“And there’s so much detail.”
“It felt incredibly real.” Freid picked up his napkin and began to fiddle with it, tearing fringe onto one edge. It was a habit of his when he was nervous.
“Did it feel as strong as your dream about Penn?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He tore harder at the napkin. “That’s why I wrote it down. It was like a scene from real life only mixed up, outside of time. Just like with Penn.”
It had taken us three years to meet Penn. But it had happened. Freid had been right. What if he was right about this? But four kids… It took my breath.
“I know it’s a lot. Very sudden,” Freid said. “And we have a baby on the way.”
“I love kids. But five chairs at a little table is a lot,” Penn said.
“I love kids, too. But I never thought beyond the one Penn is carrying,” I added.
“And I agree with you both,” Freid said. “The dream was a bit of a shock. It’s okay. You two don’t have to say a word. I just wanted to share my dream with you because it won’t leave me alone. Maybe the details aren’t accurate. Maybe it’s something else. I don’t know.”
“I’m glad you shared it,” I said. “If Penn knows these kids, then I wouldn’t say there isn’t a connection.”
“Right. I’m very open to your dream, Freid,” Penn said.
“Me, too.”
Finally, Freid looked up. “If it’s like my dream three years ago, then what happens happens.”
“Right,” Penn said. “We’ll know when it’s time to know. Just like you two found me when the time was right.”
“But are we ready for that? Are you two open to that possibility?” Freid asked.
“It’s a beautiful dream,” Penn said. “I’m open.”
“I could feel the love in it,” I added. “I’m not opposed. I just need to let it sink in.”
Freid smiled sheepishly. “I wasn’t sure. Five kids. It’s a lot to wrap a mind around.”
“It’s a lot, but your words gave me chills.”
“Me, too,” Penn said.
“Chills in a good way, I meant to say.” I reached across the table for Freid’s hand. “In a way that was so filled with love between us. And with them. I can’t deny that.”
“Same.” Penn came forward and joined his hand with ours. “Can you read it to us again?”
“Again?” Freid’s gaze met mine and I nodded.
He opened his notebook and started at the beginning. “In the home I share with my two mates, I walked into our large bonus room. There was a little round table set for five. A dollhouse and a train set…”
Chapter Twenty
Penn
I couldn’t get Freid’s dream out of my mind. I couldn’t. It was just sitting there, gnawing at me. Could it be my story-time friends? In so many ways, they fit into it perfectly. But that didn’t make any sense. They were happy where they were, and their foster parents, who sometimes took turns bringing them to story hour, seemed to really care about them.
I understood how it worked. If the foster family was awful or decided to move on, the children would need a new home. Only none of that fit what I saw about their situation. Which left something horrible happened to their foster parents, and the thought of that made me sick.
And then there was the baby who wasn’t in the dream at all. I rested my hand on my growing belly, worried that maybe it meant something had happened to the baby and the parents. I didn’t like how my brain went to the worst-case scenario, and normally it wouldn’t, but pregnancy hormones were no joke.
“Nothing getting accomplished by me worrying.” I went to the computer and looked for books for today’s story hour. Normally I had them picked out long before now, but, for some reason, I couldn’t decide on anything the few times I tried.
