I give him my back in order to roll my eyes.
Then I get into his truck.
8
Alice
The sharp pointsticks into my fingertip, but I barely feel the sting. With blurry eyes, I hold the welling bead of blood up to the test strip. The numbers begin to tick down while I wipe my finger clean.
I rest my elbows on the table, head in my hands. I’m so fucking tired.
This exhaustion has nothing to do with my first week of being a nanny. So far, it’s the best job I’ve ever had. Nellie is so sweet and charming, and the work is easy.
Bonus, I only see Sutton for a few minutes in the morning and five minutes during the silent ride home. Since Arizona’s DVS finished processing my fees on Friday, I’ll no longer need his taxi services.
It’s the blood sugar spike at—I peel open one eye to check the clock above the stove—twelve thirty in the morning that’s interfering with my sleep.
I groan and close my eyes again. When the alert woke me, my level was 187 and going up. Now, it’s… I check the manual glucose monitor.
223
Dammit.
I fucking knew I should have bolused that last piece of brownie better, and now I’m paying for it.
The CGM app on my phone disappears as an incoming call takes its place. Sutton’s name scrolls across the screen.
I check the time again for good measure, in disbelief that he’s calling me this late at night. If he’s getting called in to work, I’ll have to quit. Or get fired. I shouldn’t drive over there right now. Not until I get my blood sugar corrected, and that could take hours.
Licking my lips, I slide the answer button and put it on speaker.
“Sutton?”
“What’s wrong?”
His demanding tone throws me, and my brain short-circuits.
“I think I should be asking you that question? You called me in the middle of the night.”
“Your alarm thing.” Oh, damn. His voice is thick with sleep, deepening the rich tone. “It woke me. What’s wrong?”
It takes my brain a minute to catch up with what he said. Not only am I tired, but the high blood sugar tends to leave me a bit foggy.
“I’m fine, Sutton. I should have warned you about this when I set up the app. My blood sugar is just high.”
“So bring it down.”
I bristle at his sharp tone. “I’mtrying.”
“Do you need a doctor? I can call you one.” His voice is tight.
The sound strikes me then. Sutton doesn’t sound mad. He sounds… concerned? I blink heavily as if that will clear the fog.No way is he actually concerned about me. I’m pretty sure he hates me. I glance at my glucometer like I should check my levels again for good measure.
“I just need to change my insulin pod.” I yawn. It should have another day left, but I’m pretty sure the site has failed. My knees pop as I straighten from the chair to gather my supplies.
“Does that take a while?”
“Changing it? No, not really. It’ll take a bit to come down, though.”
