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I doubted that but I didn’t say so. The child she lost may not have been Trey’s but in her rationalization she somehow blamed him or his purchase of Derringer for her accident. It wasn't rational, but then she needed someone to blame.
“I’d prefer that you not call her back,” I said.
“Then I won’t. Get some sleep now, Tylar.”
I laid my head back down on his chest and drifted off.
CHAPTER 47
The next few weeks passed quickly. As promised, Trey went ring shopping and Gina and I went clothes shopping. It was important to me that Trey chose my ring, and I told him that I'd love anything he selected. He insisted I take his credit card to buy clothes. Gina said that was “a guy thing and not to look a gift horse in the fucking mouth.” She said Ian generally tried to hide their credit cards from her.
Trey wanted to present my engagement ring to me on Christmas Eve when we would be with his family in Bristol. He said he wanted to share the joy with his parents. I was anxious that our engagement might appear to upstage his brothers’ visit. Trey told me not to be ridiculous.
We were driving to Bristol on the 23rdof December and his brothers were to arrive the following day. Susan had planned a grand Christmas Eve dinner. I called Denise to let her and Ray know that Trey and I'd be there for a week. Denise was excited with the news. She knew that I was expecting; Susan was telling everyone she ran into. I thought it might bother Trey, but he was fine with it.
“You must think I’m as crotchety as my father,” he said, laughing. “Tylar, you and I are expecting a child and I'm happy about it."
On the afternoon before we were set to leave for Bristol I finally met Mrs. Harris. She came to clean three days a week, always while I was at work. Trey and I had arrived home early because the firm closed early for the holiday. Mrs. Harris was just finishing up in the kitchen and Trey introduced us. We chatted and I found her to be an absolute treasure.
“So you and Mr. Sinclair are going away for the holidays?” she asked, politely.
“Yes, Mrs. Harris,” I replied, “we’ll be in Bristol until after the first. So no need to come in that week.”
“Well, now that’s nice. You call me Jean now, you hear?’
“Yes, Jean, as long as you call me Tylar.”
“Tylar it is,” she said, her eyes twinkling.
“I’ve got to tell you, Tylar, ever since you came here my work has been cut in half. Now that says something don’t it when I’m cleaning for two people instead of one and my workload’s cut in half?”
I laughed, “Well then it’s worth all of the nagging I've had to do to get Trey to pick up after himself. Your work may increase some in the future, though.”
“Oh?”
I blushed, “Trey and I are expecting a baby in early May.”
“Well congratulations, honey. That's great news. You two are simply a beautiful couple. I won’t mind cleaning up after a baby one little bit.”
She reached for her scarf and prepared to leave. I handed her pay envelope to her, which included a Christmas bonus.
“Merry Christmas, Jean!”
“Merry Christmas to you and Trey, honey, and have a good trip. I'll see you after the new year.” I closed the door behind her, smiling at her sweetness.
I skipped down the hallway to Trey’s study. He was on his phone again. I could tell he was talking to one of the partners. I guessed it was Pierce. He and Trey were working on a major class action product liability case that looked like it was going to trial in January. I paused in the doorway of Trey’s study trying to see how much longer he was going to be. He gave me a shrug; this call could take a while.
I knew my ring was somewhere in the apartment. Although I'd looked around a bit before, Trey always seemed to be nearby. The time was right for some unobstructed snooping. I went into Trey’s closet. He hadn’t packed his clothes for the trip, which made my task more difficult. I checked the insides of his shoes and boots, nothing there. I rummaged through his neatly folded boxers and socks. No luck. Then I decided to check under the mattress. I positioned myself at the end of the bed, raising the heavy king-sized mattress up and sweeping my arm across each section as I moved across the width of the bed. My fingertips grazed something.
It was a plastic DVD case, very generic looking, with no writing on the case or on the disk. I placed the disk into the DVD player and pushed play. There was some initial fuzziness and then the video came onto the screen. It wasn’t particularly crisp, but the audio was unmistakable. I heard my voice.
“Trey, you need to get out from under Derringer, damn it!”
‘Trey, I’m going to run and call Mark to come down to help me get you up, okay?”
Oh wow. This was the video that Charlie took of Trey and me that night. I skipped ahead to where I slapped Trey across his cheek. He didn’t flinch. I watched as I raised my hand back to deliver yet another slap and he caught my wrist without taking his eyes off of me.
Now that was kind of hot!
