Authors Note
Thanks for all the reviews! I love Ty as a bad boy, who else agrees? I've just figured out the whole story, except one little part that's bugging me, and it's going to be AWESOME! Excitement galore is insured for this chapter :) so I'll stop talking and get on with the chapter! But remember to REVIEW!
Important: Ty's moms name has been changed from Lisa to Jane.
Disclaimer: Everything recognizable such as, people, places or events were created and owned by Lauren Brooke.
The Peak
Chapter 5
Later that day, Saturday, April 1st, 6:30 p.m.
SASSI restaurant
Two luxury SUV's pulled into the parking lot at SASSI. One was a pearl white Cadillac Escalade and the other was a black Range Rover. Both cars were detailed expensively and gleaming, there wasn't a spot of dust, dirt or mud on either of their immaculate bodies.
Once the cars were parked in spaces the passengers emerged. Brad and Jane Baldwin came from the pearl white Escalade along with their 14-year-old son, Lee. Brad was dressed in an expensively tailored Italian black suit, a white button down and a light blue tie. Lisa was clad in a simple yet classy and elegant, and no doubt expensive, black dress with a strand of pearls across her neck, her light brown hair curled softly against her elegant features. Across her slim, tan shoulders was a shawl of the finest Chinese silk in midnight blue and silver. Lee was wearing a pair of khakis and a navy blazer; he had the whole Prince Charles look down pat. He was cool and confident looking, with his medium brown hair resting easily just above his green eyes, though they were slightly less vibrant than his older brothers they were by no means dull.
Harold and Isabella Laurence got out of the black Range Rover. There 13-year-old daughter, Alicia, followed them as she daintily climbed out of the back seat. Harold Laurence was dressed similarly to Brad Baldwin in a perfectly tailored black suit with a light blue shirt with a tie that matched his wife's dress. Isabella Laurence was wearing a Vera Wang halter dress in ruby silk. The neck came up a little passed her shoulders and her perfectly tanned back was left bare until the ruby silk started again at her mid back and floated to an end around her knees. Around the waist of her dress was a detailing of sequins that just added to the dresses exquisiteness. Isabella's curly, dark brown hair was pinned up on the back of her head and her long chandelier earrings accentuated her long neck. Her makeup was done just right so that her blue eyes stood out. While Mick had inherited his fathers blonde hair and his mothers blue eyes, his younger sister, Alicia, was the spitting image of their mother. Alicia was wearing a brown chiffon dress that ended at her knees and had slight ruffles around the neck, despite her young age the dress magnificently showed off the curves to her body. The brown material accented her tan skin and her long, dark brown hair fell in soft wavy curls along her straight back. She had on a heart shaped, silver Tiffany necklace and diamond studs in her ears.
Both families looked the perfect picture of wealth, elegance and sophistication. They were famous lawyers and art dealers. Appearance was important to them and they had plenty of extra money to ensure they always looked classy. The only thing missing from each family was their strikingly good looking elder sons, who were supposed to be joining them that evening for dinner.
(a/n: all this stuff describing SASSI is true by the way, at least as well as I remember it) The group of friends walked up the stone walkway and through an archway that led to the center square of the establishment. There were exotic brightly colored flowers and cacti growing around the stone buildings that framed the square. In the center of the courtyard there was a fountain that was spitting up water. About 10 feet in back of the fountain there was a stone wall and on the left of the wall there were several stairs that led down to another walkway that was bordered on either side by stone pillars, small leafy green trees and running along the wall, on either side, was clear blue water. Brightly colored Karp were swimming about in the water. At the end of the stone pathway there were huge, dark wood double doors that were elegantly detailed with metal.
At the sound of the women's heels clacking against the solid stone covered ground the large group already congregated by the water fountain looked up from their conversation. If the Baldwin's or the Laurence's noticed the company they kept it to themselves.
"Good evening Mr. Laurence, Mrs. Laurence, Mr. Baldwin, Mrs. Baldwin," a hostess greeted as she walked up to them. She was young, probably in her thirties. She was wearing a pair of black pants, a white button down and a black vest with a black tie disappearing down the front of the vest. "Lee, Alicia," she greeted the youngest of the party.
'Good evenings' and 'hellos' were chorused back to the hostess.
"Your table for eight is ready for you if you would like to be seated." She continued.
"We're actually waiting for Ty and Mick," Brad announced. "They should be here in five minutes."
"Very well," the hostess said with a polite nod and she walked away, back into the dining room.
"That shawl is absolutely lovely Jane," Isabella complimented as she looked at Jane's shawl.
Jane smiled brightly showing off two rows of perfectly straight and white teeth. "Isn't it though? It's 100 percent Chinese handmade silk," she said as she fingered the material between her fingers. "Brad got it for me when he was in Beijing last year…" Both women than got into a conversation of their various vacationing destinations and the exotically exquisite clothes they had gotten at each location. Harold and Brad started talking about cars and sports or business or whatever it is that men talk about. Lee and Alicia were left alone.
Lee turned towards Alicia and grinned at her mischievously. In response Alicia quirked a perfectly shaped and arched dark brown eyebrow at him in a way that only she could seem to do.
Lee stuck the tips of his fingers into the cool water of the fountain he was standing next to and flicked some of the drops onto Alicia's arm. Alicia emitted a high screech as the cold water hit her arm.
"Lee!" she laughed as she sauntered over to him on her strappy, flat brown suede sandals and whipped her arm off on his blazer. Lee and Alicia received a look from their mothers that clearly said 'We're in public, behave.'
After five minutes had come and gone Brad looked down at his high-tech watch before looking up at Lee, "Lee do you know where your brother is?"
"Uh," Lee said uncertainly, as if he wasn't sure whether he should say anything or not.
"Lee," Brad said warningly.
"Well I think I heard something about a party that was supposed to be tonight," Lee said quickly.
"When did you last see him?" Jane asked.
"When you guys were getting dressed he came in. He left again wearing his suit and said he'd meet us here," Lee said with a shrug.
"I suppose Mick is with Ty than?" Isabella asked.
Everyone turned to Alicia. "Well I also saw him earlier today and he said he'd meet us here," she said as she smoothed down the front of her brown dress even though there was nothing on it.
"Honestly," Isabella said with a shake of her head. "Those two are too much."
"I know," Jane agreed. "At least they're not…" she stopped mid sentence when the sound of cars engines being gunned filled the air. When the engines shut off two car doors slammed shut and loud talking and the sound of laughter wafted over to the fountain. "They're here," Jane announced.
Sure enough just moments later Ty and Mick emerged through the archway laughing loudly at something. They strutted jauntily across the square until they confronted their families. Ty was wearing a pair of black dress pants with a hunter green button down that was not tucked into his pants, the sleeves were rolled up to a little under his elbows and the top two buttons were undone. The suit jacket was no where in sight. His emerald eyes were bright and dancing and his hair was, as per the usual, falling sexily in front of his eyes. Mick was clad in a pair of pinstriped Ralph Lauren suit pants, a white shirt and a black tie with white polka pots hanging loosely around his neck. His navy eyes seemed to be laughing at some private joke and his hair was in front of his eyes to. Again the jacket was not being worn. Undoubtedly the jackets were thrown carelessly into the backseat of the owners' car.
"You're late," Harold told them.
"Aw come on dad," Mick managed to say when his laughing quieted down.
"Let's get this dinner over with," Ty said. "There's supposed to be a killer party later."
"You can't spend one night with your family?" Jane asked Ty.
Mick and Ty looked at her like that was absurd. "Mom it's Saturday. It's like the unofficial official party day. Besides," he continued and he nudged Mick in the side with his elbow. "What's the party without us?"
"Exactly," Mick said while grinning insanely. "We can't risk ruining the party throwers reputation because if we don't go than that person will be like shunned."
"Isn't that sweet of you," Alicia said in her light girlish voice.
"Seems like you've already been partying," Lee said as he eyed the tipsy pair.
"Naw," Ty shook his head.
"Where were you than?" Brad asked eyeing the duo suspiciously.
"Well this afternoon we were at the Peak," Ty answered his father. He chuckled lightly again. "Man you shoulda been there."
"Why?" Harold asked curiously. "What happened?"
"There were these annoying tourists," Mick said. "Ty totally told them off."
"What did they do to you?" Jane asked.
Ty shrugged disinterestedly. "Kept getting on my back about my name."
If any of them had cared remotely about their surrounding they would have noticed that the other large group of people also standing around the fountain was listening to every word they said. The group actually consisted of Lou, Scott, Amy, Matt, Soroya, Joni, Tom, Jack, Nancy, Meg, Greg, Amy and Lou's father from Australia, Tim, and his second wife, Helena and their 11-year-old daughter Lily.
Amy was standing there with her mouth practically hanging open. All the others seemed to be just as shock as she was.
"Hey hot stuffs!" A cheery feminine voice echoed around the court yard. Everyone turned and saw a woman of about 25 walking towards them with a leather bound book held under her arm. She was wearing a pair of dark wash True Religion jeans and a pair of black suede cowboy boats with a pointed toe. She had coupled with it a velvet turquoise blazer and her blonde hair was tied in a messy bun behind her head.
"Missy!" Mick called out and threw his arms opened. Missy was the wedding coordinator at SASSI and was familiar with Ty and Mick since they were there so much. Missy came and stood between Ty and Mick and grinning wolfishly each boy bent down and each kissed her on a cheek at the same time, as was their custom.
As they straightened she put an arm around each of their broad muscular shoulders. Amazingly enough she was almost equal to Ty and Mick in height. "So what have my hot boys been up to lately? I haven't seen either of you in like forever!"
"Oh ya know," Ty responded nonchalantly. "This and that."
Missy turned to the Baldwin's and the Laurence's. "Oh Isabella that dress is ah-mazing on you!" she complimented. "And Jane, wow. Is that real Chinese silk?" she asked aghast.
"That it is," Jane responded with a smile.
"Fantastic," Missy enthused. She turned to Isabella. "What's your dress Isabella? I don't recognize it."
"It's the latest from Vera Wang," Isabella replied with a brilliant smile. "It hasn't even hit the stores yet."
"Lucky bitch," Missy said playfully. "And we have my hot stuffs poppies," she said as she turned to Brad and Harold. "Looking fah-bulous, as usual, I see. And I see my little buddy Lee is turning into quite the little hot stuff junior…" she cocked her head. "Or maybe Prince Charles." Finally she looked Alicia up and down. "And Licia just looks better every time I see her." Everyone laughed amiably with Missy. "So are you guys just in for dinner tonight?" she asked.
"Yeah," Harold answered. "Pure leisure this time, no business."
"Thank God for that," Brad added with a laugh.
"So any big plans for after dinner?" Missy directed the question to Mick and Ty.
"But of course," Mick said with a grin.
"Killer party tonight man!" Ty exclaimed pumping his fists a few time for affect.
Missy slapped him on the chest playfully. "You two hot things are too much."
"You should defiantly hit the party tonight with us Miss," Mick said.
"Where is it?"
"Rob's place," Mick told her.
"Oh yes your dah-licious friend. I'll try to stop by later but I'm pretty busy tonight."
"On a Saturday?" Ty asked sounding like it was the most out of this world thing he had ever heard. "How is that right? Saturday is like the party day of the week. Well and Friday night of course."
"Tell me about it," Missy groaned. She glanced at the silver watch strapped to her left wrist. "Well I have an appointment to make and I'm already running late so I should leave so guys to your dinner," she announced sounding regretful. She looked around and her eyes landed on the group by the water fountain. "There they are!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Come on over!" she called out to them.
The members of the group from Virginia looked at each other before hesitantly walking over to where they were standing. "Yes, yes," Missy said. "Wonderful to see you guys again. The big day's getting close huh?" she turned to the Baldwin's and the Laurence's and said for their benefit, "Here we have the wedding of Scott Trewin and Lou Fleming…"
Jane gripped Brad's arm as they saw the people standing in front of them. The Virginia group did much the same.
"And guys," she said to the Virginia group. "This is Harold and Isabella Baldwin and their daughter Alicia and their son Mick," each Laurence nodded at the sound of his or her name. "And Brad and Jane Baldwin and their sons Ty and Lee."
"Well well well," Mick said interrupting Missy. He glanced at Ty, "Look who we have here Ty."
"Yes," Ty said as he stepped forward. He grinned wickedly. "It's farm boy. Hicksville isn't lonely without you yet?"
Matt shifted uncomfortably under Ty's gaze. Ty and Mick circled the group slowly like hungry piranhas or a leopard stalking its pray.
"You've met?" Brad asked slowly sounding nervous of the response Ty was going to give to him.
"Yes. This is the group of tourists I told you about just now," Ty said gleefully, "The ones that wouldn't fuck off about my name."
"You could have just told us your real name in the first place," Matt reasoned boldly.
Ty stopped and turned slowly to face Matt. "Now where's the fun in that?" he said.
"Well it's not as if we ever did anything to you," Matt said as he gained confidence. "You're the one that's acted like a bastard to us."
"I told you that you didn't want to get on his bad side," Mick said with a shrug.
"Well you guys didn't have to come up to us picking a fight!" Matt said heatedly.
"Whoa whoa whoa," Ty said and he held up a hand. "I started a fight with you? I believe I just came over to you guys to apologize for my dog who had jumped on your friend Amy."
"Ty," Jane suddenly addressed her son. "Why don't you, Mick, Lee and Alicia head on inside and get our table," she suggested.
"Aren't you coming?" Ty asked as he turned to face her.
"Yes but in a minute." Brad continued, "I have a business trip scheduled for Virginia in few months and I would just like to talk to this group of nice folks for a moment to see what they would recommended I do while I'm there," Brad lied through his teeth.
"Kay whatever," Ty shrugged. "See ya later Missy."
"See ya's hot stuffs!" Missy said with a grin.
"Bye beautiful!" Mick called out.
"I'll try to stop by that party later. Bye sexies!" (a/n: ha that's not even a word)
Once Ty had disappeared into the restaurants main dining room along with Mick, Alicia and Lee Brad and Jane turned to the Virginia group. "You're the people from that blasted horse farm in Virginia aren't you?" Brad asked.
"Yes," Jake spoke up. "And you're the Baldwin's that used to live in Virginia aren't you?" he challenged.
"Yes," Brad answered looking Jake straight in the face.
"So that was Ty? That boy just now in the green shirt? That was the Ty that used to help out around Heartland?" Lou cut in, in a shocked voice.
"Yes," Brad said again. "That was my son Ty."
It was so quiet that the crickets could be heard chirping away in the bushes.
"Look," Jane said quickly. "This isn't the time nor the place to get into anything now." She turned to Missy who was standing there awkwardly. "Missy do you have a piece of paper I could steal from you?"
"Of course I do Jane," Missy said as she grabbed a piece of paper and a fountain pen out of her leather bound book. She handed them to Jane and Jane took the two objects in her perfectly manicured hands.
Jane quickly scribbled something on the paper in her neat loopy print. "Here," she said as she folded the paper in half and handed it to Lou. She handed the fountain pen back to Missy before continuing. "That's our address, come by tomorrow at noon."
"Alright," Lou agreed doubtfully.
"Now if you'll excuse us," Jane said primly. "We have a dinner to get to. Take care Missy."
"Bye Jane, Brad, Isabella, Harold."
The four elegant adults turned and walked into the restaurant. There was a minute of awkward silence. Missy broke it by saying in an enthusiastic manner, "So are you guys ready to look around again?"
The Peak
An hour and a half later
After having a full meal of delicious foods Mick and Ty burst out of the dinning room, finally being told they could go after a grueling hour and a half of sitting there and talking.
"Time to par-tay!" Ty hollered upwards towards the sky. Both Mick and Ty were feeling a slight but enjoyable nonetheless buzz from the champagne their parents had ordered for dinner.
"Yeah man!" Mick seconded.
They jogged under the archway and out into the parking lot where they almost mowed right over the Virginians.
"See ya later farmies!" Ty shouted to them as he hurtled over the door to his black Ferrari and landed in the Ferrari's plush leather seating. "It's party time!"
Once Mick had gotten into his hunter green convertible Porsche they put their keys into the ignition and simultaneously gunned their engines before shooting out of the parking lot and speeding off down the road, the air blowing their hair back because of course they had left the tops down.
Scott, Lou and their group of family and friends were left standing on the sidewalk watching the red tail lights rapidly disappearing in to the distance.
The Peak
The next day, Sunday, April 2nd
The Baldwin house, noon
'Ding dong'
The doorbell sounded and echoed through the whole house at noon on Sunday, April 2nd.
Brad walked slowly down the carpeted hallway to the door. He unlocked the latch and twisted the doorknob. The mahogany door swung open and he was faced with the same exact group he had seen the last night, Lou, Scott, Jack, Matt, Amy, Soroya, Tim. The others had decided to stay at the Scottsdale Princess.
"Welcome," he said and forced a smile onto his face. "Come in," he gestured for them to come through the doorway. Once they were all inside the threshold he said, "Just follow me." He led them back down the hall and into the magnificent kitchen. All of the appliances were the latest models and they were all in stainless steel. There was an island in the middle on the room and there were several stools surrounding it. Every surface in the kitchen was of a pinkish orangish granite.
"You can sit around the table if you'd like," Brad offered trying very hard to be nice.
Jane walked over and set a tray laden with mugs of coffee and biscotti on top of the table's glass top. Once everyone was seated in chairs around the table Jane and Greg sat down on the stools.
"Nice place you've got here," Jack broke the silence. "Doesn't seem like you're doing to bad."
"Thanks," Brad said slowly trying to figure out if he just had been complimented or if he had just been insulted.
There was more silence. Amy boldly spoke up next, "Ty's sure changed a lot," she said in a hard, cold voice.
"Ty's fine," Jane said defensively. "In fact he's perfect."
"Care to tell us what happened two years ago?" Jake asked.
Brad sighed. "At the time of Ty's accident I was away on a business trip here, in Scottsdale. I was offered a job as partner at a big firm out here and I accepted it. When I heard what had happened to Ty I was mad. Mad and upset. I called the Mayo Clinic Hospital and arranged for a helicopter to come and transport Ty here."
"And you didn't think it was important enough to tell us this?" Lou asked sounding outraged.
"I never liked Ty working at Heartland anyway and that was a way for me to get a way from it," Brad answered reasonably.
"Does he not remember us?" Amy asked hesitantly. "I mean he didn't seem like he knew who we were."
"No he doesn't remember," Jane answered. "When he woke up from the coma a few months later he had amnesia. He ended up remembering almost everything about his life before the accident but…" she paused. "But he didn't remember ever working at Heartland or horses or his accident or any of that."
"So you never told him?" Scott asked stonily.
"No we never told him," Brad answered.
"Does he even know how he was injured?" Tim asked doubtfully.
"We told him it was a car crash," Jane said softly.
"So basically you've lied to your own son for two years about who he really is," Lou said.
"We haven't lied to him about anything. He never remembered and we just didn't tell him. He's better off not knowing anyway," Brad said defensively.
"We were going to tell him though," Jane added. "Eventually."
"Is he really better off now though?" Lou asked.
"Of course he is," Brad said. "He's thriving in this environment."
"Oh yeah," Matt snorted. "Thriving he is but not in a good way."
"Excuse me?" Brad asked in a hard voice.
"Let's see he's a partier, a womanizer, a druggie…" Matt started to rattle off things.
Jane interrupted him in a loud voice, "My son does not do drugs! Yes he parties but he doesn't do anything bad or illegal. But he most certainly is not a womanizer!"
"I did not have you over to my house to listen to you criticize my son!" Brad exclaimed. "If you would like to here about Ty than I will tell you. He is the starting quarterback on his school's football team, he attends Scottsdale Academy, maybe you've heard of it? It's one of the United States top 50 high schools. He has good friends and most importantly he is happy with his life."
"Because he doesn't know that he ever had another life!" Jake said and pounded a fist on the table.
"That is completely irrelevant," Brad said with a wave of his hand. "Ty has never once expressed an ounce of interest in horses since we got here."
"So he's never been riding?" Amy asked.
"Well of course he has. Some of his friends have horses, they gallop them across the desert but that's it," Jane said.
"Yo what's up?" Lee said sleepily as he wandered into the kitchen clad in a pair of red plaid pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt. He looked around the full kitchen in surprise. "What's going on?"
"It's about Ty Lee," Jane said wearily.
"Oh right," Lee nodded in understanding. "All that horse crap right?" he opened the industrial sized stainless steel fridge and poured himself a glass of orange juice.
"So when were you planning on telling Ty this?" Lou persisted.
"Later," Brad answered vaguely. "But if it will make you happy I'll tell him now." He turned to Lee who was peering into a brown paper bag trying to find a muffin he liked. "Lee," Lee turned away from the bag slowly at the sound of his father's voice.
"Yeah?" he asked slowly having a feeling that he wasn't going to like whatever came next.
"Go upstairs and wake your brother. Tell him to come down here."
Lee grimaced. He looked at the clock and than turned back to his dad, "Uh dad it's only 12:30."
"So?"
"Uh Ty's not exactly the most civil on a Sunday morning before 3…" he trailed off.
"Tell him it's important," Jane told her youngest son.
"You know he only sleeps in boxer's right?" Lee said disgustedly. Amy blushed at her seat at the glass table. "And last time I tried to wake him up he almost killed me, he threw a pillow at me and slammed the door in my face, I'm lucky my face isn't smashed in… and that was at like 2:30 in the afternoon."
"Lee just go wake up Ty," Brad said again.
"Okay," Lee said sounding skeptical. He set his glass on the granite counter top before slowly backing out of the door. As he exited the room he mumbled, "God I hope he's alone…" but he ended up being heard by most of the rooms other occupants anyway.
A minute later Lee's footsteps could be heard coming back down the stairs. He entered the kitchen again and walked right back over to his glace of juice and the blueberry muffin he had chosen.
"Where's Ty?" Brad asked after a minute passed and Lee didn't say anything.
"Uh Ty's…" Lee started to say but stopped when the front door was heard opening and closing. "Home," he concluded.
"Ty get in here!" Brad called out.
Ty had started up the stairs, trying to be quiet but backed back down them at his fathers command. He walked into the kitchen. "Yah?" he said sounding tired. He was still wearing his clothes from the previous night but now his hunter green button down was wrinkled and only halfway buttoned.
"Did you just get home Ty?" Jane asked him.
"Yah," Ty said again.
"Were you out all night?" Brad asked.
"Uh yah," Ty said yet again
"Where were you all night?" Brad asked next.
"Uh I dunno," Ty shrugged. "Not Rob's house I know that. Maybe Katie's?" he paused and shook his head, "No not Katie. Kerry- Anne… no wait that was before. I know, Serena's," he nodded in satisfaction that he had remembered.
"Ty," Brad sighed wearily and rubbed his temples.
"What?" Ty asked. For the first time he looked around the room and a look of confusion passed over his face as he saw who was sitting at his kitchen table and staring at him in shock and disbelief. "Uh why are they here?"
a/n: I loved writing this chapter! I had it all planned out in my head. Hehehe next chapter Ty finds out AND more stuff happens. Yes this is so much fun! I love this story! Review!