Be My Baby Lite

by ANDREA SMITH

  Trey scooted close to me his head propped on his hand. He lowered his face to me his lips softly kissing mine. His tongue slowly traced a path along my lower lip.

  “Mmmm,” he moaned. “Do you know what I want to do right this minute?”

  “Surprise me,” I said softly, closing my eyes. I felt his tongue leave my lips. I waited to feel it touch me somewhere else. It didn’t. I finally opened my eyes. Trey had left the room.

  What the hell?

  “Trey?”

  He reappeared carrying a bag of marshmallows and two long toasting forks.

  “Here you go,” he said grinning handing me one. We toasted marshmallows and sipped our wine. We re-connected emotionally and it felt so good.

  Trey and I both got Preston dressed for bed in our room that evening. She was jabbering away with words only she could possibly understand. We were able to catch the name ‘Reese’ in the chatter. That was the extent of it.

  “Before I put your pull-up on do you have to go pee-pee?” I asked her. She actually did pretty well at understanding what we said.

  “Nooo,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Actually, honey,” Trey said, “I think the experts say you shouldn't ask before bedtime whether they have to go or not, but simply seat them on their potty chair for a few minutes.”

  Really Trey? Be my guest.

  “Great idea. Will you take her in there?”

  “Sure babe,” he replied smiling.

  He lifted her from the bed and took her into our bathroom where one of her three potty chairs was located within the house. I lay across our bed and listened to the father-daughter chatter. I could hear him talking to her trying to persuade her to stay on the potty and try.

  He finally handed her one of her ‘Choo-Choo’ books that had been left in the bathroom; he instructed her to look at the pictures and tell him what they were.

  I chuckled to myself as I heard him run the water in one of the sinks to see if it might inspire her to pee. It must've inspired him to pee when I heard the familiar sound of the toilet seat hitting the tank and the sound of his stream.

  I went to my dresser to get a nightgown out. I was not far from bedtime either. I heard the toilet flush followed by Trey’s voice.

  “What'd you say, Preston?”

  I heard her mumble something I couldn’t understand from where I was standing in our room.

  “That’s what I thought you said. Come on. I guess you don’t have to go after all.”

  His voice had a hint of harshness in it. I wondered what the hell she'd said. Both Trey and I were careful now to watch our language around her since she was learning new words every day. I hoped like hell Gina hadn’t dropped the ‘F-bomb’ around her, though I doubted that very much.

  Trey came out of the bathroom with Preston is his arms. Her pull-up was in place and her pajama bottoms were snapped up.

  “Do you know what she just said in there?”

  He had this incredulous look on his face that for some reason amused me. He clearly was not amused.

  “What?” I asked almost afraid to hear it.

  “She pointed at me after I finished peeing and said "dinky" at my 'you-know-what.”

  I couldn’t help it; a giggle escaped and then another.

  “I don’t think it’s funny. Where would she hear trash talk like that?”

  “Oh for crying out loud, I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘trash talk.’ That's probably the word Gina uses for Reese’s ‘you- know-what,” I said putting an exaggerated whisper on the ‘you- know-what’.

  “Oh, so now I’m actually being anatomically compared with a three-month-old?”

  “Trey, you're a hoot,” I said laughing. He clearly was not amused. I needed to diffuse the situation.

  “May I ask how she saw your ‘you-know-what’ from her potty chair?”

  He set her on our bed with one of her books and turned back to me. He had a very sheepish look going on. He talked in a whisper so that she couldn’t hear what he was telling me.

  “I was trying to get her to pee so I ran water in the sink. Then I had to pee, so I went over to the commode. She must’ve gotten off her potty chair to see what I was doing. Right after I flushed the toilet, I turned around getting my ‘you-know-what’ tucked back inside of my jeans, and she was right there.”

  I could tell this was totally flipping him out.

  “Okay, honey, it’s not a big deal. In the future though, I think that you need to make sure the door is shut when you use the commode in our bathroom, okay?”

  “That’s fine but it still doesn’t answer my question as to where she learned that word.”

  “I’ll ask Gina about it next time I talk to her, okay?”

  “Please do,” he replied still out of sorts.

  We got Preston tucked into bed for the night and returned to our suite. Trey went into take his shower; I changed into my nightgown climbing into bed. I hunkered down under the covers completely exhausted from our big day. It'd been quite a day.

  I realized how much Trey loved me and how much I loved him. I was starting to come to terms with the loss of my baby girl, Marley. Trey and I were finding out so much about each other.

  I'd dozed off when Trey came to bed. He was still damp from his shower. He pulled me to him and immediately started kissing me and holding me closely.

  “I love you so much, baby,” he whispered to me.

  “I love you too, Trey,” I replied, burying myself against him.

  We'd just started to make love when my cell went off on the nightstand. I looked over and could see it was my father calling.

  “It’s my dad,” I said reaching for it.

  “Hello?”

  “Tylar darling, I'm so sorry to be calling you this late, but I needed you to hear this from me.”

  “What is it Dad?” I asked, sitting up and bracing myself for the news.

  “Matthew Renaud committed suicide tonight in his jail cell. He hung himself with a rope he fashioned from the cording on the mattress of his cot.”

  CHAPTER 17

  I had Trey’s breakfast on the table the following morning when he came down dressed for the office. He came over so that I could tie his tie. He looked gorgeous in his dark Armani suite.

  Preston was in her high chair chewing on a now soggy piece of toast. Trey leaned down giving her a kiss on her forehead.

  “Daddeee,” she squealed happily, “Daddee dinky.”

  Trey frowned and started to say something to her but I cut him off.

  “Trey, if you make a big deal about it she'll find the word all that more fascinating to repeat. Trust me, please?”

  He nodded taking a seat at the table.

  “I do want you talking to Gina about it though,” he said, taking a sip of his coffee.

  “I'll call her today,” I promised.

  I sat down and started eating my breakfast. I was thinking about the news my father had delivered to us last night.

  Apparently one of the guards found Matthew hanging when he conducted his bed checks for that area. Matthew had been put into solitary confinement for his own protection. He'd apparently removed the roped cording that was used to cover the seams on the mattress of his cot.

  My father said a heavier man couldn't have accomplished what Matthew had because the cording wouldn’t have been strong enough to hold anyone weighing over 130 lbs. Matthew had weighed only 126 lbs.

  “How are you feeling about the news?” Trey asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  “I’m not sure,” I replied, “I mean I don’t feel sorry that he’s dead, but I guess I also resent the fact that justice was not served either. I know my father wanted him to get the death penalty but I would've preferred that he rot in prison the rest of his life. I guess Matthew made his own decision as to what he wanted.”

  Jean came into the kitchen and took Preston from her high chair telling her it was time for her bath.

  “I’m simply thankful you don’t have to go
into court and face the sick bastard,” Trey said once they were gone.

  “Yeah - I wasn't looking forward to that although there will always be lingering questions about the role he played in Preston’s abduction; his motive for murdering my mother and Maggie.”

  “Sweetie, even if the trial had fully played out there's no guarantee you would've gotten the answers to those questions. Sometimes you have to consider sociopaths such as Matthew do things without a reason.”

  “Did I tell you my father plans on going to his burial service?”

  “Why?”

  “I think he wants some answers from Ms. Deeny. He’s not convinced her only role was assisting Matthew in extortion.”

  “I’m sure she isn’t going to implicate herself in anything that would serve to bring criminal charges against her.”

  “Probably not. My dad does have the uncanny ability to read people and their motivations though. Maybe he wants the answers for his own peace of mind. He still needs closure, I think.”

  “Speaking of which,” Trey said, “I need some closure on Amber’s damn jacket. Where is it?”

  “I’ll get it,” I said getting up and going outside to the back deck.

  I brought it back to the kitchen and put it in a plastic grocery bag, setting the bag next to Trey’s briefcase.

  “Why the hell was it outside?” he asked finishing up his coffee.

  “I was airing it out Trey. It smells like sex - our sex.”

  He gave me a wicked smile from across the table.

  “I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded,” he replied. “I figured she had her hand down her panties the whole time she was listening to us over the phone anyway.”

  “Trey!” I said, blushing, “that's exactly what Gina said.”

  “Oh God; you shared that with Gina?”

  Oops! I'm busted.

  “Well, yeah - I mean it’s not like I described it in detail or anything.”

  “Well then I guess I don’t feel so bad about sharing it with Tristan,” he said laughing. He got up putting his suit jacket on. I went over to him, putting my arms around him.

  “I don’t want you to leave,” I said frowning.

  He tilted my chin up and lowered his warm, sensuous lips to mine.

  “I don’t want to leave you,” he said kissing me. “I promise I’ll be home early, okay?”

  I nodded, kissing him back.

  “Trey, can we talk about taking a vacation together soon when you get home tonight?”

  “Sure baby,” he said picking up his briefcase and the bag with Amber’s jacket in it, “I was thinking the same thing.”

  I busied myself around the house helping Jean after Trey left for work. I cleaned out Preston’s closet gathering some items to take to Goodwill. I started working on my closet as well.

  After lunch, I bundled Preston up and we went out to visit the horses. Marcus was on the phone in the office ordering supplies. He looked up and smiled when he saw us out in the gangway. As soon as he got off the phone he came out to greet us.

  “Well, there are two beautiful faces that I haven’t seen in a while,” he said.

  “I’ve missed you, Tylar. I’m glad you’re back. I hope things are working out with you and Trey.”

  “Thanks, Marcus. We’re working on it.”

  “That’s good. He was pretty nuts while you were gone. I can tell you that,” he said shaking his head and chuckling.

  “Really?”

  “Oh yeah. One night I heard some commotion down here so I left my quarters and came down. Trey’s drunk as a skunk over there whining to Derringer about how he screwed up and has probably lost you for good.”

  “You’re kidding?” I asked as if I couldn’t fathom Trey behaving like that.

  “I'm totally not kidding. He was really kind of humorous in a pathetic sort of way. I mean what? Did he think the horse was going to give him some sage advice? I wish he'd come to me whining about it. Now I would've given him some advice; advice that would probably have gotten me fired.”

  I laughed at Marcus’s seriousness. I always knew that he'd on ‘Team Tylar,’ I just didn’t realize how passionate he was about it.

  “We both have some work to do on our marriage,” I said, “I’ve made my share of mistakes, too.”

  “Hey Tylar - I want to tell you something, but I don’t want you going back to Trey with it okay? I really do need my job.”

  Oh God!

  What had he witnessed? I wasn’t sure if I could handle finding out something about Trey and another woman.

  “Here’s the thing Marcus, if this is something Trey did and involves breaking any of our marriage vows, then I certainly will address it with Trey. I'm your employer for all intents and purposes, so I'll make no promise not to address it with Trey.”

  “No - no,” he said quickly, “it’s actually something he did that convinced me he didn’t give a rat’s you-know-what about that skank with the BMW.”

  He'd nodded towards Preston who was still in my arms when he said that. I appreciated that Marcus was watching his language around her. I was now dying to know what he'd seen or heard.

  “Well, tell me for heaven’s sake!”

  “It was like a couple of weeks after you high-tailed it out of here that Trey was out here in the barn saddling up Derringer to take him out. It was like a Saturday afternoon. Ms. BMW drives out here and your housekeeper must've told her Trey was out here. So she trudges on out through the field in her tight little skirt and four-inch heels carrying some legal file or something."

  He stopped and started laughing at the memory.

  “Come on Marcus, please?”

  “Okay - I’m sorry. So anyway, by the time she gets into the barn here, those heels of hers are caked with mud. I mean they are caked with it. She’s looking around for something to use to scrape the mud off of her little Prada heels, so she goes over to those bales of straw there in the corner.”

  He nodded to where the bales of straw were stacked on top on one another. It was where Trey and I'd sat the day before and talked right across from Derringer’s stall.

  “She raises one of her legs up to wipe the bottom of her shoe against the corner of the straw to get some of the caked mud off. She doesn’t see that Trey's over there bent down cleaning Derringer’s hoofs in his stall. She doesn’t see that I'm just inside the tack room. Both of us are within hearing distance of her.”

  God I so wish he'd get to the point of this story!

  “So, she’s wiping that shoe against the corner of the bale and she’s bitching out loud to herself. Every other word is the “F” word; saying how she will never live out here in the boonies with all this ‘f-ing’ mud and ‘f-ing horse-shite around. She’s going on about how Trey better give you the house in the divorce because she’s a city mouse used to the finer things in life, yadda, yadda, yadda.”

  Oh My God!

  “Oh My God,” I said. “What happened then?”

  “Well, Trey made his presence known pretty darn quickly. He asked her if she'd said something to you at Marley’s service about that very same thing. She claimed she didn’t. He called her a liar and told her he'd no interest in her outside of the office. Then she really got pizzed; she claimed she was better for him than you were."

  "He laughed in her face then asked her why she'd come out here to the ranch. She claimed it was to discuss a case. He told her from there on out she was to discuss her cases with one of the other partners; he was no longer a mentor. She got even more uppity with him and he told her she was a conniving ‘beotch’ and to leave his home. She told him he'd be sorry. He said he was already sorry he'd approved her partnership. Then she flounced out of here.”

  “Wow,” I said. “I wonder why Trey didn’t tell me about it.”

  “I don’t know, Tylar. Maybe he didn’t want you to worry about her telling him he'd be sorry. Do you think she'll try to pull something at work?”

  “I really don’t know what she’s capable of Ma
rcus. I hope she was simply angry and making an empty threat. Hopefully she’s moved on.”

  “Yeah - to someone else’s husband. Chicks like that are pretty transparent.”

  Preston was starting to squirm in my arms.

  “Well hey, Marcus, thanks for sharing. I’m gonna take Preston over to pet the horses. Talk to you later.”