Baby Love Lite (49 page)

I scooped her up into my arms. “Do you want
to see what Santa brought Preston last night when she was
sleeping?” She started talking her usual baby gibberish. She seemed
to know something was up.

“
Yes, let’s go see what
Santa brought for Preston.”

Gina and Tristan were coming out of their
room just as I passed by.

“
Merry Christmas!” Gina said
taking Preston from me.

Trey had put the coffee on so we plunked the
baby down in front of the tree and let her have at her Christmas
gifts while we sipped our morning coffee. Gina patiently showed her
how to rip the paper off of the packages. Preston seemed to be more
interested in playing with the wrapping paper and bows than the
actual toy inside.

Santa had bought her baby dolls, wind-up
toys, puzzles and more Atlanta Falcons garb than she could possibly
wear in a season. Tristan had bought her a beautiful ‘Baby’s First
Christmas’ commemorative ornament for the tree along with a
gorgeous handmade quilt for her bed. It was done in the colors of
her new room. Gina must've told him.

Jean’s gift was a hat and matching mittens
that she'd knitted herself. Trey’s parents had sent a beautiful
winter coat, along with a faux fur muff. Nigel and Tess had sent
her a collection of Sesame Street storybooks.

“
Well, it's official,” Gina
announced as she started picking up all of the tossed wrapping
paper strewn about the living room floor. “She made out like a
bandit this year.”

“
I suspect just one of
many,” Tristan replied with a smile. “Come on, Giner,” he said
mocking Ian’s accent, “Let’s you and I make breakfast.”

She smiled up at him as he held his hand
helping her up. We'd decided the adults would exchange gifts after
Preston went down for her afternoon nap. Gina and Tristan fixed
breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen. Trey and I started getting
our Christmas ham ready for the oven.

Christmas dinner was so much easier to
prepare than Thanksgiving dinner, I decided. We spent a pleasant
afternoon with family watching Christmas specials on television.
Once Preston went down for her nap, the four of us opened our
Christmas gifts.

Trey loved his new clothes and all of the
Falcons paraphernalia I'd bought for him. He'd bought me a
beautiful gold watch, a pair of diamond stud earrings and several
sweaters that I loved. Gina had bought me some sexy lingerie which
Trey, in fact appreciated. I'd bought her an iPad that I knew she
wanted but wouldn't buy for herself.

Tristan had bought me a beautiful Burberry
coat; he'd bought Gina one exactly like it. She was quick to point
out his faux paux.

“
Tristan, you realize one of
us is going to have to take their coat back and exchange it don’t
you?”

He looked over at her with a puzzled
expression. “Why? You both said you loved them.”

“
Because, babe, we can’t
both wear the exact same coats. We're best friends not lesbian
lovers, for Chrissake.”

Trey had looked over at him shaking his
head.

“
Oh, yeah right, Trey. Like
you knew that,” Tristan said.

“
Uh, yeah
Tristan.”

They both started wrestling around like a
couple of kids.

“
Tristan, open your gift
from Trey and me,” I said trying to get them to settle down before
they woke the baby.

Tristan opened the envelope taking out the
tickets we'd bought for a 5-day all inclusive Caribbean cruise for
two. “Wow, thanks you guys,” he said grinning. “Now, if you just
would've given me someone to take.”

Gina immediately swatted at him playfully.
They were making out in a matter of seconds. I saw Trey roll his
eyes in feigned disgust. I think that Gina was finally growing on
him.

It'd been his idea to buy them the cruise
tickets. When I pointed out to him that he finally seemed to be
softening towards her, he responded the gift was as much for us as
for them. With them gone for five days we would be spared their
nightly ‘fuckfest.’

We ate our Christmas dinner. Trey’s parents
called and were looking forward to us being there for New Year’s
Eve. Tristan had apparently told them that he was bringing Gina.
Susan was thrilled that he'd dumped Libby. She said that Nigel and
Tess were coming in for a few days as well. They would be getting
to Bristol the day before we arrived. She said they had some
exciting news.

Trey had taken the phone from me before we
hung up wanting to talk to his mom one last time. He went into the
kitchen away from the rest of us. I started clearing the table. As
I carried the dirty plates to the kitchen he was telling her
good-bye.

“
What was that about?” I
asked, my curiosity getting the best of me.

Trey gave me his crooked grin and looked a
bit sheepish. “I asked Mom to put Nigel and Tess in the room next
to ours and put Tristan and Gina in the other wing.”

“
Trey,” I said, trying to
stifle a grin, “You are too much.”

It was back to work as usual the day after
Christmas for everyone but me. I'd gotten up with Trey to start the
packing for our move in two weeks. Everything was pretty much
finished and our move date was set for January 7th.

My father had called me on the 27th to tell
me the grand jury had met and would re-convene once the forensic
testing had been concluded on my mother’s autopsy. He said he was
using his connections to expedite the testing as much as he
could.

The results of Maggie’s autopsy had been
released, but it apparently showed an “inconclusive” toxicology
report. That was disappointing.

Her cause of death had simply been listed as
“natural causes” with a notation as to being related to an
untreated bacterial infection that had caused her to go
‘septic.’

Matthew was being held without bond on his
current charges. He'd apparently hired a fairly competent attorney
from Jackson. Trey and I'd identified the clothing that was
collected at Matthew’s home.

We figured Maggie had probably been sleeping
there with Preston for however long they'd stayed there. They'd
found some strands of Preston’s baby hair on the inside of the
white turtleneck and it was DNA matched.

The phone records Daniel had provided Trey
showed that Maggie had been in touch with Matthew while living in
Indiana with Daniel; and that she'd also been in touch with Charlie
in Bristol.

That most likely had been during her efforts
to arrange for my untimely “accident.” The records also showed that
she'd accepted a couple of collect calls from an inmate at the
state prison where Charlie had been incarcerated. The prison
authorities were to question Charlie.

There were two phone calls made to another
party in Atlanta. The number tied back to a track phone which
essentially was a dead end. My guess was that it was the person
that had worked as a doorman at our apartment building that had
been supplied by the questionable temp agency. He somehow was
connected to Maggie or Matthew. At this point, we were no longer
certain whose plan it was. I still suspected it was Maggie’s plan
that somehow went awry and Matthew got involved for his own
personal gain.

My father inquired as to how Preston liked
the gift he'd sent. It was a beautiful antique porcelain doll that
resembled her. “I’m sure she'll love it, Dad. For now, it's placed
carefully away until she understands she can’t drag it around like
the rest of her toys.”

“
I suppose it's a bit old
for her. That just shows you how clueless I am with children, I
guess.”

“
I don’t know about that,” I
replied, “You do pretty well with me and I’m your
child.”

“
Thanks, daughter,” he said
softly.

He asked me what was new with us. I told him
that we would be in Bristol for the New Year holiday; and then
moving to our new home. I asked him when he thought he might be
able to pay us a visit since we would have ample room.

“
My court schedule is fairly
full for the next few weeks and then I'm also interviewing for the
staff position at my estate.”

“
What staff
position?”

“
Didn’t I tell you? Ms.
Deeny left my employ right before Christmas.”

“
Really?”

“
Yes, she handed me a typed
up letter of resignation on December 21
^st
stating it was effective
immediately and left.”

“
Don’t you find that odd,
Dad?”

“
To be honest everything
about her was odd. I never took to her very well. It was Olivia
that was so fond of her.”

“
Anyway, Dad, please find
time to visit when us soon, okay?" He promised he'd check his
schedule and get back with me.

I told Trey about Ms. Deeny's departure.
“Don't you find it strange that she left so suddenly after I showed
up in the picture?”

“
Oh, I don’t know; I think
she's just a weird bird. Maybe she thought she'd get into your
father’s good graces by trying to get in his pants."

“
Ewww, Trey. That's
gross!”

“
What’s gross?”

“
To think that my dad would
ever, you know, do
her
? She’s practically old enough to be
his
mother!

CHAPTER 49

The next morning I was surprised to see that
Gina was still at the apartment. Tristan and she usually left
before 10:00 a.m. to go to the club to take care of business. She
was coming out of the kitchen with a glass of ginger ale looking
tired and pale.

“
What’s wrong with you? You
look like shit.”

“
Thank you, Tylar. I
appreciate your assessment.”

“
I’m sorry,” I chuckled.
“Hangover?”

“
I wish,” she said heading
toward her room.

I followed her into the bedroom as she
crawled up onto the bed and unceremoniously flopped back onto her
pillow.

“
I’ve been puking all
morning.”

Holy shit! I don't want what she has right
before New Year’s.

Gina noticed I'd backed away from her to keep
my distance. “No worries. I’m not contagious,” she said.

“
How do you
know?”

“
Cause this little thing
told me,” she said, reaching over to the nightstand and picking up
an EPT stick. I came closer looking at it and seeing the dark blue
+ sign in the results window. I quickly looked up at her in
shock.

“
Oh, my God, Gina! Please
tell me you’re happy about this.”

“
I might be,” she
answered.

“
What exactly do you mean by
‘might be’?”

“
I mean, I definitely will
be provided the baby's Tristan’s.”

“
What?"

“
Don’t go all East coast on
me! There's a perfectly reasonable explanation.”

“
I’d like to hear it,” I
hissed. I was angry with her.

“
Okay,” she said sitting up
on the bed. She pulled her legs up wrapping her arms around them.
“First of all, if you're truly my BFF then lose the accusatory
attitude! Have I ever done that with you? Well, except for the
brief thirty seconds you had me believing that you'd cheated on
Trey, but that was it.”

“
I’m sorry, Gina,” I
conceded, “Tell me what happened.”

“
Remember that day Tristan
and I were supposed to meet at my accountant’s office and he was
late because of all that Libby shit?"

“
Yes.”

“
That was the same day I was
late getting over here to stay with Preston while you went with
Trey to Baton Rouge.”

I nodded.

“
You questioned me about
being late and I kind of blew it off with some excuse that about
having to pack before I got here. It was the truth except for one
thing. When I got back to my condo, Ian was there. He still had his
key and he was inside. He looked like hell. Just like Tristan did
at our meeting.”

She took a sip of her ginger ale before
continuing. “He told me he needed to pick up his mail because he
hadn’t put his address change in since he was getting the condo in
the divorce. He followed me into the kitchen where I had his mail.
The next thing I knew, he was right behind me and when I turned
around he was there. We were so close I could smell his
aftershave.”

Gina started tearing up which was so unusual
for her. She was definitely in hormone hell. I handed her a tissue
from the nightstand.

“
Go ahead, Gina. It’s
alright. Tell me.”

“
I looked up into his eyes
and they were warm and loving. They were like the Ian I knew before
he'd cheated. He looked at me and said, ‘Damn.’ He dropped his mail
and picked me up into his arms and carried me to the bedroom and
made love to me. I knew it was the last time. I wanted closure on
it," she sniffled.

"I know it sounds sick since
he was the cheater, but legally he was still
my
husband. I’m sorry, but I liked
the idea he was cheating on the skank with
his wife
for Chrissake. After it was
over, he told me it hadn’t changed anything; he still wanted to be
with Shelly. I said ‘no worries’; I thanked him for the fuck. That
was that.”

I took a few moments to digest what she'd
just told me. “Gina,” I said leaning forward, choosing my words
carefully, “did you not use a condom?”