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“How does that work exactly?” He seemed genuinely interested.
“We just put our phones on our pillows or beside us in bed and go to sleep.”
“Let’s do it, then. I'll leave my phone on; you do the same. You go to sleep. When I’m ready to go to sleep, I'll kiss you good night over the phone, how's that?”
I smiled into the phone and nodded. “Okay, Trey. Good night.”
“Sleep well."
CHAPTER 16
I was plugging my phone into the charger just as Gina bustled into my room. It was only 6 a.m., but she was freshly showered and dressed for the day.
“Get your lazy ass up,” she greeted me, a cup of coffee in one hand and an unlit cigarette in the other. I didn’t know Gina smoked.
“It’s only 6 a.m. We don’t have to be there for three hours. I'm going to lay back down for a bit. You aren’t going to light that are you?”
“Of course not,” she said, as if it was illogical for me to even think that. “I quit two years ago; it’s just I still like the feel of a cigarette in my hand when I’m having my morning coffee.” She took a long drag off of the cigarette, slowly exhaling invisible smoke, and then followed it with a sip of her hot coffee.
“Check this out,” she said, “Aunt Becky said if we want we can start our shift earlier and then be outta there earlier. I figure if we get there by 7 a.m., work through lunch, we can be out and heading to town by 1:30. The day will still be young, as they say.”
“It sounds good to me,” I said, suddenly energized, bouncing off the bed and getting dressed. Thatcher was more than happy to drive us over to the Belle. We officially clocked in at 6:47 a.m. Gina showed me how to operate the corking machine and she handled the filler tank. We both did some labeling. I started assembling the corrugated partitions that fit into each wooden case to keep the bottles from banging against each other during transport. Tomorrow we would finish with the Applewood Rose, and the tanks would need changing out to the house merlot. That would be the last of it.
Gina made the sound of the end of shift whistle like from the Flintstones and we clocked out. She instructed me to wait out front for her. Several minutes later she was back. “My aunt is the greatest,” she said jingling car keys. “She let us have her car; said she would catch a ride home with someone. Let's go!"
Downtown Bristol was quaint and trendy. Bristol, Virginia bordered its twin city, Bristol, Tennessee. The state line between Virginia and Tennessee was on State Street. The cities shared a downtown district. Gina parked the car near the main drag.
“Anything in particular you're looking for?” I asked Gina.
“I need a swimsuit for sure,” she replied. “We need to take advantage of that Olympic-size pool back at the manor.”
I was a bit hesitant, remembering my last time in that pool.
“What?” Gina asked, catching my uneasiness.
“It’s just that the last time I was in the pool I was drunk and nearly drowned.”
“Oh dear God,” she said. “Well that isn’t happening as long as I’m around. Really, Tylar, the dangerous company you keep!”
“I know, right?” I laughed. “Trey actually saved my life when that happened.”
“I bet he did; he's probably owned you from that moment on,” she commented.
“What do you mean?”
“He just seems like the type that doesn’t stop with the saving your life part. He strikes me as one that would take permanent responsibility for the person he saved, you know, like moving you into the manor, wanting to keep tabs on you.”
“He doesn’t keep tabs on myeverymove,” I said, thinking back to the weekend of the horse race. I'd been practically home free on that one. “But you’re right Gina, he can be pretty intense.”
We found a beach boutique and Gina tried on five different bathing suits. She finally decided on a designer bikini by Salinas. The bottom was very low slung, with a gold-tone band running along the top edge; it had adjustable side ties. Gina definitely had the body to pull it off. I tried on a really cute pair of red low-slung board shorts and a tank half tee.
“What do you think?” I asked Gina as I come out of the dressing room
“They are the bomb on you girlfriend, just need to accessorize a bit.”
I ended up buying two pairs of the board shorts in red and purple, and two tank half tees, one in black and one in red.
“Now,” she instructed once outside the store, “let’s accessorize. Follow me!”
