Chapter 10
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Colton,” Ryan said. Jonathon had always spoken of his ex-wife with respect and fondness. He didn’t sense any tension or animosity between them.
“Oh, please. Emily will do just fine.”
“Emily, then.”
“Have you known Matilda long?” she asked.
“No third degree, Mom,” Matti said. “Ryan’s just a friend, and he’s here to see Sam.”
That was true, so why did he not like being just a friend? And yes, he was here to see Sam, but he’d looked forward to seeing Matti, too.
“I need to take off, Matilda,” Jon said. “Can I walk you out, Emily?”
“Oh, I thought I’d stay for a while, get to know this precious boy.”
Jonathon gave Emily a look, and although they were divorced, apparently they could still pass silent messages, because Emily picked up her purse from the couch. “Yes, that would be lovely.” As she passed him, she touched his arm. “It was nice to meet you, Ryan. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
“Maybe,” he said noncommittally since he wasn’t sure of the dynamics between Matti and her mother.
Jonathon and Emily both kissed Matti on the cheek before leaving.
“Sorry about that,” Matti said as she went to the window and peered out.
“No need to be sorry. Jon’s a friend, and it was nice to meet your mother.”
“There’s something weird going on with those two,” she said.
“Like what?” He joined her at the window.
The estranged couple were talking, and again, he didn’t sense there was tension between them.
Jon kissed Emily’s cheek, then got in his car.
Emily watched him drive away before getting in her own car, and as she did, she touched her cheek where he’d kissed her.
“Like… I don’t know. I’m probably just imagining it.”
He wasn’t so sure. There did seem to be something going on.
Whenever Jon talked of his ex-wife, it was always with fondness and some regret.
He’d once told Ryan that he’d taken for granted that she would always be there to welcome him home each night.
Then one day she wasn’t. He’d also said he was to blame, that he’d made his career as a physician his number one priority, and if there was one thing he could do over, it would be that his priority would be his wife and family.
“Doc!” Sam yelled. “Did you come to play with me?”
“I did not. I came to take you and Matti for pizza.”
“Sometimes my Daddy gets us a pizza.”
Probably one of those awful convenience store pizzas. He glanced at Matti. “You ready to go?”
“Give me five minutes. Sam, you need to use the bathroom before we leave?”
“Okay. Can I take my fire truck?”
“Nope. No fire trucks at the dinner table,” she said. “Go on to the bathroom so we can go.”
Sam ran down the hall, his little feet pounding on the wood floor sounding like a herd of horses. Ryan laughed. “For a little thing, he can make some noise.”
“No kidding,” Matti said. “Be right back.”
Two minutes later, Sam raced back into the living room with a wide grin on his face. “I’m ready.”
He hadn’t had a chance to talk to Matti, to find out if she’d decided to tell Sam about his parents before or after pizza.
Apparently after. From how happy the boy seemed to be, Ryan wondered if Sam even missed them.
His life since coming home with Matti was a hundred times better.
He was clean, getting fed, and had a good roof over his head instead of residing in a shabby motel room.
“Ready, boys?” Matti said, coming back into the room.
Sam peered up at him. “Are we ready, Doc?”
“We sure are. And we should tell Matti she looks very pretty tonight.”
She really did. She’d changed into a pair of white shorts and a red sleeveless blouse. She’d brushed her hair, but he estimated that before twenty minutes was up, it would be messy again. He rather liked it messy…bedroom messy.
With Sam between them, holding their hands, they headed for his car.
Like a family. The thought almost caused him to stumble.
After Cassie had ended their engagement, and deciding being a doctor wasn’t conducive to relationships, he’d thrown all his attention to his job.
He’d been fine with that, still was. It was just that right now, holding the hand of a little boy and spending time with a woman he liked—and was attracted to—felt like he was part of a family.
He liked it.
“We need to take my car,” Matti said. “I keep a car seat in it.”
He hadn’t thought of that, but of course. She had to pick up children, many of them under the age of eight and, by North Dakota law, requiring a car seat. “No problem.”
“You can drive.” She handed him the keys.
She drove an older Jeep, so plenty of room for his long legs after moving the seat all the way back. After getting Sam buckled in, she slid into the passenger seat. “All systems go, Captain.”
He grinned. “Ready for blastoff, crew. Hold on to your hats.”
“I don’t have a hat,” Sam said.
“Then hold on to your hair.” He watched Sam in the rearview mirror, chuckling when the boy slapped his hands over his head. Ryan thought it sad that not once had Sam asked about his parents or said he missed them and wanted to see them.
As they drove to The Pie Works, he listened to Matti and Sam discuss pizza toppings options. Sam said he’d never had a pizza with anything but cheese on it, confirming Ryan’s guess that all he’d ever had was convenience store pizza, and was in awe of all the choices. He wanted to try them all.
“Except maybe not those fishy things,” Sam said after asking what anchovies were.
“I’m with you on that, buddy.” He was a pepperoni-and-extra-cheese man. “What’s your preference?” he asked Matti.
“Sausage and mushrooms.”
He pulled into a space at the restaurant. “Let’s start him off with one of those and a pepperoni and extra cheese.”
“That works. He’ll probably like the pepperoni best.”
He exited the car and after Matti got Sam out of the car seat, they walked inside with him in the middle, holding each of their hands. The restaurant was half full, and the hostess led them to a booth in front of the window. Ryan sat across from Matti and Sam.
A waiter walked by with a large pizza, and Sam’s eyes about popped out of his head. “Are we getting a big one like that?”
Ryan shook his head. “No, we’re going to get two smaller ones that are different, so you can try one of each. See which you like best.”
“I think I’m going to like everything.”
Matti laughed. “You and me both, kid.”
A waitress took their order, and as much as Ryan would have loved a beer with his pizza, not comfortable drinking in front of Sam considering his background, he settled for a glass of water.
Matti also asked for water. Sam wanted a pop, and when he seemed overwhelmed by the choices, Matti told the waitress to bring him a root beer.
“I’m getting a beer?” he said after the waitress left.
“No,” Matti said. “A root beer is a soda.”
The things Sam didn’t know that every other child did still surprised Ryan, although it shouldn’t considering the boy didn’t know much about the world outside of a motel room.
Matti had said she was going to take Sam shopping for new clothes this afternoon, but he still wore the clothes he’d arrived in.
Ryan guessed the visit from her father had delayed that plan.
Turned out Sam liked the sausage and mushroom but loved “more than anything in the world” the pepperoni with extra cheese. He also wanted to know when he could have another root beer.
“I think we created a pizza and root beer monster,” he teased as he waited for the check.
A man walked in that Ryan recognized as the mayor. He’d never met the man, but he’d seen plenty of election-day posters when Ted Barrett had run for office. The mayor’s gaze swept the room and stopped at their table. A wide smile lit his face as he headed their way.
“Do you know the mayor?” he quietly asked Matti, since the man seemed to be coming straight to them.
She glanced up and smiled. “Teddy Bear,” she said when he reached their table.
Because he was looking at the man, Ryan saw a flash of annoyance before the mayor hid it.
Someone didn’t like their nickname, and that amused him.
Barrett struck Ryan as the poster boy for a politician; suave, tall, good-looking with his green eyes, perfect haircut, and perfect smile.
From what Ryan heard about the man, he seemed to be a good mayor.
“Matti, how are you?”
“It’s been an interesting few days.”
“So I’ve heard.” He looked at Sam. “And who is this young man?”
“This is Sam. He’s staying with me for a few days.” She gestured to Ryan. “And this is my friend Dr. Ryan Palmer. Ryan, my brother and the mayor, Teddy Barrett.”
“It’s Ted. Good to meet you, Dr. Palmer.”
“You, too, Mayor, and just Ryan will do.” He was confused. This was one of her brothers?
“Want to join us?” Matti said.
Ted glanced over at the hostess stand. “Thanks, but I can’t. Got a budget meeting tonight. I promised to bring a pizza with me, and I see it’s ready to go.”
“He doesn’t like to be called Teddy,” Ryan said after Barrett got his pizza box and left the restaurant.
Matti giggled. “That’s why I do it. He was Teddy to us growing up, then all of a sudden one day he wants to be Ted. Sorry, but he’ll always be Teddy to me.”
“Why does your brother have a different last name?”
“He’s my foster brother. His grandmother, Annie Barrett, was…
not exactly a nanny, but I guess you’d call her a mother’s helper.
With six kids, it was a bit overwhelming for Mom, so Dad hired Annie to help her out.
Annie would bring Teddy with her and he’d play with us.
When he was twelve, Annie had a stroke and couldn’t care for herself.
My parents got her into a nursing home. To keep Teddy from going into foster care, they took him in. He pretty much grew up with us.”
“I think he was lucky to be able to call the Coltons family.”
She grinned. “He’s our claim to fame…our foster brother the mayor.”
“I wish I had a brother,” Sam said. “A big brother I could go live with.”
Ryan exchanged a glance with Matti, and he knew without asking that, like him, she was sad Sam didn’t have any family who wanted him.
“You ready to go?” Matti asked Sam.
“We didn’t eat all the pizza yet.”
Ryan was full and he was sure Sam had to be. “Can you eat any more?”
“I want to.” Sam gazed longingly at the two slices left. “But my tummy’s really full.”
“We’ll take the leftovers home,” Matti said. “You can have them for lunch tomorrow.”
Sam’s eyes lit up. “I can?”
“Yep. Let’s go home. Doc and I need to talk to you about something.”
So, they were going to tell Sam tonight his parents were dead. This was a conversation Ryan wasn’t looking forward to.