Bluest of Grey Skies

Chapter Four

Emma placed the cup of coffee the sheriff had brought over for her on the kitchen counter and quickly made her way into Henry's room. She found him sitting up on his mattress, the bed yet to be put together, and he was smiling sleepily up at her while chewing on the end of his blanket.

"Good morning," Emma smiled as she sat down on the edge of the thin mattress. "How did my baby boy sleep last night?"

"Not baby, Mama."

"Okay," Emma laughed. "How did my big boy sleep last night?"

Henry shrugged and rubbed at his eyes tiredly. Emma kissed him on the top of his head and tried to fight the hundreds of butterflies that had taken flight in her stomach. From the very moment the night before that she had seen the woman next door looking at her, those nervous butterflies hadn't stopped fluttering inside of her. After meeting the woman, she could barely stand to face Gold and had retreated inside while the movers continued to unload the boxes. She and Henry were dancing in the kitchen and she'd felt like she was being watched and she found out that sure enough, the dark haired beauty had been watching her through the window.

It was the nervous fluttering in her stomach that had prompted her to go over later that even after she noticed she was sitting alone on her back porch, glass of wine in hand and her eyes on the sky as the sun began to set. She fumbled with an excuse just to see her again, to talk to her, and in her mind, asking for a cup of sugar was the easiest excuse in the book.

The way Regina had spoken to her, smiled at her, and the way her voice purred when she offered a glass of wine caused that fluttering to intensify tenfold. There was no denying that her neighbor and the town's sheriff was a very attractive woman and there was definitely no denying that just thinking about her had a warmth flowing throughout her body like nothing she'd ever felt before.

When she opened the back door barely five minutes before, that feeling had returned the moment her eyes had fallen upon Regina's smiling face and her offer of a much needed cup of coffee. She had felt flustered and nervous, not to mention embarrassed when she started blushing profusely in front of her. With a shake of her head, she roused Henry out of bed.

"Hey, how would you like to go out for breakfast, Hen?"

"Hungry."

"I know, baby, me too," Emma smiled and ruffled his hair before grabbing the bag she'd packed with a few clothes until she got the rest of them unpacked. "Let's go potty first and get washed up and then we can get dressed okay?"

"Okay, Mama."

Emma tried to get the task at hand done quickly and thankfully Henry didn't put up much of a fuss. She had him dressed and out the door in no less than ten minutes, barely pausing to check her hair on the way out. Regina was waiting by her Mustang, leaning up against the passenger door with her arms crossed and her silver aviators catching the slightest reflection of the rising sun. Emma inhaled sharply and tugged on Henry's hand, encouraging him to keep up as she walked across the front lawn to the neighboring driveway.

How that woman could look so effortlessly breathtaking in just a pair of tight jeans and a white button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows was beyond her and she felt her cheeks grow hot when she caught herself noticeably checking her out, her eyes lingering on the curves and the way her clothes just hugged them. She shook her head and bent down to pick up Henry, placing him on her hip as she tried not to make it so obvious that she was capitated by the stunning brunette that was currently smiling at her.

"Hi," Emma said softly. "Sorry it took us so long."

"It wasn't long at all, Emma," Regina replied. "Are you ready, then?"