First Class Farewell Read Online Free

island and impatiently waited for their
mother to retrieve the first batch from the oven.
    With glasses of milk for Ella and Christopher and coffee for
Matt, the three of them devoured the first plate of twelve cookies in less than
two minutes. Janie just smiled as she continued to drop scoops of cookie dough
onto the baking sheets.
    The sound of the front door closing had all eyes looking up
as Adam sauntered into the kitchen.
    “I see I arrived at the perfect moment,” he grinned and
hugged his mom.
    “Adam! What a terrific surprise. I thought you’d be
working,” she said as she grabbed a glass from the cupboard. Pouring him some
milk, she put the glass on the island in front of the empty stool.
    “I took the afternoon off.”
    His statement took Matt by surprise. His stepson was one of
the hardest working men he knew. As a pediatrician with a booming practice,
time off was one thing Adam didn’t do.
    “And you came here?” Janie asked.
    “To see you guys,” he grinned at Ella and Christopher and
gave them both a hug.
    “Can you stay for dinner?” Janie was hopeful to have some
time with her son.
    “Nah,” Adam shook his head. “I promised Shelby I’d help her
study. She has exams starting on Monday.”
    And there it is , Matt thought. Over the past few
years, Matt had wondered what Adam and Shelby’s relationship was. Yes, they
were basically family, although not related in any way. Shelby was a very close
friend of Katy’s, Matt’s sister-in-law. In fact, she was more like a surrogate
daughter. And while Matt considered Adam his son, they were not biologically
related at all. At family gatherings, Adam and Shelby seemed to spend a lot of
time together, but there had never been anything out of the ordinary…never any
signs that they were anything more than friends. Matt, however, wondered if he
was just missing something. Now to hear that Adam would take time off work to
help her study had him questioning even more.
    “This is it, right?” Matt asked. “She graduates next month?”
    “Yep. Just has to get through finals and she’s all done with
school. Then comes the hard part,” Adam nodded.
    “What could be harder than school?” Ella asked.
    “When you want to be a doctor, you have to go to school for
a long time and then you have work in a hospital and that’s usually harder than
school,” Adam told his little sister.
    “You don’t work in a hospital,” Christopher noted.
    “Well, not very often,” Adam agreed. “But I did until just a
couple of years ago. And it was hard work.”
    “Is Shelby going to be a doctor like you? Will she be our
doctor, too?” Ella asked.
    Adam shook his head. “Nope. I’m your pediatrician and you
get to come and see me until you go to college. Shelby is going to be another
kind of doctor.”
    Ella and Christopher took another cookie leaving Janie an
opportunity to talk to her son. “So where’s Shelby then?”
    “She had lunch with some friends. I’m going to meet up with
her in a just a bit but I had a few minutes to kill so I figured I’d swing by
and say hi.”
    “Well, I’m glad you did,” Janie smiled. “If only Tyler were
here,” she sighed.
    “He’s in Berlin ‘til Saturday,” Adam informed his parents.
“He said he’d be back for Sunday dinner.”
    Adam turned his attention to his younger siblings. At first,
it had been strange for him to have a younger brother and sister. After all,
he’d been in his mid-twenties when they’d been born. Now, however, he couldn’t
imagine life without them. He adored them and they, in turn, adored him. He was
their big brother, their pediatrician, and he loved them dearly.
    After almost thirty minutes of chatting with his family,
Adam said his goodbyes and the children went to the family room with their
father to do their homework. That left Janie to tidy up the kitchen and begin
preparing dinner. As she unloaded the dishwasher, and absent-mindedly opened
drawers and cupboards putting