Baby Love (60 page)

              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 had seen Maggie do a million times growing up.  I had no clue as to what I was thinking. 

              The song started and I was going through the same moves that I had seen her do many times. Again Trey was not 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 "Saturday Night Fever."

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

             
(Oh Sweet Jesus - the 'Adios Mother Fuckers were kicking my ass!)

             
I made a hasty exit to the deck; I 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 and tossed my cookies over them unceremoniously. 

              It had only been a figure of speech when I had told Trey earlier that I had 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 had obviously been searching for me outside.  Just as he reached me, I spewed all over the front of him.

              "Jesus Christ," he hissed.  "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 53             

              My head was pounding when I finally came to in our bed on New Year’s morning.  This was worse than the hangover I had experienced last year when Gina and I had 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 was not in the bed.  At this point, I wondered if he had even slept in here last night.  When I looked at the pillow and blankets I decided that he had.

              As if on cue the bedroom door opened and Trey came in carrying Preston.  They were both still in their jammies so it couldn’t be that late.  The clock on the nightstand read 7:52 a.m.  I knew that I had passed out before midnight so I had at least gotten a sufficient amount of rest.

              Trey put Preston on the bed and she immediately smiled at me as she crawled over to wear I was slumped against my pillows wanting to die. 

              “How ya feeling baby?” Trey asked his voice resounding in my ears like a relentless echo.

              I managed a weak, sickly moan, covering my eyes with the back of my arm.

              Preston was right there next to me chanting “Mamma . . . num-num, num-num.”

              She was tugging at my pajama top.  It hurt.

              “I don’t think so Preston,” Trey said, scooping her up into his arms. 

              “Mommy’s num-num is likely to be eighty proof this morning.  She’s going to need to pump and dump before anyone under drinking age can imbibe from those breasts.”

              “Ha ha,” I managed weakly.

              “I’ll go get her a bottle and feed her some cereal,” Trey said.

              “Can I get you anything while I’m downstairs?”

              “Gina,” I rasped, “Please Trey – send Gina in here.”

              “I’ll see if they’re up,” he replied. 

              He left the room.  It was obvious that he had no sympathy for my condition this morning.

              Several minutes later Gina popped in looking well rested and refreshed.

              “Feeling kind of down and out this morning girlfriend?”

              “Gina . . . please.  Have Thatcher make me whatever that concoction you had him make for me last year to kill that hangover I had.  Tell him to make it stronger.  Hurry, please.”

              “You got it Ty.  Be back in a few.”

              It seemed like an eternity before Gina returned with a tray that had a glass of the red liquid and a plate of dry toast on it.  Trey was right behind her with a tall glass of ice water and a bottle of ibuprofen.  I managed to sit up anxious to drink the nasty brew and feel the relief it would bring.

              I chugged it down swiftly, feeling the warmth start in the pit of my stomach and rise back up through my throat.  The long, loud belch that followed tasted fiery this time.

              “That’s a turn-on,” Trey remarked handing me the glass of water and two tablets of the ibuprofen to swallow.

              “It ranks right up there with you puking all over the front of me last night Tylar.”

              “You did?” Gina asked giggling.

              I was clueless.  Trey gave Gina a dirty look.  He told me to lie back down and he would handle Preston until I felt better.  He left Gina and me alone.

              She continued giggling as she sat down on the bed.

              “I wondered what the hell happened to you last night.  One minute you were on the dance floor dancing to 'disco inferno' and the next minute you’re nowhere to be found.  You missed some excitement.”

              I was just glad that I wasn’t part of any excitement last night.

              “Oh yeah?  What happened?” I asked lying back against my pillows waiting for the ibuprofenl to kick in. 

              The nasty drink had done the trick on everything else.

              “Well let’s see.  First Caroline came running in all freaked out with her damn shirt all unbuttoned and Landon’s jacket tied around her waist.  She claimed someone ‘puked’ on her but I think as hammered as that bitch gets she finally exceeded her own limit and either puked or shit herself.”

             
(Oh my God!  It was all coming back to me now.  Should I let Gina know?)
             

              “Actually Gina, that would have been me.  I felt sick after that last dance and went outside.  I made it over to the oleander bushes to heave.  Hell, I didn’t know her and Landon were on the other side of them screwing.  Please don’t tell anyone.  I’m glad she didn’t recognize that it was me.”             

              “Oh Ty – that is too funny.  I would say being that it was Caroline that was probably just some karma coming back at her in liquid form. But the really big news is that I found out what the ‘brotherly pow-wow’ was all about last night.”              

              "The what?” I asked.

              “Come on Ty, you couldn’t have been that trashed at that point.  You remember?  Tristan, Trey and Nigel all going off to talk about something important and you, me and Tess were talking on the couch?”

              “Oh yes-yes,” I said, “I remember that now.  So what was the discussion about?”

              “I’m not sure if you’ve recovered enough to hear this.”

              “Gina I am so not in the mood to have to drag this out of you.  Spill it now.”

              “Okay, but get ready.  You remember when Tess shared with us that she and Nigel have been working with a fertility clinic in California having her eggs harvested so a surrogate can carry the child for her?”

              I nodded.

              “Well there apparently is more to the plan.  Nigel asked both Trey and Tristan if they would be sperm donors for the cause.”

             
(What??)

             
"What?"

              "You heard me correctly."

              "Well what does Tristan say about all of this?"

              "He is being the sweetheart that he is Ty.  He says he would really like to help his brother out but that he doesn't want me to feel uncomfortable about it."

              "Well so there you go," I said.  "Tristan is willing and I'm sure that you aren't uncomfortable about it so problem solved."

              "Whoa, wait a minute Ty.  I'm not comfortable with it anymore than I know you are but that is not really the point."

              "Then what is?" I hissed still feeling the ache in my head.

              "He asked for
both
of them to be donors.  Not just one or the other."

              "What's the rationale in that?  It only takes one random sperm to fertilize an egg."

              "I think the whole point of this is that Nigel and Tess would like their baby to have Sinclair DNA but not to know exactly who the source of it is."

              "What?" I asked, my head throbbing in confusion.

              "Look understandably it is a complicated situation; so in order to make it a bit less complicated if both brothers donate it will be difficult to pinpoint which sperm actually succeeded in fertilizing the egg. Therefore, the paternal trail is somewhat muddled, but yet it is 'Sinclair' DNA." 

             
(Was that supposed to make me feel better?)

              "Tristan explained it all.  They somehow mix it together than spin it to make sure that only the 'heartiest' sperm survive to fertilize the egg. This makes for a more 'robust' conception."

              "I can't fathom all of this right now Gina," I said suddenly feeling ill all over again.

              "I will let you get some rest Ty," she said getting up and ready to leave the room.

              "Please ask Trey to come back up," I asked.

              "Ty, you aren't going to tell him that I told you about this are you?"

              "Why not, Gina?  Had I not been so fucking drunk last night I might have been privy to it then.  You're damned straight I'm going to address this with him.  You know how I roll by now."

              Gina skittered from the room without saying anything else.  I sank back down further into my pillows.  My head was reeling now more from the information that Gina had shared just now than from my hangover.

              Several minutes later Trey was in the suite. 

              "Gina said you needed to see me.  Are you okay?"

              "No Trey.  I am most certainly not okay.  Is there something you needed to tell me about a conversation that you had with your brothers last evening?"

              He sank down on the bed sitting next to me.  He took one of my hands into his.  He studied me intently for a moment trying to organize his explanation in such a way that I wouldn't find the whole issue deplorable.  He wasn't going to have much luck with that I thought.

              "Tylar, I was most certainly going to discuss this with you but there really hasn't been much of an opportunity between the time Nigel discussed this with Tristan and me until now.  You were a bit distracted last night, remember?"

              "I'm fully attentive now Trey.  Let's talk."

              "Why do I think that you already know the gist of it?" he asked.