Maybe Baby Lite (21 page)

“
Check this out,” she
said, “Aunt Becky said if we want we can start our shift earlier
and then be outta there earlier. I figure if we get there by 7
a.m., work through lunch, we can be out and heading to town by
1:30. The day will still be young, as they say.”

“
It sounds good to me,” I
said, suddenly energized, bouncing off the bed and getting dressed.
Thatcher was more than happy to drive us over to the Belle. We
officially clocked in at 6:47 a.m. Gina showed me how to operate
the corking machine and she handled the filler tank. We both did
some labeling. I started assembling the corrugated partitions that
fit into each wooden case to keep the bottles from banging against
each other during transport. Tomorrow we would finish with the
Applewood Rose, and the tanks would need changing out to the house
merlot. That would be the last of it.

Gina made the sound of the
end of shift whistle like from the Flintstones and we clocked out.
She instructed me to wait out front for her. Several minutes later
she was back. “My aunt is the greatest,” she said jingling car
keys. “She let us have her car; said she would catch a ride home
with someone. Let's go!"

Downtown Bristol was
quaint and trendy. Bristol, Virginia bordered its twin city,
Bristol, Tennessee. The state line between Virginia and Tennessee
was on State Street. The cities shared a downtown district. Gina
parked the car near the main drag.

“
Anything in particular
you're looking for?” I asked Gina.

“
I need a swimsuit for
sure,” she replied. “We need to take advantage of that Olympic-size
pool back at the manor.”

I was a bit hesitant,
remembering my last time in that pool.

“
What?” Gina asked,
catching my uneasiness.

“
It’s just that the last
time I was in the pool I was drunk and nearly drowned.”

“
Oh dear God,” she said.
“Well that isn’t happening as long as I’m around. Really, Tylar,
the dangerous company you keep!”

“
I know, right?” I
laughed. “Trey actually saved my life when that
happened.”

“
I bet he did; he's
probably owned you from that moment on,” she commented.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
He just seems like the
type that doesn’t stop with the saving your life part. He strikes
me as one that would take permanent responsibility for the person
he saved, you know, like moving you into the manor, wanting to keep
tabs on you.”

“
He doesn’t keep tabs on
my
every
move,” I
said, thinking back to the weekend of the horse race. I'd been
practically home free on that one. “But you’re right Gina, he can
be pretty intense.”

We found a beach boutique
and Gina tried on five different bathing suits. She finally decided
on a designer bikini by Salinas. The bottom was very low slung,
with a gold-tone band running along the top edge; it had adjustable
side ties. Gina definitely had the body to pull it off. I tried on
a really cute pair of red low-slung board shorts and a tank half
tee.

“
What do you think?” I
asked Gina as I come out of the dressing room

“
They are the bomb on you
girlfriend, just need to accessorize a bit.”

I ended up buying two
pairs of the board shorts in red and purple, and two tank half
tees, one in black and one in red.

“
Now,” she instructed once
outside the store, “let’s accessorize. Follow me!”

We walked to a shop
called, “Make Me Holey.”

“
Body piercing?” I asked,
aghast at what Gina had in mind as far as accessorizing.

“
Yeah, I noticed you could
use some ‘holiness’ Tylar,” she mused.

“
I’ve got double pierced
ears,” I argued, pulling my hair back so that she could see for
herself.

“
Yeah nice,” she replied,
“but I was thinking you may want to bring a little more focus to
that flat, sexy tummy of yours.”

“
My
bellybutton?”

“
Yeah, you have the
perfect kind for a piercing.”

“
Are you having yours
pierced too?”

“
Already did darlin’,” she
answered.

I hadn’t recalled seeing a
ring in it when she was modeling the swimsuits for me
earlier.

“
I don’t have my banana
bell in right now,” she said, “but trust me, it’s pierced and we're
both going to get something new pierced today. My
treat!”

I didn't love the idea
nearly as much as Gina, but what the hell? If I didn’t like it I
could always take it out. It wasn’t like it was going to be
anywhere that couldn’t be covered by clothing. We went inside and
Gina picked up a price list and brought it over to me so that we
could view it together.

“
So what are you getting
pierced today, Gina?”

She was perusing the list
as if it was a menu, trying to figure out what she was going to
order for lunch.

“
I believe I’m going to go
with the Vampire’s Kiss.”

“
A what—?” I looked at the
listing and saw that it went for $120.

“
Here,” she said, opening
up the pamphlet and locating a picture of it. “Right there,” she
said, pointing.

Oh my God, it was a
surface piercing on the neck, near the clavicle that had entrance
and exit points. The jewelry was either a surface bar or curved bar
bell that sported red ball dips to look like blood. It was to look
as if a vampire had bitten her neck.

“
Are you really getting
that?” I exclaimed. “Shouldn’t you ask Ian about it
first?”

Gina looked at me as if I
had two heads, and then scoffed.

“
Yeah, right. I don’t need
my man’s permission for what I do to my body,” she replied,
laughing and shaking her head. She caught an attendant’s attention
behind the counter, waving him over. “Yeah, over here. She’ll be
having the Number 14 with the basic hardware. I’ll be having the
Number 27 but would like see the hardware upgrade with the genuine
ruby ball tips, please?”

Forty-five minutes later,
Gina and I walked back out on the street with four new holes in our
bodies. Mine really didn’t hurt much at all, but it hurt me to look
at Gina’s. We both were given our after-piercing care kits with
instructions. I was to shower for the next five days; no bathing. I
couldn’t go into chlorinated water unless I wore a bandage covering
it for two weeks! So much for showing off my sexy tummy at the
pool. I pointed out the irony to Gina, who wasn’t
deterred.

“
Tylar,” she explained
with a hint of exasperation creeping into her voice, “you can still
wear a bikini and lay out in the sun with it for Chrissake! I bet
Trey will think it’s really hot!”

Don’t count on
it.

We got back to the manor
at 5 p.m. Gina dropped me off at the front door, saying she was
going to return her aunt’s car and be back in a bit. Thatcher
opened the front door before I got completely across the
porch.

“
Good afternoon, Tylar,”
he greeted somewhat cheerily. “Will Mrs. Hatton be arriving
soon?”

“
Thanks Thatcher,” I said,
going through the door with my packages into the entry. “Yes, Gina
will be back over shortly. We ate a really late lunch so please
don’t go to any trouble with dinner. We'll probably just make a
sandwich or something later if we're hungry.”

“
Very well,” he replied.
“Just let me know should you get hungry and we can set up something
informal.”

“
Will do,” I said anxious
to get my stuff up to my room. I'd left my cell phone on the
charger all day today. I hurried upstairs to retrieve it, anxious
to see if Trey had called. I had a text message from him that came
in around 4:30 this afternoon. It read:

“
Why is your cell phone
not with you?"

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?”