Louise Ch. 11

Angel had been there for each of their births crying each time as he cut the umbilical cord. He had worked his ass off to provide for them while attending school for computer programming and not once did he complain. He had wanted so much for them including school for her.

"Baby when I'm done, you can go to school. You can be a nurse, hell a surgeon if you want but we need to get your GED first."

She hadn't believed him although she didn't know why. She was smart but that wasn't the problem. She just didn't want to do it. She liked being a stay at home mom so that she could talk to her friends and take care of the kids. She only got her GED because Angel wouldn't shut up about it.

"Baby come on! You have to do this so that we can help the babies with school!" he pleaded.

At the age of nineteen, Juliette got her GED and then Angel started pushing her to take classes at the community college. He couldn't understand her resistance but he tried.

"What if something happens to me?" he asked her during yet another argument about school. "Who's going to make sure that our babies are cared for? Welfare? Julie, I love you and our babies and I want to see the world with you but I can't do it alone! You have got to help me."

His pleas fell on deaf ears until one day he came home and sat on the sofa. In so many ways, Angel reminded her of her father in the way that he always spent time with each child listening as they talked about their day no matter how tired he was or how bad his day had been.

"That's a beautiful picture!" he said to Wanda. "May I keep it?"

Juliette stopped what she was doing. Something in his voice caught her attention.

"It's for you silly!" Wanda replied as she threw her arms around Angel and hugged

Angel held her tightly and twirled a long braid in his hands.

"I love you mija never forget that."

Juliette's alarm grew as he said the same thing to each child before he sent it out to play.

"Julie, sit down, we have to talk."

Juliette closed her eyes at the memory. After all of this time she finally understood why they didn't work. It was all her. Angel had grown rapidly and she had refused to grow with him. She also realized that she compared every man that she went out with to Angel.

"Idiot!" she said as she brushed away a tear.

She was about to pick up the phone to call Barb when it rang.

"Hello... Kev? How are you guys? I asked Barb about you but you know how she is. The kids are fine; they're at Angel's house. So what's new? What? Our Louise is getting married? Who's the lucky guy? Nathan... ok does Nathan have a last name? Si....Sinclaire? Nephew? Is she there? I want to talk to her!"

Kevyn handed the phone to Louise and moved away.

"Lou? Oh my god! You're really getting married? When? Oh... I see but there's going to be a reception? Do you know when? I don't care if I have the time or not, I'm coming! Have you talked to Gene or Leon? If I had to guess I would say that Gene's over at Leon's... there's some game on today. What does Barb have to say? I'm sure... While I have you on the phone, I want to tell you something.

"I'm sorry that I didn't help you with mom and that I tried to pressure you into taking her home. Kevyn was right; it would have been too much. I also wanted to thank you for doing it without complaint and for watching the kids for me."

Louise listened to the apology and felt the sincerity of it.

"Juliette, it's over and done with. It's time to move forward. We'll let you know when the reception is.... Of course the kids can come! Ok, do you need to talk to Kevyn? Ok, here she is."

Louise smiled when she heard Juliette's excited chatter. One relationship healed three more to go. She thought to herself.

*******

Gene looked around Leon's well-kept apartment with a tinge of jealousy. He had the latest model big screen television set as well as surround sound and all of the cable channels. On more than one occasion, he thought about asking Leon if he could move in with him and split the expenses. It would save both of them money but then, Leon didn't need his money. He had a nice little nest egg where most of his money went after expenses. The television, surround sound and lap top were bought with income tax money and what wasn't spent was added to his nest egg.

As far as Gene knew, the only ones that Leon helped financially was Louise and on rare occasions Juliette. He had never offered to help him or Barb figuring that since they were single they were doing as well as he was. In Barb's case, it was a correct assumption although she always bitched and moaned about not being able to afford things.

In his case, it couldn't have been further from the truth. When Dana left him, she took almost everything except the clothes on his back. For all practical purposes, he had had to start over and hadn't made it past square one. He had pinned all of his hopes on Clay Robinson, which would have been a bust no matter how he looked at it.

"You ready for the game?" Leon asked.

"Yeah... umm Leon, I might need to borrow some money from you."

"What for?"

"I.... I got suspended for thirty days without pay and once I pay the house note and other bills, I'm tapped."

"How much?" Leon asked.

"Six hundred?" Gene asked. He hadn't planned on asking Leon for money but seeing the apartment and knowing what Leon had in his retirement account....

"Six hundred? I can give you two-hundred. Does that help?"

"Yes... thanks." Gene said flabbergasted. He also knew that he wouldn't be able to hit Leon up again.

"No problem, I'll bring it by tomorrow."

Gene watched Leon and realized that out of all of them, he was the one who was the most like Louise. Gene had watched Leon pull himself out of near destruction to become a good, solid successful man and wondered why he couldn't do the same thing.

He realized that it wasn't because he couldn't... he just wanted things the easy way like Clay Robinson's money to get him to where he wanted to be. An uncomfortable thought hit him, just as Leon was similar to Louise; he wasn't very different from Barb. She wanted the same things that he did but didn't want to work for them.

Leon turned on the television and threw the remote to Gene.

"Find the game while I go get some plates and napkins. Any preference on soda?"

"Whatever you've got is fine." Gene replied as he began to flip through the channels.

Leon's telephone rang, the number showing on the television screen.

"Answer that will you?" Leon called in.

Gene felt a stab of jealousy that Leon didn't have to avoid answering the phone because it might be a bill collector.

"Hello... Kevyn? Hey how are you?" he said with false enthusiasm. "Yeah me and Leon are going to watch the game. Wait... I think that he has speaker phone."

"Who is it?" Leon asked when he came into the room.

"Kev and Lou. They have some kind of news for us." Gene replied.

A few seconds later, they were on speakerphone.

"We were going to skype you but you were off line." Kevyn said.

"No problem, how are things in sunny California?" Leon asked genuinely pleased to be talking to his sisters.

"Nice and warm." Kevyn replied. "Let me tell you why I'm calling, Lou and I are getting married and we want you to come to the reception."

"Lou's getting married?" Leon asked. "To who and have you met him?"

"I have and he's really good to her." Kevyn replied. "She's here; I'll let her tell you."

There was the sound of movement and the click of the speakerphone coming on.

"Hi guys." Louise said.

"Lou? How are you doing?" Leon asked.

"I'm good... how's the steel mill?"

"The same but I want to hear about this man. Who is he and how did you meet him?"

Gene sat back and watched as Leon asked the questions that he should have been asking.

"His name is Nathan Sinclaire and he's Patrick's nephew." Louise said.

"Does Nathan have job or does he live off of Uncle Patrick?" Gene asked.

Louise hesitated at the underlying sarcasm and jealousy that she heard in his voice even though he tried to hide it.

"He has a job." she replied her tone cool.

"So Lou, you're happy right? He's good to you?" Leon asked as he shot Gene a "What the hell?" look.

"Yes to both questions, do you think that you can come?"

"Just say when and I'm there." Leon said. "But give me a heads up so that I can start looking at airfares."

"Don't worry about that." Kevyn said. "We'll get you here."

Gene sat seething. Two of his sisters were marrying into money while he was barely scraping by. He barely heard the end of the conversation coming out of his thoughts enough to say good-bye.

As soon as they hung up, Leon turned to Gene.

"What in the hell was that?"

"What was what?" Gene asked.

"That shit that you just pulled is what." Leon said. "You didn't even congratulate her! I could hear the jealousy in your voice. What is it with you and Barb?" he asked and turned away effectively ending the conversation.

*******

The last phone call was to Barb who reacted as they thought she would but she didn't say that she wasn't going to attend.

"Where are you putting people up?" she asked ready to complain if they said at one of the houses.

"At the same hotel that you stayed at." Kevyn said. "We're looking at having the reception in two weeks. That gives people enough time to rearrange their work schedules."

"Whatever. Just let me know the place and time." Barb said.

"It's going to be here and at seven in the evening." Kevyn replied.

"Am I allowed to bring a date?"

"Sure if you want." Kevyn replied not anticipating the question.

Kevyn hung up and looked at Louise.

"That went better than I thought it would. I told Barb two weeks, is that good?"

"Fine by me but you might want to call Juliette and the guys back." Louise said. "And while you're doing that I'll start getting the supplies together for dinner."

"Alright." Kevyn said a few minutes later, "There's no problem on their end. I told them to be at the airport by nine pm."

"What about the hotel?" Louise asked.

"I'd better call him too, are you alright with finding things?" Kevyn asked.

"I'm good and the groceries should be here soon too. Do you have any money for a tip?"

"There's petty cash in that drawer by the spices.... Hello Hans?"

*********

Hans waited on the guest at the desk with pure professionalism even though the woman tried to get his attention by leaning farther then necessary to sign the papers. When he handed her the keycard, she made a point of brushing her hand across his.

"Will that be all Madame?" Hans asked.

"You know, you have the most remarkable gray eyes... I'm sure that you've been told that." the woman said.

"Thank you, was there anything else?"

"You wife must have to fight the women off. I mean just look at you, tall, gray eyes and blonde... a nice combo."

Tiring of the woman, Hans pushed a button underneath the counter and waited.

"Yes sir?" A young man who seemed to come from nowhere asked.

"Ollie, this is Mrs. Rickman. Please help her to her suite."

"Yes sir." Ollie replied hoping that this guest wasn't anything like Barb Yancy Simpson.

Hans shook his head as he watched Ollie and the woman walk away.

"Humans." he muttered under his breath.

He was going over the availability for the coming weekend when the phone rang.

"JS hotel, this is Hans, how may I be of assistance?"

"Hans, this is Kevyn Sinclaire."

"Ah Mrs. Sinclaire! How are you?"

"I'm fine and call me Kevyn for god's sake. We were almost family."

The offer of familiarity threw Hans but he recovered.

"As you wish, what can I do for you?"

As Kevyn told him what she wanted, Hans looked over the diagram of the hotel.

"How many rooms did you say?" he asked.

"Four and they can all be suites. Juliette my sister has three children so she'll need one of the bigger suites." Kevyn said.

Another sister Hans thought and hoped that she wasn't anything like the one who had just left and she had children to boot.

"How long will they be staying?"

"Let's say a week and they can order whatever they want to eat plus have full privileges."

"Very good, is there anything else?"

"I can't think of anything except this, Juliette is a lot nicer than Barb and her kids are well behaved." Kevyn said.

"Fine, if you need anything else, use my private number day or night."

"Thank you Hans, we'll be in touch."

"Somebody order groceries?" Nathan said as he came into the kitchen carrying several bags with Patrick following with more.

"We did and it's for dinner tonight." Kevyn replied kissing Patrick's cheek. "If you're hungry you can eat the rest of the casserole." she added.

Louise blushed only a little when Nathan kissed her but she kissed him back.

"What's for dinner and how can we help?" he asked as he began to unpack the grocery sacks.

"Corn flake baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans and rolls." Louise replied. "And ice cream for dessert. Nathan, can you get out the biggest bowl that they have and several of the largest baking pans? Patrick, could you fill the largest pot you have with water, add some salt and turn the burner on high when the water boils, add the macaroni. Kev, pour the cornflakes into the bowl, melt some butter and mix in whatever seasonings you want."

Louise stopped talking when she realized that they were staring at her.

"Wow." Patrick murmured impressed.

"I'm sorry..." Louise started to say.

"Don't be." Patrick said, "If you run the kitchen at your restaurant like this you'll be packed."

"Sweetheart he's right." Nathan said agreeing with Patrick.

"Yeah but you're my family not my employees." she replied embarrassed.

"True but if you're comfortable in delegating to us then you'll be fine with other people." Nathan said kissing her temple. "So, you need baking pans and a large bowl, what else?"

Kevyn stood back and watched Louise and Nathan for several seconds before she set about her task. They were better than good together. They were perfect.

*******

"Are you sure that he said he was coming?" Louise asked when seven-thirty came and went.

"He said he was." Nathan replied, "But then I really didn't think that he would. Something is really bothering him and he won't talk to anyone about it."

"Well, why don't we eat?" Kevyn said. "If he shows up we'll feed him."

Louise looked over at Nathan. She would have been able to tell that he was worried without her ability. She took his hand and gave it a squeeze that he returned.

The dinner talk veered away from Joseph to the plans for the ceremony.

"The question is do we want to do it ahead of time or on the evening before the reception?" Patrick asked.

"I would say that if we're going to have it at Lou and Nathan's we should do it before hand since the reception is going to be at our house. We need to be there to make sure everything is ready."

"Not necessarily." Patrick said. "I'm sure that Katrina and Ethan would take care of that end of it and to simplify things, let's have it catered. That way there's no set up or clean up on our part and no one needs to worry about bringing food."

"Then we could do it on the same day. Lou what do you think?" Kevyn asked.

"I think that will work but if we're going to use a caterer, we'd better be calling but Kev, I know that we said that we wanted this to be just us but I think that the others should be there. I mean we were together at mom and dad's funerals, shouldn't we be together for this?"

Kevyn blew out a breath. That meant inviting Barb.

"I know what you're thinking." Louise said, "But I think that she'll behave as much as she's capable of behaving. What do you think?"

"I agree." Patrick said surprising Kevyn. "If the only issue is Barb, she's manageable and if she isn't I'll compel her ass to go sit in a corner somewhere."

"Ok." Kevyn said, "I'm good with it."

Nathan was the only one who hadn't voiced an opinion. He was watching Louise and debating about Joseph.

"If we're inviting siblings, then you should invite Joseph." Louise said, "And your parents." she added to everyone's surprise. "If our parents were alive we'd want them here wouldn't we?"

Their ceremony which had started with five people including the minister had just increased to eleven people, fourteen counting Juliette's children.

"Sweetheart are you alright with this?" Nathan asked.

"I'm fine." She replied with a smile although she was already nervous. "Do you think that the people who catered the wedding are available?" she asked changing the subject.

"One way to find out." Patrick said as he took out his phone.

"They're not available but they gave me the name of another service that they swear by... do you want me to call?"

Several minutes later, Patrick was off the phone.

"Well?" Kevyn asked.

"They sound good and they were wondering if we wanted to set up a time to sample their food." he replied.

"When were they thinking of doing this?" Louise asked.

"Tomorrow night." Patrick replied.

"Sounds like a plan if you guys aren't busy." Nathan said as he stood up and began to gather the dirty dishes. "Why don't you and Kev relax? We've got this."

Kevyn and Louise went and sat on the patio neither of them speaking for several minutes.

"Who would have thought that this was possible?" Louise asked as she rocked in the rocker. "Do you remember when we used to tell scary stories about ghosts and vampires?"

"I sure do but I didn't think that they existed." Kevyn replied laughing. "Goes to show how much I knew." she added. "Lou? Are you really okay with being a vampire?"

Louise thought about her answer.

"I did the right thing for me and Nathan so yes, I'm fine with it. The only thing that I think I'm going to miss is going out during the day with you. Was it hard? Finding out about Patrick I mean?"

"You have no idea." Kevyn replied. "First there was Lonnie and I swore never again... something else I was wrong about. The vampire thing didn't faze me, the fact that I had fallen for a rapist did. I was running away from Patrick when I came to Pittsburgh, which turned out to be a good thing. But the important thing is that I'm not fine with what they did, but I'm fine with Patrick."

"The vampire thing didn't faze me either." Louise said. "The family history surprised me and maybe if Nathan had been a rapist I would have reacted differently but at any rate, I'm glad that you're ok."

Nathan and Patrick listened to the soft murmurings of the sisters and smiled at each other.

"Damn we got lucky." Patrick said thinking about Barb.

"Yes, we did." Nathan replied. "Do you still have the name of the man who does genealogy?"

"His name is Jackson Parker and I've already spoken to him. He wants us to gather as much information as we can but in the meantime he'll find out as much as he can with what I told him." Patrick replied.

"So you think there's something there too. Any ideas?" Nathan asked.

"I'm not even going to venture a guess." Patrick replied. "What about you?"

"I'm with you but do you think that it means anything that Lou is the first female mate to turn in over three-hundred years?"

"Again, I'm not going to try to guess." Patrick replied but I will say this, I won't be surprised if there is someone very powerful in their line. Whether any of the others are gifted remains to be seen."

"Barb is gifted." Nathan said.

"How do you know?" Patrick asked.

"It seems that I had emphatic tendencies before Louise and being with her has enhanced them." Nathan said. "What I'm saying is that I felt it the night that we were at the club. She is very intuitive but ignores it. She isn't anywhere near as strong as Lou and Kevyn nor will she ever be. I think that it's the same with the others and I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of them are ungifted."