Page 16 of Truly, Madly Viking

"How was school today?" Maggie asked her girls as they sat down at the kitchen table to eat a late dinner.

It was a nightly ritual that Maggie insisted upon, even though their eating habits were divergent, to say the least. Rita, their ten-year-old, twenty-pound, white Persian cat, sat queenlike on the floor between Suzy and Beth, just waiting for a scrap to fall her way.

"Great," they both answered through mouthfuls of food.

"Didn't you have a math test today?" she asked Suzy.

It was Beth who responded. "I got a ninety-five."

Maggie sent Suzy a motherly glower, and Suzy sent Beth a sisterly glower.

Suzy colored and tried to change the subject. "How is he today?"

Maggie didn't need a name to know who Suzy was referring to.

"You know I can't talk about my patients," Maggie replied firmly, but she wasn't about to let Suzy escape so easily. "How did you do on the math test, Susan Marie?" Her daughter knew she meant business when Maggie used her full name.

"I got a seventy-two," Suzy admitted. "Sheesh, who cares about percentages anyhow?" Then the little imp added, "Maybe we need a new bet to make me study harder."

"Yeah, the house has been looking a little dingy since Suz and I stopped helping out," Beth contributed.

"Yep, another bet would do the trick."

Maggie raised her eyebrows skeptically. "Bat? So I can be forced to get tatoos—or something worse—this time?" Maggie asked with a little laugh.

"Nah, we had something else in mind," Suzy said, exchanging a meaningful look with her sister.

Something else?

"There are some things in life worth getting dishpan hands over," Beth pointed out woefully.

Some things? Like what?

"Or homework fatigue," Suz added with an exaggerated woe-is-me expression.

Suzy didn't have to tell her what that "something else" entailed. Maggie already knew. The "something else" was roughly six-foot-four and bone-meltingly gorgeous.

"Nurse Hatcher said he hasn't talked at all in the two days he's been at the hospital. She calls him a stud muffin." Beth giggled as she relayed this information.

Gladys Hatcher... our head nurse... calls him a stud muffin? Maggie gasped. "Nurse Hatcher has been talking to you about a hospital patient?" As good a nurse as Gladys was, this constituted cause for dismissal.

"Oh, she didn't tell me," Beth was quick to correct. "Suz and I overheard her talking to another nurse this afternoon when we were waiting for you to leave work. The bench we were sitting on was right outside the nurse's lounge, and the window was open, and, well..." Beth shrugged as if she'd been helpless not to eavesdrop in such a situation.

Maggie was going to have a talk with Gladys about this breach, even if it was unintentional. Anyone could have been passing by, including representatives of the Medic-All Corporation, which was currently in negotiations to purchase Rainbow.

"Mom, we've been talking, and, well..." Beth glanced at Suzy, then took a deep breath before continuing. "We think you should let us talk to him."

Maggie went slack-jawed with incredulity. But only for a second. "Absolutely not! No way! Don't either of you even think of approaching this man."

"But Mom," Suzy pleaded. "You already told the police he's not dangerous... just a little mixed-up."

"That's beside the point," she declared indignantly. "In fact, you girls stay away from the hospital until further notice. If I'm late picking you up at school, you stay in the after-school daycare program till I arrive."

"Day care!" they cried simultaneously. "We're not children."

"You're not adults, either. And while we're on the subject, there will be no more fixating on this stranger as... as...

"A dad?" Beth offered.