucker was still alive,” North said weirdly.
“Did anyone ever treat you well?” Jared said. “Before Fergus died, I mean.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it. That was a good question.
“Keira. I think she was the only person to ever truly care about me. About whether I lived or died. When our parents would get into a huge argument, I used to climb into bed with her and she’d hold me tight. Sometimes, she’d whisper stories to me to try and distract me from what was going on. And then her mom overdosed and she was sent to live with her father. Then just before I turned eighteen, my father woke me up one night and dragged me through our dingy apartment and into the nicest car I’d ever been in, not that I’d been in many. He held my arm in a tight grip all the way to your father’s mansion.”
“He was no father of mine,” Jared told her.
She nodded, understanding that sentiment. She’d never had a proper father. He’d never once tried to protect or keep her safe.
Strangely, right here, sandwiched between these two men, was the safest she’d felt in as long as she could remember. Maybe because she knew they could both take care of themselves.
And her.
Jared turned on a movie. She winced as she saw it was some sort of drama.
She was an action or a comedy type of girl when it came to movies. She didn’t want to watch anything sad. She had enough crap going on in real life that she’d rather have something to laugh at or something completely unrealistic to make fun of.
“What’s wrong?” North asked. “Have you seen this?”
“Ah, no, I don’t usually watch these types of movies.”
“These types?” Jared asked.
“Yeah, sad and depressing ones. Oh no, there’s a dog. I can’t handle it. Something is going to happen to the dog.”
“Why do you think that?” North asked
“Because something always happens to the dog. It’s like they want this big cinematic moment so they kill off the dog. It’s not cool.”
“All right, let’s watch something else,” Jared said, sounding amused.
“Oh, no, I’m fine. If you guys want to watch this, it’s no problem for me.”
“Don’t do that,” North told her.
“What?” she asked, turning to stare at him in shock. “What do you mean?”
“Pretending to want to do something because you think it’s what someone else wants. Don’t do that.”
