Page 55 of The Ex Puck Bunny
“Yeah. It’s passing.”
“Good. You can crash on my couch anytime, but you cannot crash on your blood sugar. Don’t let it happen again. I have to go video chat with my wife. We’re counting down until she’s coming home. Now, don’t scare Heidi like that again. I’ve never seen her so worried in my life.”
I’m grateful he lives only a couple of streets over from his parents. As he exits, he whispers something to his sister who stands in the doorway.
“Sorry about that,” I say, my voice sounding smaller than I’d like it to.
“I forgot you had diabetes.”
“Sometimes I do too, apparently,” I say, trying to make a joke.
She sits down next to me on the couch. The old cushions are squishy and she sinks toward me slightly with her knee pressed against my thigh. That gets my blood flowing.
“Thanks. The drop came on faster than usual.”
She nods. “I don’t know what I would’ve done had something happened to you.”
My brows pinch inward. “Derek can tell you stories about times we’d be out riding our bikes and I’d forget to do my insulin, and he’d have to wipe me off the pavement. He’s a good friend to have.”
“For the record, I don’t think you’re a loser.”
“Thanks for that. Too bad half the hockey team and my coach do.”
“About that. Maybe I can help you. But first I have a question.”
Before Heidi asks, Mr. and Mrs. Rice return, toting a very excited Bunny, and tell us all about how they rescued a unicorn.
“We saved a unee-corn!” Bunny exclaims, gibbering about how it was in a tree and she climbed to the first branch with Grandpa’s help.
Mrs. Rice murmurs, “She has quite an imagination.”
“I saw the unee-corn, Gamma.”
Bunny hugs her mom’s leg and then leaps into my lap, begging me to play Buckaroo.
She gives me another recount of the unicorn rescue, all the while intermittently giggling while I bounce her.
Truth is, this entire family has rescued me, more than once. Thankfully, I’m not a dog. Not like Trey. Call me selfish, but he’s the real loser. He’s missing out on so much inthis little living room right now. I vow to myself to be better about checking my sugar so I don’t miss it either.
Mrs. Rice tells Bunny it’s bath time. Heidi gets to her feet, but her mom insists she relax. Mr. Rice says he’s going to watch some hockey footage and invites me upstairs.
“No,” Heidi and her mom both say at the same time.
He frowns. “Why not?”
“The spicy peanuts,” they both say.
The frown deepens. “They’re just an after-dinner snack.”
“And they make you—” Mrs. Rice starts.
Bunny sticks out her tongue and makes a farting sound.
We all break into laughter and then everyone exits, leaving Heidi and me in the living room.
Alone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
