Free Dream Keeper by Gail McFarland Page A

infant.”
    “Right, all round and smooth and…”
    “And then you’ll have to feed it and burp it and change it, and man, when they need changing…whew!”
    “Dude, you sure know how to take the joy right out of it, don’t you?” Dench sucked at his beer again.
    “Hey, I’ve done it twice. Just consider me the voice of authority.”
    “But you didn’t do it alone.”
    Halfway to his mouth, AJ’s fork stopped. “No, I didn’t, and truth be told, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Marlea made it so…right. That made it cool, a lot easier, and when your own baby looks up at you with eyes that trust you for everything…there’s nothing like it, nothing like it in the world.”
    Imagining, Dench watched the other man’s face. “Dude, you’re just soft. You sound like a man in love.”
    “Hey, I am what I am.” AJ laid his fork across his plate, his eyes fixed on his family. “Give it a minute. The woman, the children, they get to you like that.”
    “And what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
    “I like how strong she makes me, man. I like it a lot.”
    “Whipped,” Dench whispered.
    “Like puddin’,” AJ agreed, taking up his fork again. “I wouldn’t trade my life for anything. I can’t imagine anything better.”
    “I wanna be just like you when I grow up.” Eyes on Rissa, Dench tilted his bottle to his lips and drained it.
    “Keep on living,” AJ promised, finishing the last roll on the plate between them.
    “It’s a good thing you two didn’t mess my kitchen up any more than those children did, or you’d be lucky to keep on living,” Mrs. Baldwin muttered from the doorway. “I leave here for five minutes and you two come in here like twin tornados—and look at the food. Ought to change your last names to ‘Hoover.’ You suck up food like vacuums.”
    Dench made a face. “Where’d she come from?”
    “Sneaky,” AJ whispered.
    “With really good ears,” Mrs. Baldwin huffed. Whisking the men’s empty plates from counter to sink to dishwasher took seconds. Mrs. Baldwin reached into the refrigerator and withdrew cold beer and set the tall bottles in front of the men. “Remember that the next time you want to discuss me.”
    “Okay.”
    Dench flinched, his shoulders rising. “Oh, you’re just gonna take my life in your hands. You know that’s a dangerous statement, coming from a woman.”
    Mrs. Baldwin pressed her lips together and looked over the top of her glasses.
    “Not saying that I know all about every woman in the world,” Dench amended, trying to mitigate the damage. AJ wrapped long legs around his high stool and looked from his friend to the housekeeper. “See, what I really meant was,” Dench tried again and stopped when words failed.
    AJ brought his fist to his mouth and succeeded in not laughing. “All I know is, I love my wife.”
    “So now you’re going to throw me under the bus?” Dench’s eyes filled with brief reproach that gave way to something more vital. “I love my wife, too. Even if she can be crazy sometimes.”
    “Marlea gets crazy, too. And stubborn, especially when it comes to doing what she thinks is right.”
    The lift of Mrs. Baldwin’s eyes was an unspoken prayer for patience.
    “Okay,” AJ admitted, “we love them, we married them, and we will definitely keep them, no matter what. Maybe it takes some imperfection to make a woman perfect.”
    “Here comes the bus again.…”
    “You’ve got more nerve than a brass-assed monkey.” Hands on her broad hips, Mrs. Baldwin let her eyes lift again. “You both do. Neither one of you has got the sense to realize that those two women would probably be sane if they didn’t have two slightly screwed up men to contend with. After all, I’ve had the chance to see you at your best and your worst.” She looked directly at AJ and pushed her lips together. “Like that screaming fit you all went through when Marlea ran the race in New York that time. And I can always tell when you