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“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.
“Tylar, please consider something for me.” He lifted my chin so that our eyes were locked. I nodded. “You don’t need to make a decision now, but please consider giving up your house and job in Radcliff and moving here before Christmas.”
“But Trey, you’re not here. What’s the point?”
“You won’t come to Atlanta with me. At least here you’d be closer, and my mother is dying to look after you.”
“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, Tylar. Please consider making your nest either here or Atlanta, for me?” He raised my hand to his lips, never taking his sapphire blue eyes off of me.
How could I deny him anything?
“I will, Trey. I promise. It’ll be one or the other.”
“Good girl,” he smiled, his dimple appearing. “Now how about you and I going for a very gentle ridetogetheron 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.
We sat astride a log; Trey sat behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He leaned in to kiss the back of my neck. I shivered with pleasure.
“You’re giving me goose bumps Mr. Sinclair,” I said, trying my best southern drawl.
“Is that a bad thing, Ms. Preston?”
“Not when they’re from you,” I snuggled closer to him. My hands closed over his hands that were resting on my belly. We both felt the baby at the same time, stronger than before.
“I think he’s happy when we’re happy,” I said giggling.
“So it’s a ‘he’ is it, Tylar?” Trey whispered against my neck.
“I’m kind of hoping we have a boy,” I admitted, “for you.”
“Why for me?” Trey asked. I could tell he was frowning.
“I thought all men wanted sons, you know, to hang out with, to follow in their footsteps, that sort of thing.”
Trey snorted, “I’ve always had the impression that sons were closer to their mothers; daughters to their fathers.”
