Joke’s on You by Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,53

thing for her temper.

“I’m. Going,” she said as she tossed her utensils in the sink behind her. “Mirena, you can handle this?”

At Mirena’s nod of surprise, she nodded her head once. “Good.”

Her anger was palpable, but she was still very apparently going with me.

I kept my smile to myself and nodded once. “We better go then if we’re going to be on time.”

She looked back at Laric who was standing on the side of the road with the dog.

The dog that now had a muzzle on and was growling at anyone that came close to him.

“Why is he still here?” I asked curiously.

“Apparently, he’s meeting someone.” She shrugged. “I don’t really know him all that well to ask.”

I didn’t, either.

The big biker looked even more intimidating in the daylight than he did in the dark.

The next hour didn’t go at all how I was expecting it.

I thought the doctor was just going to give us some random ass explanation as to my kid’s immune system. I didn’t think that we would be referred to a specialist that dealt with children’s migraines.

“As of right now,” the pediatrician said, “I’m not one hundred percent sure if it’s the migraines causing him to vomit, or the vomiting causing the headaches.” She paused as she looked at the two adults. Asa had gone back to sleep. “I would investigate how he’s feeling before he starts these vomiting episodes. In the meantime, I think it would be best for you to see Dr. Montgomery and figure out if these headaches are something that can be handled.”

I winced.

“He’s never complained of a headache before today,” I admitted. “Hell, it’s hard enough to even get him to say his tummy hurts. If he hadn’t thrown up, I’m fairly sure he wouldn’t have said anything.”

The doctor nodded her head. “That’s usually a very common thing among kids. Not wanting to admit that there’s something wrong. The girls grow out of it. The boys, not so much.”

I chuckled at that.

“So his bloodwork was fine. Everything is fine. But if he does end up having cyclic vomiting syndrome, what does that mean for him? Is it something that he’s going to have to live with for the rest of his life?” Dillan asked.

I looked at her gratefully.

I was lost.

I’d taken Asa to the doctor before, but those had all been well visits. Him actually being sick was a foreign concept to me.

“Generally speaking, the CVS is something that he’ll just grow out of,” Dr. Peterson admitted. “CVS can be attributed to stress, anxiety, fear. Any of those factors play a rather large role in his health and well-being. Do you ever see a trend when it comes to the vomiting?”

I thought about that, then looked over at Dillan with a shrug.

“Anxiety wise,” I said. “He had one of these episodes when his mom went out of town for business. The last episode he had was a couple of weeks ago when I had to drop him off at school to go to work. He could be scared about that, I guess.”

She nodded. “Take note of when it happens. See if you can find a trend. As for the headaches, don’t beat yourself up about not knowing about those. Sometimes children just don’t realize that anything is wrong. They are very good at adapting. That’s why you always see children playing when they have strep throat, and it’ll take an adult down for a few days.”

I did feel better after that.

“So is there anything we can do for this?” I asked anxiously.

Dr. Peterson just smiled. “No, unfortunately not for the CVS. As for the headaches, or migraines, those can be handled with meds if you wish to take that route. That’s something I would discuss with the specialist, though. There are alternatives to medicine that do work.”

After squeezing every single drop of information I could out of the doctor, the next thirty minutes was spent relaying it to Delanie, who was ten times more worried than the rest of us.

“I should’ve never left.” She sighed.

I looked in my rearview mirror at Asa, who was still sleeping, and grinned.

“He’ll get over it, Delanie,” I said. “It’s not a death sentence.”

At least, I hoped not.

***

“You ready to get some sleep?” Dillan asked curiously.

I pulled her into my arms and wrapped them around her tightly.

She yawned in response.

“You scared the shit out of me today,” I said. “And I’m sorry you can’t keep the dog.”

She sighed.

“I just… I want him to have a good