Dancing in the Gray (31 page)

“That’s not true, Elise. I can’t
describe how empty I felt. I realized quickly, without Rixby’s
appearance on Monday, that I needed you.”

“
I’m still confused on how
my information is out there for Ronald to just look up, and I’m
embarrassed that I thought running was a solution.” Elise rubbed
her hands over her face again.

“Don’t stress about the Ronald stuff
because I didn’t even know any of that existed until Monday. I was
just desperate to find you and Ronald saw the condition I was in.
It seems like it’s just a security measure the team initiates when
someone gets close to my dad or his immediate family. Trust me, I
was shocked when I knew there was a file on you. But if it makes
you feel better, that’s all the information that I have wanted to
tell you since the rollercoaster started on Friday. It’s all out
there.”

“Ok, but I have a few questions of my
own. What happened with the bitch from the news show this morning?
Jeremy was going to let me drive down to the station and kick her
ass before my mom called and saved the day, which I am so sorry
about.”

“Martie was hilarious, and she was
completely right! Sherri was aggressive, but Paul stepped in and
made the set change happen.”

“What did she tell you when you went to
commercial break? Before the set change?”

Trey didn’t want to answer that
question because he knew it would cause Elise to fly off the
handle. But, he didn’t want secrets. “She asked me to show her all
the things you did to get me off the market.”

Elise tilted her head to the side, and
with a moderate tone in her voice she uttered one word, “Really.”
She had a small grin on her face as she got up from the island. She
headed over to the back counter where her purse was and retrieved
the keys to her car. She picked up her purse and put it on her
shoulder and started to walk out of the kitchen.

Trey panicked. He got up from the
island and ran after Elise who was storming out of his house bare
foot. “Elise, where are you going?” He ran in front of her and
stopped her in the foyer. “I’m sorry, Elise. Please don’t
leave.”

“Trey, don’t apologize. I’ll be back.”
She gave him a forced smile and tried to step around him, but Trey
moved in front of her.

“Don’t run, Elise. Please!” He was
holding her arms.

Elise’s face softened and a sweet smile
crossed her face. “I’m not running. I swear.” She was shaking her
head. She placed her hand on Trey’s face then rose up onto her toes
and gave him a sweet kiss on his lips. “I’ll be right
back.”

Trey knew she wasn’t angry at him, but
didn’t understand what was happening. “Please tell where you’re
going.”

In the calmest, sweetest voice, Elise
spoke, “I’m just going to the television station to find out where
this bitch lives so I can kick her ass. I promise I’ll be back
soon. And, could you take the empanadas out of the oven in fifteen
minutes?”

Trey couldn’t help but laugh. She might
have well said that she was going to the store to get a gallon of
milk, she was that nonchalant. “Elise, you can’t be
serious.”

“Oh yes I am!” She tried to walk past
Trey one more time, but he stepped in front of her
again.

This time, Trey was stern with her
realizing she may actually be serious. “You are not going to find
that woman.”

Elise squinted her eyes at him, “Why
the hell not?”

“Because she’s not worth
it!”

“BUT YOU ARE!” Elise’s voice echoed in
the foyer. Trey looked down at Elise with her semi wet hair and
bare feet in amazement of this woman. “Ok! So I’m a little jealous
and kinda crazy at the moment. Meet Psycho Elise.” Elise rolled her
eyes and smiled up at Trey. He turned her around and led her back
into the kitchen keeping his hands on her shoulders.

“You have no reason to be jealous, you
know that right?” That woman couldn’t hold a candle to
Elise.

“I think so, but I just wanted to
strangle her when I saw her hands all over you! And, in hindsight,
I guess if I really wanted to kick her ass, I should probably put
on some shoes, and a bra.”

Trey tried not to laugh as he stood
back and watched Elise continue her hissy fit. She was quite
cute.

“But, you know what pisses me off about
this whole situation is that she did all that shit on camera. I
mean, it’s one thing to hit on you backstage or in private…,” Elise
turned around and faced Trey waving her index finger in the air,
“….not that I’m ok with her hitting on my man at all, but it’s
another to treat you like a sex toy on television. It’s no
newsflash that your gorgeous, anyone with one semi-working eye
could see that, but there is a great man with great values,
beliefs, and ideas to improve the state under all that
gorgeousness. She objectified you, and that’s what I’m really
pissed about.”

“As long as you understand that you
have absolutely nothing to worry about where I’m concerned, that’s
all I care about. Fuck Sherri! She made herself look like an ass on
television, and after we got through the set change we were able to
hit a few topics that I wanted to talk about with the viewer
questions.” Trey walked up to Elise and took her face in his hands.
“But, I appreciate your concern and love that you are so
supportive.” Elise’s beautiful eyes were looking up at him coyly
before his lips landed on hers.

Maybe Trey shouldn’t have liked that
Elise was willing to get into a physical altercation over him, but
he did. He wanted her to care about him as deeply as he cared for
her. What Elise was prepared to do was equivalent to what Trey
actually did to Rixby. He wasn’t proud of that moment, but he
understood how she felt when she had to witness someone else
invading on her territory.

She dropped her purse back on the
countertop and went into his refrigerator and pulled out two
Argentinian beers. She opened the top cabinet near the
refrigerator, then the one next to it. It looked like she was
looking for glasses. “One cabinet over, I have
pilsners.”

Elise turned around and smiled,
“Thanks.” She retrieved the glasses from the cabinet and poured the
beers into each glass, placing one in front of Trey.

“So I’m
your man
?” Trey smiled behind his
glass as he took a sip.

“You better be! I was about to go throw
down with some bitch over you – wearing no bra and no shoes!”
Elise’s hands were on her hips, and she was wearing a small
mischievous smile.

Trey nearly spit the beer in his mouth
all over the counter. “Yes, I’m your man! So are you mine?” Trey
lifted his eyebrows waiting for her answer.

“Duh! Since the moment we met.” Elise
bit her bottom lip and smiled, causing a warm sensation to crawl
through Trey’s chest.

She turned her attention back to the
empanadas while Trey helped her cut Valencia’s for an orange salad.
She was also roasting bell peppers for the chorizo she was cooking.
She was serving the sausage over homemade Melba toast and topping
it with sautéed roasted red bell peppers.

Once the food was done, they both
prepared their plates and sat at the table in the kitchen. The meal
was fabulous and Elise wasn’t lying when she said she knew how to
cook. “So where did you learn how to cook all this?”

“Jeremy and I were in Argentina for a
couple fashion shows, and we had this great meal at a local
designer’s home. His cook allowed me to help prepare the meal with
her, so this is one of my five star dishes I cook when I’m trying
to impress someone.” Elise threw Trey a wink before she sipped on
her Araucana Rojiza Fuert beer.

“Even though you don’t need to impress
me, this meal was very impressive. I really enjoyed it.”

Elise put her hand on his, “I was
hoping you weren’t mad that I had Maggie cancel the French
caterer.” Elise got up from the table and started to clear their
plates.

“With the ticket that you bought, I
thought you wanted to be back in France, so I wanted to bring
France to you.” Trey picked up the rest of the dishes and followed
Elise to the sink.

“Trey…” Elise tilted her head to the
side and her beautiful face was looking up at him, “you are such an
amazing man,” Elise wrapped her arms around his waist and buried
her face into his chest holding him tightly.

Trey laced his hands into her hair and
held her to his chest. “You make me want to be amazing.” He closed
his eyes and kissed the top of her head. “I’d like to show you the
rest of the house, if you’d like?”

“Absolutely.” Elise tilted her head
back to look up at him, “I love you so much, Trey.”

He hugged her tightly to his chest and
said, “You can’t imagine how happy that makes me.”

“I know the feeling. I have it ever
time you’ve told me.”

Trey took Elise’s hand and walked her
up a staircase to the second floor of the house. That was where
Trey’s master was located and a few other bedrooms. They walked
past a guest bedroom that had two twin beds in it. One bed had a
Barbie comforter, and the other bed had a camouflage comforter.
Elise stopped in her tracks and looked up at him with wide eyes,
“This room is for my niece and nephew when my sister and her family
stay up here with me.” He immediately saw the relief wash over her
face.

Elise smiled as she walked into the
room and headed to the Barbie Dream Home that was at the foot of
his niece, Amelie’s, bed. “I always wanted one of these growing
up.” Elise ran her fingers over the top of the toy
house.

Trey could only imagine what it was
like for Elise growing up. His parents didn’t give them everything
they wanted, but they didn’t go without. He was watching her face
as she looked over all the Barbie dolls that were in a basket next
to the toy house. The only way Trey could define it was sadness
wrapped in joy.

Elise walked over and picked up the
picture that was on the nightstand that separated the two beds. It
was one of Trey with the kids at his father’s most recent
Inauguration. “Look at her beautiful curly hair.” Elise looked up
from the picture smiling, tilting the frame in Trey’s direction.
“What’s her name?”

“Amelie. She looks just like Sophia,
except for the green eyes. Those come from her dad.”

“And who is this little handsome
man?”

“J.J. He looks just like Jake, my
brother-in-law. He will outgrow his older sister in just a few
months.” Trey walked over to the dresser and picked up Sophia’s
family picture and handed it to Elise. “That’s the whole
family.”

Elise smiled as she looked over the
picture. “Your sister is beautiful.”

“She is. She has a mouth like a sailor,
though.” Trey and Will had a bet that Sophia’s kid’s first word
would be a four letter one. They both lost when both of the kid’s
first words were “Daddy.” Sophia definitely kept it clean around
the kids.

“I love how you have this room
especially for them. They must love it when they come here.” Elise
was looking at a stuffed alligator that was on J.J.’s
bed.

“I love it when they’re here. Sophia
cried when she saw what we did with this room. Jessie, Will’s wife,
helped me. They spent a lot of time up here at the end of dad’s
last campaign, so I wanted them to feel like they had their own
space instead of them staying at hotels or with Will and Jessie at
Mom and Dad’s home.”

“Wow, Trey. You are an awesome brother
and uncle. Your family is very lucky.”

“I would really love for you to meet
them.” Trey was leaning against the threshold of the
door.

She smiled and nodded her head, “I
would like that, too.” Elise put the family picture back on top of
the dresser. “Show me the rest of the house?”

Trey extended out his hand to her which
Elise grabbed and held close to her. He showed her the rest of the
second floor which included 4 other guest bedrooms and his master
suite and bathroom.

Trey’s master suite had a sitting room
with a fire place that had two beautiful wingback chairs angled in
front of it. There was also a small desk that was in the corner of
the sitting room. On each side of the desk were bookshelves that
were filled different leather bound books. In the sitting room,
there were French doors that opened into the bedroom. Trey had a
king sized bed at the center of the room. To the left were another
set of French doors that led out to a balcony.

“So this is my bedroom. I like to hang
out here on the balcony when I get a chance.”

Elise opened the French doors and
stepped outside onto the balcony. “What a beautiful view! Is that a
coy pond?” Elise pointed down to the area off to the side of the
balcony.

“Yes. The previous owners had it and I
decided to keep it. I fell in love with the outdoor space that
surrounded the home. I wanted to look out to the large back yard
and still have privacy. That’s why I had so many Serbian spruces
planted along the property line.” Trey was standing behind Elise
pointing to the edge of the property

Elise looked up over her shoulder at
him, “It’s amazing.”

Trey liked that Elise appreciated his
home. “No, what’s amazing is my closet.”