Baby Love(76)

I nodded wanting him to get to the part that I didn't already know.

"So in this particular case we have a product liability issue with mass torts and multiple plaintiffs from different states. Some of those states though neighboring fall under different federal court jurisdiction. The purpose is to get the federal judges on this panel - which represents different federal court appellate jurisdictions to agree that it is first of all the right thing to do and secondly to specify which federal jurisdiction should hear and rule on all of the pre-trial motions."

"Does this sort of thing happen a lot?" I asked.

"I wouldn't say that our firm runs into it that often but it's not all that rare either. The MDL statute came to be enacted in 1968. It was a belated response to a major price-fixing scandal that occurred at General Electric in 1961. As a result of GE's activities in 1961, the federal courts were flooded with criminal and related civil litigation. The statute was put into place to consolidate pre-trial proceedings and discovery under one court for efficiency and timeliness."

"My husband seems to be an expert on this particular legal topic," I said with pride in my voice.

Trey smiled at my compliment.

"Thanks baby. Actually I did my senior thesis on that particular case with GE involving pricing fixing and anti-trust violations for my entrance into law school. It was titled, 'Edison's Evil Empire: Conspiracy and Collusion.' I got an "A" on it," he grinned.

Trey continued to educate me on the procedures that take place during this hearing with time limits and the random calling of dockets. I think once again in his own way he wanted to prepare me in case I couldn't get close enough to Judge Tylar to see if he was related. I was hoping for some recognition on my part, though with all of the lies that Maggie had told over the years even I couldn't see how that would be possible.

Once we were on the ground in Baton Rouge an airport limo took us to our hotel which was located within walking distance of the federal court where we would be in the morning.

Trey was busy on his Blackberry and laptop so I called Gina to let her know that we had arrived and asked how the baby was doing.

"Everything is good Ty. No worries here. Preston sure does like those green beans you made for her. I spooned in the whole jar and she still acted like she wanted more."

(Really? The whole jar?)

"Gina you probably should have only given her half of that jar with a half of jar of the fruit that I left in the fridge."

"I did give her a half jar of that fruit stuff. I think she would have eaten it all but I got tired of cleaning it off of myself when she kept hurling it at me with her fingers. It was quite a food fight we had going. I think I got most of it off the walls in the kitchen."

(Holy shit!)

"Where is she now?"

"She is playing in her playpen. I'm about ready to give her a bath and put her in her jammies. Do you want to say good-night to her?"

"Yeah, put the phone up to her ear I want to see if she recognizes my voice."

I heard Gina talking to her as she took the phone away from her ear and put it near Preston's.

"Go ahead Ty - the phone is next to her ear."

"Hi Preston! How is mommy's baby doing, huh?"

I could hear Gina's voice in the background.

"You should see her Ty; she is grinning ear to ear and slobbering on my damn phone to boot."

"Mommy loves Preston. You be a good girl for Aunt Gina okay?"

I gave her loud kisses over the phone. Gina got back on.

"That was so cute how she recognized your voice Ty. She was so cute smiling at the phone like that."

It did my heart good to hear that. I missed my sweet baby. She was doing fine with Gina it seemed.

"Hey Ty, we've got to cut this call short, Tristan is calling in. Have fun; don't worry. Bye."

(Tristan was calling in? Why the hell would Tristan be calling her already?)

"That's weird," I mumbled aloud.

"What's weird baby?" Trey asked looking up from his laptop. "Did your phone drop the call?"

"No - Gina was in a rush to take Tristan's call that was waiting apparently."

Trey glanced at his watch.

"He's probably just now at the airport. Maybe he's had an opportunity to look over the financials and wants to back out of the deal," he chuckled.

"I have a feeling that's not the case," I replied, stretching out across the king-sized bed.

I propped my head on my elbow, watching my gorgeous husband tapping the keys on his laptop.

"Whatcha doing Trey?" I asked coquettishly.

He looked over at me and smiled.

"Just give me a few minutes baby to finish typing up these notes and then we will go get something to eat," he said.

"Do you have any preferences?"

"I was actually in the mood for some protein," I replied giving him a smile.

Trey looked up quickly from his laptop, a sly grin spreading across his face. He stopped typing and stood up to stretch. He unbuckled his belt and kicked his shoes off as he closed the distance between the desk and the bed.

"What the hell - I can finish those notes later," he grinned joining me on the bed.





CHAPTER 27



Trey set our alarm for 6 a.m. so that we could get to the courthouse in plenty of time. I had finally nagged him into getting there early so that we could have seats in the courtroom as close to the judges' bench as possible.