Emmett
Riding horses usually calmed him down.
He was in the middle of the riding trail, surrounded by the damp quietness of the forrest when the reoccurring thoughts of her flittered through his mind. In the three weeks Emmett had been gone, her belly had grown. A lot.
There was an obvious pregnant glow on her face, making her already beautiful features radiate. He was not sure where their relationship was going to go, or even where Charlotte wanted it to go. But no matter what, he was determined to do the right thing. To be there for her.
He’d had a very good childhood. His parents weren’t rich, but they’d had enough to get by. In the recent years, their ranch had thrived. Now Emmett had his own part of the family business and he’d make damn sure it would turn out just as successful.
He thought again of Charlotte’s bulging belly, and when he had seen it for the first time. He obviously knew that it was actually happening, but seeing it made it so much more real. His baby was inside of her stomach.
That was also why he got so pissed off when he saw Parker sitting with her. Parker knew who he was, because Madison was his sister and Emmett knew Madison hated her. The night that he’d met Charlotte in Panama City Beach, it was Madison who he had been talking to. Not willingly, he just didn’t want to be rude. Madison mistook his southern boy manners and thought that she had finally sunk his claws into him.
Emmett snorted which caused his horse, Willow, to turn her ears towards her owner’s direction. He leaned over, patting the side of her neck.
Madison Parker had been delusional. Right when she thought she was going to finally be able to seduce him, he’d saw Charlotte from across the fire. He had muttered some excuse to the blonde, and went to introduce himself to Charlotte.
That was why Madison hated Charlotte.
Emmett was sure that she’d blabbed at least something to Thomas, who’d seen Charlotte in the restaurant and decided to approach her for whatever reason. Sitting across the table like they’d been, Emmett doubted that he’d seen Charlotte’s belly.
The little weasel probably just knew that Emmett and Charlotte had a thing and wanted to put his greasy little paws all over her because of it.
He gritted his teeth in anger.
Over my dead body. He thought angrily.
Emmett hoped that Charlotte didn’t think that it was her he was angry at when he saw him at the restaurant. He had tried to hide the irritation at Parker’s sudden appearance, but it wasn’t very easy.
“God damn it.”
Emmett’s eyes had been scanning the furthest edge of the property when he saw the break in the fencing. Swinging his leg over the side of Willow, he tied her to a nearby tree and approached the fence.
Although it was unclear what had caused the damage, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to fix it with the tools he had. It was getting darker by the minute, so he would have to come back out tomorrow and bring the supplies.
For now, Emmet moved the broken pieces of the fence together as best he could and returned to his horse. He mounted back up and continued down the trail. As much as it was for working, it was clearing his mind.
He needed to start preparing for the baby. There was five months before his baby would be here, and he needed to get a move on. Emmett wanted to make something special for the baby, and he had something in mind.
His baby…
Blowing out air through his teeth, he was taken aback again by the shock of it. How many times of thinking about it…Of talking about it with his mother…Would it take him to get used to the idea?
Of course it wasn’t a great thing to have a baby so young, but they had determined to make the best of it. That was exactly what he planned to do, and he was still thinking that. It was overwhelming. But each day, the shock was lessening. He was growing more accustomed to the idea.
But that didn’t mean it didn’t scare the Hell out of him.
He hadn’t had many serious girlfriends. Emmett could admit that he’d had his wild times did - what teenager didn’t? The one serious girlfriend he did have cheated on him. They’d broken up six months before he met Charlotte.
Charlotte didn’t know about Alex, but it wasn’t because he was hiding it from her. He hadn’t lied to her about anything. His romantic past just hadn’t come up. Emmett knew that they didn’t know too much about each other, and he realized that he needed to change that.
And he was going to.
Turning his horse around, he started back towards the house as he wondered what Charlotte might be doing right now.
*Charlotte’s Point of View*
I was completely knocked out.
After the trip to town, I was exhausted. I had laid down on the couch when we came home, and passed out. I was sleeping hard when it happened. The smell woke me up. At first, it was familiar. Nothing about it bothered me.
Then my stomach seemed to do flip flops and the smell of the uncooked chicken in the kitchen suddenly disgusted me so much that it woke me up with the sudden and intense need to empty my stomach.
Shooting my way off of the couch, I stumbled groggily towards the downstairs bathroom. What the Hell? Slamming open the door, I was barely able to make it to the toilet before I threw up. I dropped to my knees, with my hand on my stomach to make sure that my belly didn’t bump on anything.
Pushing back my hair, the next wave of sickness rocketed through me as I heard my aunt’s worried voice at the doorway to the bathroom.
“Charlotte, are you okay?” She asked as she dropped down on the floor beside me, putting a soothing hand on my back. “What’s wrong, honey?”
“I’m fine,” I answered, shaking my head. “The chicken…Is it bad?”
Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I turned towards my aunt. She was frowning at me.
“No, the chicken is fine. You smelled it all the way from the living room?”
I nodded.
“Yes, and it smells disgusting,” I said as I flushed the toilet and stood up slowly. Realization hit my aunt’s eyes and she laughed.
“You’re just having a food aversion,” She said as I grabbed the mouthwash and filled the small cap with it.
“But I eat chicken just fine,” I answered before I tossed back the mouthwash and swished it around before spitting it back into the sink. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Sometimes food aversions or food cravings don’t make sense,” Aunt Lauren laughed, pushing some hair behind my ears. “It’s probably just raw chicken. Why don’t you just go upstairs, and I’ll call you down when it’s ready?”
“I’ll do that. Thank you.”
I moved quickly and held my breath so I wouldn’t have to smell that disgusting scent again. I finally made it to my the bathroom so I could brush my teeth to make sure the remnants of whatever was in my mouth were gone.
Half an hour later, Aunt Lauren called me down for dinner.
“There waS something I wanted to talk to you about,” She said when we were midway through our meal. I was eating the chicken perfectly fine. In fact, it was delicious.
“What’s up?”
“Next week, I’ve got to go away for this convention. It’s training, to make sure we all still know how to do our job well and teach us new techniques. Stuff like that. I’ve got to leave Sunday night and I’ll be back Friday afternoon. I know you would probably be alright by yourself, but…”
“You didn’t want to take the chance,” I finished the sentence when she hesitated. She probably didn’t want to make me upset and insinuate that I couldn’t take care of myself for a five days, but I understood where she was coming from. It would be totally fine if I wasn’t pregnant.
But I didn’t want to take any chances.
“I was thinking that you could stay with Emmett.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“You do?” I asked.
“I know it sounds unconventional, but I know that he’s a gentleman. If I ask him to watch over you while I’m gone, he will. I’ve seen the way he is with his baby sister. He’s very protective.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “I’ll ask him.”
When we were done eating, I helped Aunt Lauren clean up dinner and went into the living room with my cell phone to call Emmett. He picked up on the second ring.
“Hello?"
His voice held his usual deep, southern accent. My heart skipped a few beats.
“Hey, Emmett. How are you?”
“I’m great, darlin. How are you?”
“I’m doing well, Emmett. Thank you. There was something I wanted to ask you.”
“Is something wrong?” He asked, his voice piquing with worry.
“Oh, no. Nothing like that. Next Monday, my Aunt Lauren has got to go to this convention. She’s going to be gone from Sunday night until Friday afternoon.”
I’d taken a breath and was about to go on when he spoke, his voice even more strained.
“And you’re staying by yourself?” He asked, obviously unhappy about it.
“She wants me to stay with you.”
“Oh,” He said, his voice changing immediately. He was pleased now…Relieved. “Of course you can stay with me.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to be a burden.”
“Darlin, you ain’t a burden,” He said firmly. “What time is your aunt leaving on Sunday night?”
“Four p.m.”
“I’ll pick you up after I get out of work, at six. Sound good?”
“It sounds good. Thank you, Emmett.”
After I hung up with him, I told Aunt Lauren he said it was okay that I could stay with him. We had a bowl of ice cream while we watched a Lifetime movie. After that, I headed up to bed and fell asleep rather quickly.
The week went by rather quickly.
I saw Emmett only once, when he invited me to lunch.
The lunch got interrupted when Brooke came in, sliding into the booth and joining us with out invitation. Neither of us really minded, that just meant we didn’t have any alone time. Since he’d just gotten back not too long ago from being gone, he’d been very busy.
When Sunday evening came, I found myself nervous.
In my time in Paris, we’d spent time together. But there wasn’t much alone time. We were usually out at a restaurant or in a place where other people were around us. But we’d have a lot alone time.
“You call me if you need anything. Check in often,” Aunt Lauren said as she stood on the porch with her bags on the ground beside her feet. There was a black SUV of her coworkers waiting for her. They were carpooling. She kissed me on the forehead.
“Of course,” I said. “Have a good time. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She stepped off the porch and went towards the car, waving one last time before she got into the backseat of the vehicle. I went upstairs and packed some of my clothes into a backpack, setting it by the door so I was ready to go when Emmett got there.
Sitting down on the couch, I picked up my feet and placed it on the coffee table as I turned on the TV to wait for him. One of my favorite shows was on; Criminal Minds. I giggled at the sight of Derek Morgan shirtless. He was so hot! And Reid was so adorable. So smart and so cute.
I slid my hand onto my stomach absentmindedly.
I felt like I was growing more each day, and I probably was. I’d been to the doctor twice since I’d been to Paris, and the doctor said that the baby was perfectly healthy. I was excited to learn the sex of the baby. So far, at each appointment the baby had been evasive so we couldn’t see if it was a boy or a girl.
That didn’t bother me. As long as the baby was healthy, that’s all that mattered to me.
I felt the baby moving around more frequently as well. It was mostly during the morning, right after I woke up. It wasn’t very strong, but I still felt it. That was growing stronger, too.
Every time it happened, there was a jolt of excitement and love. I was amazed and surprised and happy each time it happened.
At a sudden thought, I couldn’t help but frown. Emmett had never experienced that. I hoped there was a time soon that he would. It really was amazing.
I wondered what he might feel, what he might think if he felt our baby move in my stomach. Would he think it was cool? Weird?
I picked up my phone when I felt it vibrate on my lap. I looked at the screen and saw the text I’d received was from Emmett. I read it quickly.
I’m here.
Author's Note: Hope that you guys like this chapter! Please remember that I don't have the time to update whenever I want or as much as I'd like to. Please tell me what you think. I got some constructive critisim and tried to apply it to this chapter. I hope I did well. :) Let me know what you think!