Free Love Under Two Kendalls by Cara Covington Page A

his voice as if confiding a great secret. “She has a lot of them.”
    “Yes,” Adam said, “moms usually do.”
    “Well boy howdy, listen to the two of you. Someone has to make rules, or else you’d just run amok, all over the place, doing whatever you please, whenever you please!”
    Benny looked from Adam to Jake. Adam raised one eyebrow, and Jake shrugged and then turned to her and said, “I’ve never understood what the problem with that could possibly be.”
    Clearly the men believed themselves good at keeping the dialogue suitably double-edged. Benny didn’t know anything about double entendres, but he proved in the next moment he understood the most important things in life.
    “When you follow Mom’s rules, it makes her happy,” he said. “I like making my mom happy.”
    “You know what, Benny Rose?” Adam ruffled his hair. “You’re a very wise man.”
    “He is at that,” Jake said.
    Obviously being called a man pleased her son, if the way he sat straighter in his chair was any indication.
    The waiter came over and took drink orders, and Ginny decided to relax into the evening. Usually, whenever she went out anywhere with Benny, even though he was usually well behaved, she still felt the responsibility of parenthood, of watching over him, helping him select his dinner, of keeping him engaged.
    Tonight she let that go. Both Adam and Jake seemed eager to take care of Benny, and she could see no reason not to let them.
    One of the things she’d always craved for her son was a decent male role model. She could have none better than Adam and Jake Kendall.
    So she turned her attention back to the menu. “I’ve heard of flounder. Is it any good?” She looked over at Maggie.
    “I like it,” the other woman said. “But then, I really like fish.”
    Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny caught the way Benny scrunched his face when Maggie said the word “fish.” She also caught the way both Jake and Adam gave him a bit of a nudge, as if to warn him against appearing to be averse to “trying new things,” probably in light of the recent discussion.
    Because she felt like laughing, she hid her face behind her menu. “It’s stuffed with something called ‘crab imperial.’ Do you know, that sounds special?” Confident she had her urge to giggle under control, she closed her menu. “I’ll have that.”
    She looked up to discover the three males huddled behind menus. She couldn’t tell what they were saying, but then, she didn’t try very hard.
    There were times when a mom just had to let go.
    Finally it seemed they’d come to an agreement. As much as she wanted to, she didn’t ask her son what he’d chosen to eat. Instead, she contented herself to wait until the waiter returned.
    Soon their server brought over the drinks everyone had ordered.
    “Gosh, I hope no one’s offended I wanted alcohol.” Maggie drew her drink, a screwdriver, closer and used the straw to stir the beverage. “Since I seem to be the only one imbibing.”
    Ginny hadn’t paid attention when they ordered, so she hadn’t realized that neither of the Kendalls had gotten anything potent, either. She decided to file that fact away for thinking about later. For the moment, she wanted to put Maggie at ease. “Of course not.” Ginny waved her hand. “There’s nothing wrong with adults wanting a drink with dinner. I’ve just never cared for the taste of alcohol, overmuch.”
    She caught a look the brothers Kendall exchanged just then. Sometimes she could read them as if she’d known them all her life. Other times, like now, she didn’t mind admitting she wasn’t quite so sure. She had no doubt that they communicated with each other using just a look. She’d heard the closest siblings could do that.
    Ginny turned her attention back to her menu, because the waiter was ready to take her order. But as she turned her glance away from them, she wondered if maybe they knew there was more to her aversion to alcohol than