Baby Love Lite

by ANDREA SMITH

  “Gina, just relax and not stress out about it right now, okay?" Secretly, I so wanted just once for a Sinclair family holiday to not be fucked-up over some unexpected drama!

  “Okay,” she sniffed; “I'll wait until we get back to Atlanta.”

  “Good! Just put this out of your mind and enjoy being with Tristan and his family for the next couple of days.”

  “I'd like to go over and visit Aunt Becky; I do want to share this with her.”

  “I think that might be a good thing,” I stated.

  I knew her Aunt Becky would help her gain some perspective on this and console her in a motherly way. That was what Gina needed at the moment.

  CHAPTER 51

  After lunch, I bundled Preston up and took her out to the horse barn to visit Derringer. I'd brought some cut carrots with me. I held her on my hip and showed her how Derringer would eat the carrots from my hand. He chomped them noisily and then would nuzzle my closed hand when he wanted more.

  I kept repeating the word ‘horsey’ to her to see if she'd catch on to that word. So far, she'd not rewarded me with her rendition of it. I carried her with me up the trail pointing out the different cottages and who they'd belonged to as if she'd know these people. Nothing had changed much. As I came up to the first cottage I'd occupied I saw the door open and Mark came barreling out.

  Oh My God - Mark's still here!

  “Tylar?” he hollered loudly, hurrying up to me on the path. “Damn, I thought it was you when I looked out my window. Same sexy little saunter as always.”

  “Same flirtatious Mark, I see,” I teased.

  “And who might this beautiful little angel be?”

  “This is our daughter, Preston Michaela Sinclair,” I announced proudly.

  Preston had her fingers in her mouth but when Mark looked down at her and smiled, she gave him a big dimpled grin.

  “Look at those little teeth coming in,” he said with a grin. “I bet she has some bite to her just like her mama.”

  “Yeah, right,” I laughed.

  “Hey, not to change the subject,” he started, “but I understand Derringer's leaving here in a few weeks.”

  “Yes, our house is nearly finished complete with a horse barn and riding arena. We hope to board horses and I’ve decided to teach dressage.”

  “Well, good for you,” he replied.

  “What are your plans, Mark?”

  “Well, I’ve been put in charge of the track and breeding stock. It’s all worked out pretty well.”

  “Do you ever see any of the others?”

  “The crew that was with you last year all graduated this past spring, with the exception of Jenna, who finished grad school and is teaching in Fairfax. Clint graduated, but still works over at the ‘Belle. Rodney moved to Houston taking a job there. Luke moved to Fairfax around the same time as Jenna. I’ll let you connect those dots.”

  I laughed. “It seems like a million years ago,” I reflected.

  “I’m really glad things worked out for you and Trey, speaking of which, I think your man's come to look for you, as we speak.”

  I turned to look in the direction of the path leading up to the cottages, and sure enough, Trey was on his way. Mark gave me a pat on the shoulder and took off walking the path towards the ‘Belle. I turned and headed back the way I'd come.

  “I wondered where you'd gone off to,” he said, pulling Preston from me and circling his free arm around my waist. We walked back down the path towards the horse barn.

  “I wanted to see Derringer and introduce Preston to him. She was enamored, of course.”

  Preston squealed with delight as we walked through the barn and she spotted Derringer again. She was pointing to the horse and jabbering something.

  Trey laughed, hugging her closely. “I see we have yet another equestrian in the making,” he commented.

  “I think she gets that from me,” I replied, grinning.

  When we got back to the house, I put Preston down for her afternoon nap. The New Year’s Eve festivities were at the Sinclair’s estate this year since they alternated that holiday with the Andrews as well. I'd pumped a couple of bottles of breast milk earlier and put them in the fridge. I was going to party this New Year’s Eve. I remembered quite well the fiasco of last year’s, which made me all that much more determined to make this year’s better.

  Trey gave me a cat whistle when he came into our suite later in the evening, and saw me putting the finishing touches on my hair and make-up.

  “I shouldn’t let you out of our room dressed like that, baby,” he said perusing me from top to bottom.

  I was wearing a tight black dress that fell to mid-calf with a slit up each side that went mid-thigh. The dress was strapless with a built-in underwire push up bra. I wore four-inch, black pumps with dark, thigh-high stockings. I accessorized with sparkly red jewelry; dangling earrings with shiny stars and a matching necklace.

  “Oh, Trey,” I said, “I just look festive tonight.”

  “Just remember, baby, the festivities take place later tonight. You and me in that bed right there.” He drew me to him tightly and his lips found mine in a warm and sensuous kiss. I felt him harden against me.

  “Later, baby,” I laughed pushing away. “I don’t want you mussing my hair and make-up.”

  “By the way, Preston's staying in Mom and Dad’s suite, right?” he asked pulling his shirt off getting ready for his shower.

  “Trey, did you ever stop to think that perhaps your parents have plans in their bed tonight?”

  “Don’t worry,” he said with a wink and a smile, “they won’t wake her.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Gina popped over to our suite while Trey was in the shower.

  “You look great,” she said eying my outfit.

  “Right back at you, Gina,” I said.

  Gina was wearing a short, royal blue, spandex dress that had black sequins in a diamond-shaped pattern on the front and back. “Listen to this, girlfriend,” she said in an almost whisper, “Tristan wants us to get engaged and then announce it tonight.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” I said louder than I'd intended.

  “Shhh,” she whispered loudly, waving her hand at me.

  “Don’t worry; I talked him out of it. I told him, first of all, I wasn’t ready to jump back into marriage again and even if I was, I'd no intention of him being tacky about announcing it like he'd done two months ago on his birthday with that whore Libby.”

  “But, Gina, you do love Tristan, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do, Ty! What the hell kind of question is that?”

  “Then, why don’t you want to get married?”

  “I didn’t say I didn't ever want to get married. I prefer to play it like you did.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I don’t intend to be a knocked-up bride, either.”

  We both giggled. We heard the shower stop in the bathroom.

  “Hey, I better scoot. I wouldn’t want to see the Hot Nazi coming out here in his birthday suit,” she said scooting off the bed and heading out the door.

  Had Gina stayed thirty seconds longer that's exactly what she'd have seen. I was still sitting on the bed when Trey came out of the bathroom 'au natural' and headed to his closet. I never tired of looking at his body; he caught me doing so as he came back out of his closet with his evening garb. He cocked an eyebrow at me his mouth curving into a sexy smile.

  “No, Trey. I’m all ready and I’m not getting mussed up this close to the start of the guests arriving for the party. I really mean it, honey,” I pleaded as he sauntered over to the bed naked. Thirty minutes later, I was re-doing my hair and make-up in the bathroom. .

  The party was in full swing, with nearly all of the guests present, by the time Trey and I got downstairs. A DJ was spinning records in the large family room, that'd been expanded to include the deck right off of it. The fire pit was going to keep everyone that ventured outside to dance warm. Trey went over to
talk to Nigel, and I made a quick path to the bar and ordered an Adios Mother-Fucker, having to recite the recipe to the bartender.

  Gina’s Aunt Becky was there; I hadn’t seen her in a while. She was watching Tristan closely, observing the way that he and Gina interacted I suspected. She spotted me watching her watch them and waved me over. She gave me a hug.

  “I saw you checking the situation out with Gina,” I said to her laughing.

  “I’m just looking out for my sister’s daughter. Of course, all of us were shell-shocked with what Ian pulled.”

  “Yeah, no one saw that coming,” I agreed. “Did Gina mention that Ian was trying to get back together with her a couple of weeks ago?”

  “Are you shitting me?” Becky looked totally blown away by Ian’s audacity.

  “I was there,” I said. “She blew him off. She's all about Tristan.”

  “That's apparent,” she said nodding her head.

  “Just so you know, Aunt Becky, he's all about her as well.”

  “He damn well better be,” Becky replied. “Gina’s almost like one of my own.”

  Our conversation was interrupted when we both saw Landon and Caroline come in through the main hallway.

  “Well, I see the entertainment has arrived,” Becky said wryly. “I think I need another beer.”

  Caroline spotted me standing there and gave me a wave. She came across the dance floor noticing Gina and Tristan slow dancing to the music. She did a double take on her way over. She had her signature glass of red wine in her hand and it looked as if it wasn't her first of the evening.

  “Hey, Tylar,” she said in her semi-slurred voice, “what happened to Tristan’s bitch with the flapping fig leaves?”

  “He traded up Caroline, can’t you tell?”

  “I know that’s right,” she giggled, signaling for Landon to bring her a full glass of wine. “So, what’s this big news that Nigel and Tess brought with them from California?” she asked, taking a healthy swig of her wine.

  I truthfully hadn't a clue as to what she was talking about. Apparently, that was evidenced on my face.

  “Really, Tylar, are you always the last one to the party?”

  “Apparently so, Caroline, I’ve heard nothing about any news they have. Wouldn’t Landon know since he's her brother?”

  “You bet your perky ass he knows,” she slurred. “He’s keeping it from me. He says I don’t know when to keep my mouth shut. Do you believe that horseshit?”

  I gave her a look of disbelief. It was actually disbelief that Caroline hadn’t figured that out already about herself with her numerous drunken tirades.

  “I know, right,” she nodded misunderstanding my look as being in agreement with her. “But,” she continued on as if I was even interested, “I'll tell you this; Landon's way stricter with me than Nigel had ever been. Tell you the truth, it’s kind of sexy.”

  She started giggling about that time and swayed.

  I wasn’t particularly anxious to be wearing her red wine on me, despite the fact I was wearing a dark color.

  “Here comes your man, Tylar,” she said letting out a drunken version of a tiger roar, “TTYL.”

  She staggered on her way most likely trying to find Landon and her full glass of Merlot.

  “What’s ‘TTYL’?” Trey asked coming up to me.

  “Talk to you later,” I said.

  “Well, excuse me; what the fuck did I do to piss you off?”

  “No, Trey,” I started laughing. My alcohol consumption was giving me a very nice buzz. “TTYL are the first letter initials for the phrase: Talk To You Later.”

  I asked Trey to get me another Adios Mother Fucker at the bar.

  “Tylar, you aren’t going to get shit-faced tonight, are you?”

  "Trey, its New Year’s Eve. When was the last time I really, really got to cut loose and party? So yes; I plan to get totally shit-faced tonight and party till I puke.”

  Trey grudgingly brought my drink to me. I sipped on it; about twenty minutes later I ordered another. Trey and I danced to a couple of songs. He noticed Gina wasn't drinking.

  “What’s up with Gina tonight?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It looks like she’s on the wagon for some reason.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I think she promised Tristan she wouldn’t get wasted tonight. I think she’s just pacing herself,” I lied.

  Nigel had come over after we'd finished dancing. He asked if he could borrow Trey for a few minutes to discuss a matter. I decided to get my drink freshened up. When I came back into the main room, Gina was sitting talking to Tess on the sofa. I joined them.

  “Did all of our men dessert us?” I asked sitting down with them.

  “It appears so,” Tess replied sheepishly.

  I wasn’t sure what that was about. Tess was abstaining from alcohol as well.

  “Are you feeling okay, Tess?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes, I’m fine,” she replied. “I was just getting to know Gina. I’m delighted that Tristan found his mind again.”

  I burst out laughing and both Tess and Gina looked over at me. I straightened up in my seat and looked over at Tess. “So, how's everything in California, Tess?”

  “Everything's great. This will be our last trip back east for a while. Nigel and I'll be busy the next few months trying to realize our dream.”

  I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant; I'd enough alcohol in me to not care about being nosey. “Are you going to share your dream with us?”

  “Ty,” Gina said in a rather admonishing tone.

  “No, Gina, that’s alright. We’ve already told both sets of parents and Tylar is family. Gina, I suspect you'll be family soon, so I'd love to share this good news with both of you.”

  My curiosity was definitely piqued now.

  “Gina, I’m not sure that you know this, but an accident some years back made it impossible for me to carry a baby. I can conceive, but would never be able to carry a baby after the first trimester. Unfortunately, when Nigel and I married, we learned that he was sterile for all intents and purposes. Recently we've explored surrogate options. I’ve had several of my eggs harvested and stored. We're going to have my eggs artificially inseminated and have located a surrogate through the agency who will have the fertilized eggs implanted into her, where hopefully they'll attach to the uterine wall, and she'll carry the baby to term.”

  “Oh, Tess!” Gina and I both said in unison.

  “That's great, Tess,” I said hugging her.

  “You go for it, Tess,” Gina encouraged, “I really wish you and Nigel the best with this.”

  “Thank you,” Tess replied smiling.

  Even in my extremely buzzed state, I felt as though Tess was holding something back. It was probably my imagination as I tossed down the rest of my drink, and went back to the bar. Trey was still nowhere to be found and I wanted to dance.

  Just then I saw Trey, Tristan and Nigel come back into the room. I scurried over to him, pulling him by the hand onto the dance floor as the DJ announced the next tune by saying, “It’s electric!”

  Trey was clearly at a loss trying to follow the steps of the electric slide. I was having a blast other than knocking into the couple next to us several times. When that song ended, the DJ asked for requests. I shouted out “Disco Inferno.” It happened to be a dance I'd seen Maggie do a million times growing up. I'd no clue as to what I was thinking. The song started and I was going through the same moves that I'd seen her do many times. Again, Trey wasn't in his comfort zone with this.

  Then some random guy that was with the DJ saw me out there on the floor with a partner that totally hadn’t a clue as to how this dance worked. He was in front of me in a second and we danced to the song as if we were Travolta and Gorney from the old classic movie, “Saturday Night Fever.”

  Trey gave me a dirty look as he sauntered off the floor. The dance finished and I realized as I left the floor, I was still spinning. The DJ was starting the next tu
ne which was a classic ACDC tune called “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”

  Oh, Sweet Jesus, the Adios Mother Fuckers are kicking my ass!

  I made a hasty exit to the deck and stumbled down the two steps that led out into the yard. I traipsed quickly over to the side of the house, where no one could see me from the deck. I felt my stomach start to heave.

  Luckily, I made it over to the line of oleander bushes that were dried up for the winter season and unceremoniously tossed my cookies over them. It'd had only been a figure of speech when I'd told Trey earlier that I'd planned on partying until I puked. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I wasn’t sure that I was done tossing just yet.

  “What the hell!”

  I heard Caroline’s shrill, drunken voice from the ground on the other side of the bushes. “Oh, shit! Landon, I think someone just puked on me!”

  My glazed eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I could see Caroline’s body sitting atop Landon in the grass, both of them half-naked.

  Holy shit!

  I quickly staggered away, not wanting to be recognized. As I stumbled back across the yard toward the house, I met Trey who'd obviously been searching for me outside. Just as he reached me, I spewed all over the front of him.

  “Jesus Christ!” he snarled. “Are you happy with yourself, Tylar?”

  He pulled me behind him and took me around through the front entrance of the house; he halfway carried me up to our suite. Once there, he planted my ass in front of the toilet where I continued to heave. I heard him running the shower to get it warmed up.

  Trey somehow managed to peel my clothing off along with his, and pulled me into the shower with him, where he proceeded to try and get me sober. Afterwards, he dried me off and dressed me in my pajamas.

  The last thing I remembered before I passed out on our bed was Trey wishing me a ‘Very Fucking Happy New Year.’

  CHAPTER 52

  My head was pounding when I finally came to in our bed on New Year’s morning. This was worse than the hangover I'd experienced last year when Gina and I'd gone to the track and met the "mirror" twins.

  Evidently, wine hangovers weren’t quite as lethal as those caused by drinking too many Adios Mother Fuckers. Even my eyelashes were in pain. I managed to raise my head off the pillow a couple of inches and saw that Trey wasn't in the bed. At this point, I wondered if he'd even slept in here last night. When I looked at the pillow and blankets I decided that he had.