Excerpt: Children of Free Men

"Do you dream of boys?"

She fought off the quiver in her lip, and realized he was right. Dreams often went as they came... vapor in the night mists. She nodded and snuggled closer to him. She didn't find the question odd. "Sometimes I see Lucas in my dreams." This was new. "Like he's really there and I'm not dreaming at all. And sometimes I think he's there and I'm not sure... but when I wake up I have a warm feeling."

He was content to sit with her there. Answer any question she had. Of course, he had to remind himself to listen and not react, like he wanted too. "He's a friend. A good one, from what I understand. Do you think there might be more?"

"If there is," she leaned her head against his shoulder and looked up. The visible stars glinted in her moist eyes. "I don't want to ruin it. It will come in its time." Her Dad knew as well as she that Lucas had come to see Riane for his last two days off. They talked or walked or read or sat quietly. He was good to her that way.

"Though I think sometimes... that I'm not good enough for anyone."

"I used to feel the same way." Ricoh Gideonn rested his head atop hers. "For a very long time."

"Not anymore though?"

"Oh, sometimes it creeps up on me." He looked out over the vista through the screen of Riane's hair. "I've got people enough who won't let me think that very long. What you have to remember is, you are good enough for anyone. You get to choose. No one else."

"I get to choose," she echoed and nodded. "I choose," she whispered. She would if the time ever came. "But... " She looked up at him with eyes that reflected the dim starlight. "I can still ask your advice, right?"

He smiled his best fatherly smile and met her gaze with his own steady, steely one. "Always."

It was the best thing ever when he smiled like that. "How come you understand so well?" She meant everything. What Slick had done, what she suffered. He hadn't even yelled at her for being there - or if he had, she didn't remember it.

He shrugged and winked. "Must be a dad thing."

Some things Dads were allowed to keep to themselves, she reasoned. Yet... she gave a little amused sound and closed her eyes. They couldn't stay up here all night, but that was almost what she wished for. After a while she said, "If I ever choose anyone... he's going to be like you."