I shrugged and scowled. “Sure.”
She reached for the spoon again. “Can I feed it to you still?” she asked hesitantly.
I scowled. “I’m not hungry anymore, Belle. Just leave me be.” I looked down, where there was pudding dripping down my bare chest. “Get me a fucking cloth before you leave, though.”
She jumped up and scurried over to the cupboard to get a clean cloth, dampening it and coming back to me quick time. She leaned over to wipe at my chest when I reached out and grabbed her hand in mine, causing her to flinch. Her eyes locked with mine and I stared into those big hazel eyes of hers, getting lost for a moment in her sadness. Strangely, her sadness soothed mine instead of feeding into my need for seeing more of her pain, and I let her go.
“I’m really sorry, it’s been a really long week and I’ve got so much going on…” She stared at me wide-eyed. “Sorry, you don’t care about that, of course you don’t. I’m sorry.”
“Stop fucking apologizing,” I growled.
“Okay, I’m sorry.” She blushed when I raised an eyebrow at her.
“I’ve got this, just get out of here,” I said, forcing the anger out of my tone, and this time she nodded and handed me the cloth before turning to leave.
“I’ll see you later,” she said, her voice tinged with sadness.
“Yeah, and make sure you have your head out of your ass when you come back.”
She nodded. “I will. I’m just tired I think… I’ll be glad for my day off tomorrow.”
I cocked my head to one side. “Day off?”
“Yeah, tomorrow is my day off.”
I scowled. “The fuck should I do then?”
Day off? Bitch was taking a day off? Who did she think she was? Did she think this was a part-time position or something? Did she think I’d just sit here like a good little boy waiting for her to come back?
“Jenna is coming to look after—”
“Fuck that. I don’t want her here, I want you,” I snapped, interrupting her. “You either be here tomorrow or you don’t come back at all.”
She opened and closed her mouth before nodding. Her jaw was clenched like she was holding back a tirade of abuse, and I really wanted to push that button and make her explode. Kinda liked it when she scolded me, but looking at her, she really did look tired. It didn’t seem just the sort of tired you got from working hard or having late nights, either. It seemed the sort of tired you got from shit going on in your head. That kind of tired I understood. Didn’t change the fact that she needed to be here tomorrow though, but it did make me curious.
“What’s going on with you?” I asked, my voice hard, but I was genuinely interested.
“It’s nothing,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ll be in tomorrow.” She turned to leave.
“I wasn’t asking you, Belle. Fucking tell me!” I barked. If she was going to give me her undivided attention, then I needed to know what the fuck was going on with her.
I didn’t actually care.
Hell no.
This was just self-serving curiosity.
She hesitated in the doorway, looking like she wasn’t going to tell me for a moment, until I fixed her with another hard gaze.
“Belle,” I growled. “Don’t make me ask again.”
“It’s my mom,” she said, her voice a whisper. “She’s getting out of prison and wants to stay with me.”
“So?”
She swallowed and leaned against the wall beside the door like she didn’t have the energy to stand up anymore and needed the support. I scowled at her. Never took her for the judgy type, but she looked ashamed as fuck that her mom was in jail. I mean, it wasn’t something to be proud of either, but her mom needed help so she should help her. It wasn’t the big dilemma she was making it out to be.
“I haven’t seen her since I was a baby,” she said, looking down at the floor.
