Page 13

Coast

“What the fuck was that about?” Caymen asked, passing me a wadded-up pile of napkins he’d snatched off the bar before I’d gotten us kicked out.

“What was what about?” I asked, pressing the napkins to my gushing nose.

“You started that fight outta nowhere.”

“Did I? Felt like he instigated it to me,” I said, shrugging.

“Bullshit,” Caymen said, shaking his head. “You wanna lie to yourself, that’s fine. But you can’t bullshit me, man. You were looking for a fight all night. Congrats. You found one. Feel good about it?”

When I first met them, I thought Dixon would be more my speed. But Caymen was really growing on me. He was a straight shooter. I appreciated that.

“Feeling alright,” I lied. My nose hurt like a mother.

“Should have saved some of those napkins for your eye. That’s looking rough. You need to get it checked.”

“Nah. It’ll be fine.”

“As someone who is known for gluing his own wounds instead of going to a doctor, trust me, you need to get it looked at.”

“Fine,” I agreed. “Ama’s clinic is over this way somewhere,” I added.

“You start walking. I’ll catch up after I tell my brother where we’re heading.”

“Nah, hit the town with all them. Have fun. I got this.”

“I don’t—” he started.

“Trust me. You don’t wanna miss a trip to Teddy’s fucking mansion. Have fun. Don’t need a babysitter.”

“Starting to think that’s not true,” Caymen said, but I was already walking away.

To be fair, he was right. I’d been itching for a fight for days. I’d been restless and moody for reasons I couldn’t pin down.

Normally, I lived for nights when we headed out of our little nowhere town and into the city. Where we could find lots of clubs, lots of women. Sometimes we even lucked out to run into crazy-ass Zayn, who took us on wild adventures.

But the second the guys said they were planning it, I hadn’t felt anything more than a mild annoyance that I would have to go and pretend to be interested. Or else face even more looks from the guys and questions from Velle.

So I hopped on my bike and drove in with them. I had a few rounds. Then I looked for an excuse to start some shit.

Mature way to handle my issues?

No.

But it was what it was.

The walk to the clinic was long enough that my mind started to clear and the walls I’d put up started to fall.

Leaving the truth.

I’d been in a bad mood since Zoe drove away from the clubhouse.

It’d been almost instantaneous.

My mood had been great that whole morning. Ordering food while Jade fussed over Lainey. Then taking Lainey to see the tortoise and the trucks. Putting her into her car seat.

But as she drove off, my mood plummeted.

The last bit of dopamine I’d gotten was adding a fat tip to the order from the night before. It’d been all downhill from there.

“‘Sup?” I said to the security guard at the clinic. “Is Ama still here?” I knew she’d had a shift since Seeley was hanging back at Che’s place.

“Coast?” Ama called, sounding like she was sighing. “What’d you get int—oh, ouch,” she said, walking out toward the lobby. “Alright. Come on. Let me check you out.”

“I’m only here because Caymen said my eye looked fucked. He doesn’t seem like the alarmist type.”

“He wasn’t wrong,” Ama said. “You’ve got a wicked subconjunctival hemorrhage. See?” she said, handing me a mirror when we got to a room.

All the whites of my eye were red. And the black eye was starting to set in.

“I just want to make sure you didn’t break your eye socket. Or tear your cornea. How’s the pain?”

“It’s an expected amount.”

“That’s not helpful. Can you move your eye side to side for me? Good. Up and down? Alright. Does it hurt to move the eye?”

“No. It’s just a consistent ache. Like you’d expect when you get socked in the eye.”

“Alright. Any double or blurred vision?”

“No.”

“A foreign body sensation? Like when you would swear something is in your eye?”

“Nope.”

“Your pupil looks normal. What about this,” she said, producing a pen flashlight. “Does this cause any pain?”

“Nah.”

“Okay. I’m just gonna poke around a little,” she said, putting on gloves and pressing around my eye. Then my nose.

“You got lucky. Again,” she said, pulling off her gloves. “You won’t always get lucky, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You want some acetaminophen for the pain?”

“Nah.”

“Of course not. The whole point of this was the pain, wasn’t it?” she asked, shaking her head. “Well, mission accomplished.”

“Medical care with a side of judgment,” I said, shooting her a smile.

“I’m allowed to judge you. You’re family. And you’re being stupid.”

“Hey, that’s my brand,” I said, making my way to the exam room door. “Thanks for checking me out, Ama.”

I was only a few feet into the hallway when I saw a flash of blonde hair that had my stomach twisting.

It wasn’t her.

It was stupid to…

Wait.

It was her.

Wide-eyed and panicked, Lainey clutched to her chest.

“Zo?” I called.

“Coast?” she whimpered, eyes flooding with tears. They wasted no time pouring down her cheeks. “I need help.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, moving through the metal detector that separated the lobby from the exam areas.

“Lainey,” she cried. “She’s sick. She’s… I think she’s really sick.”

“Okay,” I said, reaching out to press my hand to the back of Lainey’s neck. “Yeah, she’s burning up. Ama!” I called, watching her jerk and turn back, striding toward the lobby.

“Yeah?”

“Pretty high fever going on here,” I said, looping an arm around Zoe’s back as she sniffled hard.

“Okay, Mama,” Ama said, tone singsong. “Babies get fevers all the time,” she said, reaching out to touch Lainey’s head. “Are there any other symptoms?”

“She hasn’t been drinking much. I should have noticed earlier that something was wrong, but I just—”

“Hey, it’s alright. We all miss things sometimes,” Ama assured Zoe. “Sometimes, especially this young, it’s hard to tell anything is wrong.”

“She’s very listless,” Zoe went on, trying to pull it together.

“Normal with a fever. Come on. Let’s get her into a room,” she said, walking back through the metal detector.

“Can you come?” Zoe asked, looking at me as my arm fell from her waist.

“Yeah.”

She barely even seemed to clock my eye, nose, or the blood all over my shirt.

Ama led us back to an exam room that featured a padded exam table with sides and a scale.

“Let’s put…”

“Lainey,” Zoe supplied.

“Let’s put Lainey on the table and get her down to her diaper.”

Zoe put down the baby, her limbs as lifeless as a doll’s. But when she tried to undo the snaps on Lainey’s onesie, her hands were shaking too hard.

“I got it,” I offered, ignoring Ama’s curious look as Zoe stepped away and let me pull off the onesie.

“She’s never been sick before,” Zoe said as Ama moved in to start her exam and I moved back to stand next to her.

“It had to happen sometime,” I told her, my hand sliding up and down her spine.

“She has no rash,” Ama observed. “She’s a little clammy, but that’s not abnormal with a fever.”

Ama pulled out a digital thermometer, placing it under Lainey’s arm and holding it in place for three long minutes.

“Okay. One hundred. That’s not so bad, Mama,” Ama told Zoe. “If it was any higher, I might recommend taking her to the hospital. But I think we should be able to get this down and manage it with some acetaminophen. Coast?” she asked, gesturing toward Lainey.

I moved forward, putting a hand on the baby as Ama went to grab the medicine from the cabinet.

“Has she had any other symptoms lately? Pulling her ear? Skin color changes? Labored breathing? Coughing? Vomiting? Diarrhea? More fussy?”

“She’s been fussy today. But nothing else unusual. Aside from drinking less and… this,” she said, moving over to the head of the table to run a hand over her baby’s forehead.

“And no vaccinations in the past few days, right?”

“No.”

“It’s probably just a virus. Happens to all babies eventually. Scarier for us than them, I swear,” Ama said, coming over with a syringe of medicine. “Let’s hope she enjoys a new flavor,” she said. “Can you sit her up for me?”

With that, Zoe lifted Lainey, and Ama pried open her lips, inserted the syringe, and dispensed the medicine.

“Okay. That should start doing its thing in about half an hour. We will take her temperature again then. I’m just going to grab a few things for you,” Ama said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Zoe scooped Lainey up in her arms, rocking her.

“One sec, baby,” I said, ducking out into the hallway. “Hey,” I called to Ama.

“Yeah?”

“Where are you going?”

“To grab her some medicine, a syringe. She’s freaking out. Better to not make her stop at the store.”

“Okay. Don’t bill her, okay?” I asked.

“Teddy’s donations can cover—”

“No. Bill me.”

“Bill you,” she repeated, head tipping to the side. “Wait. Is that the baby Jade and Sass were talking about? The one in the clubhouse?”

“Yeah.”

“I see.”

“You don’t see nothing,” I countered. “She doesn’t have the money. The last thing she needs is to worry about a bill when the baby is sick.”

“Alright then,” Ama said, but the little smile that toyed with her lips said she didn’t believe me before she walked off.

Sighing, knowing I was only getting the gossip mills turning all the more, I made my way back into the exam room.

“She’s awake,” Zoe said, giving me a tentative smile.

“Hey there, Lil’ Bit,” I said, walking over to rub the back of her head. “You scared the shit out of your mom, you know.”

“I probably overreacted.”

“Fevers can be scary,” I said, shrugging. “Especially when they’re this little. And it was your first fever.”

“Brooke did seem a little less freaked out than I was about it.”

“Brooke?”

“She lives a few doors down. I just met her the other day. She has three littles. So I guess she knows all about fevers. She was the one who gave me the card for the clinic.”

“You’ll become an old hat when it comes to sickness. Babies and kids catch and spread everything.”

“And I drag her around everywhere.”

“Oh, don’t go blaming yourself. She’d get sick even if you were a complete germaphobe.”