Maybe Baby Lite (20 page)

“
What happened?” I asked,
trying to sound like I wasn’t all that interested.

“
She broke his heart.
That’s what happened. I know it had something to do with his horse.
She wanted him to put the horse down; he wouldn’t do it. I just
heard bits and pieces from Aunt Becky, so I don’t know the whole
story.”

Oh my God, I thought, why
would someone want to have Derringer put down? I couldn't imagine
such a thing!

“
When did all of this
happen?” I asked.

“
I dunno; three or four
years back maybe. Hey, for being his bitch, you sure don’t know
much about his deep dark secrets do you?”

“
Did you say ‘his bitch’?”
I asked, eyes widening.

“
Relax, it’s just a term
we use, an east-coast term,” she laughed, taking the water hose
that was used to clean the wine bottles before filling and spraying
me with it across my back. I shrieked in surprise when the water
hit.

“
Lunch break!” Gina
announced. We climbed the stairs and emerged outside into the early
afternoon sun. “Do you want to eat up at the restaurant?” she
asked. “We get our lunch for free.”

It hadn't occurred to me
what I'd do for lunch when I left this morning. I was used to
eating at my cottage while working over at the stables. Since lunch
was free; problem solved.

“
Sounds good to me, wine
bitch,” I said, laughing. Gina actually looked shocked when I said
that and then we both dissolved into giggles. I considered that
being around all the fermented wine was somehow having some
mood-altering effects on both of us. I was so glad I had someone
like Gina to work with.

We headed into the main
visitor’s center. The restaurant was up on the second level. It was
12:30 p.m. so there was a crowd. Gina weaved her way through to the
back of the room where a single table was located next to the
kitchen. “For Employees Only,” a small tabletop sign read. Jenna
and Rodney were already sitting there.

“
Hey Ty; Hey Gina,” Rodney
greeted as we joined them.

Jenna spoke to Gina, and
then turned to me as if I was her long lost friend. “Tylar,
how
are
you?” she
asked as if she was sincerely concerned.

“
Jenna, you’ve seen me
since I’ve been out of the hospital–I’m doing okay.”

“
Oh,” she said, pausing,
“I really wasn’t talking about the concussion, I was referring to
your, uh, well, for lack of a better word, ‘humiliation’ at the
race last weekend. I mean you and your Jezebel being scratched like
that when you were so close to winning the high stakes. It’s just a
shame!” she remarked. “I suppose that comes with the
territory.”

Gina and I both exchanged
glances with one another.

“
What do you mean?” I
asked.

“
It’s no secret what
everyone's saying. I mean, surely, you know?”

“
Know what?” I demanded,
my voice taking on an edge.

“
You’re Trey’s
Twinkie.”

“
What the fuck's a
Twinkie?” Gina blurted out, laughing at Jenna.

Yeah, I second that
question

Jenna rolled her eyes, and
then acted as if she was reciting the definition from Webster’s
Unabridged Dictionary:

“
Twinkie: (n) young,
innocent beautiful female that has no nutritional value; a snack to
tide one over until the real thing comes along.

I resisted the urge to
jump over the table and slap her. Wow, one morning with Gina had
already changed me into an east coast girl. I got up from the
table, not wanting to spend one more minute in the company of such
a nasty bitch.

“
I’ll see you back in the
cellar, Gina. I've a phone call to make.”

I hurried outside, pulling
my phone out of my pocket and called Trey’s phone. Of course, I got
his voicemail. I didn’t care. At the moment, he was responsible for
my being cast into “Twinkdom,” and he was going to get his fair
share of the crap.

“
Trey it’s me, Tylar. You
have my number. My message will be extremely brief: I AM NOT YOUR
FREAKING TWINKIE!” I pushed the end button and strode back to the
wine cellar, still seething.

Twinkie my ass!

I reported back to the
wine cellar, putting my apron on and starting back to work. Gina
came in just a few minutes later.

“
Hey,” she said, “don’t
worry about that bitch Jenna. She's just jealous. I mean, you know
that right?”

“
What could she possibly
be jealous about?” I asked, putting a new roll of labels onto the
round spindle.

“
Uhh hello? You landed the
second most gorgeous, sexiest man in the western
hemisphere?”

“
Who’s the first?” I
asked.

“
Why my Ian, of
course!”

We both
laughed.

“
No really, Gina,” I said,
“it’s not what you think with Trey and me. He’s just got this sort
of protective older brother kind of thing going on with me, you
know?”

“
Sure, I understand,” she
replied, smiling. “It’s not all that unusual. I think they call it
incest?”

“
No seriously,” I
explained, “It's not like that. He feels totally protective of me
on account of something that occurred a few weeks back. If you
don't believe it, stay at the manor with me this week. You'll see
that I have my own room, and there's nothing going on. I won’t hear
from him because of a big trial starting tomorrow. Now is
that
really
how a
guy treats his
Twinkie
?”

We both started laughing.
The rest of the afternoon went quickly. Gina took me up on my offer
to stay at the manor, saying that wealth had its advantages. I was
eager to find out. We decided it would be fun to go swimming and
maybe have a barbeque outside. Gina and I decided to walk back to
the manor after our shift. I let her know that I needed stop off at
my cottage to get some more clothes, since it was on the way. We
took the trail and walked through the woods, coming out at the bank
of cottages on the Sinclair estate.

I didn’t go into much
detail about why I wasn't staying at my cottage, only telling her
that someone had left a menacing item there. Once we were inside
everything looked to be in place. I located my backpack and emptied
the rest of my underwear and sleepwear drawers into it. I packed my
swimsuits and the rest of my toiletries and make-up.

Gina was looking through
my stack of CDs in the living room. “You have some good music
here,” she said. “Here open your backpack, let’s take these with
us.”

We headed out the door.
Gina stooped to pick up a piece of paper on the floor we hadn't
seen coming in.

“
This must be yours,” she
said, handing the folded piece of paper to me. I opened it and read
the note, written in inky, block letters:

Sissy, I miss the sweet
taste of your cunt. Where have you been? Don’t worry, I'll find
you.

“
Let me see, Ty,” Gina
said. I handed her the folded paper.

“
Shit,” she said, handing
it back to me. “Is this the reason you don’t stay here?” I nodded.
“Aw jeez I’m sorry about nosing into your business like I did this
morning. I totally understand why you can’t stay here with some
maniac stalker fucking with you like this. It’s good of Trey to
worry about you and make sure that you’re safe. He’s a good guy, ya
know?”

I nodded, still numbly
holding the paper. This latest communication was clearly meant to
terrorize me. Who did this? Mom might know. But where was
Mom?

“
Listen,” Gina said as we
locked the cabin behind us, “I’ll ask Aunt Becky to bring my
clothes over. We’ll hang out; find something fun to do to take your
mind off of this, okay?”

I nodded again.

Arriving at the manor,
Gina got settled into a guest room in the “east wing.” She did have
her own bathroom, but it wasn't nearly as luxurious as Trey’s
badass bathroom. I retrieved Trey’s bathrobe and went over to his
suite to take a shower. Everything in his suite was clean and
orderly. I was disappointed that the room didn’t smell like his
aftershave anymore. I needed my Trey fix and nothing in there
provided that now. I showered, brushed my teeth, and went back to
my room wearing Trey’s bathrobe, I heard my cell phone ringing. It
was Trey.

“
Hello,” I answered,
bracing myself for his anger over the message I'd left on his phone
earlier.

“
Hey there,” smooth and
silky said.

“
Hey,” I replied, now
suddenly shy and composed. I sat on my bed, knees up under my chin,
wondering what I could say if he mentioned my angry message. Maybe
he wouldn’t ask.

“
Tylar?”

Here it comes, get
ready.

“
Uh huh,” I
answered.

“
You're many things to me.
When I think of you, I think of the way you make me laugh at times;
other times how you make me crazy. I think of your gorgeous eyes,
and how you affect me when I least expect it. But I swear to God,
I've never, ever thought of you as a Twinkie. I don’t even know
what that means!”

“
It’s something that
Jenna's spreading around about me. I’m your Twinkie, which I guess
is some younger, more attractive version of a bimbo.” I answered,
the tears brimming. “It’s not important,” I said in a small
voice.

“
It was important enough
for you to leave a screeching message on my phone this afternoon.
You’re neither a “Twinkie” nor a "Bimbo" to me, got it? I’m
surprised that you let Jenna get to you like that anyway,” he
said.

I didn't answer him
because he was right, I shouldn't have let the bitch get to me like
that.

“
Tylar? Are you there?” He
heard my sniffle, confirming that I was still on the
phone.

"Is something else
bothering you?"

“
There was another note
left for me at my cottage.”

“
What were you doing back
at your cottage?”

“
I needed to pick up some
more clothes and stuff. Gina—you remember Gina, Becky’s
niece?”

“
Vaguely,” he responded,
still very irritated with me.

“
She went with me so I was
safe. It’s just kind of creepy, you know?”

“
What did the note say?”
he asked.

“
Something vulgar and that
he missed me and would find me.” I could hear Trey catch his
breath. “Anyway I invited Gina to stay here with me this week is
that okay with you?”

“
No problem, sweetie,” he
replied, his tone now gentle and soft. “I'll let Thatcher know to
keep an eye out for anyone lurking around as well."

“
Thank you,” I said. I
still had Trey’s robe on, but the scent of him was starting to
diminish. I had his voice, but only for another couple of
minutes.

“
What’s wrong, Tylar?” he
asked again, sensing my despair.

“
I’m fine,” I
squeaked.

“
Obviously you're not,” he
said. “What can I do to make you feel better?”

“
I don't know. I guess I
didn’t like the way we parted this morning,” I admitted.

There was a long silence
from the other end of the phone.

How needy does that
sound?

“
Hey, I've been thinking
about you today. You don't totally fall off my radar while I'm
gone."

That was something. He'd
given me something; I felt a connection again. “I’m getting ready
for bed. Are you?” I asked him softly.

“
Well, I have some
depositions to review before I turn in, but I’m in for the night if
that’s what you mean.”

“
Can we sleep together
tonight?” I asked. “By phone?”

“
How does that work
exactly?” He seemed genuinely interested.

“
We just put our phones on
our pillows or beside us in bed and go to sleep.”

“
Let’s do it, then. I'll
leave my phone on; you do the same. You go to sleep. When I’m ready
to go to sleep, I'll kiss you good night over the phone, how's
that?”

I smiled into the phone
and nodded. “Okay, Trey. Good night.”

“
Sleep
well."

I was plugging my phone
into the charger just as Gina bustled into my room. It was only 6
a.m., but she was freshly showered and dressed for the
day.

“
Get your lazy ass up,”
she greeted me, a cup of coffee in one hand and an unlit cigarette
in the other. I didn’t know Gina smoked.

“
It’s only 6 a.m. We don’t
have to be there for three hours. I'm going to lay back down for a
bit. You aren’t going to light that are you?”

“
Of course not,” she said,
as if it was illogical for me to even think that. “I quit two years
ago; it’s just I still like the feel of a cigarette in my hand when
I’m having my morning coffee.” She took a long drag off of the
cigarette, slowly exhaling invisible smoke, and then followed it
with a sip of her hot coffee.