Louise Ch. 06

She waited until Kevyn and Louise reached her before she spoke.

"You live here?"

"I used to but the rent is paid up so it's still mine." Kevyn replied.

Louise and Barb followed Kevyn to the stairway and followed her up. By the time they reached her floor, Barb was a sweaty, irritable mess. Louise and Kevyn chattered good-naturedly about the hike irritating Barb even more. As soon as they were inside, Barb dropped her bag and looked around. The bedroom in her house was bigger than this!

"Make yourselves at home." Kevyn said as she put her bag next to Barb's knock off designer bag.

"This is so cute!" Louise exclaimed ignoring the dark, angry looks that Barb had on her face.

"Well, it was home for the three years. It's nothing fancy but it was affordable and the property owner kept it up... are you guys hungry? There's stuff in the fridge for sandwiches or we can go out..."

"What do you want Kevyn?" Barb asked sharply, "This isn't a reunion a reunion of three sisters who give a rat's ass about each other so cut the bull shit!"

"Barb...." Louise said softly.

"And you goodie Miss two shoes who everyone thinks is so innocent, what do you want?" Barb asked.

Louise and Kevyn looked at each other and then at Barb.

"I was hoping that we could have a nice evening together before we talked but I guess not." Kevyn said. "Sit down."

Barb started to protest but sat down. Maybe it was time they got a few things straightened out. The three sisters looked at each other for a long time before one of them... Louise spoke.

"Let's just step back for a moment."

And just like that, the tension in the room decreased to a more manageable level. Even Barb noticed but she made no comment. Instead of bringing up the subject at hand, Louise shifted gears to something less tense... things that she considered pleasant memories.

"Do you guys remember how mom used to make those donuts out of the canned biscuits?"

"Oh my god!" Kevyn exclaimed, "We used to swear that they were better than 'Dunkin' Donuts'! I loved those things!"

"And with the hot chocolate they were the best." Louise said.

The conversation continued without Barb's participation. She couldn't believe that Kevyn and Louise were seeing the memories as pleasant ones. The final straw came when they talked about their Christmas trees that were always decorated with the ornaments that they made at school and from the ornaments that they made at home. Part of the decorations included things that they could pick off the tree and eat such as the tiny candy canes and the garlands made out of whatever they could run thread through including cookies. Christmas dinner was the one dinner that their mother started shopping for weeks before the actual event. Each payday she would buy another part of the meal instead of all at once.

That day, all of them from the oldest to the youngest helped with the meal preparation even if they didn't want to. It was always Barb that had to be ordered to join in preferring to sulk instead of having a good time. What Louise and Kevyn remembered with fond memories, it only served to remind Barb about what she didn't have.

"You two are unbelievable!" she said. "How can you sit there and pretend that you were happy? We were poor! The highlight was when the fire company came and left gifts on the porch!"

"Is that why you're like this?" Louise asked, "Is it because we didn't have everything that you wanted?"

"They abused us! Maybe not physically but mentally and you're sitting here and acting like it didn't happen!"

"Because it didn't!" Kevyn shot back. "Do you think that we were the only poor ones on the block? We weren't abused and I'll tell you something else, mom and dad struggled for us! They did without more times than I can remember but you know what I think? I think that you're using our background as an excuse. It's easier to blame mom and dad instead of admitting the truth about yourself."

"Really Miss. High and rich... why don't you enlighten me, tell me about myself." Barb hissed.

"Kevyn..." Louise said when she heard the underlying tone of fury in Kevyn's voice.

"Want to know what I think?" Barb continued, "I think that the both of you are just as money hungry as I am. The difference is that you hide it. By the way, do either of you give lessons?"

"You conniving, selfish bitch!" Kevyn said standing up.

"Stop." Louise said softly but Kevyn and Barb paid her no mind.

"Speaking about money, what was wrong with Clay? Wasn't he rich enough for you?" Barb asked. "I never understood what he saw in you anyway." she added.

"I told you, I saw him kill someone and not only that, you know where his money came from..."

"So what?" Barb shot back. "And are you saying that if his money hadn't come from what he did as a living that you would have given him the time of day?"

"NO! I was never interested in Clay even when he had money but what I'm trying to understand is why money means so much to you. I'm trying to understand why it means more to you than your own sister... Explain that to me. Where did you learn that it was all right to hurt your family? I know that it didn't come from mom or dad so where did it come from?" Kevyn demanded.

"You know," Barb said not answering the question, "You think that you're so damned perfect but you left Louise alone to care for mom. You can tell me until the cows come home that you helped and maybe you did but I also think that your bringing her back with you was a guilt thing. I also maintain that you're only with Patrick Sinclaire because his money and little miss over there is with Nathan Sinclaire for the same reason...'

"Stop." Louise said again, just a bit louder.

"And you... "Barb said turning her full attention to Louise, "You wanted to know why I don't like you... You have no backbone, for years, you let people push you around and then you hid behind Kevyn or Leon. You had a chance with Lombardi and you were too chicken to take it. You started out the new school year with new clothes, you weren't teased and called names because you wore hand me downs. You might have been teased but it was because you were and are nothing more than a mouse. You sat there and let me try to take your man away from you. In my opinion, you don't deserve him. Having said that, I don't get it. What he sees in you I mean, you're not ugly but you're not pretty either. If I were you, I'd keep an eye on him..."

"Leave him out of this." Louise said softly.

Kevyn was silent, watching Barb as she badgered Louise and willing Louise to fight back.

"Have you even kissed him yet little mouse? You know what? It doesn't matter." Barb said. "I'm done here."

"Sit down." Louise said in a voice that she hardly recognized as her own. "Kevyn you too." she added.

Her sisters looked at her and made no move to sit.

"I said, sit down." she repeated.

When they were sitting, she started with Barb.

"I don't understand you any more now than I did before but you have to know that if I did or said anything to hurt you, it was unintentional. I don't get the abuse thing but I guess it comes down to perception and I guess to some degree I can see how you would feel that way but I ask you, what were they supposed to do? Lose the house so that you could live in you make believe world of if I had money? Would you have been happier if we had gone on welfare? Don't answer, you and both know that you would have been livid.

One of the things that mom talked about before she died was you. You have no idea of how much you hurt her when you accused them of abusing you. But let's talk about how they abused you... that prom dress? It wasn't completely paid for when Dad brought it home. He was making small payments on that dress long after the prom was over and not once did you thank them or any of us that sacrificed so that you could have your dream that night.

You're right; I let people walk over me because at the time it was the path of least resistance. I should have demanded more help with mom and so I accept my part in not having a life but Barb, you're still responsible for how you treat me and other people. I also agree with Kevyn when she said that you're using our poverty as an excuse and I think that until you admit that, you won't be happy. As far as you hating me, I'm sorry that you feel that I took something from you but you're still my sister and I love you even though I don't understand or agree with the way you think or act."

Louise took a breath and waited for Barb to respond. When none came, she continued.

"Nathan Sinclaire is off limits and that's all I'm going to say about it."

Without realizing it, she gave Barb a hard mental push that made Barb's head hurt. Kevyn seeing what was happening, distracted her.

"Lou?"

"And you..." Louise said, "I want you to stop feeling guilty about leaving. I wasn't and am not angry about it. You had to leave for your own safety. I want the three of us to act like the sisters that we're supposed to be even if we don't agree on things and that includes Juliet. I'm tired of the fighting and mom and dad wouldn't have wanted this."

"How sweet." Barb said sarcastically her headache receding, "should we do the group hug thing and pretend that we're all friends?"

"I'm not saying that it will be easy," Louise said, 'I'm just saying that maybe we could try, all of us... Gene, Juliet and Leon too."

Barb smiled, leaned forward and spoke looking directly at Kevyn.

"Alright, then lets have a show of good faith shall we?"

Louise's heart ached, she already knew what Barb was going to ask and she knew what Kevyn's response would be.

"What do you want?" Kevyn asked.

"Introduce me to some of the single Sinclaire men."

Kevyn started to laugh, "You can't be serious!"

She stopped laughing when she realized that Barb was indeed serious.

"No, I'm not doing that and here's why, I'm not going to enable your trolling for dollars nor am I going to basically pay you for what you should be doing for free... getting to know your family and trying to help us make amends."

Barb smiled as if she had expected the answer that Kevyn gave her.

"Kevyn, stop." Louise said. "We're not going to win, her head is so filled with the idea of what she needs and wants to be happy that there's nothing that we can say that will make any difference. Am I right Barb?"

Kevyn started to object and realized that Louise was right but she gave it one last try.

"Apparently we disagree on a number of things and that's fine but can we at least agree on the fact that we need to get past this thing between us?" she asked.

"This thing?" Barb asked. "I come to visit and you tell me to catch a cab. You put me up in a second rate room at a hotel where the staff treat me like crap and lets not forget the food allowance. The way I see it is that you owe me an apology!"

"I owe you what?" Kevyn yelled. "You're the one who decided to come visit without taking into consideration that we might not have been ready for visitors! You're also the one who showed up three days early so hell no! I wasn't going to change my plans for you! As far as your room goes, you're lucky that we paid for it. How much of a food allowance did you think that you needed? Or did you forget that you could be buying your own food? If anyone is owed an apology, it's us but I know that's not going to happen. Barb, what's wrong with you that you can't think beyond your own needs? Tell us how to help you with this..."

"I don't want or need your help." Barb snapped.

"You may not want our help but you need it." Louise said softly. She wasn't feeling well, the room was spinning and she had broken out into a cold sweat.

"Lou? Oh shit..." Kevyn said.

She woke up a few minutes later feeling queasy and weak. Kevyn was at her head and Barb was at her feet with a worried expression on her face.

"Why do you keep doing that?" she asked, "Maybe we should take you to the hospital to make sure that you're not sick."

"No, I'm fine." Louise said as she drank the glass of apple juice.

"But you keep fainting!" Barb exclaimed.

"I'm fine really; I just need another glass of juice." Louise said as she handed the empty glass to Kevyn

Louise's fainting was enough to calm both Kevyn and Barb down as they tended to her. Louise fell asleep after drinking the second glass of juice leaving the two remaining sisters in an awkward silence.

"Do you really hate her?" Kevyn asked.

Barb looked down at Louise, then back up at Kevyn, and shrugged.

"Maybe a little." she confessed. "For all of our lives, all I ever heard was how special she is or what an angel she is. When she started taking care of mom, it only got worse."

"And no one noticed you." Kevyn said quietly.

"And then you bring her out here and a not even two weeks later she finds someone and not just anyone, a rich someone."

"You're jealous of her." Kevyn said.

"Maybe but that doesn't change the way that I feel about mom and dad." she replied.

"I think that mom and dad is a subject that we have to agree to disagree on." Kevyn said. "Let make some sandwiches, Lou will be hungry when she wakes up."

******

Nathan threw himself into the building of the house to keep from calling Louise. He walked around the area that would be the kitchen and visualized them making meals together for themselves and family. Nathan stood in the middle of the imaginary kitchen did a slow three-hundred and sixty degree turn. As he turned, he made small mental recalculations of the room. Satisfied with the slight change in plans, he nodded to himself, moved to the next room and repeating the procedure until he had been in every room in the 'house'.

He spent more time in the bedroom than he did in any other room in the house. After doing the three-sixty turn, he stood in front of where the bed would be and closed his eyes. He thought about the kiss, her reticence and the knowledge that beneath all of that shyness was a very sexual woman just waiting to be released and she was his.

Unable to help himself, he dialed he number and left a voice mail when she didn't pick up. It didn't alarm or surprise him when she didn't answer, he assumed that the sisters were in the midst of whatever their issues were. He left the soon to be bedroom via what would be the patio doors and walked down to the beach wishing that Louise was with him. He hoped that by the end of their time together, that they would have at least come to some agreements about how they would proceed. The one thing that he knew wouldn't change was Barb and her cravings for money. It wouldn't have surprised him to know that Barb was going to ask for an introduction to the family, he would have been surprised if she hadn't.

Nathan knew women like Barb. They stuck around as long as there was money or until the man cut her off. Women like Kevyn and Louise were in it for the long haul, the money was immaterial. He found himself feeling sorry for the poor bastard that Barb Simpson got her claws into and hoped that there was a prenuptial agreement. As for himself, there wouldn't be any such agreement. None of the Sinclaire's had prenuptial agreements. To do so implied that the mate wasn't trusted and implied selfishness on the part of the mate who wanted such an agreement.

After sitting by the water for several minutes, Nathan got up, walked back to the site of the house and made a few phone calls all in regards to the house. During the last call, a feeling of sudden weakness came over him. It didn't last long but he knew what it was. He waited until the room stopped spinning and called her number and then Kevyn's phone when she didn't answer.

"Kevyn? Is Louise all right? You're sure? All right, when she wakes up tell her to call me no matter the time. Yes, thanks."

He hung up fighting the urge to go to her, "She's fine." he said to himself as he left the site and headed back to Patrick's house.

*********

Hans finished his work for the night and went to his suite where he repeated his prayer that Barb Yancy Simpson be taken away as his mate. He simply couldn't see his way clear to accept her as she was. He had come from a family of workers and the mates of his family were workers as well. It wasn't that they couldn't be wealthy, they could but their philosophy was that money was an unnecessary distraction. However, it was more than that; they all enjoyed working for what they had and enjoyed all that went with it.

After saying his prayer, Hans got ready for the days rest without giving Barb another thought, confident that the fates would grant him what he wanted- to be rid of the woman they had chosen as his mate.

*******

Louise woke up almost an hour after she fainted to the sound off hushed conversation. She sat up on the sofa, looked around and went to the kitchen where Barb and Kevyn were sitting in the cramped kitchen.

"Hi." she said sheepishly.

"Are you alright?" Kevyn asked.

"Yeah... sorry about that." she replied.

"I still think that you should go to the hospital." Barb said. "You keep fainting and that can't be good." she added as she moved so that Louise could sit down.

As Louise passed her, she had a flash of insight and understood Barb a little better. She knew that no matter what they did that Barb would be Barb but she was willing to try her idea. Louise sat down and accepted the offered glass of cola but declined the offer of something to eat, she was anxious to see if her theory was right.

"Barb, can I ask you a question?"

"If it's about any of the previously discussed topics, then no." Barb replied, "Kevyn and I have been talking and it's something that we agree to disagree about and by the way, I don't really hate you. Jealous of you? Maybe, but I never really hated you."

Louise was shocked, for Barb to admit to an emotion such as jealousy was a major step.

"I'm glad to know that but my question isn't about the past but the present, can I ask?"

Barb gave her a suspicious look and nodded her head. Kevyn sat back, watched as Louise quietly, gently manipulated Barb to where she wanted her to be, and then closed the trap.

"Ok... you know that I have no experience with men and don't take this wrong but you do."

Kevyn sat up straighter and watched Louise work. She looked at Barb waiting for her to shut Louise down and was surprised to see that while she was wary, she was also intrigued.

"What's the question?" Barb asked taking the bait.

"I don't know how to ask this without it sounding bad so I'm just going to ask... how do I keep women like you away from someone that I'm interested in?"

Kevyn tensed, waited for the fallout from the "women like you" comment and was relieved when Barb seemed not to have noticed it. She was coming to the same conclusion that Louise was and wanted to see if they were right.

"Are we talking about men in general or are we talking about Nathan Sinclaire?" Barb asked.

Louise hesitated. This would be the second time that she admitted to someone that she had feelings for Nathan and that second person was someone who would try to take him away from her and not bat an eye.

"Nathan Sinclaire."

"What you did just now?" Barb said, "Leaves him open for someone like me. I knew that you had a thing for him, it was obvious but you made no claim on him. Would that have stopped me? Probably not but I may not have put so much effort into it. Let me ask you this, do you want this guy? Because if you don't or you're not sure I'll step up to the plate."

Louise didn't react as she digested the information.

"And I'll tell you something else," Barb continued, "it's all well and good to be shy and all of that but Lou, sometimes you have to fight for what you want and it doesn't matter who the opponent is. You know better than anyone that family can be the ones to screw you over faster than anyone else."