He leaned into me, his face now very close to mine. Close
enough that I could feel his warm breath near my lips. I closed my
eyes, tilting my face up a bit, waiting to feel his lips on mine
and wanting to feel them more than I'd ever wanted anything
else.
Then nothing
happened.
I opened one eye and then
the other; he'd moved back from me, his eyes still studying mine
with obvious indecision. His hands released my face and he stood up
abruptly, his brow furrowed in confusion.
God! Idiot cracker number
two!!
I scooted away from him on
the bed, smoothing my hair nervously. "Apology accepted; I'm good,
Trey."
He handed my cell phone to
me, his eyes now searching my face.
“ What?” I
asked.
“ Call your mother, Tylar,”
he instructed, “she needs to know what’s going on and I need to
know what your plans are so that I can schedule adjustments with
the staff.”
I took my phone from him
and pulled up my mom’s number. It didn’t ring. There was a
three-tone signal followed by a digital recording stating that the
number dialed was either out of service or had been disconnected.
No further information was available. I snapped the phone shut and
let it fall onto my bed.
Trey looked at me
expectantly, “Well?”
“ It’s either out of
service or has been disconnected. You had the right number after
all.”
“ Is this typical of your
mom?” he questioned.
“ Nothing is typical about
my mom.”
Trey was losing patience
with me. His voice had an edge to it. “Tylar,” he implored, “there
must be a friend, a neighbor, someone you can call to get word to
your mom about your injury.”
“ Look,” I snapped, “maybe
she hasn’t paid her cell phone bill. It happens. If you think for
one minute that my mother wants me back in her house to make sure I
recover to your expectations well then you're delusional. She has
her own life to live and apparently, that's what she's doing. That
phone works both ways you know. It’s not as if she has called me in
the last three weeks. If you don’t believe me, check the call log
for yourself!”
Trey was momentarily taken
aback by my outburst. “What about a job? Does she work somewhere
that we can call?”
“ She works Tuesday,
Thursday, and Friday for Findley, Morris & Sneed. It’s a law
firm in Louisville. You can call her but I won’t. Just ask for
Maggie.”
He sighed audibly, walking
over to the side of the bed where I could see him. He had his suit
jacket slung over his shoulder. He lowered himself down on his
haunches so that his face was inches from mine once again. Oh God
why didn't he kiss me? I knew he'd wanted to and I knew I'd wanted
him to more than anything! My body ached for something it didn’t
know. Why him?
“ Tylar, I'll have someone
here tomorrow to take you back to your cottage, okay?”
“ Thank you,” I replied,
smiling, “Could you please have them bring something for me to
wear?”
“ Sure,” he responded
politely. “Ray and I'll review the staffing schedule for the next
couple of weeks to see who we can move around to cover your duties
and where we might put you in the interim.”
“ I appreciate that, Trey.”
And then he was gone.
CHAPTER 7
At 9:30 a.m. the following
morning Denise barreled through my hospital door, carrying a bag of
clothes with her. “Ray let me into your cottage sweetie. I got you
a pair of jeans, bra, panties, tee shirt, and these sneakers. Will
that do?”
“ Denise, you’re an angel,”
I said.
As Denise drove us back to
Sinclair Stables, I quizzed her. “Have I missed anything good since
I’ve been out of commission?”
“ Well, honey, I’m not sure
what you consider good . Let’s see. I did hear Ray say that Derringer is eating well
again. Oh and the races will start over at the track Saturday
evening. Everybody’s excited about that. Ray said you're to take it
easy today and he'll stop over later to fill you in on your revised
schedule.”
“ I can hardly wait to get
back to
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