“I think he picked us up on his radar. I’m pretty sure there’ll be people here shortly to look for us,” Eden tells them.
“Go upstairs and get dressed. We’ll take care of anyone who shows up here,” Laura tells us.
I take off up the stairs. Eden follows me, going into the guest room quickly and shutting the door behind us. “I’m so sorry, Alyssa,” he tells me.
I turn to look at him. “Why are you saying that to me? It’s not your fault.”
He paces the room. “I’m the one who wanted to go flying around. I don’t know what I was thinking about. I should’ve thought about how this area is bound to be covered with air security since it’s so close to the state capital.”
“It still isn’t your fault,” I say. “You can’t possibly think of every little thing which could happen.”
I put my clothes back on, then look out the window. The party has ended. Only the people who are cleaning it all up are still outside. I feel terrible about messing up the party. I hope Laura and Kyle are not too disappointed.
“Okay, I’m dressed. Let’s go downstairs,” Eden says.
I take his hand and go with him downstairs, Laura’s sitting on the sofa by herself. “Where’s Kyle?” Eden asks her.
“He’s outside,” she says. “That jet isn’t letting up. It’s pretty obvious whoever is driving that thing saw you two disappear around here. What happened, exactly?”
I sit down next to her and Eden goes outside with Kyle. “We just went for a little stroll in the sky. We were having a good time, flying by the river. Then the jet found us. Eden thinks we came up on its radar.”
“That makes sense,” Laura says.
“We found a clearing to land in and I thought we were pretty much home free. I was wrong. A couple of trucks came and found us, like right away. They had dogs with them. Once they let them loose, we had no choice but to get back out of there. The jet caught up with us again and here we are,” I tell her.
She puts her arm around my shoulders. “Dang, Ally, that sucks. I guess it’s safe to assume they’ll be looking around here pretty soon. Thank goodness we have that gate at the entrance. They can’t just roll up here.”
I sink into her side. “I’m sorry we screwed up your party.”
“To be honest, Al,” she says. “I was really tired anyway.”
I laugh a little. “So am I, Laura. I could fall asleep right now.”
She props her head on mine. “I think I could too,” she mumbles as we both drift off.
“What?” I mumble as I feel myself being lifted up.
“Shhh,” I hear.
I move my head to look up. Kyle is carrying me up the stairs. “What are you doing?” I ask him groggily.
“Just stay asleep, Ally,” he says quietly.
“Where’s my husband?” I ask.
“He ran to town,” he says. “Now just sleep. He’ll be back soon.”
He opens the door to the guest room, then takes me to the bed, laying me down. I feel him take my sandals off, then turn to my side, pulling my legs up.
“Thank you, Kyle,” I tell him.
He pulls the blanket up over me, then leans down to kiss me on the top of the head. “Goodnight, Alyssa. I love you,” he says.
I smile. “Goodnight, Kyle. I love you too,” I tell him, then fall back asleep.
CHAPTER 61
ALYSSA
“You’re going too fast, Kyle,” I say as I follow him down a trail into the woods.
“Come on, Ally,” he says. “We’re almost there.”
He takes my hand, then pulls me to him as he covers my eyes with his hand. “Okay, no peeking.”
He pulls me a few steps further, then drops his hand that’s covering my eyes. I see a small, old, beat up shack. “See, a cabin in the woods. I told you I had a surprise for you.”
I look up at him. “You found this?”
He leads me to the door. “Yeah, I think it’s been abandoned.”
I step inside to see that he’s laid out a quilt on the old wood floor. There’s a picnic basket on it. I turn to look at him. “Did you do that?”
“Yes. You are hungry, aren’t you?” he asks.
“I guess I could eat.”
He pulls me to sit on the quilt with him. “Is this one of your mother’s quilts?” I ask.
He nods. “Don’t tell her. She’ll kill me.”
I reach over to open the picnic basket, but he stops me, taking my hand and bringing it up to his lips to kiss the gold band of my wedding ring. “I love how this looks on you. It looks so pretty next to the other one I gave you,” he says as he moves to kiss the small ,heart-shaped diamond ring on my other finger.
I smile at him. “Let me see yours again.”
He holds his hand up, wiggling his ring finger. The sun coming through the window of the little cabin catches the gold, making it shine brightly. The sun is coming in behind him, making his blonde curls glow.
He looks like an angel. I move forward, getting up on my knees to lean closer to him. I take his hand, kissing his ring. Then I put my arms around his neck as he wraps his arms around my waist.
“I love you, Ally. I’m so happy you said yes.”
“Why wouldn’t I? I’ve loved you forever, Kyle.”
He moves his arms from around my waist to the bottom of my T-shirt. I hold my arms up so he can raise it up over my head. He drops the shirt on the floor, leaning in to kiss the top of one of my breasts as it bulges slightly above my pink, lacy bra.
He stops to look up at me. “Looks like Junior has already begun his work on your body. You’ll need a larger size very soon.”
I look at him with a pout on my lips. “I still can’t believe you went and got me pregnant so soon after our wedding. I was looking forward to some time with you all alone.”
He laughs. “We have about seven more months of alone time, Ally. He won’t get in our way, I promise,” he tells me as he unbuttons, then unzips my shorts, exposing my still-flat stomach.
“I’m going to get all fat,” I whine.
He touches my exposed stomach, then looks up at me. “Thank you, Alyssa. You’ve given me the best present anyone ever could. You won’t be fat. You’ll be more beautiful.”
He moves towards me, pushing me back gently until I’m lying on the old quilt. He pulls my shorts and panties off in one quick motion, pulling off my flats. Then he stands up to take his shirt off. I suck in my breath as he does. He pops the buttons on his jeans, then lets them fall.
“You ready for this, Ally?”
I hold my arms out to him. He comes into my arms, covering my body with his. His lips touch mine and I part them as his tongue darts into my mouth. The familiar sense of heat goes straight to my lower regions.
My legs open as I run my hands over the muscles on his back and he brings his body down on mine, filling me. He takes gentle strokes as his lips leave mine, trailing kisses up my neck. My hands tangle up in his curls. His mouth comes down on mine again and his tongue fills my mouth. His kiss becomes hungry as he moves inside me, his strokes harder and deeper.
His lips leave mine and touch my ear. “Say my name, Ally.”
I’m about to fall apart underneath his hot, sweaty, rock-hard body. “Kyle,” I say as I breathe out.
“Again,” he orders as he thrusts deeper.
The force pushes the air out of my lungs as I shout, “Kyle!”
With ragged breaths, he asks, “Who do you belong to, Ally?”
“I belong to you,” I whisper.
The heat on my neck compels me to turn and catch his lips. One small kiss and he thrusts as he says, “Who do you belong to?”
My stomach clenches as I come apart and he explodes into me. “I belong to you, Kyle!” I shout.
“Alyssa!” I hear. “Open your eyes!”
I open my eyes to see Eden looking down at me He quickly rolls off of me. “What the hell, Alyssa?” he asks, with an aggravated tone to his voice.
I sit u
p. “I was dreaming.”
“I thought you were awake,” Eden says. “I should’ve known you weren’t. You weren’t moving at all like yourself.”
Pulling the sheet up to cover my naked breasts, I ask, “What did I do?”
I completely remember the dream I was having. Only I thought it was real. I thought I was married to Kyle. Everything felt real. I can’t believe how real it all felt. Eden sits up, running his hands through his hair.
Oh, hell, I know what I did. He doesn’t have to tell me.
I reach out to him. “Eden, it was just a dream. Nothing to get upset about. Come on, let’s finish what we started.”
He pulls away from me, though. “No, Alyssa. We can’t finish what we started. I was apparently not involved in it. Now you want him, or what?”
“No!” I say. “I don’t know why I had that stupid dream, Eden. I do know I don’t want him like that. I really don’t. Maybe the ceremony has me sort of messed up, or being chased by jets and dogs has my mind going a different direction.”
Eden looks at me, his eyes full of hurt. “A different direction? Like a direction without me in it?”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t matter. I’m with you. It doesn’t matter what happens in my dreams. I love you and my future forever is with you, Eden. This is crazy to be fighting about a damn dream I can’t help.”
“I know it is. Let’s just go to sleep. We have to drive back to New Orleans in a few hours anyway,” he says as he lies back down.
I lie back. “I told Kyle we would stay here a while with them.”
“Well, I hope that was before the jet and the dogs, because if it was after them, then you are both not thinking straight,” he says.
I need to stop talking now. I am really making my husband mad and that is never good.
“I love you, Eden. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Alyssa,” he says, then pauses. “I love you too. Now go to sleep.”
I close my eyes and wonder why I was dreaming like that. I love my husband with all my heart. I love Kyle too, but not like the way I love Eden. I don’t want a day to go by without Eden in it.
What is wrong with me?
CHAPTER 62
KYLE
“You sure can eat now, Ally,” I say, as we leave a café, then walk down a sidewalk downtown.
“Kyle, be nice,” she says as she bats at my arm.
I reach out to touch her ample stomach. “How’s Junior treating you, Al?”
“I really wish you’d quit calling her that,” I say. “Your daughter is treating me like a punching bag. I think she’s going to be a kickboxer.”
I laugh. “Well, thanks for walking over here to go to lunch with me. Are you going back to work now?”
“Where else would I be going, Kyle? Pregnant or not, we have bills to pay and baby things to buy,” she says with a tired voice.
“I know, Ally,” I say. “It’s almost summer break. I can work full-time hours at the bowling alley once school lets out. I might have a gig this weekend and that’ll bring in some extra money.”
She smiles. “We’ll make it, Kyle. I’m not worried. I won’t be off until midnight tonight. When will you be home?”
“Since you have to work, I’ll probably go hang out with the neighbor until you get home. I only have to work until ten tonight. I’ll bring pizza home for you,” I say.
“No! Not pizza, Kyle. It gives me indigestion. I’ll eat at the restaurant when I get a break. If I get a break.”
I stop and give her a stern look. “You better eat, Mrs. Stevens. Promise me.”
A frown covers her face. “I promise, Mr. Stevens. And stop calling me that. I call your mother that. It’s weird.”
I put my arm around her shoulders and say, “You could call her mom if you wanted to. It might soften her up some, to have you act more like a daughter.”
“I don’t think she wants me to act like that at all after her freak-out when you told her we went to Vegas and got married. I have the feeling she thinks you’ve made a bad mistake with me. Then we got pregnant right away and fueled her fire even more.”
“Once she sees that little baby, she’ll come around. We’ll have to get up there more often, once the baby comes,” I say.
“I don’t see how we can afford it any better than we can now. We haven’t been home since we left,” she reminds me.
I give her shoulder a nudge with mine. “You’re grouchy, Ally. You need to sleep more.”
“I wish I could, Kyle. I wish I could. Here we are. I turn right here and you turn left,” she says.
I let her go. “I love you, Ally. See you around midnight,” I say, then kiss the top of her head.
“Bye, Kyle, I love you too,” she says as I walk away.
I turn to look back at her, feeling like she’s sad about something. I see her accidentally bump into someone with her stomach. Then hear her say, “Sorry, I don’t always realize how big I am.”
“No need to apologize. It’s my fault. Have a nice day,” a guy with wavy brown hair on top and short sides says as he almost bows.
I turn and watch him walk down the sidewalk past me. He shoots me a smile and I look back to see my wife checking him out.
* * *
“I can’t believe these people,” I hear Eden say as he stands just outside the bedroom door. His voice woke me up and it becomes apparent I’m dreaming about Ally. That’s not good.
I rub my eyes and blink. My dreams come flooding back to me. I close my eyes as I see Laura has spotted me awake.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” she says with a smile.
“Good morning, babe.”
Eden’s voice comes from the hall again. “Get dressed, Alyssa,” he tells her, then shuts their door.
He sounds mad.
What is going on in my head? Why am I dreaming that Ally and I are married and having a baby?
A baby girl. We would’ve had a baby girl if she was never chosen to be a bird.
I wonder if she saw my dream somehow and Eden saw it through her. That would probably make him pretty mad.
“I’m making scrambled eggs,” Laura says as she gets up. “Come to the kitchen after you get dressed.”
I hurry to clean myself up and get dressed. I want to talk to Ally before I see Eden and maybe reveal more than I should.
As I head down the stairs, I can hear Laura talking in the kitchen. “How could I not like it, Al? It’s beyond perfect. Breakfast is almost done. Kyle’s coming down any minute. I saw Eden go out the door to the garage. You wanna go get him?”
I put the truck keys the foundation gave me in my pocket. I give my pocket a jangle to be sure they’re in there. Rocketing through the living room, I make it out the front door without Laura seeing me.
Ally’s car is gone, which means Eden went somewhere in it. I jog around to the garage and see Ally running her hand along the side of my new truck.
“Hey, Ally, I was just thinking about you. Thank you for giving me the best present anyone could ever give me,” I say, remembering one of the things I said to her in the dream I had about making love to her.
She blinks in rapid succession, then says, “I didn’t buy it, Kyle. I just told them what you might like.”
I take her hand, pulling her towards the driver’s side door of the tall truck. “Come on. I’ll give you a real quick ride,” I say and then take her by the waist, picking her up into the driver’s seat, just like I used to.
She scoots over, just like she used to, as I climb into the driver’s seat. “It’s so nice, Kyle. I haven’t been in it yet.”
She starts to scoot all the way over, but I grab her arm, stopping her from moving further from me. “Look, Ally, it has satellite radio. How cool is that? What am I saying? Your car has that too. I’m not used to all this yet.”
She begins to fiddle with the radio like she always does. “How did you like driving my car here from New Orleans?” she asks.
I look over her shoulder as she finds some crappy ha
rd rock station. “Oh, it’s a damn cool car, Ally. But it ain’t no truck, girl.”
I start the engine and it’s loud. She looks at me with the excitement of a little kid. I back out of the garage, then drive down a dirt road that runs around the privacy fenced yard to the back of the property.
We come out of the tall pine trees to find a pasture with an old barn and a pond. “Check this out, Ally. We can have horses, and cows, and whatever we want.”
Ally looks down. “Eden told me we would be going back to New Orleans this morning. For some odd reason he went to town to get something first, but he told me to get dressed before he left. I guess we’ll be leaving soon after he gets back.”
I wonder why that is? The plane spotting them, maybe.
I pull up in front of the old barn, then jump out, holding my hand out to Ally. I’m careful not to let her body run down mine as I place her on the ground. I lead her to it. It’s a little dark. There are a couple of large stalls and a few doors. I open one of the doors up.
I pull the door open and we see a quilt lying on the old wooden floor. I look around the dark little room and see a candle half burned and an empty bottle of bourbon. My mind is reeling now. I feel hot at my memory of Ally in my dream and us on that blanket.
“I just remembered I was supposed to get Eden to come in and eat breakfast. Laura’s going to kill us,” Ally says as she turns and heads back to the truck.
She grabs at the door handle to climb back into the truck, but can’t reach it. I place my hand on her waist. “Turn around, Ally. I’ll lift you up.”
As she turns to me I can see it in her eyes. I send her a scene from my dream and she closes her eyes, dropping her head to rest on my chest.
“You too, huh?” she asks.
I hold her hand, and we share the dreams we’ve had. They’re exactly the same.
“Why do you think this is happening?” I ask.
“I’ve no idea,” she says and looks up at me. “Last night, when I had the first dream, Eden was a physical part of it. It was awful and he was hurt.”
She touches my hand again and I see what happened between them. I feel sick at my stomach. “We need to stop this if at all possible, Al.”
Let’s get back to the house. I really don’t want Laura to be upset with us for missing her first breakfast in her new house,” she says.
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