Page 78 of Unwrapping Love

“I’m trying to make her happy.”

“I understand that, but don’t make yourself unhappy in the process,” Leslie said.

His smile dropped. “I’m not. Did she say I was?”

“I think she is worried you’re not fully yourself because you don’t want her to be upset. Life is about being upset. Trust me when I tell you, she’s lived through a lot of it in her household.”

Things he wanted to know but was afraid to ask Saylor. “Will you tell me what that was? She won’t talk about it much or brushes it off. I know she spent more time with you than her parents. She briefly mentions her sister.”

Leslie snorted. “First, Sandy is a drama queen and needs to be the center of attention.”

“I got that much. Then with her kids living at home too.”

“That’s another thing. But when my granddaughter was younger, Sandy sucked up all the attention in the room like the funnel of a tornado leaving destruction in its wake. And if she wasn’t getting it, there was mass chaos until she did.”

“So Saylor felt left behind?”

“I’m not sure that is an appropriate description. Saylor wasn’t a needy child, but I think she just got accustomed to always being put second. When she got sick, it was worse. She needed someone to watch her, guide her, make sure she wouldn’t kill herself. I’m not trying to be dramatic.”

“I get it. I had a friend in college with diabetes. I saw what he did and went through.”

“Saylor has expressed that. I always told her that whoever she’s with in life has to understand her disease the same as she does. Then she’ll know.”

He smiled. “I don’t know that I’ll ever understand it like her, but I’m trying.”

“That goes a long way with me. My son was on the road so much that Saylor’s care fell to my daughter-in-law, who wasoverwhelmed. I won’t say she didn’t try, because she did, but she didn’t get it. Not fully. And she worked a lot in her job. Saylor was eating processed junk food and not giving herself insulin when she was home alone. Her mother, Jen, felt after a few years Saylor should have figured it out on her own. After the third hospital stay for ketoacidosis, I just had enough. She came to stay with me the summer before her senior year of high school and we got her on a good path. She improved herself from that point on.”

“Good for her,” he said.

“Sandy didn’t like all the attention that Saylor got when she was first sick,” Leslie said. “Nor after.” Leslie turned her head to look inside. “Can she hear me upstairs or anything?”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t hear the doors open up there. Tell me.”

“Sandy didn’t just make Saylor’s life hell like a younger sister might. She used the diabetes as a weapon, telling Saylor no one wanted to be around a freak wearing robot gear.”

“What the hell?” The heat was in his face for another reason now.

“Yeah. She was already self-conscious being different. Saylor’s personality has always been to blend in.”

“And now she stood out?”

“She did. With her sister giving her a hard time at home. Anything negative that could be said, anything mean and rotten, it came from her sister.”

“Her parents did nothing? My mother would have kicked our butts.”

Leslie rolled her eyes. “Jen tried but gave up since she wasn’t around much to witness it. Sandy is just impossible to deal with. I’ve never seen such a spoiled brat in my life. Vic, my son, he’s on the road and when he isn’t, he finds a reason to escape the house and not be around Sandy. When he puts his foot down, everyonefalls in line, but it’s always messy. Loves his grandkids, and tries to help, but his daughter, he’d rather avoid.”

“What about Saylor? Didn’t he care about her?”

Saylor rarely talked about her father. Most times it was regarding her mother when it came to her parents.

“They were as close as they could be with him gone, but once Sandy got older, the house was just a tangled mess of emotions. Even when I visited, I left with my nerves screaming at me to stop going over. I took Saylor home with me as much as I could.”

“Sandy didn’t get upset over that?” he asked. He couldn’t see Saylor’s younger sister not throwing a fit over someone else giving Saylor attention.

“She did at first, but at my house there are rules and Sandy learned she couldn’t get her way with me.” Leslie was laughing.

“Good for you.”