Surprise Dad Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes narrowed. “The second I decide what to do next, I’ll be out of here so fast you won’t even have a chance to say goodbye.”
    “Sure you will.” When Allie left—and she would—she wouldn’t just desert him, and they both knew it. He led her to a table in the back. “Want a menu?”
    Her eyes twinkled. “I have one, thank you, branded on my memory. The special last night was wonderful, by the way.”
    “Thanks,” he said. “It nearly cost Maury his position on the football team.”
    Before he could explain away her puzzled expression, Colleen and Becky, both stout and motherly, descended on their table.
    “Coffee?” Becky asked, pouring without waiting for an answer.
    “Mike?” Colleen looked surprised. “You’re eating?”
    “I do, occasionally,” he said, “standing up in the kitchen. It’s me sitting down that scares you.”
    She giggled, opened her order pad and turned to Allie. “Gosh, we’re glad to have you back with us,” she said. “It’s just like old times.”
    “Good to be home for a while,” Allie said.
    “What’s for breakfast, you skinny little thing?” Colleen asked fondly.
    “Everything,” Allie said. “Eggs over easy, bacon, home fries, whole wheat toast—”
    “We’re serving biscuits now,” Colleen said. “A Southern touch. Want to try one? Barney thinks he’s finally got the recipe just right.”
    “Absolutely. Maybe I should look at a menu if you’re changing things around here.”
    Mike ordered the same thing, added juice for both of them and instructed Colleen to bring out cinnamon rolls as soon as the next batch was out of the oven.
    “That’s more than I eat in a week,” Allie protested.
    “Good thing you’re home so we can feed you. How are things at home?”
    “Everything’s fine except that I feel even guiltier now that Mom’s not hysterical anymore,” Allie said. “I’ve disappointed her, and she makes gingerbread for me. I’ve dashed her hopes and dreams for me, and thismorning she brought me coffee in bed.” She sighed. “I’m being killed by kindness.”
    Mike laughed. “Maybe she feels guilty for being so upset when you came home.”
    “Could be. It seems she ran away once.”
    She told him about Elaine fleeing to Vegas. He was astounded. He could have sworn Elaine Hendricks had never done anything reckless her entire life. “That’s an eye-opener,” he said when Allie’d finished. “So she has to understand, right?”
    “Ah, but the point is,” Allie said, “that she came to her senses and married my father. The parallel—” and she gestured dramatically as a lecturer might “—is for me to come to my senses and go back to med school.”
    Mike couldn’t imagine how it would feel to have a parent in his court the way Elaine was in Allie’s court, but he did know how terrible he’d feel if he let down someone he cared about. “It’s none of my business, but what made you decide to quit?”
    “A lot of things,” she told him. “Not enjoying the work, being bored by it. I tried hard, but my grades weren’t up to my standards. Not bad, just…”
    “A three-point-five average instead of a four?”
    She cleared her throat. “Three-point-seven,” and when she saw how much that amused him, she said defensively, “but when you’ve made all As for twelve years and a four-point grade average in college, it’s not enough.”
    Mike nodded. She’d always been a perfectionist, even when she was folding paper napkins in the diner. “Just remember it’s your decision,” he told her. “Sooner or later you’ll find your four-point field.”
    When he realized he was holding her gaze too long to call it “making eye contact,” he forced himself tolook away. What was he doing here? This was not good. Allie was a friend. He was eight years older than she was. He’d known her since she was a kid.
    He had to cut it out.
    “…better be sooner” she was saying when his mind stopped wandering and he started