Troubled eyes searched Shay’s face. “What’s wrong, mate?”
I don’t want to be your mate. Shay shook his head. “I don’t know. I feel really bad.”
“You want me to check your sugars?”
“Yeah.”
Ollie moved like he’d done it a thousand times, not the handful of occasions he had over the last few weeks. A tiny jab into Shay’s finger, and then it was over, for Shay at least.
He closed his eyes. The sickness was fading now. He had the stomach ache from hell, and all he wanted was to sleep.
“Shay.” Ollie shook him gently. “Your blood sugar is really high. I’ve never seen it like this, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Does he need food?” Corina said from somewhere. “I’ve never seen it high either.”
“No food… yet,” Ollie said. “I think he needs insulin first, but I don’t know how much.”
Shay fought the fog in his brain. It had been months since he’d had a level high enough to put him on his arse. Diabetes manifested itself differently in everyone, even if it followed particular trends, and his worst moments had always been low.Come on. You know what to do. You can fix this.
God, he wanted to. Being in Ollie’s arms was fucking amazing, but the prospect of chucking up on him, or worse, was horrifying enough to spur his sluggish brain into motion.
Ollie passed him his insulin kit. With Herculean effort, Shay studied the numbers and calculated the dose. Then Ollie took the pen from Shay’s trembling hands and injected the insulin into Shay’s abdomen.
It would take a little while to kick in, but the psychosomatic effect was instant. Shay melted against Ollie, willing the tremors wracking his body to fade as Ollie spoke quietly to whoever was close by. Shay didn’t care. Somewhere beneath it all he was mortified that Ollie had seen him in such a mess again and furious that the condition he’d managed for most of his life had chosenright nowto fuck him over. But beyond all that, he just needed Ollie.
Deft, gentle fingers pushed Shay’s damp hair out of his face. Ollie was smiling, though it didn’t quite meet his eyes. “You doing okay down there?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Don’t worry about anything, okay? I’m going to check your levels again in a little while, and then maybe you can eat something?”
“Okay.”
“Tell me if you feel worse, though. I don’t really know what I’m doing here. Only what Google told me when I looked it up a few weeks ago.”
“That’s cute.”
“Shh. Don’t tell anyone.”
The exchange finished Shay off. He closed his eyes and let Ollie’s soothing fingers lull him into the kind of doze he never wanted to wake up from if it meant Ollie would hold him like this forever. He was dimly aware of more sharp scratches on his fingertips, but he paid little attention to any of it until Ollie roused him sometime later.
“You should eat now,” he said. “Your levels are starting to dip.”
“Okay.” Shay sat up and accepted a banana. “Where did everybody go?”
“Into the hotel. Jumbo was flapping, so Corina took him for a drink. She told me she’d murder me if I didn’t take care of you, but it wasn’t really necessary.”
“Did you tell her that?”
Ollie looked up from studying the latest number on Shay’s glucose metre. “Nah. I told her I’m taking you home.”
Chapter Nineteen
Ollie helpedShay into the van and fastened his seat belt.
Shay rolled his eyes. “I could’ve done that.”
“Yeah, well. Now you don’t have to.” Ollie shut the door before Shay could reply and hurried round to the driver’s side.
