“Four.”

                “Four.”

                “Boys or girls?”

                “One boy, three girls.”

                “What’s their names?”

                “Tyler, Taylor, Courtney and Lauren.”

                Ashley nodded, satisfied with Spencer’s answers.  “I love you Ms. Carlin.”

                “I love you Ms. Davies.”

                Ashley jerked as she woke from her dreams.  Her heart raced as if she had been having a nightmare. 

                “Ash…you okay?”  Gia squinted through the twilight at her girlfriend and her heaving chest.  Ashley didn’t respond.  “Ashley.”

                “Huh?”  Ashley blinked her eyes to adjust them before blankly staring at Gia.

                “What’s wrong?”

                “Bad dream,” Ashley said simple, brushing it off hoping Gia would go back to bed.  Gia gently nudged Ashley, turning her so that Ashley’s back pressed against Gia’s chest.  Gia wrapped her arm around Ashley’s waist, pulling her closer and tangled their legs together.  Ashley felt Gia’s full lips at the nape of her neck before her heavy breathing quickly followed, but she couldn’t fall back to sleep.  Ashley stared out into the darkness of Gia’s bedroom until her eyes adjusted.  She just laid there for what seemed like hours. 

It wasn’t long before the rising sun was on the horizon, slowly turning the bedroom into deep shades of orange.   Ashley reached over, careful not to wake Gia, who had stopped holding onto Ashley an hour ago and grabbed her cell off the nightstand.  Ashley took the phone off of silent and flicked through the apps until she reached her ringtones.  Kyla’s ringtone cut through the silence and Ashley let it play until she felt Gia stir beside her.

“Hello?”  Ashley said to no one, feigning grogginess as she held the phone to her ear.  “Hold on, hold on, I can’t hear you Kyla.  What’s wrong, why are you crying?”  Ashley was silence, as if she were listening to Kyla sob over the phone.  Gia slowly sat up in bed and placed a hand on Ashley’s arm.  “Okay, slow down.  Just chill and breathe.  I can’t understand anything you saying Kyla…I’ll be right over.”  Ashley went through the motions of hitting the end button on her phone.

“Everything okay?” Gia asked, concern etched into every inch of her face and instantly, Ashley felt horrible for lying to her.