Page 39 of Paging Dr. VanRyan

We did text every day. Little messages checking up on each other. Even though I hadn’t known her for long, I found myself missing her. Thinking about her a lot. Getting excited about plans I thought up of things we could do together.

Do you like chicken with lemon?

Um, yes?

Okay, I’m going to cook you one of my favorite meals.

You or your mother?

Maddy, I am injured.

??

I’ll get the recipe from Mom. But I’m cooking it.

I’m impressed.

As you should be. You can show me how much on Sunday.

xx

I was looking forward to Sunday. Being alone with her. Hopefully with no parents interrupting our time together.

I had to admit, I had enjoyed dinner with them. Watching them interact with her. My mom’s maternal instincts came out full force when Maddy told her about her parents. I saw the way her eyes widened and an instant bond happened between them as she spoke about her aunt Penny. Even my dad became sentimental. He’d told me once that Penny had helped change the man he was. That she opened up something inside him that showed him the way to love. And to be loved. My mom completed the cycle. Maddy had enjoyed meeting them and was amused by my dad’s antics, not annoyed.

Still, I wanted Maddy alone, so I decided to keep our plans quiet.

Maybe next time.

Or the one after.

I would think about it and decide later.

CHAPTER 10

MATTHEW

Saturday morning, I dropped by to see my parents and ask Mom for her recipe for baked orzo with lemon and chicken. I loved it, and she always said it was an easy meal to make.

They were pleased to see me, as always, Mom fussing over me, clucking about my hair being too long and that I looked tired.

“You’re working too hard,” she admonished as usual.

“Uh-huh,” I muttered as I took a cookie from the jar and stuffed it into my mouth.

“You need a haircut. Do you want me to do it? I cut Dad’s sometimes.”

“Leave the boy be,” Dad said with a roll of his eyes. “Maybe Maddy likes it longer so she can tug on it,” he added with an exaggerated wink.

“Richard!”

He laughed. “Relax, my Katy. He’s a grown man, and from the way the two of them were eyeballing each other at dinner, they are⁠—”

“Don’t go there, Dad,” I interrupted. “You’ll give Mom a heart attack. She thinks I’m an untouched angel.”

Mom snorted. “I highly doubt that. On either count. Still, I don’t want to know.”

She sat down, sipping her coffee as she wrote out the recipe.