My Skin Needs Touch, Their Stomachs Turn novel Chapter 54

Chapter 2

Rose was an orphan the Mitchells took in. She was five. I was six.

She was a porcelain doll in a white dress, delicate and breakable. I wore a muddy tracksuit and had just jumped out of a tree.

Jason held her hand and told me, “Nina, she doesn’t have a family anymore. We’re all she’s got now. You’re the older sister, look out for her, okay?”

Twenty years of being nice.

I gave up my room because it had better light, better for her health. I gave up piano lessons because she wanted them, and we could only afford one arts kid. I gave up my college spot because she’d be depressed if she failed, and I could handle repeating a year.

I didn’t hate her. I didn’t hate Jason.

I was just tired.

The surgery worked. I kept the leg, but the frostbite left permanent damage. It aches in cold

weather. I limp if I walk too fast.

A week in the hospital. Jason never called.

Probably busy with traumatized Rose, I figured.

Until the day I got discharged. Ran into someone at the billing desk.

Lucas Reed.

My fiancé.

Or soon-to-be-ex.

He was holding two boxes of imported cherries. Rose’s favorite. He saw me in a hospital gown, hobbling with a wall for support, and froze.

“Nina? What are you doing here? Weren’t you skiing?”

I glanced at the cherries. Didn’t answer. Asked instead, “Visiting Rose?”

He tucked the fruit behind his back, awkward. “Rose was freaked out. Nightmares. Jason’s been

with her all week. I just… stopped by.”

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Stopped by.

So my fiancé only runs into me, his actual fiancée, when he’s stopping by to see someone else.

“Oh.” I turned to get my paperwork.

He grabbed my arm, frowning. “What is wrong with you? Rose almost died in that avalanche. You didn’t visit, didn’t even check in, and now you’re giving attitude? Wait, you were on that mountain too. How come you didn’t go with them?”

I looked down at my leg, still in a brace.

Almost laughed.

“Lucas. Do you guys think Rose is made of flesh and blood and I’m made of iron?”

He blinked. Finally looked at my bandaged leg, a flicker of concern. “You’re hurt? Bad? Did you

fall?”

Then, unable to help himself, “No wonder Jason told you to wait for the next helicopter. Guess you weren’t careful enough.”

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