Louise Ch. 05

Hans watched the cab pull away and shook his head. It was well within his rights to stop her from going but a right he chose not to exercise. He wasn't worried that she would succeed in her plans, he knew the Sinclaires well. Nathan's eyes would only be for his mate. Barb could dance naked on the table and neither Nathan Sinclaire nor any other mated male would look at her twice.

He shook his head, cursed and went back to his paperwork.

*******

Barb was at the restaurant fifteen minutes early and was already having her first drink when Kevyn and Patrick arrived a few minutes later. She watched with what she hoped was a neutral expression as Patrick held Kevyn's chair out for her and kissed her temple before she sat down.

"Where's Louise?" Barb asked when they were both sitting.

"She'll be here soon, Nathan is bringing her." Kevyn replied.

"Then we'll wait so that I can make my apologies once." Barb replied, "Would you like a drink while we wait?"

Patrick ordered a glass of red wine and Kevyn her usual daiquiri. She wanted to ask Barb what she was really up to but this was Louise's fight and she would step in only if necessary.

Louise and Nathan arrived at seven on the nose. Barb noticed once again that although Louise looked the same, she was different. She had a sparkle about her that was even more evident than the previous evening and her confidence had grown as well but Barb didn't let that deter her. She also noticed the protective way that Nathan was touching Louise and like Patrick, he held her chair out for her, kissing her temple before she sat down.

The curiosity was killing her; she wanted to know what the kiss on the temple meant but the apology had to come first. After Patrick and Louise ordered their drinks, Barb began what she hoped sounded like a sincere apology.

"First, I would like to apologize for showing up like I did; it was both rude and wrong. My second apology is for last evening. Again, I was rude and overbearing. I hope that tonight we can start over."

No one said anything for several minutes. All of them, especially Louise tasted the lie. She realized that they were waiting for her to respond first.

"Ummm, it's okay." she said when she really wanted to call her on the lie but this wasn't the time nor the place for a confrontation.

"Thanks Lou, I appreciate it and Kevyn? I really am sorry."

Kevyn followed Louise's lead and accepted the insincere apology. Nathan and Ethan looked at each other and nodded letting the other know that they saw through the lie. The dinner was progressing fairly well until the women decided that they needed the rest room.

Kevyn was still in a stall when Louise and Barb were at the sink washing their hands. Barb looked behind her, turned the water on to cover her voice and asked Louise the question that had been nagging at her since she met Nathan.

"How did you do it?"

"How did I do what?" Louise asked confused.

"How did someone like you get someone like that?"

Kevyn heard the question and stayed in the stall, she wanted to hear Louise's response.

"I don't ...."

"Come on Lou." Barb said insistently, "seriously, until him no man other than Lombardi has looked at you twice, so what is it? What did you do?"

Louise started to retreat, remembered what Kevyn said about not letting people push her around and replied honestly.

"Maybe he knows that I'm not after his money."

Barb laughed, "Sure you are! You just hide it behind that sweet, shy personality of yours. He won't see it until its too late."

Louise was horrified that her sister would think that she was like that, like her.

"I'm not like you." she said softly, "I don't use people and lie to them like you lied to us tonight and I don't expect to be handed things just because I think that I'm entitled to them, but there's more to this than that." Louise said softly, "you don't like me. You love me because I'm your sister but you don't like me and I don't know what I did or didn't do to earn that dislike."

Barb couldn't say anything. While she had seen the changes in Louise, she thought them superficial and if she had seen through her lies, then so had the others. She also knew that the accusations that she leveled at Louise were false. Louise would never even think of doing something like being with a man for his money but what had surprised her was that Louise knew that she disliked her.

Deciding that the conversation had gone on long enough, Kevyn made a show of flushing the toilet and rearranging her clothes. She was proud of Louise and the way in which she had handled Barb and reminded herself to tell her later.

"Sweetheart?" she heard Patrick say telepathically, "is everything alright?"

"We're fine." Kevyn replied, "We'll be out soon." she replied as she washed her hands.

She pretended not to notice the odd look on Barbara's face and asked Louise if she was ready to go. She didn't say anything to Barb until she realized that she was still standing by the sink.

"Barb? You coming?"

"What? Yeah, I'm coming." she replied.

Both men stood up when they came out of the bathroom and held the chairs for Kevyn and Louise. Patrick held the chair out for Barb and sat only when she was sitting.

"Thanks." she said absently as she watched Louise. The conversation had done nothing to shake her but instead seemed to make her stronger. Her gaze went from Louise to Nathan taking in how he treated Louise like a queen seeing to her every comfort. It was then that she realized that Nathan Sinclaire was a lost cause but it didn't stop her from making one more try.

"So Nathan, has Louise told you about her boss Mr. Lombardi?"

"No she hasn't but I'm sure that she will." Nathan replied already seeing what she was doing.

"Well, apparently, they had a little thing at work..."

"Are you referring to the mutual care of an elderly woman?" Nathan asked as he put an arm around Louise. "I am very aware of it as well as the fact that he had ulterior motives for helping her. If I were in his place, I would have done the same thing."

"But did she tell you that he was married?" Barb pressed.

"What of it?" Nathan asked, "Your sister is a beautiful woman and married men are not immune to beautiful women. But I believe that you are trying to tell me something." he added.

"I.... nothing." Barb said and took a drink of water. It was clear to her that Nathan Sinclaire was in love with Louise and that she was falling in love with him too if she wasn't already in love with him. The thought that it wasn't fair crossed her mind but there was nothing that could be done about it.

Dinner finished quietly with no more attempts by Barb to displace Louise but Louise wasn't through yet. After the bill had been paid, and the men went to get the cars, Louise pulled Barb aside leaving Kevyn to watch for the cars.

"I want the three of us, you, Kevyn and me to talk."

"Why?" Barb snapped, "so you can gloat over the fact that both of you have rich men?"

Louise sighed, "No Barb, because you're our sister and we want to understand why you're so unhappy."

"An intervention?" Barb asked sharply, "Is Dr. Phil going to be there too?"

"It's not like that." Louise protested, "I want to know what the problem is between us."

"Goodnight Lou," Barb said, "have a nice life." she added as she walked away.

Louise watched Barb walk away trying to figure out what it was that she did that had Barb so angry. Nathan pulled up in the car, got out and walked over to her. He glared at the cab that was just pulling away with Barb in it; she had said or done something to upset Louise.

He didn't speak as he for the first time since they met hugged her tightly against him. When she tried to pull back, he wouldn't let her.

"Let me care for you." he whispered against the top of her head.

Louise slowly relaxed into his embrace and slowly wrapped her arms around his waist oblivious to the fact that they were in a public place and that people were giving them curious glances as they passed by. The only regret that he had was that he had to let her go because he had to take her home.

He kissed the top of her head and gently but reluctantly released her. Even though the night was warm, Louise shivered once she had been released.

"Let's get you home." Patrick said and led her to the car.

********

Hans watched Barb stomp by and knew that she had failed in her attempts to take her sister's mate. To say that she was angry was an understatement. He watched her stab the elevator button several times before the doors finally opened. As she turned to face forward, he saw a myriad of emotions on her face, anger, hatred, disappointment and sadness with the predominate emotion being anger. He cursed the fates again, sighed and went back to his paperwork; he would call and check on her later.

*******

Barb rushed into her room, slammed the door shut not caring whether she was disturbing anyone or not. She hadn't been this angry since the day she thought that she couldn't go to the prom. She threw her purse in a corner and stalked into the bathroom to look at her face in the mirror.

She just didn't understand what it was that Nathan saw in Louise.

********* On the drive home, Kevyn told Patrick about the conversation between Louise and Barb.

"You should have heard her!" Kevyn exclaimed. "She didn't lose her cool like she did last night and she handled Barb better than I ever could have."

"Nathan was shielding Barb." Patrick said after a moment. "He didn't want Louise to accidentally hurt her but that doesn't negate what Louise did. But I would like to make a suggestion."

"I'm listening." Kevyn said already having an idea of what he was going to say.

"The three of you need to talk. There's an issue or maybe more than one issue between you. That doesn't excuse her behavior but it might explain some things and maybe you might salvage your relationships."

"Since when are you pro Barb?" Kevyn asked.

"I'm not." Patrick replied. "But I know better than anyone that people can change and so do you. If you didn't you wouldn't be here. Talk to her, give her a shot and if she turns you away that's her choice but you can say that you tried.

Kevyn didn't reply, she was thinking about Patrick's suggestion and realized that he was right.

"So where do you propose we do this? If we do it at the house she'll thing that we're rubbing her face in the fact that we have what she thinks she wants and needs." Kevyn said.

"What about your apartment?" Patrick suggested. "The rent is paid up for a few months, we can stock it and if things take awhile, you can sleep there"

"Yeah right, like you're going to let me stay away for more than a day." Kevyn said half teasing him.

"I didn't say that I would like it but I would live... sweetheart you need to do this."

"I know...it's just that I'm so tired of dealing with my family," Kevyn replied, " Was it too much to ask for just a few weeks of peace? I'll talk to Lou about it later but right now all I want is to go home and crawl into bed..."

"Not to sleep I hope." Patrick interrupted.

*******

Louise didn't say much during the drive back to Patrick's house, what was there to say? Her sister loved but hated her. Soon after they left the restaurant, she realized that what Barb felt for her was more than dislike, it was hate and she had hated her for years. The only explanation that she could come up with for not realizing it earlier was that she had been so wrapped up in caring for their mother and trying to stay emotionally afloat herself that she didn't notice and now that the dust had settled she was seeing what had always been there.

Nathan reached over and took her hand in his but didn't speak leaving her to her thoughts. He wondered what was said in the bathroom although he could guess. What he was relieved to sense was that whatever Barb said to her, it hadn't made her doubt herself or him.

Another thing was clear; they had to start spending more time alone together. The twins wedding was less than three weeks away and he hadn't even begun to tell her all that she needed to know but Barb was now in the way and had to be dealt with first.

He also came to another decision; he wasn't leaving her again. Each time he was with her, it was more difficult to leave. He would stay in one of the spare bedrooms if he had to but he wasn't leaving. How Louise would feel about it, he didn't know but he was about to find out.

Nathan pulled in front of the house, got out and went to the passenger side of the car to help Louise out. By the time he got there, Louise was in tears. Anger at Barb resurfaced and was pushed away; she wasn't worth thinking about.

"Come on sweetheart." Nathan said gently as he held out his hand to her.

"My sister hates me." she said softly as if she were talking to herself.

Nathan didn't reply but led her into the house, up to her room and laid her on the bed. He took of her shoes and began to rub her feet, a few minutes later; Louise was asleep. Nathan covered her with a light blanket and lay on the bed next to her; they really needed to talk.

Louise mumbled in her sleep, turned on her side facing him, in her sleep reached for his hand and said one word.

"Nathan."