“Good morning. I’m getting a bit of a late start today, but I’m making my Momma’s hashbrown casserole. I’ve already made some cheese grits if you’d like some. They’re in the pot over there. The biscuits are still cooking, but we’ve got some sawmill gravy in the other pot.”

He smiled. “No hurry, sweetie. I know it’s hard to run this place without Charlene. We’re so going to miss her. She was so young.” Dr. Allen was in his eighties, but still very spry and active. He loved playing tennis at his club back in the city. Having retired from being a general practitioner for decades, he and his wife did a lot of traveling now.

“Yes, she was. It’s not fair, is it?” Mia took a break from stirring the ingredients together and pulled her thick, wavy blond hair back into a ponytail. At barely five feet tall, she had to stand on a small stool just to get things out of the cabinet. Her mother hadn’t been quite as short at five foot three. Amazing how those three inches made such a difference in what she could reach.

“I’ve seen a lot of unfairness in life in my time as a physician. But, we know where she is, don’t we?”

“Of course. And she’ll always be my angel. But still…”

“Still what?”

“Oh nothing. I’m just being nostalgic.”

“What do you mean?”

She smiled. “I’m a little lonely with no family left.”

“None? What about cousins?”

“No one that I know of. Momma was an only child, and her parents died before I was born.”

“Well, that’s terrible, sweetie. Say, you know, I’ve heard about these DNA tests you can do to find extended family. Have you done one?”

“No, I haven’t. I mean, would distant cousins even want to have contact?”

“Well, I reckon they might if they’re putting their DNA out there.”

Mia thought for a moment. “You might be onto something there, Dr. Allen. I might just give that a shot. Who knows? Maybe I have a famous or wealthy relative who will add to me to their will one day,” she said, with a laugh.

“Anything’s possible!”

Kate sat on the doctor’s table, her legs touching the floor easily. Most women had legs that dangled cutely off the edge of the table. Her legs were long, easily plopping onto the ground in a non-feminine way.

She’d always hated her height. At five foot ten, she was as tall as or taller than most of the men she’d met. Even her ex husband was shorter than her.