Lessons Learned (The Gifted Realm Book 2)

by Jillian Neal

  Everyone took turns looking after the twins while the others worked. They weren’t quite finished when Governor Haydenshire called it a day, and told everyone to shower and change so they could make dinner.

  Governor Haydenshire manned the grill to prepare dinner in his wife’s absence. Rainer and Logan looked after the twins.

  Just before six, Emily and Adeline appeared, followed by Tad, Nathan, and Mrs. Haydenshire. Emily fell onto the couch with a dejected huff. This was not at all what Rainer expected from her after a day of wedding-dress shopping with her uncles.

  “What’s wrong?” He carried Keaton in and set him in front of his toys in the living room. She was on the verge of tears. Tad sighed.

  “We must’ve seen every bridal salon in a fifty-mile radius.”

  “She’s going to be the Crown Governor’s daughter, and she’s marrying Joseph Lawson’s son. They’re practically royalty. She needs Paris, Milan, Madrid,” Nathan gushed exuberantly, “We have D.C.”

  “Well, it’s just the first day. I mean, isn’t it supposed to take a while?” Rainer pulled from what little knowledge he had about wedding dresses as he sat beside Emily, and hoped she’d let him cradle her into a better mood.

  “You come back to the city next weekend. New York won’t let you down,” Tad vowed.

  “I have a challenge next weekend, and New York isn’t going to make me tall and thin.”

  “What?” Rainer stunned. Mrs. Haydenshire shook her head.

  “She tried on a few gowns that would be better suited for girls with a quite a bit more leg and with a little less…” she gestured to her own breasts while stating, “curves. But, Emily Haydenshire, you know you are not even close to fat!”

  “Honey,” Tad tsked, “women pay thousands of dollars every single day to have installed what God saw fit to supply you with from the get go.”

  After a distinct eye-roll, Emily sulked. “Yeah, birthing hips,” she quoted Mrs. Peterson’s insult.

  Rainer was completely stunned. He tried to figure out a way to explain to her how drop-dead gorgeous he thought she was, and how much he adored all of her luscious curves while in the presence of her mother and uncles.

  Mrs. Haydenshire drew a deep breath. “I think I’ll just see if Stephen needs any help. Trust me, Taddy, Rainer is the only person on the planet who can get through to her once she’s like this.”

  Adeline looked devastated as she clearly tried to think of some way to cheer Emily up.

  “Mom’s right. Why don’t we take the twins back outside?” Logan suggested. He was much more worried about Adeline’s anguish than Emily’s, but Rainer appreciated them leaving, none the less.

  “Good luck,” Tad whispered as he and Nathan joined everyone else on the deck.

  “Em?” Rainer tried to determine what to say first.

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry you didn’t find a dress today, and I’ll take you anywhere you want to go to find one, but, sweetheart, you are stunningly gorgeous.”

  They’d been through this before, and Rainer tried to remember everything he’d said back in school when she would go through this same funk. She would obsess that she was short and that her chest and backside made her look fat.

  “Em, baby, do you remember last night?”

  With a half-smile she huffed, “Yes.”

  “Uh huh, that’s what you do to me. Your curves,” he slid his hand over her breasts, “And, baby, that ass…,” He wouldn’t have normally used that word for it in front of her, but decided to go with it, since she clearly needed to know exactly what he thought. “It drives me wild! Seriously, I almost broke my own rule and took you in my car at the arena last night. That’s how hot you are.”

  She rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide her grin. “Okay, but curvy is not what’s in style.”

  Rainer moved until his mouth was right beside her ear. “I don’t give a damn what’s in style right now, baby. Your body makes me ache. I drool just thinking about it.” He felt her energy begin to spiral, and he couldn’t quite hide his wry grin.

  “But we went to a million stores, and there was nothing even close to what I want. This is my wedding dress. It has to be perfect. Everything has to be based on the dress.”

  “Ok, so the next weekend that I’m off and you don’t have a challenge, we’ll go back to New York.”

  “Maybe,” she shrugged. He kissed the side of her head and let Nathan’s words and Emily’s worries run through his mind. An idea came to mind, but it would take a great deal of planning, and he wasn’t certain he could pull it off.

  “Let’s try New York. If you don’t find anything there, then I might have a few ideas up my sleeve.” He knew she loved a surprise. Her eyes lit.

  “Like what?”

  “That is for me to know, baby, and you to find out.” She beamed and he relaxed.

  He’d just pulled a new record in getting her out of a funk. But he questioned his abilities again as her face fell once more.

  “But will you still love me if I gain a bunch of weight when we have babies?” She looked truly terrified. “You know, I’m kinda short like Mom and she gets kinda big,” Emily whispered uncomfortably.

  Sam’s voice seared through Rainer’s head suddenly. You got to make her understand that it’s her soul that drives you wild, not her body, Rain man.

  Immediately thinking that he was going to visit Sam, and soon, Rainer gazed at Emily with rapt adoration.

  “Emily, I love you. I don’t care what you look like, or how much you weigh. And when I think about you carrying my baby, it drives me wild. I can’t imagine anything more beautiful than that. Please don’t let one day of shopping get to you. When I look at you, all I see is perfection. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted. I’m the luckiest guy in the Realm.”

  “So, you don’t think I would be prettier if I looked more like Adeline?”

  “Em,” Rainer shuddered. Adeline was very attractive, he supposed, in a thin, willowy kind of way, and clearly she got Logan going. As happy as he was for Logan, she definitely wasn’t Rainer’s definition of sexy.

  He had to tread carefully. Adeline was Emily’s best friend, and he needed to convince her of his preference for her, without being unkind when speaking of Adeline.

  “I couldn’t be happier for Logan, and clearly Adeline is his one and only type, and that’s great for them. But you…you drive me wild, Em. I’ve never ever seen anyone sexier than you.” She still didn’t look certain, so he decided to turn the tables on her.

  “So, wouldn’t you like me more if I were a few inches taller and built like Garrett or, hell, Vindico?”

  He tried to fathom being built like that, but he was several inches too short and couldn’t build mass like Vindico was able to.

  “No. If you were any taller, I couldn’t kiss you.”

  He smiled at her wryly as he kissed her head.

  “Then, I guess we’re perfect for each other because, believe me, baby, all of your delicious curves make me crazy with wanting you.”

  She watched as his eyes fall to her cleavage. He stared at it, and made sure she watched his eyes as he let his mind fill with what it felt like to squeeze and grope her and then lick and suck them.

  She shivered slightly and caught the erotic energy that began rolling off of him.

  “They’re all exactly where I want my hands to be.” To illustrate his point, he slipped his hand to her backside. He grasped it and massaged before quickly pulling his hand away.

  He wanted her to want more. She grinned at him and seemed to finally believe what he was saying to her. But she still wasn’t the confident girl he knew and loved. Something else had happened.

  The Eye of the Beholder

  Dinner was served, and Rainer continued to watch over Emily obsessively. She seemed almost back to normal, but he caught the slight changes in her energy when he would rub her leg or touch her hand.

  As Governor Haydenshire began plying everyone with root beer floats,
and urging them onto the back porch to enjoy watching the summer begin to give way to fall, Adeline motioned to Rainer discreetly.

  Emily helped the twins with their drinks, but didn’t fix one for herself. When she was distracted with Keaton, Rainer followed Adeline into the front hall.

  “Emily didn’t want me to tell you this,” Adeline fussed.

  “I knew something else happened.” Rainer hoped to alleviate any guilt Adeline had and get her to talk to him. She looked pained.

  “We went to this really, sort of expensive, exclusive shop that Nathan had to get us into, and the sales women there were very rude.”

  “They really only had like ten gowns, very exclusive one-of-a-kinds. I don’t know why we even went in. Anyway,” Adeline looked truly devastated. “Nathan wanted her to try on this gown that wouldn’t have been right for her at all, but he insisted, and she did, and while I was putting it on her the saleswoman told her that she was too…” Adeline blushed violently.

  Rainer squeezed his eyes shut. He knew where this was heading.

  Adeline seemed to slip into Medio mode. She became very matter of fact. “Well, she said that if Emily wanted to wear a designer gown, that she was going to have to lose some weight and she said her breasts and hips were too large and that since you hadn’t set a date yet, that she should spend some time reducing her size.”

  Rainer found it odd that the conversation didn’t make him uncomfortable. His concern over Emily was the only thing that mattered to him at the moment.

  Adeline drew a deep breath, “Well her exact words were, ‘Your breasts are just too large for our gowns and you’re carrying too much weight in your hips. We cater to a much slimmer physique’.”

  “I told her that I was a Medio, and that Emily was in a healthy weight range, just at the top of it. That didn’t really help though.”

  Rainer was seething. “That’s the biggest bunch of bullshit I’ve ever heard. So, they didn’t have the gown in her size, and they decided to take it out on her?”

  “Exactly. We told her that, but she wouldn’t listen and then it got worse.”

  “How could it have gotten worse?”

  “So, you know Emily’s size right?”

  “A six or an eight.” Rainer hoped Adeline would get on with it.

  “Right. But the lady told Nathan that they only stock dresses in a 2 or smaller. She said it really mean and right in front of Emily. So, we left and Emily was crushed and then we went to some really nice bridal salons, but several of them were run by Gifted sales women.”

  “Well, they were only really interested in selling one of their gowns to Governor Haydenshire’s daughter, and to your fiancée, because you know the publicity and all. So, they just told her everything looked good, and sort of smothered her to death while they had other salespeople calling up the papers to get pictures of her leaving their stores. It was a disaster.”

  Rainer fought the deep desire to drive to the exclusive bridal shop and give the owner a very large piece of his mind.

  He decided he would make his plan work, because the scenario with the press was only going to get worse once Governor Haydenshire announced his bid for Crown.

  The campaigning was set to begin after Labor Day, and the election would be held at the end of October. The Inaugural Ball would be held Halloween night.

  “Thank you for telling me. Could you do one other thing for me?” He glanced around to make certain Emily wasn’t coming to look for him.

  “Anything.” He could feel the love Adeline had for Emily in her answer, and it warmed his heart. “Could you distract her? I need to talk to Will.”

  Adeline didn’t ask any questions; she just nodded.

  “Yeah, of course, I know just the thing.” Her eyes lit excitedly.

  “Thanks; you’re the best!”

  “There you are,” Logan moved into the front hall looking concerned. “Everything ok?”

  “No,” Rainer sighed, “But I plan to fix all of this.” He left Adeline and Logan in the entrance, and headed to the kitchen. He fixed a root beer float and added two straws then headed to the back deck.

  His irritation chaffed his shield. A size six, and she spilled completely naturally out of a full double D cup. He didn’t want her to look like those stick figures she always compared herself to in magazines.

  He’d always thought he’d won some sort of fantastic lottery when it came to Emily’s body. He couldn’t fathom her thinking she was fat, or a saleswoman informing her that she needed to lose weight. It made him furious.

  “Hey there, gorgeous.” He put his vengeful thoughts aside. He didn’t want to sell Adeline out, and Emily could read him easier than she could read anyone else.

  He took a seat on one of the wooden benches that ran the length of the deck. Rainer put his arm around Emily, and held up the float. She smiled at the two straws, but shook her head.

  “Come on, Em. You love root beer floats.”

  She shrugged, took a tiny sip, and then pulled away. The saleswoman had done a real number on her, and it was going to take Rainer a few weeks at least to put his plan into action.

  He just had to keep reassuring her until then.

  Mrs. Haydenshire looked extremely concerned as she noted Emily refusing dessert.

  It appeared all thoughts of outing Emily’s new tattoo to the Governor were forgotten in light of Emily’s faltering self-esteem.

  “Mrs. Haydenshire?” Adeline called.

  “Yes, dear?” Mrs. Haydenshire answered kindly, though she was still studying Emily.

  “Could we look through your and Governor Haydenshire’s wedding pictures?”

  Mrs. Haydenshire’s eyes lit. “Of course, but he wasn’t the Governor then. He was but a lowly aide to the Senteon,” she teased her husband.

  “That’s true,” Governor Haydenshire laced his fingers through his wife’s, “but, somehow, I convinced her to marry me anyway.”

  “You know, he kept telling me he was going to be Crown Governor someday, but I just thought he was trying to get me to come back to his apartment with him,” Mrs. Haydenshire laughed heartily as the Governor turned red.

  “Hey, look at that,” Levi goaded. “Dad had moves.” Everyone cracked up as Governor Haydenshire shook his head and laughed.

  “Oh, he had moves, all right,” Tad chimed in, to all of the kids’ delight.

  “Careful, Taddy,” Mrs. Haydenshire warned, but Tad wasn’t going to be dissuaded.

  With a delighted grin, he continued. “So, first Lill gets in trouble for signing her junior premise, Lillian Anne Haydenshire, instead of Anderson, and turning it in that way. This was before they were even engaged. She almost failed because she refused to change it.”

  Emily’s mouth dropped open as she giggled. Rainer’s heart swelled just to see her beautiful smile.

  “Wait, it gets better.” Tad glowed in the attention he was receiving. “So, the Academy calls Mom and Dad that Friday to tell them that they felt that Lillian wasn’t taking her education seriously, and that if she didn’t rewrite her premise they were going to fail her.”

  “Dad comes home from work early that same day. He planned to ream Lillian out, but he finds Stephen and Lillian in the pool. It seemed that at some point the top of Lill’s suit just fell off,” Tad continued to goad. “That’s what she told Dad. That it just fell off of its own accord, and that Stephen was trying to help her find it.” Tad could hardly finish the story. He was laughing hysterically.

  Whistles rang from Levi and Connor. Everyone laughed hysterically. Governor Haydenshire looked momentarily like he might kill Tad if given the opportunity, but eventually he and Mrs. Haydenshire were laughing over the memory as well.

  “Yes, and I now understand all of the things that your dad threatened to do to me if he ever caught us like that again,” the Governor retorted. This brought on renewed laughter.

  “I just can’t see Paps yelling at you,” Emily shook her head.

  “Oh, baby girl, trust
me,” Governor Haydenshire assured her, “he was very frightening before he became a grandfather. He kept thinking I was corrupting his little girl, but she was the wild one.”

  The Governor winked at his wife.

  The laughter continued as Rainer nodded. “Yeah, I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

  Governor Haydenshire nodded his reluctant agreement that Emily and her mother were very much alike. Emily and Mrs. Haydenshire laughed over the assessment, and Emily hid her face in Rainer’s chest as he cradled her to him. He kissed her head sweetly. The Governor smiled as he watched Rainer soothe her.

  The laughter and the retelling of stories seemed to calm Emily’s soul, much to Rainer’s delight.

  “Well, on that note, I think we’ll just go inside and go through our wedding album, dear.” Mrs. Haydenshire’s face was crimson in her embarrassment. “If you want to try on my gown, sweetheart, you can, but it would have to be taken in. You’re a few sizes smaller than I was then,” she commented pointedly, and winked discreetly at Rainer.

  “Really?” Emily seemed thoroughly shocked.

  Rainer beamed at Mrs. Haydenshire.

  “Yes,” Mrs. Haydenshire acted like she didn’t understand why that would surprise her. Emily followed her mother back into the house with Adeline, Brooke, and Sarah following them excitedly.

  As soon as they were out of sight, Rainer moved to the space Brooke had previously occupied beside Will. Tad and Nathan leaned in as Rainer began discussing his plan.

  Beautiful

  Emily seemed almost back to normal by the time Rainer drove her home.

  “I tried on Mom’s gown.

  “And?”

  “It was a little too big, but, I mean, she was pregnant with Will.” Emily was still slightly shocked by this.

  “She wasn’t pregnant with Will when your grandmother made the gown, Em, and she wasn’t even very pregnant when she got married.”

  “That’s true.”

  “So, do you want to have it taken in and wear it?” He secretly hoped she wouldn’t, as he was getting more and more excited about his plan. She laughed.