Baby Come Back(21)

“You can’t scream this time,” he teased. “Everyone at the Christmas party thought you were having some type of seizure, remember?”

“That was because you over-did it, Tristan. So remember that. If you don’t want me screaming then you need to gauge the momentum of this thing.”

He leaned over and kissed me. “You are a trip, Gina.”



Trey had the grill going when we got there. Preston was playing in the yard with Jean. Tylar was fussing around the kitchen when I got in there.

“Gina, did you remember the baked beans?”

“Yes Ty. Have I ever let you down?”

I helped her finish up the preparations. She said we would keep the side dishes inside until the hamburgers and hot dogs were ready.

Trey hollered in that Amber and her guest had just pulled in.

“Showtime,” we both said in unison.



The cookout went well, all things considered. Amber’s date happened to be a defensive end for the Atlanta Falcons which made Trey and Tristan practically giddy. He was a thirty-something, very tall, very buff black guy by the name of Darin Wright. He had that sexy, athletic thing going on, big time. I had nudged Tylar during the introductions as he was shaking Trey and Tristan’s hands. I had wanted her to get a look at the size of his hands. Her eyes had widened perceptibly. I had then lip synced the word “Ouch.” She had managed to suppress her giggle.

Trey had caught the whole exchange between us and gave Tylar one of his notorious frowns of disapproval.

(Oh get over yourself, Hot Nazi. A girl can still look for Chrissake!)

It amazed both Tylar and me that Darin wanted anything to do with Amber, as pretentious as she was. He seemed very down to earth and congenial; not some pumped-up NFL celebrity type at all.

“I bet Amber has never watched one freaking inning of football,” Tylar hissed to me as we carried the dirty dishes back up to the house.

“Yeah and I bet she’s never watched a quarter of baseball, either,” I replied. Tylar gave me a puzzled look before it dawned on her that I was being funny.

“Smart ass. You know what I meant.”

“Well, he sure is a hit with Tristan and Trey,” I said.

“Exactly. That is exactly what she wanted to do. She knows Trey is a die-hard Falcons fan.”

“So is Tristan,” I replied.

“Hey, did you notice that Amber didn’t offer to help us clear or clean up?”

“Why should she, Ty? She’s out there spoon feeding that famous ‘Better than Sex’ cake she brought to your spousal unit and my stud.”

We both broke into a fit of giggles on that one.

Jean came inside the house just then with Preston.

“You two go on back out there with the rest of them,” she said, “I’m putting Preston down for her nap and then I’ll finish up in here.”

“Thanks, Jean,” Tylar said, giving Preston a kiss on her cheek.

“Come on, Gina. Let’s go talk football with Darin.”

This ought to be good, I thought.

Trey and Tristan had pummeled Darin with questions about the upcoming season’s schedule. They were talking about who was picked up in the draft; who was traded, who was walking on as a free agent. They were clearly in hog heaven.

I had noticed Amber looking at Tristan a few times, but in all fairness, she had paid a lot more attention to Trey today. She wasn’t paying all that much attention to Darin, though. Perhaps I could assist with that.

They had moved the lawn chairs over to a shady grove of trees. Amber was sitting on a chair between Trey and Tristan; I took a chair on the other side of Darin. Tylar sat on an empty chair on the other side of Trey. It was odd that Amber wasn’t sitting in the chair I had taken. It was closest to Darin.

As soon as there was a lull in the man talk, I got Darin’s attention.

“So, Darin,” I said sweetly. “Has Tony Gonzalez decided whether he is going to retire after eighteen seasons or not?”

I saw Trey and Tristan look over at me quickly; Tristan’s mouth twitched into a smile.

“Well Gina, he hasn’t declared as of yet. If I were a betting man, I’d say the odds are 50-50. We may not know until training camp officially starts.”

“Oh come on, Darin,” I said in a teasing, flirty voice, “You must have some locker room skinny you can share with us.”

“No ma’am, you all will probably know before we do with ESPN always seeming to have the scoop before the franchise coaches, general managers and even the owners know.”

He chuckled good-naturedly. He was right about that.

“Oh, don’t even get me started on ESPN,” I said, taking this topic as a cue to start discussing everything I had heard on ESPN regarding the Falcons, good and bad. It wasn’t difficult since Tristan had the sports channel on constantly.

I was clearly dominating his attention. I was waiting for Amber to notice and get her ass up off of that chair next to Tristan and take her place next to her man. So far she appeared oblivious to it.

Darin was nodding his head as I continued on about ESPN.

“What did you think about ESPN making the claim that the Falcons were going to cut Turner before Dimitroff had even announced it to the team?”

“I know,” he said, his fork slicing into his piece of Amber’s dessert. “That was some crazy shit.”