Baby Love Lite (38 page)

“
Judge Tylar - this is Trey
Sinclair’s wife. We ran into each other at the courthouse last week
in Baton Rouge?”

“
Yes, Mrs. Sinclair, I
remember. What can I do for you?”

Holy shit, here goes nothing.

“
I recently learned that my
birth name was Tylar Jamie Renaud. I was raised as Tylar Jamie
Preston around Louisville, Kentucky. I was born in Louisiana, on
July 14, 1990. My mother’s name was Marla Renaud. I was told by my
aunt, who just passed away, that you're my father.”

There was dead silence on the other end of
the phone for several moments. I'd probably shocked the hell out of
him.

“
Hello? Judge, are you still
there?”

“
I knew it. I knew it the
moment I saw you that you were Marley’s daughter. My God, you're
the picture of her. Every bit as beautiful as my sweet Marley,” he
said. The emotion was evident in his voice.

“
I do have the same
amber-colored eyes as you, though,” I said, putting it out there.
“I was told that my mother had green eyes.”

“
What do you mean, you were
told? Where's your mother? Where's Marley?”

Oh, God. He'd no clue about any of this.

“
I don’t remember my mother,
Judge. She died before I was a year old.”

“
Dead? How's that possible?
She'd only be what 39 or 40 years old now?"

I explained to him what Maggie had told Trey
and I about Matthew Renaud and the night he presented my mother to
the judge at his bachelor party in New Orleans. It was the night
that I'd been conceived. I mentioned the part about the pearl
necklace and earrings and my mother telling Maggie that the judge
had told her that he loved her. He listened intently, never
interrupting to confirm or deny. I ended the story with her death,
though I wasn’t sure of the exact date.

“
It’s all true,” he admitted
not hiding the sadness and regret in his voice. “Marley was a
virgin when I took her that night. I was drunk and enjoying the
last of my bachelor life. I'm ashamed to say this, but I thought
she was like the other girls that were there that night to service
the men. I swear I felt horrible after what I'd done.”

I wanted him to tell me about my mother. I
wanted to hear about her from someone that had cared about her.
“Can you tell me anything about her?” I asked my voice
cracking.

“
She was beautiful - like
you are. She was feisty which of course made her that much more
desirable. I romanced her that evening. I listened to her talk
about her hopes and dreams for the future. She had distinct plans
for her life. She didn’t care for New Orleans. She wanted to move
back home to Mississippi and get a job and to put herself through
college. I remember her saying she didn’t care to continue living
with her sister and brother now that she'd turned eighteen a couple
of months previously.”

He stopped for a moment and sighed. “I asked
her if she wanted to go upstairs where we could talk more privately
as the party was getting fairly lively downstairs. We'd rented two
floors of the hotel for that weekend."

"She agreed. I took her to my suite and we
sat on the bed sipping champagne and sharing bits and pieces of our
lives with each other. I still was under the impression that she
was . . . well uh . . .”

“
A whore?” I finished for
him.

“
Yes. May I call you
‘Tylar’?”

“
Yes, of course,” I replied
stiffly.

“
Tylar I don’t want to go
into any further detail about what happened after that. It was a
private night between your mother and me. Suffice it to say that I
realized very quickly that she was an innocent. She'd been telling
the truth when she tried to shove me off of her, telling me that
she was a virgin. I honestly thought that it was part of her
‘routine’, I guess. I felt horrible afterwards, but she stayed with
me the whole night. She didn’t have to; I offered to have a limo
dispatched to take her home.”

At this point, I heard the judge chuckle
softly. What had he found funny about the apparent ravaging of my
mother? I wanted to hate him, but for some reason I couldn’t.

“
After she verbally berated
me for my ‘animalistic’ behavior, I think she called it; she
claimed she wanted to wash my ‘stench’ off of her. She ordered me
to draw a bubble bath for her, which I did. I was falling all over
myself to make it up to her. She took a leisurely bath, and then
put the hotel robe on and climbed into bed. She instructed me not
to get any ideas; she just wanted me to hold her in my arms while
we slept. I did as ordered and we slept curled up in each other’s
arms all night. It was the best night’s sleep that I'd ever had.
I’ve not had another night’s rest quite like it since.”

I felt the tears running down my face hearing
his story. There must've been something about him that my mother
trusted. The very brief interlude that they had with one another
had somehow formed a connection. That connection was me. Could my
mother have suspected then that she'd conceived?

“
What happened after that?”
I asked him.

“
I drove her home the next
morning still apologizing to her. I told her that I was to be
married soon, but that I needed to see her to be with her. I told
her that I wanted to make love to her properly. She asked me if I
was still going to be married. I said that I was. She told me that
she didn’t roll that way.”

Oh my God! She sounds so much like me!

“
The rest you already know,
Tylar. Your aunt’s account of what happened over the next couple of
weeks is all accurate. I did love my sweet Marley. I always
have.”

I needed to get off the phone. This was all
too emotional for me. “Does your cell phone have video
capabilities?” I asked him.

“
Yes, it does.”

“
I'd like to forward the
video I recorded of my aunt’s deathbed conversation. There are
parts of it that you need to hear. Maybe you can help with
untangling some of this. I know you're a busy man, Judge
Tylar.”

“
Please, call me
Preston.”

“
Uhh, I don’t think I can do
that sir.”

“
Why not?”

“
Because my baby daughter's
named Preston.”

“
I see,” he said.

I felt his smile over the phone. “So I'm a
grandfather as well as a father?”

“
Only if you believe what
I'm telling you is true,” I answered.

“
I believe it's the truth.
I’m only sorry that Marley didn’t let me know. It would've changed
everything,” he said with a sigh. “Would you consider calling me
‘Dad’ or ‘Father’?” he asked tentatively.

It was my turn to smile into the phone. “I
like ‘Dad’ best,” I replied.

“
Then Dad it is.”

“
Okay, Dad, I'll send this
video your way. I'd appreciate any help you can provide in locating
these people mentioned. If my mother was poisoned as my aunt
alleges in this conversation, then I need to seek justice on her
behalf.”

“
Of course you have it,” he
promised. “When can I see you and my grandbaby, Tylar?”

“
I don’t know for certain.
We’ll work something out soon. Can I ask you something?”

“
Certainly.”

“
How old are
you?”

“
I’m fifty,” he replied.
“I’m ten years older than your mother.”

Just like with Trey and me.

“
Do I have any brothers or
sisters?”

“
I’m afraid not. My wife
wasn’t able to have children. She passed away last
year.”

“
So, you'll watch the video
and get back with me?”

“
Yes, I will. I'll try and
get some answers for you very quickly.”

“
Good-night,
Tylar.”

“
Good-night,
Dad.”

Trey came into the bedroom looking for me. He
had Preston in his arms.

“
I wondered where you were,”
he said. “Is everything alright?”

“
Everything’s fine, Trey,” I
said entering my dad’s number into my contact list on my
iPhone.

Once finished, I forwarded the video to his
cell phone.

“
What are you doing?” he
asked.

“
I just forwarded Maggie’s
conversation to Dad. He’s going to assist in getting to the bottom
of this.”

“
Dad?” he asked, his eyes
widening.

“
Well it’s ‘dad’ for me. I
think you're still expected to address him as ‘Your Honor’,” I
replied smiling.

“
Seriously? You made the
call?”

“
Yes I did. He shared a lot
with me about my mother. He believes I'm his daughter and wants to
meet his granddaughter who just happens to be his
namesake.”

“
Baby, that's fantastic,” he
said. “Did you hear that, Preston? You officially have another
grandpa. He’s a federal judge, too,” Trey was telling
her.

She didn’t appear to be overly impressed. At
the moment she was chewing viciously on her rubber banana. She was
probably cutting more teeth, by the looks of it.

“
So, baby, I’m going to
change Preston’s diaper and put her down for the night. She took a
bottle while we were watching ESPN. How about you and I celebrate
your good news?”

“
Let me guess. We’ll watch
Monday Night Football together?”

“
That’s not even close to
what I have in mind,” he said giving me his dimpled
grin.

Gina and I were in the kitchen getting the
bird out of the oven.

"Can you mash the potatoes, Gina?”

“
Sure thing,” she replied
getting the hand mixer out of the drawer.

I went into the living room where both Trey
and Tristan were sprawled out watching football.

“
Trey,” I said, “Can you
please carve the turkey?”

“
Yeah baby. Next commercial
I promise.”

I went back into the kitchen where Gina was
plugging the cord for the mixer into the wall socket. “You know,
Gina, it kinda burns my ass that I spent the better part of two
days preparing this meal and all Trey has to do is carve the damn
turkey, provided that he can do it during a flipping
commercial.”

“
Now, Ty, football is also
very much a Thanksgiving tradition, you know. It’s important to let
Trey enjoy the holiday the way he chooses.”

I gave her a sidelong
glance. It wasn’t like her to defend Trey’s position on anything.
“What’s gotten into you?” I asked. “Or maybe, the better question
is
who
has gotten
in to you?”

Gina immediately looked away and I saw her
face flush.

“
No, you didn’t!” I
shrieked.

“
Shhh,” Gina hissed, “Keep
it down. I don’t want Tristan thinking that I put our business out
there like that.”

“
Oh, no,” I said, “You're
telling me everything and I want it now. Put the lid back on those
potatoes,” I instructed, putting the foil back over the turkey.
“Come with me.”

We passed Trey coming into the kitchen as we
headed out.

“
Hey, don’t you want me to
carve the turkey?” he asked.

“
Yeah, go ahead. I have to
show Gina what I bought for Preston to wear on Christmas,” I
lied.

Once we got into the privacy of the master
suite, I closed the door. “Spill it,” I said taking a seat next to
her on the bed.

“
You can’t say a word to
Trey and I mean it.”

“
BFF promise,” I said
holding my hand up.

“
Well,” she giggled, “The
first night he got to town it was all kind of businesslike, you
know? We talked about the club; I listened to his suggestions some
of which I liked, others not so much. We went to the club and
discussed the layout and some changes that he wants to make to
accommodate having a dinner crowd just through the week to generate
more revenue--”

“
For Chrissake, Gina - I
don’t want to hear all that shit. Get to the good part.”

“
Okay, so like Monday and
Tuesday night he slept in the guest room all nice and proper. Last
night we decided to go to the club and party it up. The music was
great; we were drinking and dancing. So, we get back to my condo
and we’re both tipsy and I tell him good-night and so, I go and get
in my skimpy little black silk nightie with the push up bra. Then I
remembered that I needed to make that cranberry relish to bring
over here today and I needed to soak the cranberries.”

“
Uh-huh,” I replied, “Go on,
get to the good stuff.”

“
Well, I figure Tristan is
in his room, so I go out dressed in my sexy nightie to the kitchen
and get the cranberries out and put them in water to soak
overnight. Just as I'm crossing back through the living room, there
he is headed out of the guest room like he’s going to the kitchen.
The next thing I know, I’m pressed up against him making out and
feeling him getting all hard.”

“
Oh, my God,” I said
giggling, “then what?”

“
Well, he asked me if I
wanted to take it to the bedroom. I said sure. He said he had
condoms, so we went to my room and fucked all night
long."

“
Yeah?”