Dream Keeper by Gail McFarland

chest. Her husband wore jeans, a blue flannel shirt, Timberland boots, and a frilly yellow apron. He held a long-handled wooden spoon and the lid to a small saucepan. Sexy.
    “I stopped at MEDU,” she finally said and grunted a little when she held her full bag aloft. “What are you up to?” She walked closer, dumping the bag on a chair. “Smells good, what is it?”
    “Dinner. Thought that since you had to work today and I was home, you might appreciate having dinner ready.” He dipped the wooden spoon into a silky looking white sauce and offered it. Watching his eyes, she tasted. Smooth and buttery, the sauce slipped across her tongue, delighting her palate along the way. When she hummed satisfaction he smiled. “Alfredo. Good, huh?”
    “Very.” She licked her lips and looked at him. “A good looking man who can cook. I bless your Aunt Linda every day for raising you right.”
    “She did her best.” Dench rattled pots and pans, then stirred the sauce again when Rissa reached for her bag of books. “You had a call today.”
    “Oh. Who was it?”
    “Joyce Ashton.”
    Something in his voice made her stop. An odd thread of doubt unraveled along her spine. Forcing calm she could not claim, Rissa looked at him. “Did she say what she wanted, or leave a message?”
    Dench jammed an oven mitt over one of his big hands and pulled a pan of rolls from the oven. Settling the rolls, he pulled the mitt off and dropped it on the counter. “She said that things are going well, so far.”
    Rissa felt her heart stutter.
    “She wanted to know if you had contacted the other doctor yet.” His eyes darkened and all of the laughter that came so easily to him seemed to drain away. “What other doctor, Rissa? Why do you need to consult with another doctor?”
    “It’s just a precaution, Dench. Nothing to worry about.”
    “Then why didn’t you say something?”
    “And scare you to death? You were scared enough when we heard the baby’s heartbeat for the first time, remember?” Rissa let the bag fall to her feet and walked toward him. As she’d known he would, he opened his arms, accepted her. “Dench, we have gone through so much and come so far to have this baby, I didn’t want to alarm you. I made the appointment today—I’ll see the doctor on Monday.”
    His arms tightened and he laid his cheek against her hair. “And you’ll tell me what the doctor says?”
    “Every word,” she promised, leaning into him. Her stomach rumbled between them and they shared soft laughter. “We’d better eat now, your baby is hungry.”
    “So is my baby’s mama.”
    “Then I think you’d better feed me.” Suddenly tired, she kicked off her shoes and rested in his arms a little longer. Her yawn caught her off guard and she felt the worry shadowing his eyes. “Wow, hungry and tired.”
    “Then how about you take your time, get settled, and I’ll put dinner on trays.”
    She looked hopeful, glad that forgiveness came easily to him. When he picked up her shoes, she took them from him and yawned again. “Bring that tray to bed, and I’ll show you what I bought for you.”
    “You bought something for me? What is it?”
    “Bring me food and I’ll show you.” Picking up the bag of books, the shoes dangling from her fingers, she walked to their bedroom. The bag of books grew heavier with every step she took.
    “Long day,” she decided, sliding out of her pants suit in the dressing room. Unbuttoning the white ruffled shirt was more than she felt like doing, so she pulled it over her head and left it piled with the suit in the middle of the floor. Reaching into a bureau, she found a simple white eyelet nightgown and remembered what Yvette had said about sexy underwear after babies. Shaking the sheer cotton gown open, Rissa pulled it over her head. Big, soft and roomy, there was nothing sexy about the gown and she tried to remember where it had come from because it was like nothing she’d ever purchased for herself. It was