Free Quiet As It's Kept by Monique Miller Page B

and carried it to the table also.
    Once the food was blessed, all three ate. The conversation was light. Will told Morgan about the indoor day at the beach he’d treated Isaiah to. And Morgan talked about how well her visit from the corporate office had turned out.
    Once they were full, Morgan laid Isaiah down for bed while Will took care of the dishes. Afterward, Will and Morgan continued with round two from that morning. Will knew that life couldn’t get much better than the feelings he was having right then and there.
    Will had ascended the stairs two at a time in anticipation, with two thoughts in particular nagging in the back of his mind. First, it bothered him that Morgan had been calling him some of the same names his father had called him as a child. Morgan knew about his childhood traumas. Will had told her about them about a month after they’d started dating. She’d listened to his stories and consoled him when the memories had gotten too vivid for him. She’d been so understanding, and her understanding nature was another thing that he’d loved about her. He wondered why she would say some of the same things now.
    The other thing that nagged at him in the back of his mind was his wife’s moody behavior. He hoped that by the time he opened his bedroom door his wife would still be in the loving mood she had been in earlier. And in just a moment he would see who was lying in his bed—Dr. Jekyll or Mrs. Hyde.

Chapter 7
    Will awoke from the best night of sleep he’d had since before he got laid off. Not only had he slept well, but his dreams were filled with replays of the hours he and Morgan had intimately spent together before falling to sleep with exhaustion. She had been in one of her best moods in months. It was as if he could finally exhale with relief. She was the Morgan he’d known before the mood swings she’d been having because of the pregnancy hormones. She was the Morgan he’d known before the stress she’d been under of having to take care of their family financially.
    He turned over on his side to face his wife, but found she had already gotten up. Once he looked at the clock he realized that he’d overslept.
    He listened for sounds that may have been coming from the baby monitor, but he heard none. He also listened for other sounds of movement from Morgan around the house, but didn’t hear anything. With reluctance, he sat up and then got out of bed, heading to the bathroom. He washed his hands and face, then checked on the baby, who wasn’t in his crib.
    Next, he descended the stairs, and upon entering the great room he saw Isaiah playing with a toy in his playpen. The baby dropped the toy as soon as he saw his father, and pulled himself up in to a standing position.
    â€œHey, my little man.” Will walked to the playpen and picked up the baby. He nuzzled Isaiah’s nose. The baby giggled.
    â€œOh, Will,” Morgan said in a slightly singsong voice. She sounded like she was in the kitchen.
    â€œYes, my darling,” Will replied in a similarly singsong voice. He walked into the kitchen to find his wife.
    She was leaning on the island in the kitchen. He took a second to admire the woman God had blessed him with, especially as he thought about the night before. Will had been a virgin before marrying his wife, and he was glad to know that there were still women in the world who saved themselves for their husbands as Morgan had.
    But Will had not been a saint, in that he had seen his share of movies about women who were on the promiscuous side. Some of the moves his wife had put on him the night before reminded him of the strippers in the movie The Players Club. He admired his wife for her natural beauty and God-given talents, but if he didn’t know any better, he would have thought that his wife had not been a virgin before they married—but Will did know better.
    He walked up behind her, gave her a hug with his free