Louise wiggled in her seat. She wasn't used to wearing a dress, hose and heels. Her legs itched and her feet felt as though they were on fire even though she had only walked as far as the car to the back yard where the wedding was being held. However, even more uncomfortable than the shoes and hose was the way Barb was staring at them. It was a stare filled with ... hatred. She hated them. Louise let out a sad sigh as the feeling that something horrible was going to happen grew.
"Sweetheart?" Nathan whispered in her ear, "Are you alright?"
He had felt the stare too but was ignoring it until it disturbed Louise. He raised his shields protecting her from the emotions that Barb was emanating across the yard. He turned toward Barb and gave her a warning look keeping his eyes on her until she turned away.
Louise knew when Nathan raised his shields but said nothing for several minutes.
"I'm ok." she whispered.
"Are you sure?" Nathan asked.
"I'm sure... who invented pantyhose anyway?" she asked as she scratched her knee.
Nathan laughed as with a touch he took away the itch.
"Will I be able to do things like that?" she asked.
"Yes." Nathan replied patiently. "As soon as everything is settled, we'll start your lessons."
Louise was going to reply but the anger belonging to someone else distracted her. She looked behind her and saw Joseph, Nathan's younger brother looking off to the side. The anger that came from him was every bit as dark as Barb's but the reason for it was different. As soon as he realized that she was looking at him, his shields went up.
"Sweetheart?"
Before Nathan could say anything more, the processional started and Louise pushed Joseph and Barb out of her mind. She found the wedding beautiful but still didn't want one of her own. The idea of a private ceremony and then a reception was more to her liking. She stole a peek at Kevyn who nodded in agreement.
An hour later, the ceremony was over and the two couples were greeting their guests. Barb hid in the back and caught sight of Joseph sitting alone. She waited for several moments to see if anyone joined him. When she decided that he was single, she walked up to him and sat down.
"Hi, I'm Barb Yancy Simpson. Kevyn and Louise are my sisters."
"I'm Joseph Richardson, Nathan is my brother."
"It's Nice to meet you." Barb said trying to be casual. "It was a beautiful wedding wasn't it?"
Joseph looked at her and decided to lay his cards on the table. He wasn't in the mood to play games.
"Look, I know who you are and I'm not interested in you or any other woman for that matter. If you just want to share a table that's fine but there won't be any dinner dates."
Barb's face burned with embarrassment that she was that transparent. The ball was in her court. If she left, she would confirm what he was thinking. If she stayed, she still had a chance at changing his mind.
"Thanks, it would be nice not to eat alone."
Joseph nodded at her and began watching everyone as the reception began.
"How about a dance?" Barb asked after they had eaten.
Joseph hesitated and then shrugged. He held his hand out to Barb and led her to the dance floor. His touch was firm but impersonal. Barb could have been a mannequin from a department store as far as he was concerned. He would have been just as content sitting at the table.
Nathan watched Barb and Joseph dance but wasn't concerned. Joseph could take care of himself as far as Barb was concerned, but it was the anger that concerned him. He wasn't worried that Joseph would rape. He was as considerate to his few dates as he had been to the women that he himself had dated. Nathan watched them for a few more seconds before turning his attention back to Louise. He had to make a point of talking to Joseph and sooner rather than later.
Nathan spent twenty minutes trying to convince Louise to dance with him.
"I'm not going out there!"
"Come on, you won't have to do anything but hold on to me." he replied. "One dance." he urged as he wrapped his arms around her and began to sway to the music. "Please?" He begged as he kissed her cheek.
Finally, Louise gave in.
"One dance and don't complain when I step on your toes."
One dance turned into three. They left the dance floor when the music went from slow dance songs to fast ones.
"Thank you." Nathan said.
"How many times did I step on your toes?" Louise asked.
"None and Louise, you dance well." Nathan replied.
By this time, Joseph had excused himself telling Barb that he had several legal briefs to write. Barb watched Joseph walked away, stopped to talk to a tall, handsome dark skinned man and left. She was thinking about introducing herself to the man and was in the process of standing when a woman approached the man. Remembering what happened with Veronica, she sat back down.
She looked around hoping to see another male sitting alone. At this point, she didn't care whether he was rich or not, she just wanted someone to pass the time with. She jumped when she heard Kevyn's voice behind her.
"Nice wedding wasn't it?"
"What do you want Kevyn?" Barb asked ignoring the question.
"Nothing," Kevyn replied, "I saw that you were sitting alone and thought that you would like some company."
"I'm fine... I suppose you and the mouse are planning a wedding?" she asked dryly.
"No Louise and I aren't planning a wedding." Kevyn replied putting the emphasis on Louise's name. "We're going to have a private ceremony and a reception afterwards. I would ask you to help but I already know what you'll say."
"What about the others? Are you inviting them?" Barb asked not sure of why she cared.
"We're planning on it." Kevyn replied. "We haven't called them yet."
"Congratulations." Barb said her voice tinged with bitterness. "I have a question though, how did you do it? I mean how is it that the two of you ended up in one of the wealthiest families in the world?"
"I can't answer that." Kevyn replied.
"Can't or won't?" Barb shot back.
"Can't." Kevyn replied. "Have you ever stopped to think that if you stopped looking so hard that it might just happen?"
"Easy for you to say...."
Kevyn threw up her hands and walked away. Even as Kevyn walked away, Barb wanted to call her back. A small part of her wanted to be happy for her but she held back. To acknowledge that one small fact would mean that she was thinking that maybe Louise was right. She stood up to leave and ran into Louise,
"Where's Nathan?" Barb asked.
"He's talking to Patrick." Louise replied. "Barb...."
"I have to go, I'll see you later." Barb said interrupting her. "Call me about the reception."
She walked off before Louise could say anything and wondered why she wanted to go to the reception. It would be nothing more than another reminder of what she didn't have. If she didn't go, she would have to explain why and it was much easier to go and to feign happiness than to go through Juliette and Leon's interrogation and lectures.
She was escorted to her car, helped in and she drove off without looking back.
*******
Louise watched Barb leave with a sense of disquiet but came to a decision. Nothing more could be done for Barb. It was time for her to move forward in her new life with Nathan and for Kevyn to move on in her life with Patrick. She looked around to see Nathan looking at her and blushed. She knew what the look meant. She stood rooted in place as Nathan moved toward her with smooth, graceful movements. Her nipples tightened as he closed the space between them. She didn't think that she would ever get used to the way that he looked at her or to the way that she responded.
A ball of warmth started in the pit of her belly and began to spread to the rest of her. By the time Nathan reached her, her entire body was hot. Suddenly, his arms were around her and he was holding her tight against him taking some of the heat away.
"It's the remnant effects of the turning combined with being newly mated." he assured her as he cooled her body with his.
"How long will this last?" Louise asked thinking about her mother and her complaints about "hot flashes".
"A few more days and things will start to level out." he replied as he stepped back and led her to their table where a pitcher of ice water waited for them. Nathan poured her a large glass of it, refilling the glass as soon as it was empty.
"Better?" he asked.
"Better." Louise replied as she looked around.
Her eyes landed on Joseph who was talking to Winston and seemed to be genuinely happy.
"Winston has agreed to work at his firm." Nathan said when he saw whom she was watching. "He passed his 'Bar' which doesn't surprise me."
"What kind of law does Joseph practice?" Louise asked realizing that she did not know much about Nathan's family.
"Mostly corporate law but he also has a small firm that practices criminal law as well as pro bono work. Uncle Patrick as you know is a professor at the community college where Kevyn attended. I'm an architect but I also teach from time to time, Uncle Ethan owns a conglomerate of companies that deals with anything from computer software to you name it as well as several research companies, Katrina his mate is a social worker and as I said, very instrumental in the changes that have occurred in our world . My father is an architect, my mother a private teacher and the twins and their mates are all physicians."
"Wow, smart people." Louise mused.
"Which reminds me." Nathan said. "You wanted to go to cooking school, is that still a dream?"
"Yes. I have a stack of brochures that I haven't looked at yet." Louise replied.
"Are any of them in Europe?" Nathan asked
"No, they're all here. I was thinking about the community college one. Why?"
"I'm sure that it's a good program but why don't we go to France? After that we can go to Italy, England or anywhere else that we want to go to." Nathan said.
"France?" Louise asked.
"There's a cooking school there that's reputed to be one of the best and they have room for two." Nathan said. "Think about it. I reserved the spots just in case you said yes."
"Nathan!" Ethan said from behind them. "Mind if we join you for a moment?"
"Of course not, please have a seat." Nathan replied standing up to greet his uncle and aunt.
Louise and Katrina looked at each other and smiled shyly at each other.
"We never got the chance to thank you for helping us." Ethan said speaking for both him and Katrina.
