Page 29 of Sea Glass Serenade

Vivian shook her head as she came forward to give him a hug. He felt a wave of relief as he felt his mother’s arms around him, since no matter how old he got, she always made him feel safe.

“It’s not the cut we’re worried about,” she told him. “It’s the fact that you dropped the tool. Steve said your hand got weak for a moment.”

“I’m fine. Things happen.” Dean smiled at his family, and his smile was genuine this time. “I appreciate you all running over here to check on me, but there’s no need to make all this fuss. I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.”

He knew he needed to tell his family about what he’d learned from the doctor at some point, but he didn’t feel ready to do it yet. He wanted to brush off the incident as something that wasn’t a big deal so that they would all go back to the pub and stop worrying about him.

Julia shook her head. “You look pale, Dean. You should go sit down for a while.”

“I agree,” said Alexis.

Dean shrugged. “Okay. I’ll sit down for a while.”

He went into the office and sat down in the desk chair, and his muscles felt limp. His bones seemed to ache a little in a way that almost seemed to burn. He shut his eyes, thinking to himself that what he was feeling was even worse than coming down with the flu.

“He really hasn’t been himself lately.” Dean heard Steve saying in a hushed voice. “He hasn’t seemed to be feeling well.”

“He hasn’t said anything to us,” Vivian said, sounding worried, and Dean winced.

“What do you mean, he hasn’t been feeling well?” Julia asked. “Has something like this happened before?”

“He just seems low energy,” Sam said. “There was a day he went into the office to rest for a while. I thought maybe he was getting sick or something, but now this happens.”

“I want to go check on him,” Alexis said, and Julia said, “I’m coming with you.”

Dean opened one eye as his sisters walked into the office.

“Hey.” Julia crouched down at his side. “How are you feeling?”

“You guys.” Dean shook his head. “You’re acting like something really bad happened. It’s just a cut.”

“Yeah, but it’s a bad cut,” Alexis protested. “Look, you’re bleeding through the bandage already.”

“Are you sick?” Julia placed her hand on Dean’s forehead, checking for a temperature. “Hmm. You feel cold.”

“I’m fine.” Dean shook his head, unable to keep from smiling a little at the way his sisters were fussing over him.

“I think you need to go to the doctor to get that cut checked out,” Alexis said. “You don’t want it to get infected. Besides, you might need stitches or something.”

“Oh, I don’t think I need stitches,” Dean protested.

Julia shook her head. “You don’t know that for sure. That’s a lot of blood. Besides, you should talk to a doctor about why you were feeling weak.”

Dean couldn’t help wincing a little bit, since he had already talked to a doctor about why he was feeling weak.

“You go to the doctor, and then go straight home.” Alexis put her hands on her hips, showing that she meant business. “Absolutely no coming back here to work today. We’ll make sure the guys kick you out if you try to come back.”

Dean shook his head wryly, laughing. “Okay, okay. I’ll go to the doctor.”

“You want me to drive you?” Julia offered. “I was just doing marketing work at the pub, and that’s something I can do any time.”

He waved that off. “No, it’s all right. I’m fine, really. The walk-in clinic is a couple of blocks from here, and one block from my house. I’ll just go there and then go straight home afterward.”

He thought to himself that he would need to call his regular doctor, however, and inform her of what had happened. It did make him nervous, since he didn’t want to lose his ability to work.

“Okay.” Julia frowned slightly in concern. “Be careful as you’re walking, though, okay? If you start to feel really lightheaded, sit down. It would be bad if you passed out.”

“I’m not going to pass out,” he assured her, although at that moment he felt another wave of dizziness and he saw the wisdom in her words. “I’ll text you all when I get to the clinic,and when I get home again.” He forced another brave smile, and both Alexis and Julia seemed to accept his performance.

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