Baby Love(7)

I was folding her little onesies, tee shirts, socks and receiving blankets when Trey came in a few minutes later with his cell phone in hand.

"Mom is on the phone," he said. "She wants to talk to you."

(Oh dear God! Had he called his mother to complain about my requested abstinence until we marry?)

I took the phone, giving him an obvious glare in the process.

"Hello," I greeted tentatively.

"Hi there Tylar," Susan gushed, "How is my grandbaby doing? I bet she has grown a foot since ma-maw left her," she whined.

I had to smile.

"Not quite," I replied, "But it does seem as if she changes just a little bit every day."

"Well sweetie, I won't keep you I just wanted to finalize some of the arrangements as far as the music and caterers we've lined up. Do you have just a few minutes?"

"Of course," I answered, relieved that Trey had not complained to her about my latest request.

I should have known he wouldn't run to mommy. What the hell was I thinking?

Susan and I discussed the arrangements with respect to the music and food. I had absolutely put my foot down with having a huge extravagant wedding since in fact the bride's parents were supposed to foot the bill and that was a moot point for me. Trey and I insisted on covering the expense of it even though Clive and Susan wanted to do it.

The other reason was that I simply had no family to invite. The larger the wedding, the more obvious that would become. We had decided on close family and friends. Gina and Denise would be my attendants; Tristan was Trey's best man; Ray was his groomsman.

The wedding would be held over at 'the Belle on the grounds of the mansion. The reception would be held close by in the area that was under roof just for occasions such as that. We were going to have a formal sit down dinner, with a live band that Ian had selected for us.

Our ceremony was to be a sunset wedding so that the heat of July would have cooled down somewhat. Since I had no father to 'give me away,' Trey and I would arrive in a horse drawn carriage, hand in hand.

Our vows would be exchanged on the enormous front porch of the mansion, while guest seating would be on the front lawn of the estate. Susan had arranged for the flowers and landscaping. She allowed no arguments there.

Clive and Tess would be attending, now that his divorce was final from Caroline. Thank God there would be no Caroline or Landon to deal with. I was secretly glad that Tess would be in attendance witnessing Trey's declaration of love and commitment to me.

Susan and I had pretty much wrapped up the details when she sprung a question that caught me a bit off guard.

"Is everything alright between you and Trey, sweetie?"

(Where the hell did that come from?)

I stammered a bit, not sure what she already knew or what she simply suspected from talking to Trey and then me.

"Honey, I'm not trying to nose into your business, but I am a mother and I can tell that Trey seemed a bit distracted. In talking to you now I'm picking up the same vibe. Is there anything you want to talk about sweetie?"

"It's just," I stammered, flushing.

This was the kind of thing I would have talked to my own mom about (had she been a normal 'mom' type.) But this was Trey's mom and I wasn't sure if confiding in her crossed some sort of boyfriend/girlfriend line or not.

"Honey, tell me unless you are not comfortable sharing it with me."

Damn - I didn't want to hurt her feelings. The truth was; another opinion would be objective and right now, objectivity was what I needed.

"It's just that my doctor has cleared me physically to have, you know, to have 'relations' again."

(God this wasn't easy!)

"Uh huh," she said, seemingly unaffected by the content of our discussion so far.

"So anyway, I sort of suggested to Trey that maybe it would be kind of romantic and traditional if we abstained until after the wedding. . ."

"I see," she replied, the amusement evident in her voice. "And my son was not pleased with this request I take it?"

"Not at all," I replied.

"Honey, I think that this is a very reasonable request and I totally understand the spirit in which it was suggested. What you have to understand is that men don't necessarily think along the same lines that we women do. I can't tell you what the right thing is; I can tell you that what you've requested in my opinion is not unreasonable. It's up to you as to whether you can put up with his pouting for the next few weeks. I know Trey. I'm betting that in the next few days you and he will work something out together."

She was right; we needed to work it out together. Perhaps I needed to bring Trey into the fold regarding the 'family bed' and use that as leverage so that we could work out some sort of a compromise. I got off of the phone with Susan promising to email her some recent pictures of Preston.

I had the small basket of Preston's clothes folded and headed down the hall to put them in her room. As I approached Trey's study, I could hear him talking to someone. I peered in seeing him in his swivel chair, leaning back with Preston in his arms.

He was feeding her a bottle. She must have awakened while I was on the phone with Susan. I stopped to watch his interaction with her as he fed her. He didn't see me in the hallway.

He talked to her, calling her 'Bobbin.' He told her how much he loved her and what a good baby she was and that she was daddy's girl. My heart was heavy with the love I had for him. I thought about all that he had gone through these past several months.