Maybe Baby (42 page)

I groaned loudly, grabbing one of the bed pillows and putting it over my face.

“What? You don’t want to marry me?” he asked, sincerely perplexed.

“Trey,” I said calmly and reasonably, removing the pillow, “we’ve known each other for what, ten minutes? Put things into perspective please.”

“I thought I was,” he replied, ticked off. “We’re having a baby together. We love each other. It’s the natural thing to do.”

“Can we table this discussion until sometime
after
the baby’s born?"

“Our baby isn’t going to be born a bastard. I won’t allow it.”

“What do you have against bastards?” I asked pointedly, my eyes flashing angrily.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“How else could you have meant it?”

“Tylar, be reasonable, please? I only want what’s best for all of us. I love you.. I want you with me.”

“I love you too,” I replied, burying my face into his neck. “I'd be happy to marry you if I didn’t think the reason was because I’m knocked up. I want to marry you when I’m not pregnant. I’m sorry but that’s the way is has to be.” I rolled over onto my side to compose myself. I felt him get up out of bed and make his way to the bathroom. I heard him trip over something, and then his cursing as he picked it up and hurled it against the wall. I heard the bathroom door slam. I looked over at what he'd thrown against the wall. It was one of my ‘fuck me’ shoes. I couldn’t restrain a giggle as I pulled the covers up over my face so that he wouldn’t hear me.

I awoke Saturday morning desperately hoping that things were normal again between us. It was nothing personal about not getting married. It was simply the way it needed to be. Trey stood at the sink shaving and I went over to him, stood on my tiptoes, and planted a kiss on his lips. He was unresponsive.

Okkaay…

“We’re having breakfast with Mom and Dad,” Trey informed me. “They want to discuss the
situation
with us.”

“What are we, high school freshman? Thanks for giving me notice," I snapped, grabbing clothes from my suitcase and going in the bathroom to shower.

I put on jeans and a University of Kentucky sweatshirt. I wanted them to know that I was a “no frills” kind of girl. Trey dressed in khakis and a long-sleeved Polo shirt. We descended the staircase together. Breakfast was being served in the formal dining room. My stomach was growling since I hadn’t eaten dinner the night before. Susan came over to us immediately, giving Trey a hug, and then reaching out to me, kissing me on my cheek.

“How lovely you look, Tylar,” she said sweetly, giving me her sincere, down-home smile. “You look very well-rested, glowing almost,” she gushed. “Please, take a seat. Clive will be joining us in a moment.”

As if on cue, Clive came into the room bidding everyone a good morning. A servant was busy bringing in warm platters of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, fried potatoes, fresh fruit, and muffins, placing everything on the sideboard. There was coffee, juice, and milk already poured.

Trey pulled out my chair for me, waiting as I took a seat before taking his. Very properly raised, I thought. Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair took their seats as the servant filled water glasses and poured coffee.

“Please,” Susan said, once the coffee had been poured, “You two help yourselves to some breakfast.”

I touched Trey’s arm as he stood, asking that he get me some scrambled eggs and a muffin. He nodded. Although I was very hungry, I wasn’t sure now just how much I'd be able to eat. My nerves were jittery. I couldn’t imagine what they needed to discuss with us. We weren’t high school kids who got into trouble.

Once everyone’s plates were full, we commenced eating in uncomfortable silence. I talked to Susan a bit about the horse auction they had attended. They had purchased two more warm bloods. To my relief, Clive finally got to the point.

“Tylar,” he said in his lovely British accent, “Susan and I want you to know that we’re here to support you in any way possible and acceptable to you. We’ve not been blessed with a grandchild as of yet,” he said, glancing toward Trey briefly. “We want you to consider staying with us so that we can provide you with anything you may need financially or emotionally during this time. We understand that Charlie Roberts’s trial is scheduled for January, and that you may need to be here in Bristol during that time, should they not meet a plea agreement.”

Why did I not know this?

“We’d be happy for you to stay with us and we will make sure that you're taken care of.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair,” I spoke frankly, because it appeared that Trey had left me out on the ledge here, “I so appreciate your hospitality and generosity. I want you both to know one thing. I love your son; I love Trey. Trey loves me.”

I looked over and he was gaping at me, never expecting that I'd speak so candidly to his parents.

Doesn’t
he know how I roll yet?

“We’re both so happy about this baby, about blessing you both with your first grandchild.”

I reached over, taking Trey’s hand in mine. He was shocked, I could tell. I smiled inside; it wasn’t often that I could cause that. “Trey proposed to me last night, and I asked him to be patient with me.” I looked over at Susan, knowing that another woman might understand what I was about to say. “Since I was a little girl, I dreamed about my wedding day. I wanted a prince to sweep me off of my feet and a wedding that was about just him and me. I’ve met my prince, your son. All I want now is for our wedding to be about our love. I understand if this doesn’t sit well with you—”

Susan suddenly jumped up, sweeping me into an embrace. “Oh sweet girl,” she said, “You're everything I could have dreamed of for my son. You're perfect for him. I see the love between you both.” Tears filled her eyes. I hugged her back, tears springing to my eyes now. Clive cleared his throat, uncomfortable with all of the female emotions.

“Tylar,” Clive said, “we want and support whatever Trey and you desire. That’s all we want you to know. We consider you family. We hope you’ll come to feel the same way about us.”

What wonderful parents, I thought. I felt a fleeting pain that I'd never known that kind of unconditional love. Trey’s arm was around me now, pulling me toward him, kissing my cheeks, once again wiping my tears away.

Susan was ecstatic that we'd somehow dealt with the elephant in the room. I was too. Suddenly I was famished, digging in to my breakfast, and feeling that everything would be okay.

“Tylar, what's your due date?” she asked excitedly.

“May 5
^th
,” I replied, “Kentucky Derby month.”

“Oh that's so thrilling,” she exclaimed, all bubbly and excited. “Do you know if the baby is a boy or a girl? Not that we have a preference. We're just tickled to death for a grandbaby!”

“Not yet,” I replied. “My doctor will do an ultrasound at my next appointment, which is at the end of next week. I’m not sure if I want to know or not. I kind of like the idea of being surprised.”

Trey looked at me seriously, “Why didn’t I know about the ultrasound?” Uh-oh, I should have mentioned it to him before now.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly, patting his cheek gently with my hand, making sure I sounded contrite in his parents presence, Can you come to the appointment with me next week in Radcliff?”

“Certainly,” he smiled, sipping his coffee, “In fact, I’ve rearranged my schedule to spend more time with you in Radcliff if necessary.”

“Well, then I'm tickled pink,” Susan gushed. “Clive and I feel so much better knowing that you two have worked out so many of the details! Tell me," she asked, “Have you and Trey discussed names for the baby?”

“Well,” I said softly, lowering my head a bit, looking at Trey in my peripheral vision as he was preparing to take another sip of his coffee, “I haven’t mentioned it to Trey just yet but I was thinking if it’s a boy, ‘Jack,’ and if it’s a girl, I like ‘Danielle.’” I could see Trey choking on his last sip of the hot coffee. I pretended not to notice. “What do you think, babe?” I asked, turning to him.

He glanced at me while pulling his cloth napkin from his lap and wiping his mouth. He gave me one of his “your-ass-is-mine” looks, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

“We’ll talk about names later,” he replied authoritatively.

The rest of our breakfast was enjoyed in good spirits. Afterward, I went back upstairs to retrieve my hoodie. I wanted to go out to the stable to visit with Derringer. Trey was right behind me.

“That was quite a performance you gave down there,” he said wryly.

“I meant all of it. Well, with the exception of the baby names.”

“I should hope so,” he replied, smirking.

“Did you really plan to stay longer with me or was that something you made up?” I asked.

He was thoughtful for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “I’ve made arrangements to stay with you longer for several reasons. Please trust me when I tell you this and don't get pissed off and stubborn. Will you do that?”

“Yes, of course,” I answered.

He pulled me down so that I was sitting next to him on the bed. He was momentarily quiet, selecting his words carefully. “There’s a very good chance that the C.A. will accept Charlie Roberts’s plea bargain for giving us your mother.”

I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.

“If that happens, you won’t have to face being at his trial; he will simply plead guilty to a lesser charge. Now, I don’t want you to worry about that. Charlie will do time in prison, just not as much. My only concern is that the authorities haven't found your mother. I’ve had my own private investigator looking into her whereabouts as well.”

“You have?” I asked wide-eyed. Maybe that explained his constant phone calls.

“Your mother's been living in Indiana.”

“Indiana? Why would she move to Indiana?” Then it hit me—Daniel. Trey saw that I understood.

“Yes,” he said, “she’s been with Daniel.”

“Oh wow,” I said, although nothing about mom would shock me.

“He’s in college. He’s at Purdue.”

“Unfortunately, he’s not any more. Your mom’s expecting his child. He quit school and has been working at a factory. Somehow, she figured out that we were on to her after Charlie’s assault attempt went awry. By the way, the attack wasn’t actually part of their plan, if it makes you feel any better.”

It didn’t. I pressed Trey for more details.

“According to Charlie’s sworn statement, the plan was to make it look like an accident.”

“Make what look like an accident?” I questioned. Trey shifted nervously beside me, wrapping an arm around me. His silence spoke volumes. “What? She wanted me dead?” I looked up at Trey and I knew the answer, though he couldn’t speak the unspeakable.

“Why?” I asked. “Why would she hate me like that?”

“I don’t know,,” he said, stroking my face with the back of his knuckles. “I don’t understand it either.” He kissed the top of my head. He continued in his smooth silky voice.

“Charlie was biding his time, hoping to get an opportunity to catch you alone, either in the stable or your cottage. The plan was to make it appear as though you'd had an accident with one of the horses. He thought he had a perfect opportunity the night he saw you going into the stable alone. He didn’t realize that I was there. When he saw us, he decided to cash in on a better opportunity.”

“So, explain this,” I interrupted, “was the plan to kill me nixed then in favor of getting blackmail money from the video?”

“That’s the story Charlie is sticking to,” Trey replied. “Your mother had a life insurance policy on you for $150,000. She offered Charlie $50,000 of it to arrange the…accident. Charlie saw an opportunity for more money by blackmailing me. He claimed your mother was still hounding him to complete the other…task. She wanted the $100,000 life insurance money on top of her portion of the blackmail money. Also, if you were gone, the house in Radcliff would go to her as natural next-of-kin.”

“But the jig's up, right? She couldn’t collect on insurance now if I died under strange circumstances, could she?”

“That depends,” Trey said, “unless she’s well connected within the law enforcement community here, she may not know that Charlie sang like a bird.”

“But maybe she still has connections,” I was thinking out loud. “I mean, she did work for a law firm. It’s possible, I suppose.”

“Either way, I don’t want you to be alone in Radcliff; I want to keep you safe. There’s an outstanding warrant for her.”

“What good does a warrant do if they aren’t actively searching for her?”

“First of all, I have a private detective looking for her; secondly, if she gets stopped by law enforcement for a minor traffic ticket, they’ll run her I.D. and see that she has an outstanding warrant in Virginia.”

I knew my mother, or at least I thought I did. She had a keen survival instinct. She wasn’t going to be caught easily. “Does Daniel know any of this?”

“No,” Trey explained, “the last thing we want is to tip her off. For some reason though, she’s not been with him over the past several weeks.”

Nausea began to creep over me. My life had been a mess of lies and half-truths at best. The only parent that I knew was a con artist and wannabe murderer. Trey held my hand.

“I really need for you to consider giving up your house and job in Radcliff and moving to either Atlanta or here with my parents before Christmas, It's for your safety, not for my convenience, I promise."

“It’s not that I don’t want to be with you in Atlanta. It’s just that I’d have nothing to do. I need to be doing something, Trey. I need to nest and prepare for this baby.”

“I totally understand that, but would you consider making your nest in Atlanta with me? I'm sure I could find something for you to do at the firm, how's that?"

How could I deny him anything?

“Why do you always get your way?" I asked, shaking my head. "Okay, you win. Happy now?"

“Elated," he said with a smile, kissing the tip of my nose. “Now how about you and I going for a very gentle ride
together
on Derringer?”

“Really?”

“Yep,” he answered, “I’m driving, though.”

Trey and I spent the afternoon in the brisk November sunshine. We rode Derringer down through the woods, stopping to sit and talk. We discussed what needed to happen when we returned to Kentucky the following day. I wanted to make sure that I gave at least a week’s notice so that another temp could be located. I actually didn’t mind putting the house on the market. No matter what, there would always be dark memories there.