A Wedding Affair (The Wedding Affair) (19 page)

We stop walking and he pushes my curly auburn hair away from my cheek
as he caresses my cheek and his index finger traces my bottom lip.

“Aria you were my dream, when I set out on this endeavor, your words, all the conversations we had was the driving force behind all of this”

I look around and see what he has accomplished, I look back at him and he is happy, carefree and smiling at me, he looks so young and enthusiastic and I can tell he has been waiting to tell me about all of this. I walk away from him to get some distance and my bearings.

“T
ristan I am so happy for you, you really did it, you really made this a reality, I am so proud of you” the smile on my face is sincere and honest, he looks at me and in one swift move he runs over to me picks me up and spins me around, I am in heaven in his arms as I throw my head back and fist my fingers in his hair, I laugh and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world but I don’t know why.

“Aria, my dear sweet beautiful girl” he puts me down slowly as
I slide down his sold chiseled body and he holds me to his chest, kissing the top of my head. I am so thrilled, this is the Tristan that I always wanted, this is how I saw him when we first met all those years ago, he came off as this hard ass with no sense and we bonded immediately, he let me in and we talked and talked and to my surprise he listened. This is more than I have ever imagined, he was always intelligent with an alluring quality that exudes confidence poise and humbles him in a sexy way. I look up at him and I say what I feel.

“Who are you?” tou
ching my face and caressing my cheek his eyes say it all but he gives me verbal confirmation.

“I’m the guy who loves you, who has always loved you Aria” he just made my heart skip a beat, I bury my face in his neck and he kisses me behind my ear and my hea
rt is pounding , he just stop me in my tracks, but what always gets me to yield is he is so handsome when he looks at me I am a mess as he warms my heart, but I have to remember I am engaged, I am someone else’s and I know I shouldn’t even be here.

Tristan
pulls away and kisses my cheek, his happy-go-lucky attitude is infectious I can’t tear my heart away from him.

“C
ome I want to show you everything” he takes my hand and I go willingly as we get back into the golf cart to explore this vast entity that he has created.

The estate itself is
quite over whelming, breathtaking actually, he takes me into the wine vat where all the barrels are stacked and turned. He is articulate, funny, knowledgeable and poetic, he makes gestures with his hands and his facial expressions are priceless, I can listen to him talk forever.

“Aria am I talking too much?”
as he looks out and then back to me.

“Tristan this is
fascinating, please continue” we walk among the huge oak barrels, the size of them are massive, the smell of the aged wood and the wine is intoxicating, he holds my hand and explains several processes and he takes me up to the top and we stand at the railing looking over the whole operation, it is breath taking to see how it got from our day dreams of whispered conversations to reality.

“Tristan tell me something?” he looks down at me holding my hands
, his smile and his face is a pure delight.

“What is it?”

“Tell me why you did all of this?”

“You know why I did all of
this” he brings my hands to his lips but doesn’t take his eyes off of mine; I blush as his eyes say it all.

“Tristan, this is wonderful but…” he puts his finger to my lips to stop me.

“Please don’t Aria, don’t tear down what I have built for us, you always told me you saw forever in my eyes, well I always saw our future through your eyes.”

That
set me off I hug him hard and held back tears. He kisses the side of my head and he whispers in my ear.

“Aria I know this is hard for you, but I had to bring
you here” he pulls away and we look at each other, I nod yes and try to recoup and give him a shy smile. He grabs my hand and we go back downstairs and outside to take the golf cart around to the rest of this estate.

I sit next to him and just take it all in,
our dream come true, to me this was what he and I would sit and talk about, to me this was the brass ring, and Tristan did it all!

W
e make our way to the wine cellar, the distillery; a lot of this is over my head. I fell in love with the idea and thought of living on a vineyard more of the romantic notion. I never had a clue about the business aspect of it, but leave it to Tristan, he made it a reality, he is smart and articulate, he was the wall street iron man, so no wonder he figured out how to make this a success, he has always been my super hero, my Batman, and sometime my Dark Knight, but mostly Tristan has just been the love of my life.

Thoughts run through my mind,
Tristan has become the wine expert and his technical explanation is way over and beyond my comprehension, but just listening to him, this is his passion, this is what he has perfected he is eloquent and inspiring.

He introduces me to Jean and Luke and it is as if they already know all about me, Tri
stan must have been very forthcoming about us as they seem very happy to meet me.

Tristan
explains that these two are the experts they have helped Tristan with all of this interesting and surprising to see how humble Tristan is among them.

You can tell th
ey are all quite friendly and cajoling, not only do they hold one another with the highest regard; but they all go on and mention how this place saved them from an uncertain life as well. Thus bringing them to America. I would say in my best observation that Tristan has real friends, people who care and are concerned for his wellbeing, it is a delight to see that he has a full rich life with family, friends and I see what he means, all that is missing is the one special person to share this with.

I look
around and hold back tears, this is quite hard to take it saddens me that I didn’t have faith in him to wait it out, that I didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt, that he would come back to me as a man, and it saddens me that my dream will go on without me.

I listen and hold in my thoughts I am brought back to the now by their banter back and forth.

One goes on about something in French and it makes them all laugh…Tristan speaks French to them and I am floored. This man is full of surprises today isn’t he?

We bid them a fond farewell and let them get back to their day, Tristan seems very anxious about something else as we get back into
the golf cart and he drives us over to the stables where there are ten or so stalls and they are filled with horses. Gosh Sabrina would love it here she is the horse fanatic I use to watch her ride and jump when we were in high school, she was so great at it until she got into college and fell in love with psychiatry and that is all she is into now the human psyche.

“Aria I
think the last time you were around a horse he demonstrated to you the saying ‘hung like a horse’ I laugh and shake my head at him as he is smiling and full of delight I knew the sexual banter would not be gone for long. So yes since he is so playful I will take a spin.

“Yes I do remember when we visited your gran
dmother’s I think you did that on purpose to tease me Mr. Bach.

“You know me all too well Miss. Macy”

“So do you still ride, I mean why so many horses here? He takes my hand and walks me into the stables where the hands are clearing out the stalls and tending to the horses, like walking them and feeding and riding, it’s an all-day chore to care for horses as Sabrina has explained many times.

“Not as much as I would like too, they are beautiful anima
ls but mostly because they are good for the soil” Go figure, only he would figure how to take an ounce of manure and make it into pound of gold.

Come here I want you to meet someone very special to me”
he introduces me to his favorite horse “Aria” she is chocolate brown with a black tail, she is calm and tame and we like one another immediately.

“So you named your horse after me?” he nods yes and he moves my hair away from my face my brown eyes are regarding him quite earnestly as his four legged Aria is.

“It is sweet that you named your horse after me”

“You were the best thing that ever happened to me Aria”

“Well you were the only thing that ever happened to me”

“I wouldn’t say that” he reaches for my left hand with my engagement ring on it and pulls it to
eye level. I look at his eyes and he is unhappy, I know he has been kidding and joking but he is seriously devastated that I have moved on without him. I sigh and he pulls me back into the golf cart, there is nothing to say.

We ride in silence for a bit
while he recovers his good mood because the ducks and swans catch my eye.

“Tristan you have ducks and swans? How lovely” this is the best, I smile like a giddy kid, you all don’t understand that is how I always relax and sort things out, whenever things ge
t too much I would go with a loaf of bread and feed the ducks and swans, and clear my head.  Actually that is how Tristan and I started going to our fountain, he grabbed the bottle of vodka and I grabbed the loaf of bread and we feed the ducks.

“
Interesting some do fly south for the winter but we made a home for them as he shows me their barn it looks like a gingerbread house all in yellow.

“Did you make that Tristan it is just beautiful and I love yellow?”

I remembered you did, well I have been a very lonely man, I needed something to occupy my cold and lonely nights” Oh he is not going to let this go, but I gotta lighten the mood.

“
Tristan you should have gotten a dog!” he laughs at my remark and I know he doesn’t want to but he recovers his good mood as we head back to the main house.

-------<>-------

We make our way back to the main house which has a well-appointed staff, I mean there is a gardener and grounds keepers as we pull up to the terrace that overlooks the side yard. In all my life I have never seen anything as breath taking as this vineyard in all its glory.

We head back inside the house, and are greeted by
several maids as they are shuffling about.  Tristan leads me through the white French doors to a kitchen that is the size of my whole house. It is deep cherry wood, a huge island that flanks the whole room a window seat with massive cook books and the counters are all Carrera marble. 

“
Come Aria there is someone I want you to meet” as we walk into this Clive Christian kitchen which is what it reminds me of, there are heavenly aromas that beckon us in, one of which is of homemade bread, oh wow how delicious it smells. Tristan takes my hand and pulls me to the huge island where I am introduced to a tall older gentlemen with silver hair, in a marvelous black suit and tie. He is adorning a white apron as he is putting the finishing touches on what looks to be lunch.

“Aria I want you to meet Cheswick my right hand man and my man about the house”
shit he has a butler!

“
I relish the compliment sir” oh wow and he is English, I look up at him as his blue eyes regard me kindly, I like him immediately as he has a fatherly way about him.

“Cheswick this is my Aria” by his smile I take it Tristan has
been quite vocal to him about me. I guess he knows more about me than I do about him...Hmm

“How do you do Miss Aria?
We shake hands, he nods to me. I smile shyly at him because I have never met a butler before and here in Ohio yet. Wow the city on the lake is surprising me at every turn.

“Nice to meet you
too Cheswick” I blush, I look over at Tristan and he is smiling ear to ear like I am meeting his father or someone very dear to him.

“Come I am just putti
ng the finishing touches on lunch” Cheswick directs us over to the huge cherry table that is set for two with grapes as the centerpiece they look like a picture as they are bunched and display on a pedestal the plates have the Eiffel tower on them and the flatware is sterling silver with gold trim, we sit down at one and I just feel so flattered as if I am the guest of honor or something, I don’t know how he managed all this while I was in the shower or when he woke up so early but here we are.

Tristan sits next to me as Cheswick stands behind the kitchen island facing
us, he is a delightful, charming and charismatic man, quite entertaining, we start talking and I am totally surprised how Tristan holds this man in such a high regard, I have never seen Tristan respect anyone like this, well the old Tristan I mean. The Tristan I see before me is relaxed and joking with Cheswick and myself, and I can tell he is happy that we met.

We all begin to talk as the food is
passed and wine is poured we lunch on cream of water cress soup, Nicoise salad, home-made French bread, black berry butter and of course Tristan’s wine from right outside. We feast while Cheswick makes little comments here and there about Tristan, filling me in on his formative years, which I knew some things but not all, like how he is allergic to evergreen trees and so am I, how crazy is that.