by ANDREA SMITH
By 7:30 the pool party was in full swing. Rodney, Andy, Neely, and Luke were hanging out. The food was good, the music was great, and the drinks were kicking my ass. Things wound down around nine being a work night for everyone. Gina and I gathered everything up and headed up to the house. Thatcher was there to greet us, taking everything from us insisting he would clean up.
Both of us went upstairs to shower. I jumped into Trey’s shower, careful to avoid touching the new piercing directly but rather allowing the warm water to rinse over it. I shaved my legs with Trey’s razor again and dressed in his blue robe. Once in my bed I realized how worn out I was but it was a nice worn-out. It took my mind off missing Trey. I sank into a deep, peaceful slumber.
The rest of the week passed uneventfully for both Gina and me. We finished up with all of the corking, labeling, and packing of 70 cases of wine. We had 30 more to go and then we would be finished with the batches fully fermented. Gina estimated mid-next week would be the end of it. Then she would head back to Atlanta. I was really going to miss her.
I heard from Trey a couple of more times during the week. He anticipated the case would go into the first day or two of the following week. I let him know that I had a surprise for him when he got back to Bristol for the weekend. He said that he would see me Friday night. His flight would arrive around 9 p.m. I felt the familiar butterflies again.
When Gina and I clocked out on Friday afternoon, Becky called us over. “Gina, Ian called and left a message earlier today.”
“Why didn’t he just call me?” she asked, “I’ve got my cell phone in my pocket.”
“Probably because you’re not going to like the content of his message. He can’t make it in from Atlanta this weekend. He’s really, really sorry but things came up with getting the auditions completed with the bands so they’ll run over into the weekend. He loves you and will make it up to you.” Becky rushed through the message, eager to have it all out and be done with it.
“That’s just great!” Gina fumed. “He knew damn well that he had way too many groups booked for auditions this week. There was no way in hell he was going to get through them all, I told him that. But it was ‘No, babe, we can handle it, no way this will keep me from seeing you this weekend, babe’. Bullshit! I’ve half a mind to head downtown and get the ‘Ian’ I have tattooed on my ass removed!”
All in all, Gina was taking the news pretty well.
“Now don’t do anything rash, Gina. You and Tylar can hang out this weekend, host another pool party,” Becky suggested.
“Not likely,” Gina mumbled, “Trey’s coming in this weekend. The last thing he’ll want is me here as the third wheel.”
“I’m sure it will all work out,” Becky said, giving Gina a sympathetic couple of pats on her back. Gina and I collected our pay envelopes and left the office.
“Let’s walk back to the manor,” Gina suggested. “I need to burn off some energy.” She continued to rant and rave about Ian during most of the trek back. I steered her toward the stables so I could visit Derringer and we ran into Clint as we entered the barn.
“Hey, how’s it going Tylar?” he asked, grinning.
“Doing great,” I replied.
“Have you met Gina Hatton?” I asked.
Clint wiped his hand off on his shirt, extending it to her.
“I’ve seen you around,” he spoke, addressing Gina. “Clint Cavanaugh,” he finished my introduction for me. “You're Becky’s niece, right?”
“That’s right,” Gina answered. “I'm just here helping out for another week and then heading back to Atlanta."
“You girls going to be at the quarter races tonight?”
I couldn’t believe that Clint had asked that.
“Doubtful,” I hissed, still a bit raw from last weekend’s humiliating experience.
“C’mon,” he coaxed, “no one thought badly about you for that. Everyone knew who was pulling the strings there.”
Gina looked back and forth at us quizzically.
“Long story,” I said. “I’ll fill you in later.”
I turned back to Clint. “Yeah, but you kind of played a part in that, Clint.”
He looked genuinely sheepish, absently kicking some loose straw around on the stable floor.
“Look, Tylar, “I’m really sorry, okay? You have to believe that I did it for your own safety. I might've been negligent in protecting you that night in the pool so I damn sure wasn’t going to let anything happen to you again.”
“What the hell is it with all these guys wanting to protect you, Tylar? Must be that helpless female thing you got going on,” Gina teased.
“No hard feelings, Clint, and maybe we'll see you over at the track tonight.” I replied.
Gina and I continued on up to the manor. “Maybe it would be fun to go to the track tonight,” I commented.
“Yeah,” she agreed, smiling devilishly, “we might even meet some guys!”
I knew Gina was joking; she never stopped talking about Ian, divulging every intimate part of their life together while we worked. I was envious of her for that. I wondered what it felt like to be that in love and lust 24/7. She said Ian grounded her. I couldn't imagine how Gina would be if ‘ungrounded.’ I knew she was disappointed, but going to the quarter races would get her mind off of the fact she wouldn’t be seeing Ian this weekend, plus it would kill time for me until Trey got in. My butterflies were restless today.
Once we returned to the manor, we went our separate ways. My cell phone was ringing when I got to my room. It was Trey.
“Hi,” I answered sounding a bit overly excited.
“Hey there,” smooth and silky said. “What are you up to?”
“Just got in from work and ready to hop in the shower. Gina and I are going to over to watch the quarter races this evening.”
“You’ll be careful, right?”
“Of course, Trey,” I answered, rolling my eyes.
“Good girl. So,” he continued, a bit hesitantly, it sounded as if he'd put his hand over his phone, muffling the sound of another conversation taking place at his end. I waited, tapping my foot, as I continued rooting through my closet. Finally he was back on the phone.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “I’ve got a couple of conversations going on here at the moment. I was starting to tell you I’m not going to be able to make it back to Bristol this weekend after all. Opposing counsel has filed a Motion to Compel Arbitration. The judge has agreed to hear oral arguments from both sides in chambers tomorrow. He'll rule on the motion Monday morning. So I'm going to be tied up late tonight prepping, and then presenting my argument tomorrow in chambers.”
My stomach butterflies crashed and burned.
Damn!
I heard a female voice from Trey’s end, “Trey, we have reservations for dinner. We need to leave now.”
“Hey gotta run,” he said hastily. “Talk to you soon—” The call ended abruptly. I sat numbly, staring at my phone in confusion. Who was that woman? Just then, Gina came through the door to my bedroom and saw my lost expression.
“What the fuck is wrong?” she demanded.
I didn’t answer her; it was hard to articulate exactly how I felt. Intellectually I knew I couldn’t dictate who Trey hung out with, just like I refused to let him tell me I couldn’t hang out with Clint. Yet it still stung to hear a woman’s voice on his line.
Gina wanted answers. “Okayyyy, what’s Trey done now?”
“Why do you presume it has anything to do with Trey?” I asked her, my voice on edge. “I’ve told you again and again, Gina, we don’t have that kind of relationship.”
“Sorry, your grace,” she said a bit snippily.
“For your information, that was my mom on the phone. She’s hitting me up for money, again. No surprise there,” I lied. I just didn’t want her thinking Trey was the reason after I'd made such a big deal to her about our non-relationship.
“So what’s up for tonight?” she asked.
I s
aw that Gina was in her bathrobe and had her bag of toiletries. “I’m gonna jump in the shower and change,” she said. “You let me know what you’re going to do when I get out.”
I was pissed but also determined not to let Trey spoil my weekend. He was working on something but it sure didn’t appear to have anything to do with the case. I pulled a tight little jean skirt out of my closet and decided to wear my new black tank half tee. My skin was lightly tanned, and the sun had brought out my new golden highlights. I jumped into Trey’s shower. Once finished, I slipped in to my sexy outfit and a pair of skyscraping black platform sandals.
Gina was finished as well as she came to my room.
“Hey hottie! Oh yeah, you look fantastic! You just need one little thing to accentuate your belly button ring. Be right back.”
Oh God, I couldn’t imagine what she had in mind. It was too soon to change the jewelry on it yet. She returned a few moments later with a small dangly chain that had a way of hooking on to the barbell without having to take the barbell out. There was a lightning bolt dangling from the chain. She clipped it on.
“Perfect. Super sexy with that flat tummy of yours, girl.”
“Like yours isn’t,” I remarked.
Gina had on a short white spandex skirt that hugged every curve on her. It was low slung and she'd put her navel jewelry on, a chain with a black rose dangling from it. She wore a black and white geometric print halter-top, her ample breasts displayed.
“Look at you, I said laughing, “You be trolling for trouble!”
“We be ‘track tramps’ tonight girlfriend!”
Gina had arranged for Rodney to come by and take us to the track. Neither one of us wanted to walk over in this heat. Rodney complied, but as soon as we got to the track we were on our own. The track served beer and wine, so we bought a couple of plastic wine glasses filled with the Belle’s own Riesling. It was chilled and tasted refreshing.
“Are you betting?” I asked Gina as we took our seats in the grandstand section.
“Of course,” she replied, “I generally bet by the horse’s names; I don’t believe in odds.”
“How's that worked for you?” I asked, giggling. Was the wine hitting me already? I hadn’t eaten anything since the bagel for breakfast.
Gina was at the window placing her bet for the first feature race. She was betting an Exacta on a horse named "Gina" to come in first and a horse named" I Kick Ass" for second place. Both were long shots but if she had the money to waste, so what?
When she returned back to our grandstand seats, two guys were following her with two more glasses of wine for us. She wasn’t kidding about meeting guys at the track.
“Here she is! Tylar, this is Dustin and Lyle. Guess what?” she halfway shrieked, “They're identical twins!”
No shit, I thought looking at them. Not only was every feature on them identical, it appeared as if they continued to have their hair cut in exactly the same style and wore matching clothes. They were 25 years old, at most. It seemed like they were taking the “twin” thing a bit far.
“Hey,” I said. “Well, which is which?”
“I’m Dustin,” the one closest to me said as he handed me a plastic glass of wine. I looked at Gina, feeling a bit peeved that she'd sprung geeky twins on us for the evening.
“Thank you,” I said, accepting the wine and shooting her a dirty look.
Lyle, the other twin, spoke as he took a seat next to Gina, “Actually, we're what they refer to as ‘mirror twins,’ meaning that we're identical to the point that one is the mirror image of the other. See, Dustin is right-handed and I'm left-handed. I have a mole on my left butt cheek; Dustin has the exact same mole on his right butt cheek.”
“Thanks for clarifying that for us,” I replied, turning away to roll my eyes.
They were dressed identically in tight Wrangler straight-leg blue jeans, with matching denim button-up shirts and red bandana scarves tied around their necks. They wore brown pointed-toe cowboy boots. I downed my glass of wine in two gulps. Gina looked at Lyle and gave him a sexy wink.
“How about another couple more wines, guys? I’ll buy if you fly?”
“Sure, Gina,” Lyle gushed. He took the bills from her hand and headed for the concessions. Dustin was busy showing Gina how he could turn his eyelids inside out. She was laughing as if it were the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Lyle returned with our wines and a couple of beers for them. No surprise there, they both drank Busch Lite.
The horses in the first race were being introduced on to the track. Gina hollered when her namesake horse was introduced, and then a few horses later, 'I Kick Ass'.
Finally the buzzer sounded, the gates went up. It was hysterical in that brief 30-second span, listening to the announcer say, “It’s Gina to the inside, then I Kick Ass right behind, Gina, now I Kick Ass breaking through to the outside. It’s I Kick Ass now Gina. The winner is Gina, followed by I Kick Ass!”
“I won, I won!” Gina shouted jumping up and down as both twins watched as her tits nearly jiggled free of her halter. She quickly went back up to the betting window to place her picks for the second feature. I drank my wine, just finishing my third one when Gina returned with two more glasses. The routine continued throughout the next six races and we were both getting hammered. I couldn’t keep track as to whether Gina was winning. At this point, I don’t think she even cared. The twins seemed to be enjoying our company. They were good sports about fetching our drinks.
“Hey, I got an idea, Tylar,” Gina slurred. “Let’s get a picture of your new bellybutton ring. It looks so awesome with that little jean skirt you have on.”
“That's a greaaat idea!” I agreed. “Just two little problems, Gina.”
“What are they, hon?”
“First, I’m not sure I can stand up on my own. Secondly, I’m fucking seeing double!” I roared, leaning over and pointing to the twins sitting next to one another. We fell into each other, laughing.
“We can fix that,” she giggled. “We’ve got two bookends here that can hold you up!” She swayed a bit as she pointed to Lyle and Dustin. “C’mon guys,” she ordered in her normal bossy way. “You get on each side of Tylar, yeah, like that. Put your arms around her back so she doesn’t fall now,” she yelled. “Tylar, you put one of your arms behind each of them. Put your hand on their butt moles,” she doubled over with laughter on that one. Gina activated the camera on my phone. “Okay everybody, ready?”
The twins squeezed in close to me resting their hands to the inside on the back of my butt.
“Cheese!” Gina hollered, snapping the digital picture.
“Here,” she said, “Before I save it see if you like it.”
I stumbled over and looked at it. I definitely looked inebriated, but overall sexy damn good. “It’s a take,” I said, “save it!”
Gina pushed the button and handed me my phone back. I immediately heard a sound effect from my phone that wasn't associated with the ‘save’ feature. The sound was a like jet engine “whooshing.” I hurriedly tapped the screen and saw the tail end of the envelope with wings flying off away.
What the hell?
“Oh God, Gina, you didn’t save the picture, you sent it!”
I checked the ‘sent’ file.
Oh shit! That picture's on its way to Trey’s phone!
“What?” Gina screeched. “How did that happen?” She pressed the button on my menu to bring up the photo. “See it’s saved,” she said, “take a look right here.”
I looked at what she'd done. Holy fuck! She'd hit the “Save & Send” option instead of just “Save.” That brought my contact listing up to select who to send it to, since the last outgoing phone contact was Trey, she'd simply hit “enter again,” and whoosh, it was off to his phone.
Oh crap!
“Hey,” Gina said, dissolving once again into a fit of giggles, momentarily distracting me from her major phone snafu.
“Check this out Ty! I see another one of those ‘mirror twin’
features.”
I looked at the picture again, closer this time. By God she was right: each of them had a hard-on under those tight jeans; one’s curved to the right, the other’s curved to the left. I brought my hand up to my mouth in horror. Oh My God. This was so not good!
Gina’s laughter was contagious. The twins were looking sheepish and Gina and I were ready to pee our pants.
She pulled herself together enough to place her bet for the last race of the evening. It was going to start in less than 10 minutes. I sat down trying my best to compose myself as the people around us were starting to get irritated. I needed to chill out and sober up a bit.
Just as Gina returned from placing her bet, my cell phone rang. I glanced down at the caller I.D. It was Trey.
Oh Shit!
“Hello,” I answered trying my best not to sound inebriated.
“What are you doing?” he asked; his voice full of anger.
“Watching the races,” I replied innocently.
“What was with the picture you just sent?”
“I didn’t send it, Gina did, by accident,” I replied loudly.
“Who are those two idiots with you?” he demanded, totally incensed.
“Twins,” I replied, giggling, followed by a hiccup. “Did you see my bellybutton?”
“I saw quite a lot of you in that picture, Tylar. This is how you behave yourself?”
Gina and the twins were staring at me now. They'd figured out that I was in some sort of a pickle with someone. Gina knew exactly who it was. They were waiting to see how it would play out. I didn’t appreciate getting a lecture from Trey every time I went out and had some fun.
“I'm sending someone to get you Tylar,” he snapped.
“I’m not ready to leave yet,” I slurred into the phone. I hiccupped again.
“Tylar, I mean it—”
I powered off the phone before I heard whatever it was Trey planned on yelling over the phone.
“I need another wine,” I announced, dropping my phone into my purse cockily.
CHAPTER 17
I was leaning over the toilet in Trey’s bathroom, heaving. Still dressed in my jean skirt and top I'd no idea how long I'd been at this. To the best of my recollection, Gina was in her bathroom playing the same song in her toilet. I tried to gather my thoughts as to how we'd even gotten back to the manor. Everything was so fuzzy…and painful. I promised myself that I'd never, ever drink again. I couldn’t imagine what I was throwing up other than the wine; I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. My head was throbbing already. Another spasm hit and I leaned over the toilet once again.