Free Her Gentle Giant, Part 2: Remember to Dance by Heather Rainier Page A

threatened him with. It was a black and white photograph of him at maybe one year of age. He sat on a shaded porch, dressed only in a diaper, and just as Kelly had described, he had a beatific grin on his cute little face. The garden hose was running full blast and gushing out of the front of his very swollen diaper.
    There was another one taken the same day. He stood with his back to the camera, holding the hose up so that water sprayed up in the air. The waterlogged, swollen diaper was down around his chubby ankles, his plump little butt exposed as he grinned over his shoulder at whoever took the picture. Rachel laughed until she thought she might pee in her pants.
    “I brought all of these pictures for both of you, Rachel, so you have them for your kids. I’ve already made copies of the ones I wanted to keep. Isn’t that a cute little bubble butt?”
    Kelly leafed through a stack, looking for one in particular. “There’s a cute one of the two of us stuck in the bath tub together. Here it is!” She handed it to Rachel.
    “Aww, look!” Rachel handed it to the others to look at.
    Eli was sitting in the tub, and his hair was spiked and standing up in the requisite shampoo Mohawk. His chubby little toddler arms were wrapped around his baby sister, helping her sit up in the hip deep water. There was a soap bubble in her mouth, and both of them grinned for the camera.
    “Ooh, Rachel! Look! Here’s one of Eli when he was in Little League. Eli was a handsome little hunk!” Grace showed her a picture of Eli when he was twelve or thirteen in his baseball uniform. He was posed holding a bat, looking straight into the camera. His face was a preteen version of Eli, but when she looked at it, the handsome man he would one day become was clearly there, waiting to grow up. The man she loved was especially visible to her in the young boy’s intense gray eyes.
    “Here’s one of him with his first motorcycle when he was seventeen.” Kelly handed Rachel another photograph, this time of a teenaged Eli leaning up against a beat-up motorcycle. His hair was longer in this photo and more closely resembled the man he was today, tall and muscular for his age.
    “Gosh, hunk is in his genes.” Her mom popped her hand over her mouth. “Did I just say something inappropriate about my future son-in-law?”
    Rachel rolled her eyes and laughed.
    “Um, no. You said what we’re all thinking.” Grace snickered. “He’s extremely photogenic, Rachel. I hope you have an engagement portrait taken together.”
    Rachel hugged her future sister-in-law. “Thank you, Kelly. I love that you did this for us. I’ll always treasure these pictures.”
    “You’re welcome. They belong to you now, part of your future kids heritage.” Kelly hugged her back.
    They started winding down around midnight. Grace and Rachel closed the house up and turned off most of the lights.
    “I’ll be up reading for a little while if you need anything, Rachel,” Grace said as she made her way to the stairs.
    “Is it hard for you to sleep without them, too?”
    “Very. Most nights, I prefer to sleep cuddled up with all three of them,” Grace said quietly. “You look like you’ve been sleeping better since you came home, too.”
    “I have been. I’m supposed to call Eli when I go to bed. He said he’d probably have trouble sleeping, too.”
    Grace grinned knowingly. “Well, don’t let me keep you from your man. I have three texts of my own to send.”

     
     
    * * * *
     
     
    Eli lay in bed with the light off, his phone beside him on the mattress. He could barely make out the sound of one of the other men snoring in the room next to his. He’d lucked out that the hunting lodge was large enough for almost all of them to have a room to themselves. Adam and Ethan had voluntarily roomed together. Eli’s phone lit up and vibrated. He looked at it and grinned.
     

    I found it, you naughty boy.
    I’m wet. Call me if you’re still awake.
    R.
    He dialed her