Plus, it allowed everyone a few minutes to enjoy a little family time.
Lance had grilled out back and Patricia had made the side dishes, vegetables, and lots of them. Lance cut into his steak while Bethany Anne used her fork to point to the salad. “Patricia that salad is pretty good but why would you eat so much of it when we have key lime pie coming for desert?”
Patricia looked down at her salad with only lemon juice on it to bring out any flavors and her eyes quickly glanced to Lance then back. “It helps when keeping a lure in the water.”
Bethany Anne parsed her comment, “You mean when you were keeping yourself fit to catch my dad’s eye?” Bethany Anne noticed her dad flush and smile while he pretended his focus was on his steak. Wasn’t that the cutest little reaction?
“Well if you have to be so crass about it, then yes!” Patricia smiled and Bethany Anne noticed she had a nervous tick where she would start playing with her engagement ring if a sensitive question came up about how she’d felt about her dad for a long time.
Bethany Anne smiled, “Then you need to push that salad aside because I’m going to tell you a secret that will not only make you happy but you will love me forever.”
Patricia looked over at her future daughter-in-law, “Ummm, yes?” Patricia knew to be careful with Bethany Anne as she was just as capable of setting her up for something good as for something…less good.
“You don’t have to worry about calories, ever!” Bethany Anne punctuated her comment by reaching over and grabbing another roll and biting into it. “Mmmmm yummy carbs!”
Patricia looked at her salad, “Are you pulling my leg?”
Bethany Anne swallowed her mouthful, “Patricia, while I might joke about aliens attacking the earth, in fact I’ll probably do that once or twice just to lighten the mood, I would never joke about calories with another woman.”
Patricia very daintily folded her napkin up and set it to the side and excused herself. Bethany Anne leaned back in her chair eating another roll. Her father looked at Bethany Anne and raised one eyebrow and she answered his unasked question, “Delayed gratification.”
The sliding glass door opened and shut again behind Patricia who sat down and placed a large Buttermilk Ranch salad dressing bottle on the table along with the key lime pie. She placed her napkin back on her lap and opened the bottle and started pouring it liberally all over her salad. “I like salad but for me not having a good salad dressing is like eating a cake without icing.” She took her first bite of freshly drowned salad, “Mmm…God that is so good!” She smiled over at Lance and winked at him, “Mister, you better be ready to take care of your responsibilities tonight.” Lance laughed while Patricia kept eating.
Bethany Anne took it as a good sign that she wasn’t immediately getting embarrassed at the thought of her dad having sex. Letting Patricia eat, Bethany Anne decided to see if she could get a rise from her father. “Dad, who’s going to be best man for your wedding?”
Unfortunately for her Lance had no problem answering. “Kevin, I asked him and he said he’d be happy to oblige.”
Patricia wielded her fork like a nun with a pointer in Catholic School, “You better tell that man no tittie bars! I’m not having my man ruined right before my special day.” She turned her fork back around and stabbed a tomato on her plate.
Bethany Anne decided to turn the tables on Patricia since her dad hadn’t given her the response she wanted. “How about you Patricia? Who is going to be your maid of honor?”
Patricia smiled and looked over at Bethany Anne, “Well… actually I was kinda looking for a good time to ask if you would be my maid of honor.”
Lance Reynolds had seen a lot of things in his life but rarely, oh so rarely, had he ever witnessed his daughter rendered speechless. Even his bark of laughter at her plight didn’t change the ‘deer in the headlights’ look she had on her face. Her expression was… Priceless!
The Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus
“Are you fucking KIDDING me?” Bethany Anne was laid out on her bed, Gabrielle and Ecaterina had joined her for a special ‘ladies only’ planning session.
Gabrielle shrugged, “What is so difficult aren’t you honored to be asked?”
Bethany Anne pulled a hand up off her left eye to peer at Gabrielle, “Of course I’m honored. It’s just I’ve never done anything like this before! For fuck’s sake it’s for my soon-to-be step-mother. What do I do if she chooses a hideous dress?” Bethany Anne hid her eyes again and mumbled in prayer, “God please don’t let it be taffeta, yours truly Bethany Anne.”
Ecaterina was amused. “Who is going to be the other two with you? Maybe they might have some way to help her choose something not too hideous?”
Bethany Anne sat up and rubbed her eyes. “That is actually a different issue. The changes to Patricia’s body are already pretty dramatic so she doesn’t feel like she can invite anyone she knew B-C, Before-Change. So… she’s asked me to invite two ladies she admires greatly.”
Gabrielle clapped her hands, “Really? Oh, this is just delicious! Can I be there when you ask them?”
Bethany Anne cocked an eye at Gabrielle, “A little blood-thirsty aren’t we?”
Gabrielle smiled, “No pun intended?”
Bethany Anne rolled her eyes.
Gabrielle continued, “I’ve lived a long time and I’ve been to many weddings, well if they were held at night.” She paused and looked up, thinking. “Damn, this is going to be my first daytime wedding in five hundred and thirty-four years…” She looked at Bethany Anne who had such an astonished expression it was surprising. Gabrielle thought back over what she had just said to figure out why… The blood drained from her face, “Oh. My. God.” She covered her face with her hands so her voice was muffled, “I think I want to die now.”
Meanwhile Ecaterina had thrown herself on Bethany Anne’s bed and was laughing so hard Bethany Anne was sure they could hear her over on the Ad Aeternitatem. Even with Ecaterina laughing directly into her duvet.
Bethany Anne pushed her and then slapped her hard on the ass. “Damn Ecaterina, stop laughing your Were-cooties into my sheets!” She turned back to Gabrielle who had walked over to lay down on the couch.
Gabrielle moaned, “You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?” She looked over to regard her queen.
Bethany Anne tapped her finger against her lip in mock concentration, then shook her head. “Nope, probably not, but I’m going to have to put it aside and unwrap that juicy nugget another time. If you can help me get the laughing hyena over here to clam up for a second, I have an important request.”
Gabrielle stood up and walked towards Ecaterina who had rolled over to see the two women staring at her. The laughter dying on her lips, “No! I’ll be good, I promise! You two find someone else to be evil towards.” Ecaterina glanced between the two vampires.
Bethany Anne grumped, “I can’t!”
Ecaterina and Gabrielle looked at each other than at her. Ecaterina was the first to respond, “Why not?”
This time, it was Bethany Anne’s turn to smile maliciously, “Because the two ladies who are going to have so much fun with me during the wedding are tweedle-dee” she pointed to Gabrielle “and tweedle-dum” now pointing at Ecaterina.
Gabrielle looked shocked, “Us?” Was that a hint of trepidation Bethany Anne noticed around Gabrielle’s eyes?
Ecaterina’s Romanian accent was significantly more noticeable than it had been, “Patricia is wanting Gabrielle and myself to be the maids who honor with you?” Bethany Anne just nodded. “This is ok. I’m happy to do it, I just have one request.”
Bethany Anne was surprised that getting Ecaterina to be a bridesmaid was going to be so easy, “Sure, what is it?”
Ecaterina pointed to Gabrielle, “She is tweedle-dum, I’ll take tweedle-dee!”
Gabrielle turned to grab a pillow from the couch and sent it rocketing towards Ecaterina who barely closed her eyes before she was hit squarely in the face.
Round one of the pillow fight, was on!
TQB Base - Co – USA
William was walking around the new Black Hawk helicopter admiring the robust look of the ‘bird’. “Bethany Anne knows how to do things right, doesn’t she?”
Bobcat was following William, “I knew there was at least one thing I loved about that woman.” William looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow to Bobcat who shrugged and smiled, “Just one or two, well maybe three.” Both men smiled and continued examining the helicopter.
Bobcat asked William, “How long will it take you to get the extra armament and Pods ready to go?”
“Why, are you expecting to need them here in the middle of the United States soon?”
“Of course not, however always be prepared is my motto.”
William snorted, “That’s the motto for the Boy Scouts, you dick.”
Bobcat grinned, “Consider me the last Boy Scout!
“That’s the name of a movie, moron.”
“Geez … what’s caused you to be Mister Fat And Unhappy this morning?”
William walked towards his new manufacturing machines that had been set out on the floor of the workshop in a very particular order. It had taken him two days to move the heavy sons of bitches. “Have you looked at the instruction manuals for some of these things? You damn near need a PhD to understand them!”
Marcus stuck his head out of his little work area, “I have a PhD!” William turned around and shot him the finger.
Bobcat finally caught up to William, “What the hell do all of these things do and why did you want them so badly?”
William’s face turned blissful, “My man with these I can do anything! If I have a 3-D drawing to work from I can have the part in hours. I don’t need to wait on an outside shop and I don’t have to wait on other people. It’s just me and my little manufacturing babies.”
“I thought all of this 3-D printing stuff was for plastics?”
William’s face was showing his surprise as he turned to look at Bobcat. “Plastics? Not only can we print plastic but we can also do elastomer, metal, and biocompatible materials.”
“What the hell do we need to print biocompatible materials for?”
Marcus’s voice came from his little cave again, “Replace bones and other items in a person’s body that have been blown to bits. It’s a dangerous world out there and Bethany Anne is going to make it even more so!”
William stared over at Marcus’s empty office door, “I hadn’t considered printing bones.”
Bobcat asked, “What have you considered?”
William shrugged, “We would use biocompatible material for anything that needed to interact inside the body. For instance, certain surgical tools could be printed up easily. If you had a weird situation with just one person you could print a tool that would only work for that person’s body. I had considered something like hip replacement so never mind.”
“What about a metal that could be put inside a person’s body?”
William turned to look at Bobcat, “Like changing out a bone or creating a skull plate?”
Bobcat just stared at his friend, “Don’t be so blasé, I’m talking about Wolverine’s claws!”
William barked out a laugh, “Adamantium? I don’t even believe that shit is real. However, there is a company called Liquid Metal which produces an amorphous alloy of a few metals. I think it’s something like Beryllium, Zirconium, Titanium, Copper, and Aluminum… Wait, that’s not right. there are only three at one time. It’s supposedly two times stronger than Titanium.”
“Do you have some around here?”
William said, “Hell no, do you know how expensive that stuff is? What in the world would I use it for in the first place? I have all of the different metals I could possibly use. I could practically build my own Shelly for fuck’s sake.” William grinned, “But I would absolutely love to have some to play with!”
“So, why don’t you get some?”
“Do you have any idea how big a hole buying some of that would blow in our budget?
Bobcat looked at his friend, then dramatically pointed to all of the new machines and then pointed a thumb back at his new helicopter. “What budget?”
Both men fist bumped, their faces alight in glee.
Key Biscayne, Fl - USA
Bethany Anne, Ecaterina, Gabrielle and Asher arrived in Bethany Anne’s closet. They had finally cleaned up her bedroom after the massive pillow fight. The three ladies walked down the stairs to find Patricia and Lance, while Asher made a beeline for the backyard.
Bethany Anne stuck her head into Patricia’s office, where she found both of them working. Lance looked at her with a smile on his face, “You ladies are not very quiet, I could hear you laughing when you arrived upstairs.”
Smiling, Bethany Anne said “You can blame Gabrielle for that, she’s the one who threw the first pillow!”
From outside of the doorway Lance could hear Ecaterina’s voice, “Dammed accurately too!”
A snort came from the same direction, “You are the one who called me Tweedle-Dum!” The two women behind Bethany Anne started cracking up again.
Patricia, with a pensive expression on her face, looked at Bethany Anne. “I take it the request came back okay?”
“You can’t tell? Come on into the living room and we can work on some of the particulars.” Bethany Anne smiled to help calm Patricia’s nerves, “Come on, come on!” Lance stood up and reached over to help Patricia out of her chair and then pushed her to the living room.
Once the five of them were ensconced in the living room, Patricia hugged each of the three ladies letting them know her deep appreciation for accepting her request to be bridesmaids.
Bethany Anne started the conversation, “So, have you considered a minister for the wedding?” Bethany Anne looked over at her dad who looked like he would rather be in the middle of a battle, then talking marriage plans with all of the women.
Patricia looked over at Lance who was smart enough not to presume he had an answer. She gently nudged him in the ribs and returned her attention to the three ladies, “We thought we might ask one of the ship’s captains to officiate for us. Do you think one of them would do it?”
“Absolutely!”, said Bethany Anne. “However, Gabrielle brought up an option if you’re willing to consider someone else?”
Patricia and Lance looked over to Gabrielle.
Gabrielle considered throwing the pillow from her chair over at Bethany Anne, however there were too many easily breakable items in this room. “Well I seem to remember that Michael became an ordained minister back in the mid-1700s or so. I just thought it would be kind of cool to have the oldest living minister officiate your wedding.”
Bethany Anne added, “Not to mention you thought he would be a little uncomfortable if someone asked him to officiate!”
Gabrielle shrugged, “Well, it isn’t often I get a chance to poke the bear.”
Ecaterina quipped, “If you want to poke a bear, I can always ask my uncle to give you a chance.”
Gabrielle stuck her tongue out at Ecaterina, then she looked thoughtful, “I don’t know, what does he look like, is he attractive?”
Ecaterina made a face, “Vampire-bear sex? Ewww, that’s my uncle!”
Gabrielle added, “On the mountainside!”
Ecaterina glared at her, “You better not! I walk around that mountain and if you go have sex with my uncle I’ll always have to wonder whether or not you two bumped uglies where I’m walking.” She huffed, “I would have to find a whole new mountain.”
Gabrielle retorted, “Like you and Nathan left that mountain virginal! Tell me you guys didn’t ‘bump ugly’ every few hours!”
Ecaterina stuck her nose up in the air, “The beautiful relationship I have with my mate shall not be besmirched by considering our activity at such base levels.”
Gabrielle turned to face Bethany Anne, “They shouldn’t be called werewolves, they should be called
rabbits!”
Gabrielle barely heard the pillow before it hit the back of her head. By now all five of them were laughing pretty hard and it took a few moments for everyone to settle down.
Bethany Anne turned to Lance and Patricia, “What do you think? Would you like to be married by the oldest living ordained minister in existence? I’m willing to ask him. Please, pretty please, with a cherry on top? I would just love to ask Michael about his role as a priest and get all the juicy details!” The glint in her eyes told Patricia all she wanted to know. The worst that would happen would be that Michael said ‘yes’. Patricia turned to Lance.
Kneel Or Die (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 7) Page 11