Goodbye Summer

Prologue

"Kaycee! Breakfast's ready!" Tessa called from the foot of the stairs.

"Coming, mom!"

"You, too, honey!" Tessa called as she headed to the dining room.

Tessa sipped her tea as she took her seat, simultaneously opening the morning paper. Sunday is her favorite day of the week; for her, it is always refreshing to start a new day without worrying about her patients and the busy commotion in the hospital. Besides, she had always enjoyed eating breakfast together with her family. She looked up at the sound of his son yawning.

"G'morning, mom," Josh entered the dining room in his pajamas with his messy hair.

"Morning," Tessa smiled at the sight of his 18-year-old son with a flushed face due to the cool morning wind coming from the open window.

"How's dad doing?" Josh asked as he readily took a bite from his breakfast. "Heard he had a grumpy old doctor under his care," he said, mouth full.

Tessa laughed. "Yeah, he's coping. It'll take time until Dr. Harvey accepts that his attending doctor now was his former student."

Josh scoffed. "That's what arrogant assess get –"

His mom almost choked in her tea, laughing. "Oh, stop it..."

Josh always loved making his mother laugh. If he decided to date, he would definitely look for a woman like her mom. For him, his mom is an embodiment of being a woman – passionate, determined, but with a pure and beautiful soul.

He admired his parents so much and he, too, wanted to be a doctor like them someday, contrary to what his friends expect from him. Like his twin sister, they were too talented dancers that his friends got the shock of their life when he told them what he wanted to be. Yes, he is passionate with his dance, but he just sees himself in the service like his parents do. He just got accepted at his parents' alma mater and planned to volunteer at his parent's hospital for the summer.

"Oh wow, bacon," his father entered the room, kissing the top of his mother's head. "I just can't believe it, Dr. Harvey's not calling for me right now. Ha!" He said as he sat.

"Fry his ass, dad," said Josh.

Scott laughed. "Soon. By the way, where's Kaycee, my second son?"

Tessa rolled her eyes.

"Oh please. Can you stop treating her like a boy?" Tessa said sternly.

"I'm just kidding, hon. I just love to tease you."

"Kaycee, you come down right now, young lady!" she called in a loud voice.

"Ugh, what's with the 'lady', mom! Ew," Kaycee shouted from upstairs. "And I thought about eating at Sean's," she said as she rushed downstairs.

"What? Don't disturb them in this early hour of morning!" Tessa said, bewildered, as her daughter kissed her on the cheek.

"Cheuk said Sean's not yet awake. I have to let Wolf do his magic," she giggled.

"You're not -!"

"Hey, that's my shirt! And my cap!" Josh shouted.

Kaycee quickly kissed her father, stuck her tongue at her brother and ran outside the room, laughing.

"Kaycee -!" Tessa started.

"Come back here, you mutated zygote!" Josh yelled. "That's my favorite shirt!"

"Shh," Scott said, soothing her wife. "Spare her. It's her best friend's birthday." He grinned.

"Or boyfriend –" Josh muttered, still grumbling.