If she gave in now and did what he wanted, he would give up, plain and simple. She would be doing him a disservice and she sure as hell wouldn’t be doing her job. She knew plenty of home-healthcare workers who would be more than happy sitting on their asses, playing on their phones, and watching television all day just as long as their paychecks cleared, but that wasn’t her.
She had a job to do and until the stubborn bastard in the front seat let her do it, she had absolutely no plans on doing anything other than laying back, closing her eyes and getting a little rest for the battle ahead.
Five minutes later, the battle was on.
“You’re not being paid to sleep,” the cranky bastard snarled.
“Yet, I am,” she mumbled sleepily.
“I’m not fucking playing around!” Chase snapped.
“Neither am I,” Sloane said around a yawn as she closed her eyes and cuddled in closer to the comfortable leather seat, wondering if he could do her a favor and fume silently until it was time to go in for his appointment so that she could catch up on the sleep she’d lost last night because she’d spent the night double-checking his meds, cleaning the rest of the kitchen, and setting schedules for him.
“Then drive the fucking car!” he snapped, clearly unwilling to cut her some slack.
“Can’t do that. You have an appointment in twenty minutes,” she mumbled sleepily, ignoring the way that he’d talked to her.
For now.
She knew how to pick her battles and although she fully planned on addressing the way that he spoke to her at some point in the near future, now wasn’t the time. If she didn’t earn his trust, she might as well look for a new job and she had no doubt that his sister would be forced to put him in an assisted living home by the end of the week.
Sloane didn’t know this guy, really didn’t like him, but she’d hate to see anyone his age put in one of those places. She realized they were necessary evils, but for a guy his age it marked the beginning of the end. Coming back after that would be practically impossible. He’d waste away in a place like that and she just couldn’t let that happen without at least trying to help him.
She’d seen too many people lose every ounce of hope after going into one of those places. She didn’t know his story, but he was young and still had his whole life ahead of him. He didn’t deserve to end up like that.
So, she would suck it up, deal with his anger issues, the fact that he annoyed her in a hundred different ways and do her job. By the time that she was done with him, he’d have his life back and maybe, just maybe, he’d be happy.
That was the hope, at least.
She wanted that for all her patients, but she knew that his sister wanted that for Chase more than anything. She hadn’t told her much and didn’t seem as though she was planning on sharing anytime soon, but from what his sister had explained to her, he had a lot to be angry about and he absolutely refused to talk about it.
That was one thing that was going to have to change, whether he opened up to his sister or Sloane was able to convince him to go to a support group, he was going to have to talk about what happened if he was going to have any chance of moving on. Until then, she’d just have to play it by ear.
“I’m not fucking playing around,” Chase bit out, sounding pissed.
“I didn’t think that you were,” Sloane said, wondering if she should reschedule this appointment.
“Do your fucking job!”
“I am,” she mumbled sleepily, surprised when she felt herself begin to drift off considering how much bitching he was doing.
“You’re fired.”
“Sadly, I’m really not,” Sloane mumbled as she continued to drift off.
“Fuck that. You’re out of here.”
“Uh-huh,” she said around a yawn, knowing it would piss him off and doing it anyway.
Some might say that she was being a bitch, and she was fine with that, but they needed to have it out so that he knew that she wasn’t going to just give up and let him struggle.
“Drive the fucking car!”
“That doesn’t sound like the magic word to me,” she pointed out, because really, would it kill him to say please?