There was a pause on the other end. “That’s not part of the NLC, is it?”
Her grandmother was a sharp one. “No. I applied for my endorsement license and sent my resume out last week for positions.”
“You always went through an agency before.”
“Not this time.” It was time to confess what she’d been hiding for the past two weeks. “Remember the person I stayed with in Denver?”
“Yes,” her grandmother said. “A friend of a friend.”
“I lied. It was a guy who helped me get my supply bag off the plane when we had to exit quickly. I was panicking and couldn’t get back on to get it and you know how that is. It’s a good thing too because I would have been stuck in the airport stressed out for days with a week’s supply rather than a month’s worth for emergencies.”
“I know exactly how frantic you get over that. You’re terrified of ending up in the hospital again.”
“Funny, considering I work there now.”
“It’s different when it’s for your care. You’re carrying around a lot of PTSD over your childhood and how poorly you dealt with your diabetes. Through no fault of your own.”
The fast food she’d lived off of and didn’t give herself enough insulin for. Ignoring the warnings and settings on her pump when she needed to treat or make changes.
Just wanting to fit in and be normal like everyone else.
But she wasn’t like everyone else and finally realized it before it was too late.
She stopped beating herself up over that. Even being mad at her parents. She couldn’t change them or what they’d done, but she’d made the change for herself.
“It wasn’t,” she said. “But the guy who helped me, his name is Rowan. I went to his cabin to stay.”
“Saylor! You went to a stranger’s house in the mountains alone? Did I not raise you well?”
“You raised me perfectly. I have good judgment. Grandma, he’s such a nice guy. He had a friend in college who was a diabetic. He understood everything I was going through. He asked questions. Insightful, thoughtful questions if he had them. He wanted to know what I would tell him.”
“Hmmm. Okay. Even so, he was a stranger.”
“He was, but it didn’t feel that way. I can’t explain it. Just the three days we were stuck there, I decided I wasn’t ready to leave. I spent the entire week with him. He extended his vacation longer and we left together.”
“He could do that? And wait? He doesn’t live there?”
“No. It was his brother’s cabin. Not really a cabin, more like a massive house, but it doesn’t matter. He lives in Long Beach.” There was silence. “Grandma?”
“Yeah. You’re moving closer to him. Got it.”
She could let her grandmother believe it was that, but she wouldn’t. “I’m moving in with him.”
“Saylor!”
“Grandma,” she said sarcastically. “Hear me out. We spent a week together. A lot of time. More time than if I was dating someone for months. I know so much about him. And trust me when I tell you, there are a lot of family secrets that many don’t know.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better. Are you going to tell me those secrets?”
“Once I tell you who he is, you’ll understand. But you have to promise me you won’t tell Mom and Dad. And especially not Sandy.”
Her grandmother snorted. “I don’t talk to them much. Definitely not your sister unless she needs me to watch her bratty kids.”
She laughed. “Those are your great-grandchildren.”
“They are still brats. Your sister raises them just as she was raised. Not sure how you turned out so well.”
“Because I had you and it’s not my personality to be that loud and in your face.”
