Baby Love(134)

I turned my back to him as he left the bed. I didn't want to discuss this any further. Several minutes had passed before my Blackberry chimed. I reached for it on the nightstand. It was my dad.

"Happy New Year," he said cheerily as I answered the phone.

"Yeah same to you, Dad."

"Somebody sounds as if she partied too much last night. Do you want me to let you go Tylar?"

"I'm sorry Dad. You're right. I overdid it last night but that's not what's bothering me at the moment."

"Do you feel like talking about it with your old man?"

I smiled when he said that. It was if we had a history together; like I had always had the luxury of taking my problems to him for fatherly advice over the years. It didn't matter. I had that luxury now and I was going to take him up on it.

"I'd like that Dad."

I shared the details with him concerning Nigel and Tess and their 'situation’. I included the fact that years ago Trey had been engaged to Tess and the details on her infidelity to Trey during their engagement and her subsequent accident. I mentioned that as I had come to know Tess that I liked her as a person and sister-in-law, but that I had fundamental misgivings about having Trey potentially father her child.

He listened intently over the phone letting me get it all out. I dissolved into tears at the end where I shared with him that Trey intended to 'contribute' against my wishes.

"Well I see your point Tylar; but I see Trey's as well.”

(Did men always stick together on stuff like this?)

He continued on explaining his position to me very patiently.

“Darling you were an only child. It may be difficult for you to be totally objective to this because you have no point of reference. It is not something that I would have wished for you. Had I known at the time I was to be a father, I assure you that I would have insisted on marrying Marley and we would have given you brothers and sisters.”

(God he was so much like Trey!)

“I realize that it’s water under the bridge now. I can only share with you what I know. I was one of four."

"Really," I interrupted, "You mean I have aunts and uncles?"

"You have one aunt in Texas; you have an uncle in Oregon and another one in Minnesota. I was the youngest of the four. You have cousins as well."

There was so much about my dad and his family that I hadn't learned about yet. There were so many things that I wanted to know.

"My point is this Tylar; siblings have each other from cradle to grave. Parents die; spouses can leave you through death or divorce, but brothers and sisters are a gift from their parents to their children. They are there to love and support each other. That's all Trey wants to do for Nigel darling."

“I know Dad and if one of Trey’s brothers needed him for a blood transfusion or to donate a kidney I wouldn’t have an issue with that. This just feels different.”

“It’s probably because you are looking at it as a very intimate thing. Traditionally babies are conceived in very sexual or intimate relationships. Modern science has evolved to the extent that there are other options for those who have issues with conceiving in the traditional fashion.

Trey is not offering himself sexually or intimately to his brother and sister-in-law; it is really more akin to him donating blood.”

“With the obvious exception Dad that a human being will be created as a result of this particular donation’; and what if it’s a boy?”

“What if it is?” he asked.

“Well it would kill me that I wasn’t able to give Trey a son, or at the very least, his first son.”

“Tylar,” he said, “You and Trey plan to have more children right?’

“Yes – as a matter of fact, we are going to start trying soon.”

“Excellent,” he replied.

“Whether your sister-in-law gives birth to a boy or a girl; whether that child carries Trey or Tristan’s specific DNA it will not matter. That child will be the product of Nigel and Tess. You will give Trey his second child be it a boy or be it a girl. It’s that simple.”

When my father explained it to me in those terms it didn’t seem nearly as complicated or threatening as I had initially felt. I didn’t understand a brother-sister bond because he was right; I had no point of reference on that. I had to trust that he was right.

“Thanks Dad,” I said smiling into the phone.

“I love you Tylar,” he said simply.

“I love you too, Dad.”





CHAPTER 54



The four of us had returned home to Atlanta after another 'f*cked-up' holiday at the Sinclair's. I had told Gina that she needed to get used to it. I was starting to.

Gina and I had talked at length once we were back at the apartment. Trey and Tristan had gone out to the new house. Tristan had agreed to get Derringer and the other two horses Trey had selected transported to our new home. They were going to the feed store in DeKalb County to get the supplies ordered and delivered for the horses.

Gina and I were in the laundry room folding clean clothes and sorting them into piles.

"So Gina tell me; how do you really feel about Tristan's going along with Nigel's request for his 'DNA' for lack of a better term?"

"Truthfully Ty - I guess I don't feel nearly as emotional as you feel about it. Probably because Tristan was never engaged to Tess, but maybe the other reason is that in some way it sort of relieves my guilt for not telling Tristan that there is a miniscule chance that the baby I'm carrying could be Ian's."