by ANDREA SMITH
When we were finished, Edie’s hair had undergone a tune-up while mine had gone through a complete overhaul.
“Oh my God,” Edie shrieked. “You look so different, Tylar.”
“That’s exactly the look I was going for.”
My hair was a dark chestnut brown that fell above my shoulders now. It was blunt cut in the back and angled at the sides. It looked exactly like Amber’s hair.
We then went shopping at Dillard’s. I bought two new pairs of boots; five pairs of skinny jeans, four new sweaters, a couple of cotton tee shirts, a new winter jacket and assorted lingerie, jewelry and make-up. By this time, Edie was feeling too self-conscious about my spending money on her. I finally forced her to get a pair of jeans and a sweater.
The limo was waiting for us outside to take us back to the estate. The driver had chilled champagne and cold appetizers waiting for us. We enjoyed both on the ride back.
“Wow,” Edie said, “I can’t believe you spent that much money today. I'm really appreciative of your generosity but don’t you think your husband's going to be pissed?”
I held up my champagne flute for a toast.
“Here’s to pissed-off husbands,” I said, tapping my flute gently against hers.
It was a little after 7:00 p.m. when the limo pulled up to the mansion. I gave one of my credit cards to the driver to swipe for payment and then threw a generous tip on top of it. He saw us to the door carrying our packages.
Edie took my packages once inside and said she'd deliver them to my room and have the washables laundered before I wore them. I thanked her.
“No - thank you, Tylar. I’ve had the best time today.”
“Don’t forget tomorrow night we’re going clubbing after your shift,” I reminded her.
I heard my father approaching across the hardwood floor towards the entry hall.
“Tylar, I’ve been worried. We’ve been holding dinner for you.”
“I’m sorry Dad, the time just slipped by so quickly.”
He was studying my new hairstyle. He had that ‘judge perusal’ thing going on again. I twirled around so he could get the full view of my shiny new hairstyle.
“Do you like it?” I asked.
“Darling, the important thing is that you like it,” he replied. “Let’s have dinner.”
Over dinner, Dad mentioned Trey had phoned him to see how I was doing.
“Since you weren’t home and I'd no clue where you were I couldn’t tell him much,” he said.
Holy shit! Is he going all ‘father’ on me now?
“Dad, I’m sorry,” I replied. “I really thought we’d be back before you got home. Edie and I went into Baton Rouge. I pampered myself just as Trey suggested I do, that’s all.”
My father eyed me warily. It reminded me a bit of Trey.
“That’s good. You still may want to call and check in with him so that he doesn’t worry,” he suggested.
“I will. Now tell me about your day.”
After dinner I retreated to my suite. Edie had hung up the coat and sweaters; she'd taken everything else I'd bought to be laundered. She'd put my make-up in the bathroom and my jewelry was on the dresser.
I pulled my cell out of my purse to put on the charger. I noticed I had several text messages. There were two from Trey; one from Gina. Trey had texted the first time at around 1:30 this afternoon:
"I hope you're relaxing and pampering yourself like a good girl. I love and miss you, Tylar."
His second text message and come in around 7:30 p.m. this evening:
"Your father's worried about you. I talked to him about an hour ago and he said he hasn’t heard from you all day. Please let me know you're okay."
Gina’s text had come in about fifteen minutes ago:
"Ty - call me when you get this. You evidently have your fucking phone on mute. Trey's a fucking mess! He and Tristan got into it BIG TIME!"
I phoned Gina immediately. She answered after the first ring.
“It’s about damned time, girlfriend. Your calls are going straight to voicemail. Are you avoiding me, too?”
“Of course not! I just now pulled my phone out and saw all of these text messages.”
“I only texted you once, but I must’ve called you like five times.”
“Trey texted twice earlier. I guess he called my father too. So, what’s the emergency?”
“Well, Trey's basically a mess over all of this, which in my opinion serves him right. But, I still feel for the Hot Nazi. Tristan laid him out good.”
“Oh my God, you mean they got into a brawl?”
“No, not that way. He laid him out verbally. Trey shows up at the club this afternoon around 6:00 p.m. when Tristan's working the bar. It’s pretty crowded with the after-five crowd and I guess Trey was all pissing and moaning into his suds. He’s all ‘I can’t lose her,’ ‘I love her so fucking much,’ blah, blah, blah. Finally, Tristan had just had enough. He got into Trey’s face and blasted him verbally. He told him he should’ve appreciated what he had before he fucked it up. He told Trey he wouldn’t blame you if you fucked every guy in Baton Rouge after the way Trey had treated you. He told him to get over himself. He said you were too good for Trey!”
Holy shit - I bet that didn’t go over well!
“Oh my God, Gina, I don’t want to be the reason that Tristan and Trey stop speaking to one another.”
“For crying out loud, someone had to put the Hot Nazi in his place and my man was just the person to do it. Having said that I still think you need to keep the lines of communication open with Trey to some extent.”
“Okay, okay,” I said wearily. “Between you and my dad nagging at me I promise the both of you I'll give Trey a call.”
“Good,” she said, “now how was your day?”
“I spent about three grand on pampering,” I replied.
“Excellent,” she said.
CHAPTER 6
I took a shower and got ready for bed. I'd promised both my father and Gina that I would call Trey. I was nervous about talking to him. I wasn’t sure what I had to say to him. It was after 10 p.m. Generally he was up till 11:00 or so. I breathed a sigh of relief when my call went to his voice mail. I was more comfortable leaving him a message.
“Trey, it’s me. My dad said he'd spoken to you earlier today. I was just out and about getting pampered and doing some shopping. Everything is okay here. Let me know when Preston's coming home. Take care.”
There. I'd kept it short and to the point. There was no need for Trey to worry about me while I was down here with my father. I wasn’t his responsibility. I missed Preston though. Right now I simply needed to focus on myself however selfish that sounded.
The following afternoon I went down to the barn to see the horses. My father employed two guys for the stables and the grounds full-time. They lived up over the stables in loft apartments. I'd met the older guy on my last visit. His name was Larry. Today there was a younger guy inside grooming one of the new Arabians my father had purchased.
“Are you Danny?” I asked as I approached the stall.
“Who’s asking?” he said looking over at me.
“I guess I am,” I remarked rolling my eyes. “Margo said you were working with the horses today while Larry's repairing the fence line. I wanted to take one of the horses out on the trail.”
“And you would be?” he asked.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “I’m Judge Tylar’s daughter, Tylar.”
He stopped what he was doing with the horse and looked over at me with a grin. He was cute with some bad-boy charm going for him. I judged him to be in his mid to late twenties. He had dark blond hair with blue eyes. He had a lean, muscular build.
“Do you mean you were actually named ‘Tylar Tylar’ at some point?”
“No,” I laughed thinking about how one might presume that, “it’s kind of a long story.”
“Well, I got time ‘Little Bit’ if you’d like to tell me. My name's Danny Duvall.”
He held his hand out to me and I shook it. It was warm and strong.
“Tylar Sinclair,” I said smiling. “Maybe I’ll tell you all about it sometime. Is it okay if I saddle up Jasmine?”
“Sure thing. Can you lift the saddle up that high?”
“I think I can manage, Danny,” I replied walking to where the freshly polished saddle was on the bench. I could tell he was watching the whole time I got Jasmine bridled and saddled.
“Well, I'm impressed, Ms. Sinclair,” he said as I mounted the horse. “I like to see a lady that can handle all aspects of riding. Most of the times they want someone else to do the hard stuff. Looks like you can hold your own.”
“I always have,” I said with a wink digging the stirrups into Jasmine’s side and clicking my tongue. I couldn’t believe that I'd come off that flirtatious with him. What the hell was I thinking these days? That was clearly not me.
It was a crisp autumn day with plenty of sunshine. It was a perfect day for trail riding. This was even better therapy than the day of "pampering" I'd treated myself to yesterday.
Today was Edie’s day off, but we were going clubbing this evening. She was going to pick me up around 8:00 p.m. I felt funny about borrowing one of my dad’s vehicles.
By the time I finished riding and brushed the horse down, it was starting to get dark out. I hadn’t seen any more of Danny when I returned to the stable. I could hear some country western music playing from the apartments upstairs. He was probably finished for the day.
I headed up to the house and got ready for an evening out with Edie. She pulled up out front and I scurried out the door hollering a quick good-bye to my father and telling him not to wait up. This must be so much what it was like to be a teenager I thought. I'd missed it all.
We went to a bar called "The Crying Cowboy." It was aptly named I discovered. The band was a very loud country-western group. Everyone was line dancing. I knew that I was out of my league here.
Edie ordered a rum and coke; I ordered an Adios Mother Fucker. What the hell. I was halfway through my drink when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Well, hey there ‘Little Bit’ - nice seeing you out this evening.”
I turned and saw Danny’s smile. His eyes flickered over me appreciatively. I'd worn a low cut sweater with one of my new satin push-up bras. He had a devilish grin on his face as he checked me out.
“Hey, Danny,” I said impassively, “you know Edie, right?”
“Hey, Edie,” he said, not taking his eyes off of me.
I was starting to feel like he knew what I looked like without my clothes on. He definitely had a little bit of that "bad-boy" thing going on.
“Wanna dance, Tylar?”
A slow song was starting up and I figured I could handle that much better than some ‘Boot scooting boogie’ number.
“Sure, why not?”
I knew he was trying his best to intimidate me with his bold stares and complacent attitude. He was wasting his time. I was not on the market so it didn’t matter what type of mating dance he was trying to do. It wasn’t going to happen with us.
He held me close as we danced to the slow song. I felt his hand rubbing my back as we swayed back and forth. He smelled of after-shave. I think it was ‘Polo’.
“So, how was your ride today, ‘Little Bit’?”
“It was fine,” I replied. “It was relaxing.”
“Now, this is relaxing,” he said trying to be smooth. “Having a little liquor in my gut and a beautiful woman in my arms. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Ohh - please!!
The song finally ended but Danny still had his arms wrapped around me.
“I don’t want to let you go,” he said softly.
“Danny, you're welcome to join Edie and me at our table,” I invited.
I didn’t need to say it twice. He grabbed his beer and joined us. Edie was talking to a guy at the next table who promptly asked her to dance as the band started the next song.
“So, Tylar, tell me all about yourself. Don’t leave anything out,” he said to me.
I quickly revealed to him that I was married. I needed to get that out there on the table. He didn’t bat an eye.
“I kinda figured that when I saw the rock,” he replied, his eyes sparkling mischievously. “So, where's hubby?”
“It’s kind of complicated,” I said not wanting to air my dirty laundry. Danny was practically a stranger after all.
“Hey,” he said leaning in so that I could hear him, “I won’t nose into your business, but if you feel like talking about it just know that I’m a good listener, alright?”
“Alright, Danny. Thanks.”
He ordered a round of drinks for us and I found myself letting my guard down a bit. I ended up telling him the whole sordid story of what had happened with Trey and Amber.
“Wow,” he said, shaking his head, “what the hell's wrong with your hubby? You seem to be the whole package, if you ask me.”
I blushed at the compliment. He was a bit disarming.
“So, what are your plans?” he asked.
“Well, for now I just needed a break. I’ve asked my father if I can help out with the horses. He's fine with it. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all ‘Little Bit,” he said to me with a smile. “I'm looking forward to it.”
The next few days were filled with a flurry of activities. I spent a good portion of the day working with Danny and the horses. It turned out to be a pleasant distraction. I found the work rewarding and he was great company.
In the evenings, after a shower and dinner, Danny and I would hit the nearby clubs and taverns. Edie would come with us most of the time, so I didn’t feel like I was doing anything inappropriate.
I wasn’t sure my father saw it the same way. I could tell he wasn’t thrilled about my social activities in the evenings. He'd made a couple off-handed remarks about the late hours I was keeping. He asked me a couple of times whether I was keeping in touch with Trey.
The truth was I hadn’t returned any of Trey’s calls or texts since I'd left him the voicemail message. The whole point of my being here was to put some distance between Trey and me. It defeated the purpose to remain in constant communication with him. I'd finally texted him just that. He hadn’t bothered me since then. That had been a couple of days ago.
I was lying across the bed with my ear buds in listening to my One Republic tunes, when there was a knock on my bedroom door.
“Come in,” I called out sitting up and removing my ear buds.
My father opened the door stepping inside the room. “Trey’s here,” he said quietly.
His expression was devoid of emotion. He had his stoic judge mask on big time.
“You didn’t ask him to come here did you, Dad?”
“Of course not, Tylar, but I do think you should see him. He’s come all of this way. You need to have a discussion with him and make some decisions. You’ve been here almost two weeks now. You owe him that.”
I knew he was right. I looked down at myself dressed in sweat pants and a tee shirt. I was the epitome of frumpiness at the moment. My father read my thoughts.
“I’ll see that Trey's made comfortable in the study while you freshen up,” he remarked taking leave.
I scrambled off of the bed and located a pair of jeans in the closet. I pulled my UGG boots on; and pulled my new sweater from the shopping bag. It was a dark green angora. I dashed to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I ran a brush through my new shiny, dark-brown hair. The cut made it bouncy. There, I thought looking at my reflection. I was presentable.
Trey was standing near the fireplace when I entered the room. He turned immediately, perusing me from head to toe, like he was seeing me for the first time.
He looked as gorgeous as ever. Who could blame Amber for wanting him? Who could blame any woman for wanting him? He was in front of me in two quick strides.
“I want to hug you,” he said, “but I’m not sure h
ow you feel about me touching you.”
The truth was I wasn’t sure how I felt about him touching me. Maybe it was time to find out. I looked up at him and smiled, nodding. He pulled me to him hugging me tightly; his one hand was behind my head, brushing through my newly cut, dyed hair. I felt his lips on my hair kissing it softly. I hugged him back breathing in his familiar scent. I wanted things to be the way they were before more than anything, but I was still too raw.