I went back to the kitchen to check on dinner. I glanced at the calendar. Next week was Thanksgiving. I couldn’t believe how quickly the year had passed. Trey and I had decided to stay in Atlanta for Thanksgiving.
Trey got in a little after 5:30 p.m., which was unusually early for him. “Something smells good,” he said, coming into the kitchen to give me a kiss.
“You’re home early.”
“Yep, I couldn’t wait to see you, baby.”
“Liar,” I laughed.
“No, really. I wanted to spend time with my two best girls since I didn’t get to see one of them very much over the weekend. I brought some work home with me, but that will be for later, after you fall into an exhausted sleep.”
“What makes you think I’m going to be exhausted when I go to bed?”
“‘Cause I plan to wear you out, baby.”
Trey could still make my stomach do flip-flops. He grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and went out to play with Preston while I finished making dinner.
After dinner, Trey offered to clean up the kitchen while I bathed Preston. He came into the bathroom as I was lifting her out of the tub. He wrapped a towel around her and said he would get her dressed for bed, if I wanted to shower.
Afterwards, dressed in my pajamas, I went to check on Trey and Preston. Trey was in the rocker in Preston’s room reading her a storybook. She was totally mesmerized by the story, or maybe just by him. He finished the story and gave her a kiss, handing her off to me. I got her tucked into bed, kissing her good-night.
Trey was in the living room preparing for Monday Night Football. It was the pre-game show. I needed to tell him about Tristan.
“Trey, I need to talk to you about Tristan.”
He muted the television and I took a place next to him on the couch.
“Oh yeah, baby, I’m sorry. I meant to ask you at dinner how it went with him at the club today.”
“That part went fine. I’m pretty certain he's going to buy my share of the club. He and Gina are meeting with the accountant tomorrow morning to review the books.”
“If anyone has a great sense of business it’s Tristan,” Trey replied. “I’m glad that it's going well, but, like I said, this is your decision. I’m not pressuring you one way or another.”
“Trey, this is something else altogether. I want you to watch something that happened today okay?”
I pulled up the video that Gina had sent to my iPhone of the conversation she'd had with Libby. I'd saved it to my videos. I hit the play button and handed it to Trey to watch. I watched as Trey’s expression went from impassive to disgust and then thoroughly pissed when Libby made the comments about me and the baby.
“That fucking bitch,” he hissed, raking his hand through his hair. “Did Gina show you the video from the closed circuit camera so you could see that I pushed her hand away?”
“No. You see, there's no closed circuit camera. Gina made that up to draw the truth out of Libby for this video.”
“Pretty clever of Gina,” he replied.
“So, what now?” I asked him.
“Now it’s time to let Tristan in on the charade. If he gets mad at me for being the messenger, then so be it. I can’t know what I know right now, and do nothing.”
“I agree, but how are you going to get to talk to him without Libby being around?”
“A video's worth a thousand words.”
Trey took my IPhone and texted Tristan, letting him know that it was him and not me and that a video was coming over that was for his eyes and ears only. Tristan texted back to let it roll.
"Here goes.” Trey forwarded the video to his brother. I scooted over to be closer to Trey on the couch.
“Will Tristan be alright?”
“He'll be hurt, but he’ll get over it.”
“What kind of a person is Libby?”
“I think she’s a very kinky girl, Tylar. The kind you don’t take home to mother.”
“Trey, that’s not funny. She's likely broken your brother’s heart!”
“I really don’t think so.”
“How can you say that? He got engaged to her.”
“Yeah, after knowing her for what? Two minutes? That’s just not like him at all. I think Tristan had a little bit of a mid-life crisis going on and did one of those stupid things guys do when that happens. Luckily, it's easily remedied and put behind him. He'll be fine.”
"You better not do anything like that when yours hits,” I warned him.
“Not a chance, baby. Come on, let’s go play.”
Chapter 26
I was packed and ready to go, waiting for Gina and Trey to arrive at the apartment. Trey had some things to finish up at his office and planned to be home around noon. Gina said she'd be over right after she and Tristan finished up at the accountant’s this morning. It was one-thirty and neither one of them had crossed the threshold yet.
Preston was in her playpen looking adorable in her red bib overalls and her red and white striped long sleeved polo shirt. I'd put her hair into two tiny pigtails with little red bows. Her other bottom central incisor was breaking through. She was chewing anything rubbery like crazy. At the moment, she was slobbering on her rubber ducky bathtub toy. She'd refused to part with after her bath this morning. It was squeaking like crazy as she ravaged it with her emerging teeth.
Finally, I heard a commotion at the front door. Trey was first in with Gina tagging closely behind. They appeared to be arguing.
Imagine that…
“All I’m saying is you might've wanted to pick a better time and more compassionate method of dropping that little bomb on Tristan other than forwarding that video, which by the way, he clearly knew I'd produced.”
“Gina, I'm not justifying my actions to you. He needed to know and now he does. Why are you upset?”
“Jesus Christ, Trey, why the hell do you think? Your brother and I may end up as business partners. The night before we meet with the club’s accountant, you drop that video bombshell on him; the same video that I was responsible for recording. Talk about wanting to kill the messenger!”
“He needed to know. You must agree or you wouldn’t have concocted that little entrapment scheme of yours to get Libby on video admitting that she’s a fucking freak!”
“Whoa, okay you two,” I interrupted, “first of all, keep it down. You’re upsetting Preston.” They both glanced over at Preston in her playpen chewing away on her rubber ducky as if she was oblivious to the whole thing. She must get upset only if it's Trey and me arguing.
“Okay,” I continued, “then you're upsetting me. What's going on? Is Tristan backing out of the deal?”
“Well, no, he didn’t say that,” Gina replied. “He just showed up thirty minutes late at the accountant's office, looking all bleary-eyed and unkempt. He snarled at me about my prowess at shadiness and referred to me as “the Shady Lady,’ how coincidental is that?”
Oops!
“Oh, Gina, I’m sorry. I told him you were considering changing the name of the club to The Shady Lady.”
“That’s certainly fitting,” Trey chimed in. “I’m going in to pack. This conversation's over.”
“You see?" Gina whined after he'd left. "You see how he treats me? Why am I the bad guy in all this?”
“Sit down, Gina,” I replied. “Let’s talk.”
She sat down, crossing her legs and arms. Her body language definitely told me that she wasn't going to be receptive.
“First of all, I don’t think that you're the bad guy in this and neither does Trey. In fact, he thought the way you went about getting Libby to admit what she'd done was pretty clever. Tristan needed to know what she was about. So what happened this morning? Is Tristan actually angry with you?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say angry is the word. I mean, it was really hard to tell because he was bleary-eyed, like he hadn’t slept, and kind of disheveled. He still looked hot," she giggled.
“Well, he didn’t yell at you or anything;
did he?”
“No nothing like that. It's just that when Rob was going over the figures with him, it seemed like he was preoccupied and miserable.”
“Well, you of all people can understand that right? Seeing that video of Libby admitting that she wanted Trey had to be a shock for him. How were things left about the club?"
“Tristan got copies of the financial information. He's flying back to Bristol tonight. He said he'd review everything and be in touch early next week.”
“Once he comes to terms with the fact that this thing with Libby was nothing more than him acting out a mid-life crisis, he'll shake it off. Trey says Tristan has the Midas touch when it comes to managing businesses.”
“He looks like he probably has the Midas touch with a lot of things.” Gina was giggling like a school girl. I suspected she was crushing a bit on Tristan.
“Hey,” I said, “That still doesn’t explain why you were so late getting here.”
She fidgeted a bit, and then said something about how she had to go back to the condo to pack her stuff for her stay at our place with Preston. That was strange. Apparently, it was none of my business. Perhaps Tristan had kept her longer than she cared to admit.
“Maybe if he has to come back next to week to finalize the papers, he can stay here and have Thanksgiving dinner with Trey and me.”
“You’re not going to Bristol?” she asked.
“No. Trey’s parents alternate each year between their house and the Andrews. This year, it’s the Andrews turn and Trey and I decided not to make the trip. Are you going to Becky’s for Thanksgiving this year?”
“I can’t go this year on account of the club. That’s a very busy three-day weekend for us, so I'll be sticking around here.”
“Well good. We'll expect you here for Thanksgiving then.”
Trey emerged packed and ready. I filled Gina in on the last minute instructions concerning the baby. She'd picked Preston up out of the playpen and was holding her. I kissed my baby on the cheek and Trey did the same. I told Gina I'd call her later.
Trey and I relaxed on the plane in first class. I hadn’t been away with Trey since our honeymoon, when I was so stressed about leaving the baby. Today, I had no such trepidations. I was excited about going to this oral argument or whatever it was called. I needed Trey to clarify it for me.
“Trey, I know you’ve tried to explain this whole process to me, but start with the basics, if you will, and explain why this Motion has to be heard by a panel of judges from different districts. I mean, I understand that your clients reside in different districts, but why do so many judges on a panel need to decide?”
Trey loved explaining the law to me; it was his life, his passion. I got that. I loved hearing him talk about it because it was complicated, subjective, and passionate—just like Trey.
“Okay, baby, well first of all, I think you’ve already realized that multidistrict legislation or MDL, as its commonly referred to, is a special federal procedure to speed the process of handling complex cases having multiple litigants from different jurisdictions.” I nodded, wanting him to get to the part that I didn’t already know.
“So, in this particular case, we have a product liability issue with mass torts and multiple plaintiffs from different states. Some of those states, though neighboring, fall under different federal court jurisdictions. The purpose is to get the federal judges on this panel, which represents different federal court appellate jurisdictions, to agree that it's first of all the right thing to do; and secondly, to specify which federal jurisdiction should hear and rule on all of the pre-trial motions.”
“Does this sort of thing happen a lot?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t say that our firm runs into it that often, but it’s not all that rare either. The MDL statute came to be enacted in 1968. It was a belated response to a major price-fixing scandal that occurred at General Electric in 1961. As a result of GE’s activities in 1961, the federal courts were flooded with criminal and related civil litigation. The statute was put into place to consolidate pre-trial proceedings and discovery under one court for efficiency and timeliness.”
“My husband seems to be an expert on this particular legal topic,” I said, with pride in my voice. Trey smiled at my compliment.
“Thanks, baby. Actually, I did my senior thesis on that particular case involving GE's price-fixing and anti-trust violations for my entrance into law school. It was titled, "Edison’s Evil Empire: Conspiracy and Collusion." I got an ‘A’ on it,” he grinned.
Trey continued to educate me on the procedures that take place during this hearing with time limits and the random calling of dockets. I think once again, in his own way, he wanted to prepare me in case I couldn’t get close enough to Judge Tylar to see if he was related. I was hoping for some recognition on my part, though with all of the lies that Maggie had told over the years, even I couldn’t see how that would be possible.
Once we were on the ground in Baton Rouge, an airport limo took us to our hotel, which was located within walking distance of the federal court where we would be in the morning. Trey was busy on his cell and laptop, so I called Gina to let her know that we'd arrived and asked how the baby was doing.
“Everything's good, Ty. No worries here. Preston sure does like those green beans you made for her. I spooned in the whole jar and she still acted like she wanted more.”
Really? The whole jar?
“Gina, you probably should've only given her half of that jar with a half of jar of the fruit that I left in the fridge.”
“I did give her a half jar of that fruit stuff. I think she'd have eaten it all, but I got tired of cleaning it off of myself when she kept hurling it at me with her fingers. It was quite a food fight we had going. I think I got most of it off the walls in the kitchen.”
Seriously?
“Where is she now?”
“She's playing in her playpen. I’m about ready to give her a bath and put her in her jammies. Do you want to say good-night to her?”
“Yeah, put the phone up to her ear; I want to see if she recognizes my voice.” I heard Gina talking to her as she took the phone away from her ear and put it near Preston’s.
“Go ahead, Ty, the phone is next to her ear.”
“Hi, Preston! How's Mommy’s baby doing, huh?”
I could hear Gina’s voice in the background. “You should see her, Ty; she's grinning ear to ear and slobbering on my damn phone to boot.”
“Mommy loves Preston. You be a good girl for Aunt Gina, okay?” I gave her loud kisses over the phone. Gina got back on.
“That's so cute how she recognized your voice. She was smiling away at the phone!" It did my heart good to hear that. I missed my sweet baby.
"Hey, Ty, we’ve got to cut this call short, Tristan's calling in. Have fun; don’t worry. Bye.”
Tristan's calling in?
“That’s weird,” I mumbled aloud.
“What’s weird, baby?” Trey asked looking up from his laptop. “Did your phone drop the call?”
“No, Gina was in a rush to take Tristan’s call just now.”
Trey glanced at his watch. “He’s probably just now at the airport. Maybe he’s had an opportunity to look over the financials and wants to back out of the deal,” he chuckled.
“I've got a feeling that’s not the case,” I replied, stretching out across the king-sized bed. I propped my head up on my elbow, watching my gorgeous husband tapping the keys on his laptop.
“Whatcha doing, Trey?” I asked coquettishly.
He looked over at me and smiled. “Just give me a few minutes, baby, to finish typing up these notes and then we'll go get something to eat,” he said. “Do you have any preferences?”
“I was actually in the mood for some protein,” I replied, giving him a smile. Trey looked up quickly from his laptop, a sly grin spreading across his face. He stopped typing and stood up to stretch. He unbuckled his belt and kicked his shoes off, closing the distance between the desk and the
bed.
“What the hell; I can finish those notes later,” he grinned, joining me.
Chapter 27
Trey set our alarm for six, so that we could get to the courthouse in plenty of time. I'd finally nagged him into getting there early, so that we could have seats in the courtroom as close to the judges’ bench as possible.
He explained that during the wait, most attorneys take care of other legal business through use of their cell phones or laptops remotely. They don't necessarily stay in the courtroom until their case is called. The remote activity is done out in the corridor. The judges frown on the distraction of beeping phones or hushed conversations within the courtroom. He also explained that entering and exiting the courtroom repeatedly is frowned upon as well.
I told him once he got me seated he was free to go out in the corridor until his docket was called. I wanted to watch the proceedings. This was something new for me. Aside from that, I wanted to observe this Judge Tylar. I'd pulled a picture up of him when I did an internet search of his name. There was no obvious resemblance to me, but the picture didn’t divulge a lot of detail. I guessed his age to be late forties; he seemed handsome enough for an older guy.
I'd dressed conservatively in a black turtleneck sweater dress. I'd pulled my hair back into a ponytail. As I finished getting ready in the bathroom, I removed the two blue velvet boxes from my carry-on bag. I put the pearl drop earring in my ears, and fastened the single tear-drop pearl necklace around my neck. Trey came into the bathroom asking me to tie his tie.
“What'd you do all those years before I was in the picture?” I teased him.
“I had girlfriends,” he replied, snickering.
I smacked him playfully on the shoulder. “There,” I said, straightening his tie and smoothing it out. “You look very handsome counselor. What judge could possibly refute your argument?”
Shadows and Dreams (Dream Series Book 2) Page 21