Page 116 of Tangled Emotions

“Correct.”

“But I’d still be Matthew Malone.” He looked so forlorn it broke my heart.

“Well, Matt, do you want to be a Holliday?”

He nodded.

“Then as long as your mom is good with it, we’ll make that happen too.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Doc?” He whispered and leaned across the table.

“Yeah?” I whispered back.

“Can I call you dad?”

“Son, you can call me whatever you’d like. And if you want to call me dad, I would love that.”

“When can we ask her?”

“I was thinking tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?”

“Because now I need to talk to your Grandpa and make sure he would be good with me marrying his daughter.”

Matthew let out a gasp. “What if he says no?”

“Then we’ll have to figure something out.”

“Would we go on the run? Like in one of those movies?”

My eyebrow raised. “Are you day drinking?”

Matt laughed, and we tucked into our lunch and finished our root beers before I showed him the rest of the house. Once he’s satisfied, we loaded back up and went over to his grandparents.

“Nana! Grandpa!” Mattie ran in and I followed behind.

“Hello, Mattie!” Miss Irene came over and hugged him. “Hello, Frank.”

“Ma’am.”

“He needs to talk to Grandpa.” Matt tried to be mysterious, and she let him think he succeeded

“Well, he’s in the family room.”

“Come on, Doc, I’ll show you.” Matt led me down a hallway to a room that was still decorated how it originally was in the seventies. “Grandpa! Doc needs to talk to you.”

“Mattie, don’t yell in the house.” Irv laughed and motioned for me to take a seat.

“Sorry, Grandpa.”

“Hello, Frank.”

I sat on the far end of the couch. Matt sat in the middle and Irene came in and taking a seat at the end of the couch. Matt bounced in place, and I scratched my beard thoughtfully.

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