Baby Love Lite (51 page)

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.”