"Trevor is a great kid," he replied. Trevor was sitting at the table coloring and hadn't even noticed his mother's absence.
"How you doing, Love?" she asked him, as she walked over to kiss him on the head.
"Good, Mom. I got to stay up till after midnight," he said with awe.
"Wow, that's really late. You're simply getting too big."
"Mom I'm five," he said like it was such an old age.
"I know. I just want you to stay my baby forever," she told him a little sadly.
"You can have another baby and then I would be a big brother," he stated matter-of-factly.
Emily was taken aback by the desire his statement caused inside of her. She'd always wanted several kids but her ex had said one was more than enough. He'd never been the kind of father Trevor deserved.
"Maybe one day," she whispered wistfully.
"I can help you with that," Mark murmured in her ear, as he entered the kitchen.
Emily turned an even darker shade of red and glanced at both Edward and Trevor, to make sure they hadn't heard. They weren't paying any attention, thankfully but his words put such a yearning desire in her heart she felt an ache there and unconsciously rubbed at her chest.
She didn't see the dark desire in Mark's eyes. He may have been goading her but he was incredibly surprised to realize he would be ecstatic if she were to become pregnant. He realized they hadn't once used protection.
She was turned sideways, so he glanced down at her flat stomach, imagining it blooming outward as his child grew there. The desire was so intense he could barely breathe. He was going to make sure she didn't leave his life.
"I need to go tend the horses," he suddenly said and practically ran out the door. Emily breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know how she was supposed to be acting around him. She didn't know if he wanted Edward to know they were a couple. She didn't know anything. Oh well, she figured they had time to figure it all out.
Chapter Five
Emily felt like someone was following her. She kept looking back but the eerie feeling wouldn't go away. Trevor was at school and Mark was working somewhere on the ranch so she'd wanted to get some fresh air. Now that she was a couple of miles away from the house and felt someone was stalking her, she was thinking maybe it hadn't been such a good idea.
Just calm down she told herself. You're just letting your vivid imagination get to you. Everything is fine. Even though she was trying to calm herself, she picked up her pace a bit to head back for the safety of the house.
When she heard a shuffling in the bushes, not far from where she was, a little squeal escaped her lips and she began to jog. She looked over her shoulder the entire way back and breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw the barn come into view but she still couldn't shake the eerie feeling.
"Where have you been?"
Emily's heart jumped into her throat as a light scream escaped her lips. She whipped around, to see Mark astride his huge horse and he was eyeing her suspiciously.
"Calm down boy," Mark soothed his animal. He gave her another curious look.
"Sorry Mark, you startled me," she said, completely out of breath.
"I can see that. Are you okay?" he asked, as he jumped down from his horse and walked over to her slowly, like she was a scared animal.
"I'm fine. I just spooked myself out on my walk. I got too far away from the house and started picturing evil forces following me," she said with a laugh. Now that she was back in the safety of the ranch, she realized how silly she had been.
"Were you out that way?" she asked him, while pointing in the direction she'd just come from.
"No I just came in from the East fields," he replied and looked quizzically out into the woods she had come from. "Did you see something?"
"No it was nothing like that. I'm sure some squirrels were playing around in the bushes. I seriously have got to stop reading all those Stephen King Novels," she said sheepishly.
"I agree. You do tend to jump at the smallest sound."
"Come with me, I want to show you something," he added and then took her hand. He led his horse with the other one.
"Do you never get enough?" she teased him.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently, before reluctantly releasing her and then heading towards the smaller of the barns. "Baby I never get enough of you but that's not what I want to show you," he answered, with a gleam in his eyes.
They fell into a comfortable silence, as they strolled toward the barn. Mark handed his horse off to one of the men and then led her to the loft. Inside a hole in the hay lay a mamma kitty and five brand new kittens. They were crawling all over her, looking for food.