The doctor nodded, her eyes filled with sympathy. “The inflammation has worsened and your numbers are down I’m afraid, but not significantly. I think you’ll find a nebulizer effective for handling your difficulty breathing. Could help with the inflammation in your airways, too.”
Numb. That’s how I felt. Listening to the doctors hadn’t been a mistake but I should have listened to myself as well. “We’ll get the nebulizer, but I’ll also look into other, more natural treatments.”
“That’s fine. I’ll do one treatment today so you can see how it’s done and then you can do them at home. Three times a day to start.”
“Three times a day? He has school and other activities.” The one thing I never wanted for Beau was to have a childhood like mine, where he would be forced to act like a miniature adult at all times. I wanted him to be a kid. A normal kid. My parents had always been too concerned with appearances, so much so they denied me and my siblings a childhood.
“There are portable nebulizers that are battery operated. Just take it with you wherever you are.” She gave a few more instructions while she administered the first treatment. “Pretty easy, right?”
Beau nodded. “It wasn’t as bad as I thought.”
“It never is,” I assured him and helped him down from the exam table so we could get moving.
“Should we bring Jana’s baby a toy?”
I smiled. “Sure buddy, let’s stop at the gift shop.”
Chapter Five
Cross
I fucking hated hospitals. The last time I was in one was when I said goodbye to my wife and child. It was the worst goddamn day of my life and showing up here every day only made it hurt more. Today there was another cause. A kid, maybe six or seven years old with inky black hair and big blue eyes hiding behind glasses with black frames way too stylish for someone so young. I’d watched him enter the waiting room and scan the whole place for a seat before he took the spot right beside me.
I held my breath, waiting for him to start talking my ear off about mundane kid things. It was mean as hell but being around kids was torture, always wondering if that was how old or how smart or funny my own kid would have been. But the kid pulled out a book and began to read.
Odd.
No matter how much I didn’t want to be bothered, I couldn’t just let a kid wander the hospital alone. “Hey kid, are you here alone?”
He looked up at me, blue eyes studying me carefully before he looked at my kutte and realized I was safe. “No. My Mom’s visiting her friend who got hurt so I came out here to read. Mom said it was okay.”
Smart kid. When women got together nothing good ever happened. “What’s your name?”
“You can call me Beau,” he said with a wide grin.
I smirked at how adult he sounded. “Is that your name?”
“No,” he sighed, sounding annoyed as hell which amused me to no end. “It’s Rainbeau, but kids are dumb and Mom said Beau is the name of a handsome man. You have a jacket like my friend, do you know him?”
I chuckled and rubbed my neck because Beau’s questions came out like automatic fire. “What’s your friend’s name?”
“Max. Do you know him?”
“Yeah, but how do you know him?”
“He’s married to my friend Jana. Why are you looking at me like that?”
He was right, I probably looked like I’d choked on something as the details slammed into place. The black hair was shorter and not quite as wavy. They didn’t have the same eyes, hers were light green to his blue, but those rosebud lips and porcelain skin could only make him one person’s child. “You’re Moon’s kid.”
He nodded, a smile growing wide like I’d offered him free candy. “You know my Mom? She’s the best, isn’t she?”
She was something all right. “I do know her.”
Beau frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Great, the kid was as perceptive as his mother. “What makes you think something is wrong?”