Authors: Andrea Smith
The only other downside was the mustard seed poop. I mean that part I knew about because of Preston, but damn, having to deal with three to four of those a day was a little taxing. Usually Tristan was good for one or two of them. It didn’t seem to bother him one bit.
I had just gotten Reese bathed and dressed when the doorman buzzed. He said that Tylar was in the lobby.
(Really?)
I told him to send her up. I was curious as to what would have brought Tylar clear into the city without even calling first. I didn’t mind. Maybe she had been downtown for some reason and decided to stop by. I knew that wasn’t the case when I opened the door for her.
(Christ, she looked like hell. Skinny and fragile.)
The first thing she did as to ask me if she could use my freaking phone. I started giving her some shit then it dawned on me that something was wrong; she was freaked out. I told her to go ahead.
I was nursing Reese and hung around close enough so that I could eavesdrop on her conversation. She called her father. She was crying. She spilled her guts to him. Damn Trey! Damn that bitch Amber. What the hell was Trey thinking making out with the bitch like that? I knew Tristan would be mad as hell when he found out.
I could tell that Tylar was winding up her conversation with her dad. They were making arrangements. I went and put Reese in his cradle, kissing his soft cheek.
“Baby, please take a little nap for Mommy, okay? I really need to talk to my BFF.” He gurgled and smiled up at me, kicking his little legs. God he was so freaking cute.
When I went back into the living room I tried to calm Tylar down and get her to talk to me. She was tied up in knots. I apologized for not being there for her; she wouldn’t let me accept any blame. She simply stated that this was her problem and she would handle it. It was plain to see that she was still in denial over the loss of the baby and the need to deal with it. When I said as much, she got extremely agitated. I needed to let it go for now.
She had made plans to go to Baton Rouge and spend some time with her father. Frankly, I thought it was probably the best thing she could do for herself at the moment. She had to distance herself from the pain; right now that pain was Trey. I just hoped she didn’t stay away forever. Maybe a father was the best medicine for Tylar right now. She had been denied all of that growing up; she needed to know what it felt like to have a father’s love.
I gave her some wine to calm her down and forced her to eat something because she obviously needed to put some meat on her bones. I told her she was welcomed to stay here for the night. I got pillows and a blanket for her so that she could make a bed on the couch. She didn’t want to sleep in the spare bed in the nursery.
She passed out fairly early on the couch. She had to be exhausted. I stayed up to make Tristan a sandwich when he got home. I hurried over to the front door when I heard his key and motioned for him to be quiet until we got into the kitchen. I placed his sandwich on the table with a tall glass of iced tea.
I explained to him what had happened. As predicted, he was freaking livid. I had to keep shushing him so that he wouldn’t wake Tylar. I finally advised him to just stay out of it; I felt that those two needed to work it out for themselves.
Tristan and I showered together, and then I brought Reese into bed with us to nurse. Right towards the end I heard him grunting and he stiffened as he filled his diaper.
“Oh God,” I whined.
“I’ll get the diaper Gina,” Tristan said with a laugh. “It’s not that bad.”
Tristan changed him and then walked him around a little bit getting a couple of hearty burps out of him. He placed him back in his cradle and Reese gurgled and cooed happily until he fell asleep.
“Hey Tristan,” I said, getting a bit smug. “Guess what came in the mail today?”
“I haven’t a clue,” he replied, pulling a tee shirt on over his damp mass of hair.
I leaned over and took the envelope from my nightstand handing it to him.
“Read it,” I instructed with a grin.
He took the envelope and removed the one page letter inside. It was the results of the DNA testing that was conducted after Reese had been born. Tristan got a sheepish grin on his face as he looked up from the letter to me.
“99.979%, huh?”
“Yep. It doesn’t get much closer than that I would guess.”
“You know this wasn’t necessary, right Gina?”
“Oh ho, but it was. Remember my promise to you about what I intended to do with the results? Bend over, big boy.”
Tristan tossed the paper onto his night stand and scooped me up into his arms, nuzzling and tickling me.”
“You have to pin me first, Gina,” he teased, his lips finding mine. We kissed tenderly, then passionately. His tongue traced my lower lip as his green eyes bore into mine. I never tired of looking at him.
“I love you Tristan James Sinclair,” I said softly, brushing my fingers across his handsome face. It had become so easy for me to say that now. I wanted to say it over and over again.
“I love you Gina Marie Valenti,” he replied, nuzzling me. Tristan had taken to calling me by my maiden name. He said he would continue to do that until I was officially a Sinclair.
Tristan and I got under the covers; his hands were on me in an instant. I hadn’t been cleared yet to resume penetrative sex, but Tristan and I been extremely creative with oral sex of late. We were both becoming quite limber again with the various oral positions we had created over the past couple of weeks. Afterwards, we cuddled in each other’s arms. Life was good.
Several weeks had passed since Tylar had gone to spend time with her father in Baton Rouge. We had only spoken a couple of times, but then I hadn’t expected in her state of mind that she would be calling me routinely. I hoped her time spent with her dad proved to be therapeutic for her.
I had contacted her initially to let her know that Trey was being a royal pain in the ass; Tristan had finally had enough of his whining and had laid into him. I had encouraged Tylar to keep the line of communication open with him. I truly felt that they would reconcile. He was her lobster; she was his.
She had contacted me after that in a panic. She had halfway slept with another guy and somehow Trey knew it. She had been a freaking mess. They both needed to fucking grow up in my opinion.
In the meantime, Preston had been spending some time with us. Even at her young age she was confused; her world had become uncertain. It was breaking my heart. Trey was still working long hours with Amber on that fucking huge case that had thrown them together in the first place. He said it would be over soon; I had a feeling even after the case was over, Amber would still find a way to work closely with Trey.
I had started weaning Reese off the breast at ten weeks. I needed to spend more time at the club helping Tristan, even though he repeatedly told me that he could handle it. We had lost several key employees to better positions at rival clubs. I needed to replace, train and then develop a retention plan to make sure our wages and benefits were competitive to the area. Tristan was long over-due to make a trip to Bristol to check on his winery.
Trey had picked Preston up this morning to take her to Baton Rouge. She would be staying with Tylar. I had wished him luck before he left. I bathed Reese and then we headed out to run some errands. Around lunch time I decided to stop by the club I had promised Jo Anna I would bring him in for a visit.
Jo Jo was setting up the downstairs bar when I got there. She immediately stopped what she was doing to come over and take Reese from me.
“He is so beautiful, Gina,” she gushed. “Look at those pretty eyes. They look like they’re changing to green,” she said. She was baby talking to him and smelling his head.
“I just love the way that babies smell, don’t you?”
“You wouldn’t say that if you got a whiff of his loaded diaper once or twice.”
“Oh Gina,” she laughed. “Hey, I’ll play with him if you want to pop in and say hello to Tristan.”
“Thanks Jo Anna, I’ll take you up on that. Be back in a couple.”
Tristan was in the office filling out the schedule when I popped my head in.
“Busy?” I asked.
He looked up giving me his gorgeous, sexy smile.
“Not too busy for you, sweet baby,” he said.
I went over to where he was sitting and plopped in his lap, giving him wet, sloppy kiss on his cheek.
“I just stopped by to see my man. We’ve been missing each other a lot lately, haven’t we?”
“Yes, and I’m afraid it’s not going to get better any time soon until we add some more staff. I’m trying to figure out tomorrow’s schedule right now. I have one out sick, and one was promised the night off to get married so I don’t think I can do much about that.”
“Hey, what about me?”
“Gina, I have to work tomorrow night; who would watch the baby?”
“I could ask Jean. She’s offered. Preston left today to be with Tylar in Baton Rouge. How about it?”
“Hey, if you can line Jean up to babysit it will solve the immediate problem here.”
“Practically a done deal, babe. Want to give your son a kiss before we take off? Jo Anna is spoiling him rotten as we speak.”
Tristan walked me back out to the bar where Jo Anna and several other servers were showering Reese with attention.
He kissed the baby and then me goodbye, telling me once again he would be home late.
The following evening I got dressed in my work garb. I had lost all of my pregnancy weight. I was excited to get back into the swing of things at the club. I knew that Tristan had booked a kick-ass band for tonight. Jo Anna and me were working the main bar downstairs. Tristan was working the one near the stage.
Jean had arrived to babysit and would be spending the night. She said she was missing Preston already; I think she counted on Reese to fill that void.
The club was slammed which was great. Jo Anna and I were busting our asses trying to keep up with the drink orders.
“What’s this, Gina?” Jo Anna teased, “Aren’t you back on your game yet?”
“I’ll show you game, Jo Anna,” I said, grabbing a tin with my right hand and the ice scoop in the other. I tossed a double across my body with the tin, catching it in my left hand, as I flipped the ice scoop into my right band behind my back; I then brought the tin back to the other side with a flat flick, catching the tin perfectly with the ice scoop in my left hand.
“Ta da,” I said, winking at her.
“You got me there, Gina. I can’t keep up with that flair bartending stuff you do.”
A couple of the patrons asked me to do it again. I gladly complied, then demonstrated for them how to ice a glass mid-air. Tristan happened to walk by as I was showing off my flair skills.
“Gina, those glasses cost money,” he warned as he breezed by, a smile on his face.
“You’re just jealous, Tristan,” I teased.
We continued to be slammed which actually made the time fly. Pretty soon the band started playing and a lot of the patrons from the main bar made their way over to the bar nearest to the dance floor. Good, it was Tristan’s turn to be slammed for a while. I told Jo Anna to go on over and help Tristan; I could manage the main bar by myself.