Kim had spent the evening alternating between being furious at Shane for what he had said earlier and pretending everything was fine in front of Andrew and Jeannie. She had not seen Shane since the incident at the stables and suspected he was making a conscious effort to avoid her. At least he had spent some time with Andrew earlier.
Over dinner, Andrew had told her all about his new pony. Kim could not help but feel a little resentment at the way Shane spoiled Andrew. Here was Kim, barely able to make ends meet with her job at the Abuse Clinic, and Shane was pulling out ponies. How could she compete with that?
Trying to figure out a way to get her mind off Shane, Kim decided she would make a stab at doing what the ISA was paying her to do. Andrew was running around downstairs and Jeannie had just gone to sleep, so Kim made her way to Steve and Kayla's room. She knocked and waited for a response.
"Yeah, come in," Steve called from inside. Kim entered and saw him lying on top of the bed. She tried to pretend that it did not bother her when he grimaced at her. "If you're here for that mental mumbo jumbo, I'm not interested."
Kim had expected that, so she walked casually toward the bed. "It doesn't really matter to me," she said. "The ISA's paying me whether you get better or not." With a smile, she perched on the end of the bed. "I generally like to earn my pay, but if you don't want my help, so be it."
"What's this," Steve asked. "Some kind of reverse psychology?"
"Honesty."
Steve snorted. "Yeah, I buy that. The ISA's honest all of a sudden?"
"I said the ISA is paying me, not that I'm part of the ISA." Kim kept smiling softly. "There is a difference. I'd try to help even if I wasn't being paid."
"Yeah, well I'm fine. Nothing that some rest and some time with Kayla won't cure." Steve crossed his arms defiantly.
Why is Steve so much like my brothers? Kim asked herself. And Shane? They all thought they were super-strong and never needed help from anyone. "We both know that's not true, Steve. What you went through causes deep wounds. And those wounds don't heal themselves. The best you can do is help the wound heal and learn to live with the scars." She saw Steve's expression change, and could tell he was getting angry. "But . . . it's up to you to decide if you want to help those wounds heal or let them fester."
Steve had sat up and was glaring at her. "I'm going to tell you this once nicely and that's only because you're Kayla's sister; if you were anyone else, I'd throw you out of here. I don't need anyone messing with my mind. I'm going to be just fine. So take that ISA paycheck and go shopping in London or something."
Kim smiled placidly. "Okay, Steve," she said. "Just remember that if you change your mind, I'm here. All I want to do is help." She stood up and headed out of the room, thinking, That actually went better than expected.