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He nodded, still holding her hostage in his arms.
“Well, I’ve got the chocolate filling cooking right now for one of those, and the other one is going to be lemon meringue. You know I wouldn’t forget your pie,” she smacked at his arm. “If you don’t let me go, that chocolate will scald,” she warned, “then you won’t have your pie.”
He released her with a loud smooch on her cheek. She smiled, and I guessed that she loved the playfulness of her youngest son. I asked Susan if she would share her chocolate pie recipe with me. She was delighted that I'd asked and said she would make sure to copy it down for me before we left.
Taking our leave, Trey said he wanted to veg out in our room for the rest of the evening. I called Gina to see what she and Ian were doing over the holiday. She said that Ian’s family was coming in from out of town so we agreed to get together after the first to exchange our gifts.
Trey and I ate our take-out and wrapped gifts while we watched television in his room. I decided to wrap his presents when he wasn’t around, although he was sticking to me like glue. I figured I'd have a chance on Christmas Eve when he went with Clive to cut the tree.
As we lay in bed that night, totally spent from our busy day, I was curled against Trey. He was almost asleep. “Trey,” I said, tentatively.
“Hmm?” he responded.
“What’s your middle name?”
“Michael,” he said.
“So if our baby’s a girl, I want to name her ‘Treyla Michaela,’ what do you think?”
“I think she’sreallygoing to hate her mommy...”
CHAPTER 49
Trey made himself scarce on Christmas Eve day, which allowed me the opportunity to wrap his gifts. I then spent time in the kitchen with Susan making Christmas cookies. She baked, I decorated, and we talked and talked. I wanted to know things about Trey and she was more than happy to tell me.
“You know Trey is eight years younger than Tristan,” she said, smiling at a particular memory that must have surfaced. I nodded, dusting a stocking-shaped cookie with red sprinkles.
“Well, it was almost like Trey was an only child with the gap in their ages, and I know he probably was a bit more spoiled as a result, but he’d follow Tristan around like a puppy. I’ll never forget this one time; Tristan had recently turned 16 so Trey would have been seven, not quite eight years old. Clive and I'd bought Tristan a used pick-up truck for his 16th birthday. Tristan was proud of it; he kept it pristine, bought a tonneau cover for it, put a new sound system in it and everything. Well, Tristan had a girlfriend, Kate, who he'd been seeing for awhile. Anyway, this one evening in early summer, Tristan and Kate drove out to Steele Creek Park,” she giggled at the memory.
“Don’t you know that Trey had hidden in the back of Tristan’s truck, underneath the tonneau cover? Tristan and Kate were getting rather hot and heavy in the cab of the truck and Trey came out from under that cover and saw the whole thing through the back window of the truck,” she said, now laughing harder.
She wiped a tear from her eye as she continued, “Well, all of a sudden Tristan heard Trey yelling, ‘I’m going to tell Daddy on you Tristan! We aren’t supposed to let anyone touch our pee-pee.’”
“Oh no!” I exclaimed, doubling over with laughter, “that’s a hoot! How did you find out about it?”
“Oh, well Tristan was fit to be tied. He hauled Trey back home, threatening to pummel him good if he said anything to either Clive or me about it. He dropped Trey off in the driveway and took off again with Kate. Trey was stubborn, and not one to be easily intimidated by his older brothers. He marched right in the house where Clive and I were entertaining some friends and told us that Tristan was ‘bumping uglies’ with Kate in his truck. I thought his Daddy was going to bust a blood vessel. Of course that precipitated the talk Clive had with Tristan about safe sex and all. We laugh about it to this day.”
“What was Trey’s relationship like with Nigel?” I asked.
“Nigel is two years older that Tristan, so 10 years older than Trey. To be honest, Nigel was pretty much out and about his business by the time Trey was five or so. Nigel went away to boarding school after the eighth grade. Tristan went to the local high school because he played a lot of sports. I'd say that Nigel is more academic, Tristan is more athletic, and Trey, I guess I'd say Trey is a combination of both. You'll definitely see a physical resemblance between Tristan and Trey. My God, the day I delivered Trey it was if as I was looking at Tristan the day he was born. You never forget what your babies look like the day they’re born, honey. I’ll tell you that.” She smiled at me warmly, pulling another sheet of cookies from the oven.
“Why do you think Tristan has never married? Not that 39 is ancient for still being single.”
“He had one long-term relationship out in California. We really thought that he would marry Tara,” she said. “Clive and I liked her. You kind of remind me of her,” she added. “She had the same coloring and build as you have. I don’t know what happened with them. Tristan is a fairly private person.”
“I guess Trey’s kind of like that as well,” I commented.
“Not lately,” she said, smiling, “his emotions are very loud and clear where you're concerned Tylar. I’ve never seen Trey so in love. I’m so happy to see how deeply you love him too.”
“I do,” I smiled, flushing, “he’s my world, Susan.”
Our conversation was interrupted when Clive and Trey came in the front, dragging the Douglas Fir tree behind them. Susan had already made room for it in the large living room that was off of the main hall next to the dining room. Clive and Trey stood the tree in the stand and brushed the branches out. It nearly touched the ceiling and was shaped beautifully.
“That's the prettiest tree we’ve ever had,” Susan gushed.
“You say that every year,” Clive teased, hugging her.
“Did you cut some greenery for the mantle?” she asked.
