Hello everyone, thanks for reading this story. For those of you who are also fans of my sis's (KC_Holmes) Arranged Love you will reconize parts of this story. Enjoy the story everyone.
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Arranged Love: Juliana’s Story
Chapter 16
It was a few days after New Years and I still couldn’t believe that Liana had said yes when I asked her to marry me. The ring that Alexandrina helped my find sat on her finger as proof to her saying yes. Alexandrina was a jeweler so she was my go to person through the entire week after Christmas when we started looking for the ring. I had told her on Christmas what my plan was and she was all too eager to help me. I told her I wanted a very unique ring not the usual diamond engagement ring since Liana wasn’t your usual girl and our situation wasn’t normal either. Alexandrina of course couldn’t keep her mouth shut and told Kevan who in turn told Kasper and so my whole family pretty much knew thanks to Alexandrina while Liana had yet to tell her family. Liana didn’t want to deal right away with her mother who would hound her with a million questions and then according to Liana she would demand to help with the wedding plans despite the fact that we haven’t even decided on a date or anything like that.
I headed down the hall towards the living room to ask Liana something. When I got to the living room I found Tina playing with one of her new toys next to her mother who was sitting on the floor playing Mario Sunshine on the Wii with listening to the stereo. It is in moments like these that I see how young Liana really is, sometime I forget that she was just about to turn twenty-one and yet she’s seen more in her almost twenty-one years then others of her age. Tina was playing quietly next her mother while Liana grumbled as she sat there on the floor playing the video game. It was too cute of a scene to interrupt, I could ask Liana my question later so with that in mind I headed back towards the my home office.
The time passed by quickly for us as we went on with our lives. Liana was planning a trip to see her sister for a little vacation. Rain had gotten her red envelope and according to Liana wasn’t happy about it at all since she was moving to Vail a place where the mainly rich lived and even some of Hollywood’s stars had vacation homes there. Liana told me that growing up she and Rina had never liked Vail and when they went on vacation it was always to the Western Slope away from the big ski towns and such. Liana and Rain where really close so it didn’t surprise me when Liana brought up wanting to go see her sister. Though I’ll admit the way she got Rina to agree with it was a little sneaking. They made a bet that Rain couldn’t go a week without cursing---we were still waiting to hear from her though Liana was sure she’d slip up. Liana was also planning a trip to go see her brother before his wedding. It was about a week before we where suppose to leave for Colorado. We would stop in to see Liana’s mom first finally telling her about our engagement after some months and pick up Rain’s dog to take to her. Liana was on the phone with her mother sounding a bit aggravated as she walked around the room while Tina and I sat on the couch watching Fantasia.
“Un giorno la vostra Nonna Tina sta andando a guidare toons mamma manicomio. (One day Tina your Nonna is going to drive mamma loony toons.)” Liana said with a sigh as she sat down next to Tina and me.
We where teaching Tina 3 languages at once, Liana spoke to her in Italian and I in Irish with the both of us repeating what we said to her in English. When she is a little older we’ll teach her German and Spanish. Liana already has me learning Spanish thankfully it wasn’t that different from Italian so I was picking up on it quickly.
“What’s wrong now?” I asked her.
“She can’t understand why we’ll only be there for the weekend. Sometimes I think my mother forgets how much she aggravates me plus all h-e double hockey sticks is going to break loose after we tell her about the engagement we’ve been keeping from her for the last few months.” Liana said sighing and leaning her head back with eyes close to shut out the light a sure sign she was getting a migraine.
“Tina dul chun mama ar feadh nóiméid. (Tina go see mama for a minute.)” I whispered into Tina’s ear.
She crawled over into her mama’s lap without a second thought as I got up to get Liana her migraine pill and some ice tea. After being with her for a year I’d come to recognize the signs of her getting a migraine and most of the times I recognized a migraine before she did. Liana told me a few months ago she had been diagnosed with migraines when she was just 15 after suffering from a real bad headache that just didn’t go away, she had a cold at the time and thought that was the cause but the doctor told her otherwise. I came back into the room handed her the stuff and picked up Tina while sitting back down with Tina to finish watching the movie. Liana shot me a grateful look as she took the stuff.
Three days later Liana and I were in the kitchen just fixing breakfast when the phone rang. Liana was at the stove cooking so I set Tina up with her usual play toys of pots and pans on the kitchen floor while I got the phone. It was Rain which meant she slipped up and cursed. I told Liana who it was and she just sighed and shook her head as she continued cooking.
“Hey Rain.” I said answering the phone and walking over towards Liana knowing I wasn’t the one she wanted to talk to.
“Hey Ran, can I talk to Liana?” She asked.
“Figures, never wants to talk to her brother-in-law.” I said smirking. By now I knew Rain really well and loved to pick on her. She was like a little sister to me so teasing her was fun and she gave back as good as she got.
“Fine and you are not technically my brother-in-law yet.” She said with a sigh.
“Harsh Rain.” I said in mock hurt.
“No harsh was when we first meet and I soaked you with water.” She said with a smirk at the memory of that day. Liana and I got into a huge argument and Rain took it upon herself to cool us off.
“And that’s why I call you Rain.” I said.
“That explains that.” She said. It just clicked in her head why I call her Rain. Sometimes I worry about that girl.
“Didn’t you know that?” I asked just to get a rise out of her knowing that it just clicked.
“Uh no, now can I talk to Liana?” She asked.
“Fine, Jules phone.” I said handing Liana the phone now that she was finishing up cooking breakfast. That was one of the main reasons I was bugging Rain was so that Jules could cook breakfast without burning it.
“Hey Rina.” Jules said taking the phone and holding it between her shoulder and ear while she continued to work on making breakfast.
“You’re welcome besides you like Koran and we’ll be there Monday of next week.” I heard her say with slight smugness in her voice.
“No brat, we’re going to drive and we’re going to see mom this weekend so she can see Tina and she wants me to take Sasha with me when I go up to see you.” She said with a slight sigh that I don’t think Rain heard.
“Yeah I know.”
“Do you have to do that?” She said in more of a statement then a question. It was interesting to listen to this one sided conversation.
“You should go talk to Luc.” She said saying the same thing that I am sure Rain told Liana a year ago.
“Bye Rina.” She said hanging up the phone and she started dishing up breakfast.
I grabbed Tina and set her into her high chair. We were set to leave for Colorado after breakfast since it was a two day trip by road, we weren’t flying cause Liana hates flying and didn’t want to fly with Tina who was only a little over a year old. Liana arranged for Gabriel to care for Sadie for the little over a week we’d be gone since Sadie was now also over a year old and a big girl. She had the Alaskan Husky body build so she was lean, a Siberian Husky coat and was doubly smart. With breakfast over and cleaned up we headed out. Liana and I had packed the car up last night so we were all set to drop off Sadie and then head out for a day on the road.
After dropping Sadie off at Gabriel’s place with a full bag of dog food for her because Liana didn’t want a repeat of a year ago when he totally had the wrong food causing all kind of problems for Liana and Sadie we started out on our two day trip to Colorado. We drove for several hours before stopping at a hotel halfway to Colorado. The hotel only had a single large bed available---Liana was going to kill someone and that someone could possibly be me. Liana and I grabbed our overnight bags and headed to the room. It was late and we where both tired beyond belief because of that fact Liana didn’t have a fit over the bed issue instead she said that if I snored or kicked her at all I could sleep out in the SUV. I was the one who got kicked and hit also found out Liana mumbles in her sleep all of this information I kept to myself for survival reason. After another long drive we reached Liana’s childhood home and once again had to share a bed because her mother was re-painting most of the rooms which just said suspicious to me since she’s known for weeks that we were coming.
Liana had been right, once we told her mother that we were engaged and not just because we had to be all hell broke loose and I could completely understand why Liana had only planned on staying the weekend. In our two day stay I got a firsthand view of how much Liana was annoyed by her mother. The entire two days there Liana wore a red shirt that said ‘All Stressed Out’ in large lettering while underneath that in smaller letter it said ‘And No One To Choke’ and yet her mother seemed to miss the meaning of that. Thankfully the weekend passed by quickly and before anyone could notice Liana and I were getting ready to head out to Vail to visit Rain. We got Sasha loaded up in her create along with the rather large box of her stuff and of course a brand new 20 pound bag of dog food. We where late leaving from the house and I knew traffic was going to suck at this hour so I was kinda speeding despite Liana telling me to slow down we’d be on time. I didn’t believe her and so continued on speeding.
~Liana~
My mom still had the crib I used for Tina when I still lived at home but I didn’t have a crib for our stay at Rina’s. I didn’t really want to go buy another one either since we already had one at home---which we forgot to pack. Sighing I wondered if Rina had foreseen my forgetfulness and picked one up. So when I had a quiet moment to myself I dug my phone out of my back pocket and searched for Rina’s number. Figuring I had better call her now on Friday night otherwise I would forget completely in the next two days. As the phone rang I did my usual pick up...pick up...pick up chant while waiting for her to answer the phone.
“Che cosa? (What?)” Rina said in a way of greeting. Talk about someone being in a bad mood today.
“Rina che c'è modo di parlare con tua sorella più anziani. (Rina that's no way to talk to your older sister.) I replied in Italian. I swear I could hear her roller her eyes at me. “E non fare neanche quello. (And don’t do that either)” I told her knowing full well she hates when I do that and thinks that I am the reason she cusses so much. Apparently I drive her to it or at least that is what she says. I however don’t buy that.
“Che cosa vuoi? (What do you want?)” She whined at me.
“Non lamentarsi neanche. (Don’t whine either.)” I told her sternly. She is too old to be whining. Not like I should talk I am a pretty whiney person at times.
“L'ho imparato da te. (I learned it from you)” She said with a smirk. I could hear her smirking don’t ask how I just knew that she was.
“Si, giusto. Comunque mi chiedevo se tu avessi qualcosa per Tina dormire a settimana prossima? (Yeah right. Anyways I was wondering if you had something for Tina to sleep in next week.)” I asked getting to the point now that I was done bugging the crap out of her.
“Sì, siamo andati a fare shopping oggi. (Yep, we went shopping today.)” She replied. I was relieved to hear that since I didn’t want to get another crib so that would have meant that for the week at her zia’s (aunt’s) Tina would have had to sleep in a pulled out drawer.
“Mi príncipe de cotización encantador dice hola. (My quote prince charming says hi.)” Rina said switching to Spanish which meant that Luc was in the room.
“¿Lo tomo él está todavía en el cuarto? (I take it he is still in the room?)” I asked in Spanish though it was more of a statement then a question.
“Si. (Yes)” She answered.
“Bien adivino que me dirigiré a usted más tarde, le amaré. “Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later, love you.” I said.
“Ah antes de que usted vaya tengo una sorpresa para usted cuando usted se pone aquí. (Oh before you go I have a surprise for you when you get here.)” She said smirking yet again. She was up to something I just wasn’t sure what yet.
“¿Qué es ello? (What is it?)” I asked her hoping she’d give me a hint as to what she was up to.
“You’ll have to wait and see.” She said with another smirk. Yep she was diffidently up to something and wasn’t going to tell me.
“Fine, see you in two days. Bye.” I said sighing.
“Bye.” Rina said as we hung up.
The next two days where a little stressful and completely busy. My Madre kept us moving almost non-stop. I love my Madre but when she hasn’t seen you in a few months she tends to get all weird and thinks she has to make up for the months she didn’t see you all at once. This family is seriously messed up. Thankfully before I could majorly complain about the entire two days there we were getting ready to head out for Vail. It was a tight squeeze into the SUV what with the extra things we now had with us. We left the house later than planned and so to make up for it Koran was speeding. I told him to slow down it wasn’t going to be a big deal if we where late, for goodness sakes I was always late and Rina knew it. But for some odd reason Koran didn’t want to be late even though we were always late for things. Talk about confusing. Thanks to Koran’s speeding we got there early. I unloaded Sasha from her create grabbed the diaper bag which I handed to Koran along with Sasha’s leash and got Tina from her car seat. We headed up to the door and rang the doorbell. While we waited for Rina to answer the door I elbowed Koran in the ribs.
“Was? (What?)” He asked in German.
“Das war dafür, dass du den ganzen Weg gerast bist. Jetzt sind sind viel zu früh. (That was for speeding the entire way here. We are seriously early now.)” I hissed at him just before the door opened cutting off any reply he may have had.
Rina opened the door with a kid on her hip. Last I checked it had been less than six months since I last saw her so the kid was diffidently not her’s. I knew I had my mouth hanging wide open while I tried to figure out what in the hell she was doing with a kid on her hip.
“Um...Liana, Koran you’re not a fly traps so close your mouths.” She said with amusement lining her voice.
“R-Rina w-what are you doing with a baby on your hip? It hasn’t been that long since I last saw you.” I said in shock.
“If you guys would come in and stop standing there like you’re going to sell me something I will explain it to you or I’m closing the door on both of you and just taking my niece.” Amusement still lined her voice even though I didn’t find any humor in any of this. Koran and I walked into the house letting Sasha off her leash.
“Where...How...Explain.” I said not able to form a complete sentence right at the moment.
“Dylan meet your aunt Liana, I told you she was a little weird. Liana and Koran meet your nephew Dylan Enrico Hamilton.” She said smirking and still completely amused by whatever she saw on our faces.
“WHAT?!” Koran and I both yelled at the same time.
Rina rolled her eyes at us. “Sit it’s a long story.” She said as we sat down on the couch while she sat down on the coffee table in front of us. She told us the entire story of little Dylan and what had seemed to be happening in my sister’s life since coming to Vail.
“Umm...First of all nice save on the cussing, second when did this happen?” I asked her still in shock. Processing all of this was a little difficult when you’re on a lack of sleep cause your mother insisted on doing a bunch of random things way to early in the freakin morning.
“Last week.” She said with a shrug of her shoulders. I was going to kill her. She waits a week to tell me huge life changing news?!
“AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!” I yelled at her and standing up. Good thing Tina moved to her Papa’s lap though she is a total Papa’s girl and crawled over to his lap the moment we sat down. At this moment that was probably a good thing since I was ready to strangle her zia (aunt).
“Yeah like that’s something you tell someone over the phone. Oh hey sis I adopted a nine month old baby. See you when you get here.” She said sarcastically. I was so ready to strangle her by now.
“Di tutte le cose, giuro che non so, ma io giuro! (Of all the things, I swear I don't know but I swear!)” I mumbled in Italian completely unsure of what I was going to do to her at this moment. Sure I was having a drama queen moment but at this moment that didn’t matter.
“¿Y qué hace usted aquí tan temprano? (And what are you doing here so early?)” Rina asked in Spanish. Koran probably only caught a word or two but he’d figure it out soon enough what we were talking about.
“Usted sabe el Corán, dejamos la casa quince minutos tarde y él usó su pie conducido. (You know Koran, we left the house fifteen minutes late and he used his led foot.)” I replied knowing that Rina was ready to strangle him.
“Koran what the heck?” She said while putting Dylan down in front of his toys.
“What? I thought we’d be here at 5 not 4:45pm.” He said innocently enough even though for once in my life I was early for something thanks to his led foot.
Rina looked down and pinched the bridge of her nose a sure sign that she was seriously ticked and a little frustrated. We heard the door unlock and a couple of people walk in. The guy was clearly Luc but I didn’t know who the hooker was hanging all over him. Rina looked ticked off and about ready to kill someone.
“Luc can I talk to you for a minute.” Rina said threw gritted teeth.
Yep she was all set to kill someone. While she and Luc talked in another room Koran and I quietly talked between ourselves in German trying to figure out who the hooker is and what she had to do with Luc. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, she was Luc’s assistance who wanted to be more then that causing me to already disliked her because she was pissing off my sorella (sister) that and I knew how much of a pain in the ass an assistance could be when they wanted something more or something someone else has. Luc and Rina soon returned putting on quite a show in front of Alice or otherwise known as the hooker. I smirked knowing exactly what Rina was up to.
“Are you guys ok?” Alice asked them with complete fake concern.
“Yeah we’re great, right sweetie?” Rina said wrapping her arm around Luc’s.
“Yeah, everything is great babe.” He replied completely playing along with Rina. Alice’s face turned all kinds of different shades of red. I almost felt sorry for her almost that is.
“I have to go.” Alice said storming out of the front door.
It was a lovely show that they put on and one that I was familiar with since Koran and I did the same thing to Layla more than once. It is always great fun but then I am an evil person.
“Who wants dinner?” Rina asked clapping her hands together after Alice stormed out of the house.
“You want to introduce me to your sister?” Luc asked with a confused look on his face. It was all I could do not to laugh at the guy and it sounded like Koran was stifling a few laughs also.
“Oh yeah, Luc this is Juliana but we call her Liana and this is um that guy she says she’s going to marry...Oh yeah that’s Koran and of course my niece Cristina. Guys Luc.” Rina said teasing us all and introducing us all to each other at the same time.
“We’ll just leave you two boys to talk while Liana and I go make dinner.” Rina said pushing me towards the kitchen leaving Koran with Luc and me wondering what Rina was thinking by doing that since Koran was in a bit of a crabby mood since I nagged him the entire way here. We started making dinner in silence but that wouldn’t last.
“Hey Liana you want to help torture Luc?” Rina smirked as we worked on getting dinner made which was something Italian. Unlike me Rina cooks a lot of Italian food while I cook a lot of Mexican food along with Cajun food.
“Rina what are you thinking?” I asked her raising an eyebrow out of curiosity. I don’t know what goes through my sister’s most of the time.
“Luc’s going to pull that nice brother-in-law crap on you and Koran, so just play along until I leave the room or something and then do something that shows you don’t like him.” She said smirking.
My sister is so evil sometimes and boy do I appreciate that sometimes cause then I get to have fun being evil.
“Ok, I like the idea.” I said laughing. Yep, I am just that evil.
“By the way nice shirt.” Rina said smirking it wasn’t until that moment that I noticed her shirt and what it said on the front which was ‘I killed the princess’ while mine said ‘Yes, I am a princess.’
“Yeah yours to.” I said with a laugh.
Rina and I where the complete opposites but that didn’t change how close we are. Staying the week here was going to be interesting especially now that I have permission from my sissy to be mean to her fiancé. Ah life is good.
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Thanks for reading everyone! Special thanks to my sis (KC_Holmes) for her roll as Rina. Besure to---if you haven't already---to check out her story Arranged Love for Rina's story.