A/N: Thanks to Brooke for beta-ing this… I went back and added a few things (because I'm just sitting here being extra lol) so all mistakes are mine! :)
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Last chapter: Regina watched Roland while Robin worked late. The four of them ended up having dinner at her place, the boys played dress up like pirates… oh, and Robin kissed Regina after she said she just needed a friend. #Oops
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Chapter Five
His hands are calloused – more than Regina would've thought – but it's not uncomfortable. In fact, it's manly and rough, and she likes it.
They glide down her chest, tweaking her nipples in a short lived, teasing way and continue down onto her stomach as his mouth leaves a trail of kisses from her lips, down her neck, and to her shoulder.
She lets out a small moan and allows her hands to travel up his back, gripping his hair at the base of his skull. She wants to hold him in place for as long as possible.
"Robin," she breathes into the space between their faces, "touch me."
Robin's leaning on one of his arms now, looking at her while biting down on his bottom lip and smiling at her. His other hand travels down her stomach and underneath the top of her shorts. As his fingers start to dip into her wet folds, he murmurs into her ear, "Is this what you want?"
"Yes," she pants. His fingers feel amazing and she doesn't want them to stop, but she also wants so, so much more. She can feel his hardness pressed against her thigh and knows he wants her just as badly. "Don't stop."
"But the pirates are yelling," Robin says, furrowing his eyebrows and placing a kiss on her lips while pressing his fingers deeper inside of her.
"What?" Regina asks, confused, opening her eyes and looking up into Robin's blue eyes.
"The pirates. They're yelling."
Regina listens for a second and realizes she can hear a high-pitched noise, too. The pirates? What the hell?
Regina springs into a sitting position, panting.
The alarm. It was just a dream.
A very good, very confusing, very wet dream.
Turning over and rolling her eyes, Regina turns off her alarm and climbs out of bed. She needs to shower, probably a cold one at this point, and do her hair before meeting with a new client today.
She's supposed to go to Robin's office later to show him her designs for the smaller offices, but after her dream, she just isn't sure if she should. He kissed her goodnight last night, as short lived as the kiss was, he had still done it.
She's told him already that she just wants to be friends, but kissing him had simply felt right. It felt like something she wants to do again, and again, and again.
After getting ready for the day, and getting Henry onto the school bus, she texts her right-hand woman at work, Mary Margaret, to see if she can take the design sketches to Robin for her. Her meeting will keep her plenty busy, anyway.
Luckily, Mary Margaret is available (she's always willing to do what her boss needs), and Regina couldn't be more relieved. She can, hopefully, avoid Robin for a few days and sort her feelings out before having to lay eyes on his beautiful blue ones again.
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"Mr. Locksley?" Belle says, her voice coming into Robin's office from the phone's speaker.
Pressing the button, Robin responds in the affirmative.
"Mary Margaret from Storybook Décor is here."
"Send her in," Robin says, confused as to why someone different is coming to their meeting today. He knows he kissed her last night, but she hadn't seemed too put off by it. Maybe he was wrong, though. Maybe she was angry at him for kissing her.
"Mr. Locksley?" A young woman with brown hair, cut into a pixie style, walks into his office. She's wearing a yellow cardigan and a blue skirt that looks to have some type of animal on it. Birds, maybe? She is young and looks just like the perfect type to work at Regina's company.
"Yes, hello," Robin says, standing from his desk with his eyebrows slightly lifted, "I'm Robin Locksley. And you are…?" He asks, shaking the woman's hand.
"Mary Margaret Nolan. I work for Regina," Mary explains, a friendly smile on her face. The woman seems nice enough, and he's positive she is, but she's no Regina. However, he's an adult. He can make it through one design meeting without Regina here. "She had another meeting this morning with some new clients, so she sent me in her place to show you the designs. I hope that's okay?"
"Yes, of course," Robin smiles, shaking his head, not wanting to seem rude. He is fine with Mary Margaret being here, he was just thrown off at first. "My office is really coming together, so I'm confident I'll like Regina's designs for my employee's offices as well."
Mary Margaret takes out the sketches and lays them on the new glass conference table. The new table is slightly larger than the one he had before, and it has wrought iron legs to match his new desk that he picked out with Regina so many weeks ago.
After looking over the designs, Robin tells Mary Margaret that they look wonderful and they can start on them right away. The offices are all being redone to match his new office design. Warm, neutral griege coloring on the walls, which seem very inviting, mixed with glass and iron elements for his employee's desks and bookshelves as well. The seating in each room has been updated to chairs comfortable enough for clients to sit on during a meeting or two with plush pillows. It's comfortable, but still business like, and Robin thinks it looks great.
Mary Margaret smiles, says she'll let Regina know and turns to leave the office.
Once she's gone, Robin tries to get work done but can't seem to concentrate. His thoughts keep drifting back to Regina and how she wasn't there today.
Pulling out his cellphone, he opens up his messages and clicks on Regina's name.
Hey.
There's no immediate response, but Robin tells himself that she really is in a meeting and forces himself to focus on his work.
After thirty excruciating minutes, his phone dings with a text alert.
Hey. Sorry, I was in a meeting. Did Mary Margaret get there ok today?
Yes, she did. The designs look wonderful. Once again, you've outdone yourself :)
Thank you…glad you liked them.
It's a short lived conversation, but she seems normal enough, so Robin sighs with relief and focuses his attention back on his Sleep Tight campaign. The pitch meeting is in a little under two hours. He just needs to focus on this right now, he can talk to Regina after the meeting. He keeps reminding himself to just focus on work.
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Regina felt bad sending Mary Margaret to Robin's today, but she was just too afraid of seeing him so soon after her dream. She thoroughly enjoyed the feel of him in her bed, touching her in all the right places. Too much in fact. She needed to not see Robin Locksley today, needs to clear her head.
It was Monday and she knew he had that big pitch meeting today anyway. It's the reason she had watched Roland for him yesterday, so she didn't think he would mind her sending Mary Margaret in her place for once.
She's meeting with some new clients; clients who were dragging on and on about wanting their whole mansion to be redone in a farmhouse chic vibe. The wife has been watching Fixer Upper too much lately according to the husband, so she wants to feel like Joanna Gaines herself has redone their whole house. It's a tall order for Regina, but certainly not the first farm house design she's done. Plus, these people are well known in the community, so if she does a good job on their house, she might be able to score some other high paying jobs.
While meeting with the Farmhouse people, The Kings, her phone buzzes.
A text from Robin.
Regina wraps up her meeting as soon as possible so she can look at her phone – which definitely made her feel like she was back in high school, getting hand written notes from the cutest boy in school. She hates, but secretly likes, that he's able to make her stomach flutter with a simple hey in a text message.
After sending a few, very innocent, work related texts to Robin, Regina finds it hard to concentrate on business. First, she looks over Robin's offices but that causes her thoughts to drift to his calloused hands running along her body, so she clicks over to the snocone building's designs. She updates the wall color on the digital design and changes their seating to be more modern. Restless, she then looks over the hair studio, updating some of the art on the walls. Sighing out a breath, she picks up her phone again to check her messages. She needs to stop thinking about that dream, but that doesn't mean she can't spend time with Robin, her friend, in the meantime. She can definitely do that. Definitely.
She knows she woke up telling herself she didn't need to see Robin for the next few days but now finds herself wanting to do just that. She knows they're both busy with work, though, so she decides to ask if he wants to take the boys to the park this weekend. The boys get along, and who is she to deny her son an afternoon of fun with a friend? That'll give her a few days to recover from her almost-sex dream and time to get a good chunk of work done on all of her ongoing projects.
Regina picks up her phone and types out a quick text to Robin.
What are you doing Saturday afternoon?
Nervous, she stands and paces the length of her office. No one knows about her dream except her, so she has no reason to act any different around Robin. It's unfair to him, and her, to punish the friendship they've built all because her libido was getting the best of her while she slept.
Her phone pings with a text alert from him.
Nothing that I know of. Why?
Just thought the boys might want to spend some time together. Maybe go to the park?
Sounds good. Roland and I can come pick you lot up if you'd like.
Smiling to herself, she replies, That'll work. Say…2ish?
I'll see you then.
Perfect. Regina thinks, smiling to herself. This week needs to go by quickly.
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As it turns out, the week decided to drag on and on for Regina. Her farmhouse mansion clients had proved to be overbearing and demanding, calling every day to change something in the initial design.
Regina has thought more than once to pawn them off on Ariel, her employee that is good at her job, she just finds her to be irritating for some reason. Their clients and her other employees seem to really like her, however, so she's kept her around. She'd already put Ariel in charge of the doctor's office, so she considered giving the project to Marco or even Mary Margaret, but Regina knows this project needs to be done beyond perfection, and she is a perfectionist through and through, so it has to be her that takes lead on it.
She only needed to do a few minor things to Robin's designs, most of which could be handled over the phone, so she didn't have an excuse to go over to Locksley Advertising all week, unfortunately.
Saturday rolls around and Regina finds herself anxiously waiting for Robin and his dimpled-duo sidekick to get there. She and Henry have busied themselves all morning – she's done laundry, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, and even had time to shower. Henry did the last bit of his math homework and played video games after helping her clean the kitchen.
Just when Regina is finishing brushing her hair, for the fifth time, she hears someone knocking on her front door.
"I'll get it!" Henry shouts from the living room, his bare feet pattering along the gray hardwood floor.
Smoothing her hands over her black t-shirt, she walks out into the living room.
Robin, Roland and Henry are all standing by the front door, obviously excited to go play at the park.
"Hey." Regina smiles at both Robin and Roland, placing her hand on Robin's bicep to steady herself while she slips on her sandals.
Leaning in, Robin says hello, love and helps steady her balance by holding on to her elbow. Henry has put his socks on since Robin and Roland showed up, but his shoes are still missing. Looking under their entryway bench, where they keep their everyday shoes, she notices his tennis shoes are missing. When he sheepishly says he doesn't know where they are, she reminds him this is why I tell you to keep them by the door. Henry's face looks guilty for the briefest of moments before it lights up in excitement and he exclaims, "I know where they are!" and runs back to his room, saying loudly that they're under his bed.
Chuckling at her son, she looks down at Roland who is tugging on her denim shorts. "Hi, Regina!" Roland exclaims, "Are you ready to go to the park?"
"I sure am, baby," She smiles down at Roland, running her hands through his curly hair, "Let me just grab some bottled water."
After grabbing the refreshments, the four of them make their way to Robin's SUV and drive to the park.
It's a nice, warm day. Although it's normally still cool enough for pants in mid-April, today has warmed up enough that she is comfortable in shorts.
Robin has opted for jeans and a short sleeve, dark blue t-shirt. Over the past almost two months that Regina has known Robin, she's noticed that he sticks to only a few colors when it comes to his shirt selection – white, black, gray, blue… sometimes an occasional green will make it into the mix. The blue ones are always her favorite because they make his eyes seem even bluer.
When they get to the park, the boys immediately run for the swings, saying they want to get on them now before more kids show up and take them all. Their son's love this park, it's the same one they ran into each other at after furniture shopping a few weeks back. It's one of the more secluded parks in the city, so not many people know about it, making it the perfect spot to spend a Saturday afternoon, away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Luckily, there is a bench not too far from the swings, so Regina yells in the boy's direction that they'll be over there.
"Ok!" The boys shout in unison.
Smiling and shaking her head slightly in amusement, Regina makes her way over the bench that Robin has already taken up residence on.
"They're cute." She smiles in the direction of their sons. They appear to be having a race to see who can swing the highest. Naturally, she knows Henry would win because, being older, his legs are stronger and can pump more forcefully on the swing. If the boys swinging in tandem is anything to go by, however, she has a feeling Henry is purposefully not swinging as high. It brings a smile to her face, seeing how caring and thoughtful her son is, and it makes her heart swell with pride. "I'm glad we were able to get together today," she states, turning her head to look Robin in the eyes. The sun is shining in his direction, making his eyes glow an almost turquoise color, catches her off guard and causes a flutter in her stomach.
"Me, too." He smiles, turning his gaze upon Regina. "It's always nice to get out on the weekends, especially when it feels so nice out."
Regina agrees, nodding and pulling her hair up into a loose ponytail. She had worn her hair down, like usual, but the sun's heat was a little too much to take, and she needed her thick hair off of her neck. It's gotten longer than usual lately, and she makes a mental note to have her stylist take a few extra inches off the next time she goes in. "And especially when work kept me cooped up inside all week. I didn't even get to go visit my favorite client," She flirts, grinning slightly.
"Oh, really?" Robin asks, mirth shining in his eyes, "Who would that be?"
"This British guy that's pretty laid back and doesn't boss me around too much." She shrugs her shoulders and scrunches her face up, saying, "He's okay, I guess."
Chuckling, Robin asks if she has other clients that are more demanding.
Rolling her eyes, Regina goes on to tell him about her newest clients wanting their entire mansion redone and how demanding they've already been – changing design ideas, switching the budget, wanting demolition done that she hadn't accounted for in her design and all the other little things these people had done in just one week.
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Robin listens as she talks about her new clients, glad that she is talking to him so freely. It almost feels like he didn't kiss her goodnight a week ago, after she said she just needed a friend, and he cocked everything up.
Feeling comfortable talking with Regina while watching their sons play on the swings, Robin puts his arm around the back of the bench. He's careful not to touch Regina's shoulders but is pleasantly surprised when she leans a little closer into his embrace.
He listens as she continues talking about work, smiling at the way she talks so animatedly with her hands, until her phone rings.
She looks at the screen, eyebrows pinching slightly together, and excuses herself.
Frowning at her sudden change in mood, Robin gets up and makes his way over to the boys, who are still playing on the swings, clearly still having a contest to see who can swing the highest.
He hops into the third swing, saying he's going to go higher than both of them, which causes the young boys to burst into laughter.
Roland squeals, "No you're not, Papa! You're too old to be the fastest!"
Henry guffaws at that, saying, "He's right, Robin!" while pointing his hand at the older man.
Slowing his ascent into the air to look at his son, who is oblivious to what he just said, and Henry who is still laughing, Robin joins in with their laughter and pumps his legs harder, saying "Oh, ho, just watch, my boys!"
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Watching Robin make his way over to Henry and Roland, she turns away to answer the phone.
"Daniel?" Regina says, as she brings the phone up to her ear. It's not completely unusual for Daniel to be calling, but he just had Henry last weekend and isn't scheduled to have him again until the next weekend. He normally just calls at night to say goodnight to Henry and talk with him about their days, so she's not sure why he's calling in the middle of the afternoon like this. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Daniel replies casually, "Just calling to see what my two loves were doing today?"
Regina knew it was too good to be true. It's been over seven months since she broke up with Daniel, and he's yet to try and get back together with her. She's surprised it's taken him this long to try and lay on the charm.
Rolling her eyes, Regina tells him that they're at the park with Robin and Roland.
"You're with them again?" Daniel's snips, irritation bleeding through the phone. "Weren't they just at your apartment last weekend?"
"Yes, I am," Regina says defensively, stuffing her free hand into her pocket and toying with a small piece of lint still left inside, "and yes, they were. Robin and I are friends. Henry enjoys spending time with Roland. What's the big deal?"
"The big deal, Regina, is that I don't like the way that Robin guy looks at you. You're my girl, and he's trying to take you from me even though I know you're going to come back to me sooner or later like you always do."
Anger flaring up in her, she goes on to remind him that she's not his girl anymore and never will be again. She's tried being nice about it, but if he's going to be an ass, then so can she. Regina tells him that she's allowed to have friends over at her apartment, and she's allowed to date if she so feels.
Suddenly it hits her. It's like a metaphorical lightbulb has gone off inside her mind. She is free to date. She can date whomever she pleases, she's not controlled by Daniel Foaly. She hasn't been in love with him since Henry was a toddler, so why is she denying herself the affections of the beautiful man, who is currently racing her son to see who can swing the highest? She's been telling herself that she needs time to find out who she is on her own, but she's always known who she is. She's known who she is without Daniel for the past six years.
Amusedly rolling her eyes at Robin's antics with a grin on her face, she turns her back and begins peeling small pieces of bark off the nearest tree to keep her hands occupied. It's soothing. It keeps her hands, and her mind, busy so she doesn't cry frustrated tears or say something she'll regret.
"So, you're dating this guy, now?"
"No." Regina states, pushing back tears. She's not upset, she's just pissed off that Daniel is being such an ass about the whole thing. He's never been controlling, but his jealousy is bringing out a side of him that she has never seen before. She had never spent any significant amount of time with another man during any of their other breakups, no matter how long the split lasted, and Daniel knew it. She was never quite ready and always felt guilty if she did consider it. Sure, there was her one night stand with Graham, but other than that, she had stayed single until she eventually went back to Daniel, so seeing her spend time with Robin must be jarring to him, but they're broken up. She's made it abundantly clear that she is done with him, so why should it matter who she spends her time with? "I'm sorry, Daniel," Regina continues, blowing out a quiet exhale, "but it's been over between us for a while. More than just the past seven months, and you know that."
After a long, silent pause, she hears Daniel huff into the phone.
"Can I take Henry to dinner tonight, then? If the love of my life won't take me back, then I at least want to be with my son for a little bit. I'll have him back before bedtime."
Sighing in annoyance, she tells him sharply, "I'll ask Henry. He's having fun right now with Roland, Daniel. If he wants to, then I'll text and let you know."
"Fine. Talk soon."
After hanging up, and taking a few moments to calm herself down, Regina makes her way over to the swings with a, somewhat forced, smile on her face.
Robin is looking at her curiously, though, and she can tell he knows something is not right.
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The boys have slowed down now, and are talking to Robin about their week at school. Roland is rambling on excitedly about how he now knows what nouns and verbs are as Henry quizzes him, calling out a word while the younger boy says what part of speech it is. Grinning at the boys, Robin looks up in Regina's direction. He can tell she is upset, but is trying not to show it in front of their sons as she makes her way over to them.
He sends a questioning glance her way, but she just shakes her head and turns her attention to Henry and Roland.
"Henry," Regina says, coming to stand behind Roland and push him on his swing, "your dad just called. He wants to take you to dinner tonight. I told him I'd ask you first if you wanted to go."
"Oh," Henry sighs, deflating a little bit and slowing his swing down some, "that's fine. I just thought the four of us were gonna go to dinner together."
Sighing slightly, Regina stops pushing Roland and walks over to kneel in front of Henry's swing. Placing her fingers under his chin gently, and giving him a sympathetic smile, she says, "We can, sweetheart, if that's what you want. Your dad just had a busy week at work and said he wanted some extra time with his number one champ."
"Okay," Henry concedes, standing from the swing, which causes Roland to do the same, clearly excited for what Henry might have the two of them do next. He's glad that Roland enjoys spending time with the older boy. He's a good kid, a good role model for his son, and he hopes this impromptu dinner with his dad doesn't upset him too much. Looking over to Robin, then back to his mother, Henry says, "that's fine. Can the four of us do something tomorrow, then?" with hope gleaming in his eyes.
Regina looks up at Robin, shrugging and tilting her head as if to ask is that ok? so, of course, he nods and agrees that they can have lunch tomorrow. He's glad Henry likes spending time with him and Roland. He enjoys the time he spends with the boy and his mother as well, so agreeing to another outing was a no brainer.
"Alright!" Henry exclaims, pumping his arms in the air, causing both adults to softly chuckle. Looking over at Roland, Henry jerks his head in the direction of the slide and takes off in a quick sprint, the younger boy following close behind.
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With the boys occupied on the slide, Regina sits in the swing recently vacated by her son. Robin goes to stand behind her and begins slightly pushing her on the swing. She knows if she talks about what is bothering her now, while she's still pissed, she'll cry and then she'll be angry at herself for crying in front of him, even though she knows he wouldn't mind. He'd probably wrap her up in his arms until she stopped and would tell her it'd all be ok, actually, the frustratingly caring man that he is.
She had told Henry a little white lie, saying that Daniel had a busy week and just needed extra time with his favorite person. She's still agitated with Daniel, so a part of her couldn't help but feel a little thrill when Henry looked upset over going to dinner with his dad. Still, Daniel is his father, and is a good father at that. She shouldn't let her own feelings get in the way of him spending time with his dad.
It's quiet for a few moments as Regina brews over her phone conversation. She's lazily dragging her foot through the sand under the swings when Robin says, "Want to talk about it?"
Not wanting to talk about how her ex is jealous of a man she's attracted to but not yet dating, and how he's being a territorial ass calling her "his" and everything, she shrugs it off and keeps her response short.
Regina clicks her tongue against her teeth, saying, "nothing to talk about," and wrapping her hands around the metal chain slightly under where Robin's are currently holding on, their fingers just barely brushing against one another's. It is a small bit of contact, but she needs something to make her feel grounded. Taking a deep, calming breath, she explains shortly, "Daniel called to see what we were doing, I told him, he said he wanted to take Henry to dinner. End of story."
"Okay," Robin gently replies, continuing to push her. She knows he can tell she's upset – she's had a bad week at work, too, which she'd already told him about, and she was looking forward to having a nice dinner with her son and their new friends.
Regina can't help but, once again, feel how being here, with Robin and the boys, just feels like this is where she's supposed to be. He's slowly pushing her on the swing, but not pushing her to talk about what's upsetting her. She needs time to cool off still, and she appreciates that he's not pressuring her to open up.
"Well, you're welcome to eat dinner with me and Roland tonight." He lightly rubs his fingers along hers on the chain before letting go and putting his hands in his pockets.
"Thanks." Regina plants her feet in the sandy ground to stop the swing when her epiphany from earlier suddenly hits her.
She can date someone.
She's been over Daniel for almost six years, why keep torturing herself (and Robin)?
She stops the swing, and turning toward Robin, she takes a chance, "but… maybe you can ask Tink to watch Roland for a little bit while the two of us… go to dinner?" Regina finishes, looking into his eyes and chewing on her bottom lip (another nervous habit she'd developed as a child), looking anxious.
She's not disappointed when Robin's grin practically goes from ear to ear, his face lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning and his teeth sinking into his bottom lip before he says, "I'll call her right now. Where would you like to go to dinner, milady?"
Grinning, she says, while sheepishly shrugging a shoulder up once, "Anywhere. You pick."
He says he will, and with that, he takes her hand and leads them over to the slide to get their boys and head back to her apartment.