Free Dream Keeper by Gail McFarland Page B

two have had a falling out because she wants to eat pancakes—like it’s my fault.”
    “Dude, she called that, got you cold!” Dench hooted.
    Mrs. Baldwin turned on him. “You’re not much better: Rissa gets on your nerves and you practically move in here because you can’t bear to be unhappy in her presence. Got that woman so spoiled she thinks the sun rises and sets on you, dares anybody to tell her different, and won’t admit it to your face. Crazy, that’s what it is.”
    “She told you, didn’t she?” Dench watched the housekeeper’s face soften.
    “I might have heard something about you two adding a baby to the mix. Good luck with that.”
    Dench looked into the next room, to find Rissa looking back at him. “Yeah,” he said, watching her blush and drop her eyes. “We’re hoping for good luck with everything.”
    Connie caught the swift exchange, saw the look on Dench’s face and the responsive flush of Rissa’s skin. Her lips lifted. “Something’s up.”
    Jeannette rolled the red, yellow, and blue ball across the floor and into the little hands of a delighted toddler. “What? What’s up?” Capturing the returned ball, she looked from Connie to Marlea and Rissa.
    “I don’t know, but something’s been in the air for the past few weeks. At first, I just thought it was you and Dench just doing what you do—rolling all over each other like puppies. But it’s more.” Connie’s gaze narrowed, appraising Rissa. “What don’t we know?”
    Surprise washed across Marlea’s face and she stopped singing, though the children continued, mangling the words as they went along.
    Saint Rissa just smiled.
    Knowledge dawned. Connie and Jeannette gasped. “You’re pregnant! How did you keep that a secret?”
    “I was going to tell you.”
    “When? You forget, we’ve known you ever since Marlea’s accident.”
    Rissa tossed her head and wrinkled her nose. “You two are never going to forgive me for telling her who ran into her car, are you?”
    “Of course we forgive you. Marlea did, why wouldn’t we?”
    Jeannette hummed assent and crossed her arms. “But AJ is right, you are kind of like the Mouth of the South. Remember when AJ stepped in and invited Marlea to live here after her accident, you had plenty to say—bringing her up to date. That’s how long ago, Connie? Five? Six years?”
    “Let’s see…Jabari is nearly five, so that would be right at six years.” Crossing her arms, Connie slipped a hand to her cheek. “And in all that time, you have never ever kept a secret—not your own or anybody else’s. So, how far along are you?”
    “Oh, and we have to plan a shower, too. Do we get to be godparents again?”
    Connie huffed. “How far along are you?”
    “And what about Libby? Is she going to be a godparent, too?”
    “Don’t look at me,” Marlea said, dimpling when Rissa looked at her. “I already spent the hundred I won from you.”
    “Still can’t believe you held me up for it when you were pretty much the one who told my business.”
    “But you were the one who had all the fun part of telling.”
    Rissa’s grin was sly. “I did, didn’t I?”
    Marlea’s hand fanned the air between them. “You might as well go on and tell the rest of it.”
    “Yes, hurry up and tell.” A sleepy toddler crawled into Jeannette’s lap and settled happily when Jeannette’s arms closed around her. “Too bad Libby is working out of state, training a new runner. She’s a good coach, but she’s going to hate missing this.”
    “Don’t worry, Dench and I will tell her.”
    “Lord, I can just imagine how she’ll take the news, as excited as we all know she can get. I still remember her practically running the last hundred meters of your race with you in Barcelona,” Jeannette laughed.
    “She did, didn’t she?” Marlea laughed. “I guess when you’ve trained someone for as long as she trained me, you start to take a lot of responsibility for them.”
    “We’ve all taken a