Page 139 of Shadowing You

“Mm?”

“How does Holly know my parents?”

He poured the eggs into the pan and pushed them around with the spatula. “She knows them from the hospital. I introduced them when we started dating. Your parents…approved. She’s a doctor.” He flipped the third pancake and poured a fourth.

“I’m confused. What do you mean, from the hospital?”

After glancing at Mei Lin over his shoulder, he tended the eggs. “There’s so much I have to tell you. Your mom works in the billing department at the hospital where I’m a resident. Your dad started in custodial, but about six months in, his supervisor figured out he had more under the hood than they were paying for. He talked to HR, and they moved him to IT. He’s got a knack for hardware. He fixes servers and laptops and…computer stuff.”

“My father works at your hospital…in IT?” She said the words slowly, processing.

Mr. Chen had been a farmer back in China, but he’d apparently been his village’s resident fix-it guy. “He’s good at it.”

“You got them the jobs?”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

He slid the eggs off the heat and plated them beside the pancakes, then carried both plates around the island and settled in beside her.

She was crying again.

“Hey.” He rubbed her back. “Does it make you sad to think of your parents and me together? I know it doesn’t mean much, but you were never far from our minds.”

“I’m sorry.” She swiped at her cheek. “I’m just so tired.”

“And sick. Don’t forget sick.”

He didn’t quite coax a smile, but it was close. She drew a shaking breath. “You took care of them. You didn’t just bring them to America and…and give them your house, but you got them jobs.”

“They’re family.” He gave her shoulder a small squeeze. “These days, I’m closer to them than I am to my own parents.”

“Really? How’s your mother?”

“She’s great, just busy with the boys.” Ethan’s stepfather adored his mother, and he was happy for her and her new family. It wasn’t their fault that Ethan felt like an outsider when he visited. “We talk once a week, but I don’t see her very often.”

“You seem close to your father.”

He thought about everything Gavin had done for him—and was still doing.

“Gavin’s been incredible since you called. I never expected…” He shrugged, not wanting to voice the hope he’d carried since he was nine years old—that he might someday have a seat at his father’s table.

She buttered her pancakes, then added syrup. Her first bite was followed by a second before she swallowed and put her fork down. “These are very good.”

He couldn’t help the surge of pride over boxed pancake mix. He was tempted to tell her to eat the eggs first. She needed the protein, but he kept his mouth shut.

If she wanted to, she could have pancakes and syrup for breakfast every day for the rest of her life. She could have anything she wanted, as long as she still wanted him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Mei Lin blinked at the dark TV screen and the dying fire beside it. The last thing she remembered was an ocean in a strange world of bright colors. She’d tried to stay awake through the second of the movies Ethan had suggested she’d like, films that had been released while she’d been locked up.

But she’d lost her ability to focus after the Spider-Man movie. Ethan had tucked a blanket around her, and she’d drifted off.

Now the television showed nothing but her own dim reflection and the gray light coming in through the windows. It must be late afternoon. They’d flown in that morning, which felt like days ago.

Her head rested on a soft pillow. The house smelled of woodsmoke and coffee.

Ethan had been sitting beside her, but he’d moved to the armchair across the room. He was leaning forward, elbows on his knees, staring at the black screen as though it held the answer. The line of his jaw had hardened in the years she’d lost. He looked not just tired but weary.