Shadows and Dreams (Dream Series Book 2)

by Braxton Hicks

  Nigel had come over after we'd finished dancing. He asked if he could borrow Trey for a few minutes to discuss a matter. I decided to get my drink freshened up. When I came back into the main room, Gina was sitting talking to Tess on the sofa. I joined them.

  “Did all of our men dessert us?” I asked, sitting down with them.

  “It appears so,” Tess replied sheepishly.

  I wasn’t sure what that was about. Tess was abstaining from alcohol as well.

  “Are you feeling okay, Tess?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes, I’m fine,” she replied. “I was just getting to know Gina. I’m delighted that Tristan found his mind again.”

  I burst out laughing and both Tess and Gina looked over at me. I straightened up in my seat and looked over at Tess. “So, how's everything in California, Tess?”

  “Everything's great. This will be our last trip back east for a while. Nigel and I will be busy the next few months trying to realize our dream.”

  I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant; I had enough alcohol in me to not care about being nosy. “Are you going to share your dream with us?”

  “Ty,” Gina said, in a rather admonishing tone.

  “No, Gina, that’s alright. We’ve already told both sets of parents and Tylar is family. Gina, I suspect you'll be family soon, so I'd love to share this good news with both of you.”

  My curiosity was definitely piqued now.

  “Gina, I’m not sure that you know this, but an accident some years back made it impossible for me to carry a baby. I can conceive, but would never be able to carry a baby after the first trimester. Unfortunately, when Nigel and I married, we learned that he was sterile, for all intents and purposes. Recently, we've explored surrogate options. I’ve had several of my eggs harvested and stored. We're going to have my eggs artificially inseminated and have located a surrogate through the agency who will have the fertilized eggs implanted into her, where hopefully they'll attach to the uterine wall, and she'll carry the baby to term.”

  “Oh, Tess!” Gina and I both said in unison.

  “That's great, Tess,” I said, hugging her.

  “You go for it, Tess,” Gina encouraged, “I really wish you and Nigel the best with this.”

  “Thank you,” Tess replied, smiling.

  Even in my extremely buzzed state, I felt as though Tess was holding something back. I guessed it was probably my imagination as I tossed down the rest of my drink and went back to the bar. Trey was still nowhere to be found and I wanted to dance.

  Just then, I saw Trey, Tristan and Nigel come back into the room. I scurried over to him, pulling him by the hand onto the dance floor as the DJ announced the next tune by saying, “It’s electric!”

  Trey was clearly at a loss trying to follow the steps of the electric slide. I was having a blast, other than knocking into the couple next to us several times. When that song ended, the DJ asked for requests. I shouted out “Disco Inferno.” It happened to be a dance I'd seen Maggie do a million times growing up. I had no clue what I was thinking. The song started and I was going through the same moves that I'd seen her do many times. Again, Trey wasn't in his comfort zone with this.

  Then some random guy who was with the DJ saw me out there on the floor with a partner who totally had no clue as to how this dance worked. He was in front of me in a second and we danced to the song as if we were Travolta and Gorney from the old classic movie, “Saturday Night Fever.”

  Trey gave me a dirty look as he sauntered off the floor. The dance finished and I realized as I left the floor, I was still spinning. The DJ was starting the next tune which was a classic ACDC tune called “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”

  Oh, Sweet Jesus, the Adios Mother Fuckers are kicking my ass!

  I made a hasty exit to the deck and stumbled down the two steps that led out into the yard. I traipsed quickly over to the side of the house, where no one could see me from the deck. I felt my stomach start to heave.

  Luckily, I made it over to the line of oleander bushes that were dried up for the winter season and unceremoniously tossed my cookies over them. It'd had only been a figure of speech when I'd told Trey earlier that I'd planned on partying until I puked. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I wasn’t sure that I was done tossing just yet.

  “What the hell”

  I heard Caroline’s shrill, drunken voice from the ground on the other side of the bushes. “Oh, shit! Landon, I think someone just puked on me!”

  My glazed eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I could see Caroline’s body sitting atop Landon in the grass, both of them half-naked.

  Holy shit!

  I quickly staggered away, not wanting to be recognized. As I stumbled back across the yard toward the house, I met Trey who'd obviously been searching for me outside. Just as he reached me, I spewed all over the front of him.

  “Jesus Christ!” he snarled. “Are you happy with yourself, Tylar?”

  He pulled me behind him and took me around through the front entrance of the house; he halfway carried me up to our suite. Once there, he planted my ass in front of the toilet where I continued to heave. I heard him running the shower to get it warmed up.

  Trey somehow managed to peel my clothing off, along with his, and pulled me into the shower with him, where he proceeded to try and get me sober. Afterwards, he dried me off and dressed me in my pajamas.

  The last thing I remembered before I passed out on our bed was Trey wishing me a ‘Very Fucking Happy New Year.’

  Chapter 52

  My head was pounding when I finally came to in our bed on New Year’s morning. This was worse than the hangover I'd experienced last year when Gina and I had gone to the track and met the "mirror" twins.

  Evidently, wine hangovers weren’t quite as lethal as those caused by drinking too many Adios Mother Fuckers. Even my eyelashes were in pain. I managed to raise my head off the pillow a couple of inches and saw that Trey wasn't in the bed. At this point, I wondered if he'd even slept in here last night. When I looked at the pillow and blankets, I decided that he had.

  As if on cue, the bedroom door opened and Trey came in carrying Preston. They were both still in their jammies, so it couldn’t be that late. The clock on the nightstand read 7:52 a.m. I knew that I'd passed out before midnight, so I'd at least gotten a sufficient amount of rest.

  Trey put Preston on the bed and she immediately smiled at me as she crawled over to where I was slumped against my pillows, wanting to die.

  “How ya feeling, baby?” Trey asked, his voice resounding in my ears like a relentless echo.

  I managed a weak, sickly moan, covering my eyes with the back of my arm. Preston was right there next to me chanting “num-num…num-num.”

  She was tugging at my pajama top. It hurt.

  “I don’t think so, Preston,” Trey said, scooping her up into his arms. “Mommy’s num-num is likely to be eighty-proof this morning. She’s going to need to pump and dump before anyone under drinking age can imbibe from those breasts.”

  “Ha ha,” I managed weakly.

  “I’ll go get her a bottle and feed her some cereal,” Trey said. “Can I get you anything while I’m downstairs?”

  “Gina,” I rasped. “Please, Trey, send Gina in here.”

  “I’ll see if they’re up,” he replied. He left the room. It was obvious that he had no sympathy for my condition this morning. Several minutes later, Gina popped in, looking well rested and refreshed.

  “Feeling kind of down and out this morning, girlfriend?”

  “Gina, please have Thatcher make me whatever that concoction you had him make for me last year to kill that hangover I had. Tell him to make it stronger. Hurry, please.”

  “You got it, Ty. Be back in a few.”

  It seemed like an eternity before Gina returned with a tray that had a glass of the red liquid and a plate of dry toast on it. Trey was right behind her with a tall glass of ice water and a bottle of ibuprofen. I managed to sit up, anxious to drink the nast
y brew and feel the relief it would bring.

  I chugged it down swiftly, feeling the warmth start in the pit of my stomach and rise back up through my throat. The long, loud belch that followed tasted fiery this time.

  “That’s a turn-on,” Trey remarked, handing me the glass of water and two tablets of the ibuprofen to swallow. “It ranks right up there with you puking all over the front of me last night.”

  “You did?” Gina asked, giggling.

  I was clueless. Trey gave Gina a dirty look and told me to lie back down, that he'd handle Preston until I felt better. He left Gina and me alone.

  She continued giggling as she sat down on the bed. “I wondered what the hell happened to you last night. One minute, you were on the dance floor dancing to ‘Disco Inferno’ and the next minute you’re nowhere to be found. You missed some excitement.”

  I was just glad that I wasn’t part of any excitement last night.

  “Oh, yeah? What happened?” I asked, lying back against my pillows waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in. The nasty drink had done the trick on everything else.

  “Well, let’s see. First Caroline came running in all freaked out with her damn shirt all unbuttoned and Landon’s jacket tied around her waist. She claimed someone puked on her, but I think as hammered as that bitch gets, she finally exceeded her own limit and either puked on or shit herself.”

  Oh my God! It's all coming back to me now!

  “Actually Gina, that would've been me. I felt sick after that last dance and went outside. I made it over to the oleander bushes to heave. Hell, I didn’t know she and Landon were on the other side of the bushes, screwing. Please don’t tell anyone. I’m glad she didn’t recognize me.”

  “Oh, Ty, that's too funny. I'd say, being that it was Caroline, it was probably just some karma coming back at her in liquid form. But the really big news is I found out what the brotherly pow-wow was all about last night.”

  “The what?” I asked.

  “Come on, Ty, you couldn’t have been that trashed. Remember when Tristan, Trey and Nigel all went off to talk about something important? It was when you, Tess and I were talking on the couch.”

  “Oh yes-yes,” I said, “I remember now. So, what was the discussion about?”

  “I’m not sure if you’ve recovered enough to hear this.”

  “Gina, I'm so not in the mood to have to drag this out of you. Spill it now.”

  “Okay, but get ready. You remember when Tess shared with us that she and Nigel have been working with a fertility clinic in California having her eggs harvested so a surrogate can carry the child for her?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, there apparently is more to the plan. Nigel asked both Trey and Tristan if they would be sperm donors for the cause.”

  What??

  “What?”

  “You heard me correctly.”

  “Well, what does Tristan say about all of this?”

  “He's being the sweetheart that he is. He says he'd really like to help his brother out, but he doesn’t want me to feel uncomfortable about it.”

  “Well, so there you go,” I said. “Tristan's willing and I’m sure you aren’t uncomfortable about it, so problem solved.”

  “Whoa, wait a minute, Ty. I’m not comfortable with it any more than I know you are, but that's not really the point.”

  “Then what is?” I hissed, still feeling the ache in my head.

  “He asked for both of them to be donors. Not just one or the other.”

  “What’s the rationale in that? It only takes one random sperm to fertilize an egg.”

  “I think the whole point of this is that Nigel and Tess would like their baby to have Sinclair DNA, but not know exactly who the source of it is.”

  “What?” I asked, my head throbbing in confusion.

  “Look, understandably it's a complicated situation. So, in order to make it a bit less complicated, both brothers donate and it'll be difficult to pinpoint which sperm actually succeeded in fertilizing the egg. Therefore, the paternal trail is somewhat muddled, but yet it's Sinclair DNA.”

  Is that supposed to make me feel better?

  “Tristan explained it all. They somehow mix it together and spin it to make sure only the heartiest sperm survive to fertilize the egg. This makes for a more robust conception.”

  “I can’t deal with this right now, Gina,” I said, suddenly feeling ill all over again.

  “I'll let you get some rest,” she said, getting up to leave the room.

  “Please ask Trey to come back up,” I asked.

  “You aren’t going to tell him I told you about this are you?”

  “Why not? If I hadn't been so fucking drunk last night I might've been privy to it then. You’re damned straight I’m going to address this with him!”

  Gina skittered from the room without saying anything else. I sank back down further into my pillows. My head was reeling now, more from the information Gina had shared just now than from my hangover.

  Several minutes later, Trey was in the suite. “Gina said you needed to see me. Are you okay?”

  “No, Trey, I'm most certainly not okay. Is there something you need to tell me about a conversation you had with your brothers last evening?”

  He sank down on the bed sitting next to me. He took one of my hands into his and studied me intently for a moment, trying to organize his explanation in such a way I wouldn’t find the whole issue deplorable. He wasn’t going to have much luck with that.

  “Tylar, I was going to discuss this with you, but there really hasn’t been much of an opportunity between the time Nigel discussed this with Tristan and me until now. You were a bit distracted last night, remember?”

  “I’m fully attentive now. Let’s talk.”

  “Why do I think you already know the gist of it?” he asked.

  “Yeah, Gina filled me in, so what? You aren’t seriously considering this, are you?”

  “Why wouldn’t I consider this? Nigel's my brother. He’s asked something of both Tristan and me that we're equipped to give. I love my brother.”

  “Trey, we’re not talking about lending your brother your car or giving him money. We're talking about you contributing your half of the DNA that's necessary to make their child. It'd be your child with Tess, essentially. I’m sorry; I have a problem with it. End of discussion.”

  “No, Tylar,” he said, shaking his head, “this is far from the end of the discussion. I get that this came out of the blue for you. It did me as well, but this bears further consideration. I'm prepared to do this and so is Tristan. You're hung over at the moment and need rest and time to gain perspective. I’m sure once that's taken place, you'll be in a position to consider this more objectively. This is about caring and about family. It in no way should make you feel threatened. It has nothing to do with my love for you, but has everything to do with my love for my brother. We'll talk about this once we return to Atlanta.”

  “Trey,” I said, my voice quivering, “don’t patronize me by using my hangover as an excuse for my not agreeing with your decision to be a sperm donor to your ex-fiancé. What you're essentially agreeing to do is to sire a child with another woman. How well would that sit with you if I were the woman having another man’s child?”

  “It's not the same thing, dammit! A surrogate will carry and deliver the child. My God, it’s not as if Tristan or I'll be having sex with Tess.”

  “Well, why not?” I chided him, gaining my strength back. “After all, you’ve been there before haven’t you?”

  Trey looked at me. “I'm going to leave you so you can rest. We'll discuss this when we're back home. End of discussion."

  I turned my back to him as he left the bed. I didn’t want to discuss this further now anyway! Several minutes passed before my phone chimed. I reached for it on the nightstand. It was my dad.

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

  “Thanks. You too, Dad."

  “Somebody sounds a
s 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'd 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, including the fact that Trey had been engaged to Tess years back and her infidelity. I mentioned that as I'd come to know Tess, I liked her as a person and sister-in-law, but 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.”

  Do 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 in this because you have no point of reference. It's not something I'd have wished for you. Had I known at the time I was to be a father, I assure you, I would have insisted on marrying Marley and we would have given you brothers and sisters.”

  God, he's so much like Trey.

  “I realize its water under the bridge now, so 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 I hadn’t learned about yet. There were so many things I wanted to know.

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