Louise Ch. 03

Nathan marveled at how she found something that he had grown up seeing so beautiful. In that moment when her eyes were wide with wonder at the ocean and she was holding onto his hand Nathan fell completely in love with Louise Yancy. What she was feeling was hard to say and he was not going to cheat by looking into her mind.

"You are mine." he thought when she was absorbed in watching the ocean.

He realized his error when she turned to look up at him with a question in her dark eyes.

"Would you like to go put your feet in?" he asked distracting her.

He smiled at the excitement in her eyes, frowned when it dimmed.

"What's the matter?"

"Your car... I don't want to get sand in it."

"I don't care about that." Nathan assured her as he gently pulled on her hand, "let's go get our feet wet."

"Are you sure?" Louise asked looking longingly at the water.

"I'm sure but let's take our shoes off here and walk down. The sand should be cool enough by now."

Several minutes later, with pant legs rolled up and barefooted, they walked hand in hand, to where the water met the shore.

"This is even more beautiful than I thought it would be." she whispered as her eyes misted over. She felt a sense of peace that she had never felt before and attributed it to the water instead of where the credit really belonged. Part of it was the ocean but the majority of the feeling of peace was Nathan.

Nathan threw caution to the wind, put an arm around her and pulled her tight against him as he had at Bradford's house. He reluctantly let her go when he felt her tense but took her hand back in his and waited for her to be ready to go.

"I'm ready she said after another fifteen minutes of letting the tide wash over her feet.

"Are you sure? I have nothing that I have to do." Nathan said.

"I'm sure." Louise replied. "Thank you for this." she added.

"It was my pleasure, if you like we can go to another spot even beautiful than this one."

Louise thought about it before agreeing. Coffee and cell phone forgotten, they spent the evening going from spot to spot. The last spot that Nathan took her to was a private beach that he owned but had never done anything with. He knew that people used it in spite of the 'no trespassing' and until now, he hadn't cared. He now knew what he was going to do with it. It would be a wedding gift for Louise. In his mind, he was already sketching the design of the house with her in mind. It would have a state of the art kitchen and every herb and spice known to man. Their bedroom would face the ocean and would have a balcony where they could sit in the evenings to talk or even make love.

"Nathan? Who owns this? There's a sign over there saying that this is a private beach." Louise asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, I own it." Nathan said.

"You own this?" Louise asked flabbergasted although she couldn't have said why.

"I sure do... hey are you hungry?"

"A little I guess." Louise replied.

An hour later, they were sitting at one of Nathan's favorite seafood places. He was such a frequent flyer that he was greeted by name.

"Nathan!" the hostess on duty greeted with a hug and a kiss not seeming to notice Louise.

"Hello Monica." Nathan replied returning the hug. "Allow me to introduce my... Louise Yancy, she just moved to California almost a week ago from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Louise this is one of my good friends Monica, she's the assistant manager and sometimes hostess."

"Hello." Monica said rather coolly and then dismissed Louise before she had a chance to return the greeting.

Nathan bristled and pulled Louise closer to him as he looked at Monica who then blushed.

"Welcome to California." she said with fake sincerity.

"Thank you." Louise replied shyly.

After they were seated, Louise looked around and saw Monica looking at her.

"She's beautiful." Louise said.

"Yes she is but so are you." Nathan replied.

Louise felt her face go hot, she hadn't been fishing for a compliment, and she really thought that Monica was beautiful in a Barbie kind of way.

"I ... I wasn't..." she stammered.

"Louise relax." Nathan said smiling at her. "I know that you weren't looking for a compliment but what I said is true, you are beautiful. Haven't you ever been told that?"

"Ummm no." she replied reaching for her glass of water and almost knocking it over.

It would have spilled if Nathan hadn't caught it. His hand covered hers as he steadied the glass. He ran a thumb across her shaking hand and then gave her hand a slight squeeze before releasing it.

Louise swallowed hard grateful that she hadn't drawn attention to herself by spilling the water. She could feel Monica's stare on her back and the animosity behind it. Suddenly, Nathan excused himself and walked over to where Monica was standing.

"Come with me." Nathan said to Monica when he reached her.

"I can't...."

"Take a break." he said quietly.

When they were alone, Nathan looked down at her and spoke.

"We talked about this did we not?" he asked. "I thought that I made myself clear that we were and could be anything more than friends."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Monica replied, her arms across her chest.

"I see the way that you stare at her and I can only imagine what you're thinking." Nathan said. "I made no promises to you. When we stopped seeing each other I made the reasons clear to you and we agreed that we would remain friends."

"No, you agreed that we would be friends." Monica snapped, "If you will recall, I didn't say anything. You assumed I agreed with you."

Nathan's eyes narrowed.

"So this is how it is." he mused. "Alright then let me clarify my position. I am not interested in a romantic relationship with you. I am willing to maintain a friendship with you but you must understand that it will never be more than that. You will tell me now if you accept those terms. If the answer is no, then I'm afraid that our relationship is over."

"You're serious?" Monica asked.

"Your reply please, I've left Louise alone for too long."

"My answer is no." Monica said softly.

"As you wish." Nathan said with a shrug of his broad shoulders and began to walk away.

Monica stared at him not believing that Nathan was choosing a woman that she didn't even consider remotely pretty. She and Nathan had complimented each other perfectly. They were both tall, blond haired and blue-eyed; their children would have been gorgeous.

She watched as Nathan went back to the table, whispered something to Louise and then offered her his hand. Resignation set in as she watched them leave; there would be no beautiful children at least not with Nathan Sinclaire. The last thought that she had before pushing Nathan out of her mind was about Louise and what it was that made him choose her.

"Why did we leave?" Louise asked when they were outside.

Nathan didn't know how to answer her but gave her a vague response. In retrospect, he realized that they should have stayed and then not gone back again. He had overreacted he realized but also knew that his responses would level out as he adjusted to the role of mate.

"There was a disagreement with the management." he replied. "I know of another place that's even better." he added as he led her to the car.

A few minutes later, they were parked in front of Caesar's restaurant.

"It's closed." Louise said looking around.

"Not to us it isn't." Nathan replied as he got out of the car.

"Nathan maybe we should go somewhere else..."

"Lou, it's alright." Nathan assured her, "I know the owner, he works for my Uncle Ethan and he won't mind as long as we clean up after ourselves."

"This is his place?" Louise asked looking around.

"Yes but he only opens for special occasions and reservations have to be made at least two weeks in advance. There is no set menu; it's made when the reservations are called in." Nathan said as he unlocked the door and led her inside.

The lights came on as they passed by on their way to the kitchen. When they got there and the lights came on, Louise gasped. She was standing in the kitchen of her dreams. She could see herself cooking, creating and serving the dishes in her notebook.

Nathan watched her and saw that for the first time all night, she was very relaxed and got an idea. He had planned to cook for her but decided that they would cook together.

"I'm still hungry, why don't we make something to eat?" he asked.

"We can cook here?" she asked excitedly.

"Sure as long as we clean up, Caesar is a stickler about that."

So was she. Her siblings always teased her about how spotless she kept not just the kitchen but also the house as a whole. She took the ribbing in silence and didn't change. She recognized it for what it was; it was the only thing that she any real control over.

'Let's see what he has here." Nathan said. "Usually it isn't much but he does keep cheese and bread here. Someone comes once a week to clean and to restock. How do you feel about grilled cheese sandwiches?"

"Is there ketchup?" Louise asked.

"I'm sure that we can find some." Nathan replied. "Tell you what, why don't you get the pan and stove ready and I'll get the things for the sandwiches. I'll also look for ketchup."

While Nathan was gone, Louise walked around the massive kitchen lovingly touching the counters. By the time he got back with the cheese, bread, butter and ketchup she had the pan ready to go and the stove warming. Nathan really wanted to tell her again how beautiful she was but refrained. He didn't want her to become nervous again and withdraw from him.

"I even found the ketchup!" he said as he set the items on the counter and began opening the cheese and bread. "I believe the knife drawer is over there somewhere." he said indicating the wall at the far side of the kitchen. He waited until she came back and together they put the sandwiches together. He looked over at her and saw that she was thinking.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"I was just wondering... I'll be right back."

A few minutes later, she came back with creamed garlic and creamed horseradish that she found in the fridge.

"How do you feel about experimenting?" she asked as she sat the jars on the counter.

"I'm game." Nathan said liking this very relaxed Louise.

They made the sandwiches, tasted them and compared notes.

"I don't know about you, "Nathan said, "but I'm partial to the horseradish one although the garlic one was good too."

"I think that I agree with you," Louise said, "but I think that the garlic one would be better with a different kind of cheese, what do you think?"

By the time they finished cleaning up the kitchen; Louise was talking freely to the point where she was answering questions about her job.

"So this Miss Gina, who is helping her now that you're here?" Nathan asked.

"My ex boss is. I told him to use my last check which should last a while to pay for the food."

As he listened to her talk, Nathan realized that Louise had always been an empath and wondered how she had managed to stay sane.

By four am, he had her back at Patrick and Kevyn's house and hated to leave her. He resisted the temptation to speed things up. The evening had been a little like Christmas as he unwrapped his present named Louise Yancy. Instead of kissing her on her lips as he wanted, he kissed her on the cheek.

"Sleep well and I will talk to you soon." Nathan said as he left her just inside of the door.

***********

Barb checked and then double-checked to make sure that she had her identification. She had told no one, not even her best friend Felicia that she was going to California. She didn't tell her family because Juliet would have wanted to come with her even though she couldn't afford it and she didn't tell Felicia because she was as money hungry as she was and she wanted no additional competition, which was another reason, why she didn't want Juliette along. Gene would do nothing but cause trouble and Leon... he wouldn't go anyway. He was genuinely happy for Kevyn and liked Patrick. He was also happy for Louise and had been verbal about it when Barb complained about Kevyn not taking her back with them.

"Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed in a rare show of anger, "It's about damned time something good happened to the both of them! And why should Kevyn have taken you with her? All you want is to see how much money her man has really got."

"That isn't true." Barb protested.

"Whatever." Leon said and walked away disgusted.

Barb looked at the calendar and wished that she was going earlier than Saturday, which was two days away, and that she hadn't called in advance. It was too late now and besides, she still had another two days of work. On a whim, she logged into her email and wrote a letter of resignation.

"Dear Maggie,

This is to inform you that I am resigning effective immediately. An opportunity has come up in California and I will be moving there in the next day or so. I will be in tomorrow to gather my personal belongings. I will email you when I have a permanent address and you can send any forms that need to be signed there. I know that this is short notice but it is an opportunity that I cannot afford to pass up.

Thank you,

Barbara Yancy Simpson "

Her finger hovered over the send icon for a brief second before sending the email. After she did it, she wondered about the wisdom of her decision but then decided that it was an act of faith on her part. Because she no longer had a job, Barb settled down in bed with a container of 'bon bons' and a glass of fake Champaign like she did when she wanted to pretend that she was rich. Her hope was that it would happen and hopefully with one of the single Sinclaire men. Which one didn't matter.

*******************

Kevyn was at a loss as to what to do. She took a moment to think about Louise and then went back to the problem at hand. Barb. She was so absorbed in thought that she didn't realize that Patrick was in the room until she felt a kiss on her neck. She yelped and then jumped clutching her chest.

"Whoa it's just me!" Patrick said chuckling, "Didn't you hear me call your name?"

"Umm no, I was thinking.... Patrick, Barb wants to come. As a matter of fact, she's already bought her ticket."

"Don't tell me." Patrick said, "It's a one way ticket and what do you want to bet that she quit her job?"

"I hadn't thought about that." Kevyn said.

"The question is what do you want to do?" Patrick asked.

"What can I do?" Kevyn asked. "I can't leave her at the airport can I?"

"Why not?" Patrick teased.

"I'm serious!" Kevyn replied trying not to smile at the image of Barb spending her vacation at the airport.

"Alright, here are the options as I see them." Patrick said putting his arms around her, "she stays here, we put her up at a hotel, leave her at the airport or she stays at your apartment."

"Well... I guess the airport is out." Kevyn said wistfully and if we bring her here, she'll never leave and it will be the same with the hotel. If I put her in my apartment, she'll never give us any peace and I won't be able to keep an eye on her. Here we can put her in the other suite and hope that she doesn't come out but here's another problem, she's a day person. She'll have every drape in the house open... she can't stay here."

"Here's my vote," Patrick said, "we put her up at a nice hotel and tell her that we'll see her in the evenings. I'm not going to lie to you, I don't like her nor do I trust her."

"The hotel it is." Kevyn said relieved that Barb wasn't going to be staying with them. They would still have to spend time with her but they could take her back to the hotel. The one-way ticket issue could be resolved later even if it meant that they would buy her a return ticket.

"Louise is home." Patrick said looking toward the front of the house. "I know that you want to talk so I'll go do some work in the office."

"Thanks and Patrick? I love you."

"I love you too and be prepared to be shown how much." He said kissing her.

"Hi Louise." Patrick greeted when she came into the kitchen.

"Hi... am I interrupting?" she asked shyly.

"Not at all, I was on my way to my office to do some work on my online course. Did you have a good time?"

"I... yes." she replied reverting back to her shy self.

"Good... Sweetheart, I'll see you later." Patrick said with a wink and a smile as he left.

Louise blushed; she was quickly learning what certain looks and touches meant.

"Kev if you have to go..."

"Don't be silly, sit down here and tell me about your first date."

"It wasn't a date." Louise protested.

"Ok... tell me about whatever it was." Kevyn amended trying hard not to laugh.

By the time Louise was finished, Kevyn couldn't help herself.

"Lou honey, what you just described to me was a date and it sounds like the first of many."

"No...."

"Is he going to call you again?"

"Yes..."

"Did he kiss you?" Kevyn asked.

"On my cheek is all." Louise replied.

"Alright, I'm going to ask you a question that's going to make you blush... but do you feel tingly when he touches you?"

"I... I..."

"Lou, it's alright, it just means that you're attracted to him." Kevyn said taking her hands in hers. "I know that this is all new to you but try to relax and enjoy it and Lou? Trust him."

Louise looked at Kevyn and knew that she was keeping something from her. Kevyn realizing that she might have said too much changed the subject.

"I talked to Barb."

"And?"

"You were right; she was coming even though we both told her not to. She bought a one-way ticket and will be here sometime on Saturday. Patrick thinks that she probably quit her job as well."

Louise's shoulders slumped. , the idea of having to put up with Barb for three weeks depressed her, especially if she stayed in the house. She knew without a doubt that the house would be unsettled again after just getting settled and then there was Nathan. Barb would set her sights on him. Louise felt a flash of anger at the thought and blushed. Nathan wasn't her boyfriend or anything. He could see whomever he wanted, Barb included.

"She won't be staying here." Kevyn said. "We're putting her up at a nice hotel so that we don't have to deal with her 24/7."

Louise breathed easier at the revelation. She wasn't ready to deal with Barb and wished that she wasn't coming. She had too much to think about including what she and Kevyn had talked about regarding Nathan and Barb would distract her..

"What are we going to do with her?" Louise asked.

"Show her around and put her ass back on a plane back to Pittsburgh as soon as we can." Kevyn replied.

"What if she says that she doesn't have a job?" Louise asked, "We can't just send her back can we?"

"Sure we can." Kevyn replied, "Gene has a nice big house that he can share with her. So when are you and Nathan going out again?"

"Tonight." Louise replied almost shyly.

"That's great!" Kevyn said happy for Louise. "It's about time someone noticed how great you are...hey maybe the four of us could do something together!"

Once again, Louise had the distinct feeling that Kevyn knew something.

"I don't know." Louise replied, "I mean maybe there won't be anymore dates after tonight."

"You don't really believe that do you?" Kevyn asked.

She didn't but she didn't want to say it.

"I'd better let you go." she said not answering the question, "Patrick is waiting for you."

"And Nathan is probably calling you as we speak." Kevyn replied. "Alright but you know that if you have any questions or just want to talk I'm here."

Louise hesitated before she spoke.

"Thanks but Kev but what aren't you telling me?"

Kevyn didn't know what to say, but was saved by Patrick coming back into the kitchen.

"Lou I think I heard your phone ringing."