Page 23 of Unwrapping Love

He moved past her and picked up a few ornaments at random and was placing them over his head.

She had a few in her hands, skirting around and under him.

The scent coming off his body had her lady parts twitching.

She hoped it was only because they hadn’t seen action in so long.

Good lord, she’d never felt like this around a man before who she’d just met.

“I’m not so sure being blind is part of it. Maybe they noticed me right away but most times they couldn’t handle other things.”

“Please don’t say your diabetes,” he said. “Because that is nothing. Do you know how many people have it now? Once I knew Damon and what he wore or I saw, it’s easy to spot it on other people.”

“Last I looked, between five and ten percent of the population in the US has type 1 diabetes. It’s a big number. It’s growing more and more each year, which is sad. Wish there was a cure. Maybe someday, but for now it’s manageable if you take the time to learn and care for yourself.”

Not something she’d always done in the past, but she’d never fall into that trap again.

“You’re an excellent role model for people.”

She laughed and moved away to get more ornaments and breathe some air that wasn’t radiating off of Rowan.

“Maybe I am now, but I wasn’t when I was younger.”

“How old were you and how did you find out? Or would you rather not talk about it?”

No guy she’d ever been with before was interested.

Not that she waswithRowan.

He was nice and helping her out so she didn’t have to sit in an airport for days to wait out the storm.

“I was thirteen. I wouldn’t say I was overweight, but I wasn’t skinny. That age where your body is changing and the rest of you hasn’t caught up yet. I was sick. I thought I had the flu, but it wasn’t going away completely. I’d lost around ten pounds in a week. One minute I wanted to sleep, the next I had a ton of energy. I couldn’t stop drinking and then peeing.”

Common symptoms her parents never thought much of.

“That had to be confusing.”

“It was. One day I just couldn’t get up off the couch. My mother is yelling at me to stand. My sister is screaming at me tostop being a baby and wanting attention, but I could barely focus on anything. I might have been slurring my words or something. I don’t know, but my mother was terrified and she called an ambulance.”

“That’s horrible,” he said. “Was your sugar really low?”

She snorted. “No. My body stopped producing insulin days before. Maybe weeks. Hard to say. There is always some little left in you, but I was in ketoacidosis. My body turned all the sugar and food I consumed into acid because it couldn’t process it, and this acid was destroying my fat. I was damn near close to a coma. Another day and I would have died.”

He stopped to stare at her, his eyes almost glossy.

She would always remember those words that the doctor told her parents. Her father breaking down in sobs, her mother needing to sit before she passed out.

They cared for her. She knew it. They loved her too.

But life got in the way, as they were hands-off parents because of their jobs and her sister’s constant explosive behavior.

Before she knew what Rowan was going to do, she found herself in his arms and he was hugging her.

“I can’t even imagine being thirteen and going through any of that.”

She lifted her arms and put them around his body and held on for comfort.

Comfort she would have welcomed thirteen years ago from any of her friends.