The Secrets Her Heart Keeps

Chapter Nine

"You want to soak in the hot tub with that sunburn? Isn't your skin already on fire?" Regina snips, towel drying her hair from the shower that was strictly used to wash away sand that was shoved into every crevice of her body.

"I'm not that red," Emma pouts, her fingertips pressing into her shoulder and releasing to watch the snowy white flesh quickly morph into a deep scarlet.

"Ma, have you looked in a mirror?" Henry deadpans, his long limbs outstretched across the sofa, ready to relax for this evening.

"I'm fine. Hey, Regina, look!" Emma playfully calls out and Regina finds that damn phone in her hand again.

The mayor quickly reaches for the device, hoping that her hand blocks the camera enough to obstruct the view. "Dammit Emma, can you put that damn thing away for five minutes?"

"I'm capturing memories," she annoyingly replies with an exaggerated eye roll. "Regina, don't you wish you had pictures to look back on from your childhood?"

She rolls her eyes as well, annoyed that, of course, the Savior is able to tap into her feelings toward the matter. "I suppose."

"Well, I really wish I had some old photos that I could skim through."

"You don't have photographs from your childhood?" Regina softly inquires, knowing her friend hates to speak of her past.

"No," Emma breathes through a fake laugh and busies herself with something on her phone. "Foster parents didn't waste time or money on taking pictures and even if one of them did, I sure as hell don't have them. I don't have one photo of myself as a kid."

"I'm sorry, ma, I never thought about that."

"It's alright, kid. I just want to make sure you do. Even if you are eighteen, they will still be precious memories in the future," Emma absentmindedly explains as her eyes become locked onto something particularly special on her phone.

"You know, I do have some pictures of Henry when he was little," Regina gently assures, gradually lowering herself onto the small couch beside the blonde.

The quirky woman quickly hides her phone away from view which instantly sends a pain straight to Regina's heart. She assumes Emma must be texting her husband, so she scoots away, offering her friend some space.

"W-uh-could I maybe see those pictures sometime?" Emma timidly questions with a slight blush pinching her cheeks.

"Of course."

"When we get back, I'll dig them out of the basement and we can go through them together," Henry offers. "It's been awhile since we've looked at them."

"Sounds like a plan," Emma happily concludes, quickly shoving her phone between her thighs and moving right along to the next subject. "So, tomorrow we are going to buy some cheap camping gear and spend the night at a campground about thirty minutes from here," she reiterates the plan while Regina ponders why her friend is being so discreet with her phone.

"Yeah, and we are definitely hiking on that trail. It looks like a lot of fun," Henry adds on somewhere in the background while brown eyes are fixated between smooth thighs that are taunting her with a secretive phone.

What could Emma possibly be hiding on that phone? Why was she so quick to avert the screen from her line of vision? Come to think of it, Regina hasn't actually heard the woman on the phone once with her husband...or her mother for that matter. Truthfully, she hasn't been texting that much either. For most of this trip, Emma's actually been neglecting the device.

"Right, Regina?"

"Hmm?"

"I was saying, we really should take advantage of the hot tub. Tomorrow we are camping and then we are coming back the next day and viewing the last college and then we leave the day after."