Be My Baby (7 page)

Trey had texted the first time at around
1:30 this afternoon:

'I hope you are relaxing
and pampering yourself like a good girl. I love and miss you,
Tylar.'

His second text message and come in around
7:30 this evening:

'Your father is 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 that you are
okay.'

Gina's text had come in at 8:03 p.m about
fifteen minutes prior.

'Ty - call me when you get
this. You evidently have your fucking phone on mute. Trey is 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, Gina. 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 me twice earlier. I guess he
called my father too. So what's the emergency?"

"Well, Trey is 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 is 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 that 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 that 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."

"Ty, 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 that 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 will 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 had
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 that he had
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 is coming home. Take care."

There. I had 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 had 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 that you were working with the horses today while Larry
is 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 is 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 that he was watching the whole
time I got Jasmine bridled and saddled.

"Well I am 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 had come off that
flirtatious with him. What the hell was I thinking these days? That
was clearly not how I rolled.

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 had 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 eight. I felt funny
about borrowing one of my dad's vehicles.

By the time I finished riding and had
brushed the horse down, it was starting to get dark out. I hadn't
seen any more of Danny when I had 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 had 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 had 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 that 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 are 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 is
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 is 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 is fine with
it. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all 'Little Bit," he said to me with
a smile. "I am 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 that I was doing anything
inappropriate.

I wasn't sure that my father saw it the same
way. I could tell that he wasn't thrilled about my social
activities in the evenings. He had 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 had left him the voicemail message.
The whole point of my being here was to put some distance between
Trey and I; it defeated the purpose to remain in constant
communication with him. I had 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 that 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 is 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 standing before
me.

"I want to hug you," he said, "But I'm not
sure how 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.

I moved away from him taking a seat on the
sofa. He came and sat beside me, taking one of my hands into his.
He was gazing at me quizzically.

"What did you do to your hair?" he
asked.