Smiling gently, I shake my head. “No, Summer. It’s easier than the needles and better for you.”
“Really?”
I nod. “I wouldn’t let you get it if it would hurt you, you know that.”
Reassured, she nods.
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“Okay,” Penny says, and we turn our attention to her, “so this is an insulin pump.” She holds up a small black device that kind of looks like an iPod.
She starts to walk us through the process of filling up the reservoir with insulin and priming the tubing. I listen intently, memorizing all the instructions.
Next, she moves closer to June. “Where would you like it, hon?”
June looks at me, and I smile reassuringly. “How about your abdomen? Or your thigh?”
She thinks for a moment before patting her belly shyly.
Penny lifts my sister’s shirt and gently cleans the area with alcohol swabs.
She holds up a circular plastic device. “This is an automatic inserter with the infusion set inside,” she tells me. Then she explains how to insert it onto June’s skin, explaining that I’ll have to change the infusion set and site every two to three days.
When she’s done, she smiles at June. “Ready?”
My sister presses her lips together and nods once.
Gently, Penny presses the inserter against her skin and pushes the button, inserting the cannula with a quiet click.
June lets out a soft giggle. “It didn’t hurt.”
I squeeze her hand. “Told ya.”
“Almost done,” Penny says, applying adhesive tape over the site. Then, she attaches the tubing connector to the infusion set port and primes the insulin pump.
When she’s done, June asks shyly. “Can I see?”
Penny chuckles and points to the mirror on the other side of the room. “Go for it, hon.”
June hops off the bed and rushes to the mirror, turning every which way to see her new pump.
I turn to Penny. “I-” I swallow against the ball of emotion in my throat. “Thank you,” I say sincerely.
She shrugs. “I’m just following orders, sweetie.”
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13:04 Fri, Oct 3
Chapter 58
“Who-”
I know the answer before Penny says it. “Master Nathan.”
I drop onto the bed that June vacated. “Why?” Helping her during the accident was one thing–it was reactive. This is proactive; he has absolutely no reason to do this.
Penny smirks. “Frankly, I’m surprised it took this long for him to ask me to do this, considering how beside himself he was that night.”
1 frown. “What?”
She nods. “He almost lost his mind the night June had the allergy attack.”
I think of the cool, composed Nathan I walked into that night. “That doesn’t sound right.”
Penny chuckles. “He called me up, screaming down the phone. He said, and I quote, ‘If anything happens to that little girl, Penny. I’m going to lose my shit.“”
My mouth drops open.
Penny nods. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that frazzled before.” She leans in like she’s about to share a secret. “The book he was ‘reading‘ when you came in? He was about to throw it across the room in frustration because June wasn’t waking up.”
She leans back and smirks. “Every day after that, he called me asking if June was okay. Did I think she was having any after–effects? Did I need to check her again?
Her words, while in English, sound like gibberish to me. Nathan was so calm and composed that night, as if it were just an inconvenience he had to take care of.
But he cared. He cared so much that he was on the verge of losing his mind. The new information shocks me so much that I’m on the verge of losing my mind.
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