AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“About Brian? He’s right, you should. Although I don’t know why Brian’s drinking all that water to weigh in if your coach knows he’s not eating…”
Shaking his head as much as he could manage with her hand on his chin, he said, “No, not about Brian. He doesn’t know about that.”
Dropping her hand, Valerie asked, “Then what?”
What did Kirk Chandler know that he hadn’t mentioned to her the night before?
“I’ve been having some stomachaches.”
Oh. Kirk had mentioned that. But when she’d seen no evidence of it herself…
If she could’ve lain down and cried, she would have. “Where does it hurt, hon?”
“Here.” He ran his hand over the middle of his stomach.
She placed her hand over his, slowly rubbing the belly that had somehow firmed from baby fat to that of a young man. “When does it hurt?”
He shrugged. “Different times.”
“Always after you eat?”
“No.”
“How long does it last?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
He was staring down, twisting the hem of his shorts again.
“I don’t know.”
She needed Brian. He’d fill in the blanks.
“How often does it hurt?”
“Sometimes a lot. But it didn’t hurt at all today. Until—”
“Until when?”
When he looked up, there were tears in his eyes. “Until I got into bed and started thinking about stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his eyes, in contrast to moments before, never leaving hers. “Like Brian. And the team. And Christmas coming.”
“What does Christmas coming have to do with anything?”
“I don’t know.”
Holidays were hard when you didn’t live in a traditional family. She understood that. She’d just thought, perhaps mistakenly, that she’d compensated enough so her boys didn’t miss out.
She asked Blake a couple more questions that he grudgingly answered. She determined that his body was functioning as it should and told him she’d call his doctor on Monday.
She already knew what she was going to hear, though. She’d be told to get him off soda, on to milk, to keep antacids readily available, watch the fried food and get him into counseling.
All things she’d been told herself four years ago when she’d been on the verge of developing an ulcer.
