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How did he know that? I checked my voicemail and there was a message was from him as well.
“Tylar, its Trey. I've got about 15 minutes before court resumes. I was worried when I lost the signal last night while you were sleeping. I called the house this morning and Thatcher said you'd already left for work and that your phone was in your room. Please keep your phone charged and with you, otherwise I'll worry. Be good.”
That's it? Keep my phone charged and with me; be good?
Hmmmp!
Gina arrived back before 6 p.m. It was still sunny out and warm, so she had the great idea of lying out by the pool, jamming to some music, and getting some color on us.
“What about our piercings?” I asked.
“What about them?” she replied. “You don’t have to keep a bandage on it Tylar, in fact the sun will do it good, lots of vitamin D, you know. So we like lay out for awhile, get some color, then at dark, we get the old Tiki torches going and invite some of the others over for cocktail hour?”
“I guess that would be okay. Let’s do it!”
We both changed into our bikinis and lounged by the pool, letting the afternoon sun wash over us. Gina got on her cell phone, calling Rodney, instructing him to invite some others up for a “sundown” swim. She also asked Thatcher to deliver some cosmopolitans to us poolside. I wasn't nervy enough to do that. She cranked the music on the portable Bose stereo up a few notches. Before I knew it, Thatcher was bringing trays of warm appetizers and a fresh pitcher of cosmopolitans out to us.
By 7:30 the pool party was in full swing. Rodney, Andy, Neely, and Luke were hanging out. The food was good, the music was great, and the drinks were kicking my ass. Things wound down around nine being a work night for everyone. Gina and I gathered everything up and headed up to the house. Thatcher was there to greet us, taking everything from us insisting he would clean up.
Both of us went upstairs to shower. I jumped into Trey’s shower, careful to avoid touching the new piercing directly but rather allowing the warm water to rinse over it. I shaved my legs with Trey’s razor again and dressed in his blue robe. Once in my bed I realized how worn out I was but it was a nice worn-out. It took my mind off missing Trey. I sank into a deep, peaceful slumber.
The rest of the week passed uneventfully for both Gina and me. We finished up with all of the corking, labeling, and packing of 70 cases of wine. We had 30 more to go and then we would be finished with the batches fully fermented. Gina estimated mid-next week would be the end of it. Then she would head back to Atlanta. I was really going to miss her.
I heard from Trey a couple of more times during the week. He anticipated the case would go into the first day or two of the following week. I let him know that I had a surprise for him when he got back to Bristol for the weekend. He said that he would see me Friday night. His flight would arrive around 9 p.m. I felt the familiar butterflies again.
When Gina and I clocked out on Friday afternoon, Becky called us over. “Gina, Ian called and left a message earlier today.”
“Why didn’t he just call me?” she asked, “I’ve got my cell phone in my pocket.”
“Probably because you’re not going to like the content of his message. He can’t make it in from Atlanta this weekend. He’s really, really sorry but things came up with getting the auditions completed with the bands so they’ll run over into the weekend. He loves you and will make it up to you.” Becky rushed through the message, eager to have it all out and be done with it.
“That’s just great!” Gina fumed. “He knew damn well that he had way too many groups booked for auditions this week. There was no way in hell he was going to get through them all, I told him that. But it was ‘No, babe, we can handle it, no way this will keep me from seeing you this weekend, babe’. Bullshit! I’ve half a mind to head downtown and get the ‘Ian’ I have tattooed on my ass removed!”
All in all, Gina was taking the news pretty well.
“Now don’t do anything rash, Gina. You and Tylar can hang out this weekend, host another pool party,” Becky suggested.
“Not likely,” Gina mumbled, “Trey’s coming in this weekend. The last thing he’ll want is me here as the third wheel.”
“I’m sure it will all work out,” Becky said, giving Gina a sympathetic couple of pats on her back. Gina and I collected our pay envelopes and left the office.
“Let’s walk back to the manor,” Gina suggested. “I need to burn off some energy.” She continued to rant and rave about Ian during most of the trek back. I steered her toward the stables so I could visit Derringer and we ran into Clint as we entered the barn.
“Hey, how’s it going Tylar?” he asked, grinning.
“Doing great,” I replied.
“Have you met Gina Hatton?” I asked.
Clint wiped his hand off on his shirt, extending it to her.
“I’ve seen you around,” he spoke, addressing Gina. “Clint Cavanaugh,” he finished my introduction for me. “You're Becky’s niece, right?”
“That’s right,” Gina answered. “I'm just here helping out for another week and then heading back to Atlanta."
“You girls going to be at the quarter races tonight?”
I couldn’t believe that Clint had asked that.
