Chapter 38

"Where's Betsy?"

"She's grounded," Eddie answered. He shrugged his shoulders and, looking over at his mother, said, "All she did was have a little swim."

"Naked, in a public aquarium, and with sharks," Ling said filling in a few details that Eddie tended to forget.

Putting an arm around his little brother, William pulled Eddie against his side and said, "At least she didn't get threatened with a spanking."

"True," Eddie said. He was tired and wished that he had been able to stay back at the hotel with Betsy. He looked over the crowd of people at the zoo and said, "You must be tired of all this by now."

"A little," William admitted.

"A lot," Lucy said. The past few days had been extremely taxing. She had never been surrounded by so many people for such a long time. It was hard smiling and making small talk with complete strangers. Sighing, she said, "I'll be glad when we can head off to Oklahoma."

Her mother frowned at the reminder of their honeymoon destination. She'd had visions of them traveling around the world in luxury. Instead, they were going to the middle of nowhere. She asked, "Why Oklahoma?"

Looking over at William as if to get permission to tell her mother the real reason, Lucy answered, "We are going to a small place that is in the middle of nowhere. No one, not even the bodyguards, will be around. It will be him and me together. We'll be all alone. We've only been alone once and that was for one day."

Concerned for her safety, her father asked, "Where will the bodyguards be?"

"We'll be guarding the entrance to where they will be staying," Rock answered from behind them. He was actually looking forward to the trip as much as William and Lucy. The past few days had been a nightmare for the bodyguards. Having thousands of people around their principal was tough for them to handle, particularly in such open places. It didn't matter that they had hired another dozen people to provide crowd management. Five thousand people were just too many to track.

Still not understanding her daughter's point, said, "How about a deserted island in some lush tropical location?"

William gestured to Rock for him to provide the answer. The man answered, "There are too many ways to approach an island. We'd have to be there with them."

"Oh," Ann said. She looked over at the peafowl that was wandering past and said, "I guess I can understand. Still... Oklahoma... it just doesn't seem to work for me."

Winking at William, Lucy took her mother's hand and said, "Let's go look at the animals and talk about it some more. William needs to mingle with some of the people that work for the Carter family."

The group separated with William and Eddie walking off towards the snack bar. The two of them would sit there and talk with all the people who stopped by to get something to eat. As they walked, Eddie asked, "What's it like being so famous and all?"

"I don't know if I'm so famous," William replied. He took a few steps and said, "Most of the time, I feel like one of these animals in the zoo. Lots of people stop by and stare at me, but none of them really know me."

"Sounds kind of lonely," Eddie said. He frowned and said, "Everyone in town knows me and dad, but it is different from how people know you. We're friends with everyone and you're friends with no one."

Before William had a chance to reply, a girl Eddie's age walked past and said, "Hello, Eddie."

"Hello, Juanita. It's always a pleasure to see you," Eddie answered. He looked the girl in the eyes as he answered and gave her a smile.

Juanita shifted nervously and asked, "Would you like to walk with me and look at the animals?"

"Uh, I was headed over to the snack bar," Eddie answered looking from Juanita to William. He really wanted to spend a little quality time with his brother.

Another girl approached and, while posing to show off her young body to best advantage, said, "Hello, Eddie."

"Hello, Mariana," Eddie answered, giving her his full attention while answering. The girl played with her long hair, flipping it behind her ear.

Juanita shot a glance of irritation at Mariana, but didn't say anything. Turning so that her chest was in profile, Mariana asked, "Would you like to walk with me?"

William watched as additional teenage girls slowly flocked around Eddie. Each of them invited him to walk with her while effectively ignoring the other girls present. Some were bolder than others, greeting him with a hug or a kiss hello. Eddie addressed each girl by name and looked her in the eye. He was calm and comfortable in talking with them. He didn't flirt or make suggestive remarks, but treated each one with respect.

William smiled and, in a volume such that only Eddie could hear, said, "Parents, lock up your daughters."

Having heard that refrain thousands of times, Eddie still didn't understand why everyone said that. He did know that it was a compliment of sorts. He looked at his brother and said, "You're just jealous."

Patting his brother on the back, William said, "Go with them and give some parents a sleepless night."

"Okay, we'll talk later," Eddie said as he was dragged away. He gave one last wave before one of the girls said something to him and he turned to give her his attention.

William watched Eddie walk off with a harem of young women surrounding him. His father had told him that the girls were flocking around the young man, but he hadn't imagined it was like that. Eddie didn't pay attention to any girl more than the others. While he walked, he pointed to one animal or another more interested in the sights around him than the women surrounding him.

Linda stopped beside William laughing at the sight. She smiled at William and said, "You two are really handsome young men. Eddie has to fight the girls off with a stick most of the time."

"I noticed."

"We had a couple try to sneak into the house in order to sleep with Eddie," she said shaking her head. Smiling, she said, "He's so much like his father. He has no idea what he does that makes him so desirable to women."

"So what does he do?"

"The same thing that you do," Linda answered with a grin.

"I don't have a flock of young women circling around me," William answered.

"That's because you're so much more developed mentally than your brother. You can't relate to them and they have a hard time relating to you. Just wait a year or two and you'll find that women will flock to you in just the same way," she said.

"It'll be a wasted effort. I'm with Lucy," William answered.

Linda shook her head and wondered how Lucy was going to deal with the women throwing themselves at him in the future. He had everything going for him, manners, good looks, wealth, and charisma. Like his fathers, he didn't even see it. She said, "I remember a young Indian maiden who did her best to get your father to marry her."

"What happened?" William asked.

"He married her," Linda answered with a smile.

William laughed and said, "We've reached the snack bar. I was going to sit here and greet guests as they came by to get something to eat. Would you like to join me?"

"No, I think I'm going to track down Dan and ask him for a kiss," Linda answered, "Have fun."

"Sure," William said. He noticed Marguerite and Bob sitting at one of the tables and walked over to them. He looked down at her tray and asked, "Hotdog?"

"Yes, I do occasionally enjoy a good hotdog. For some reason, I can't give them that same greasy flavor in my kitchen that you get in one of these places," Marguerite answered with a grin.

"So how are you two doing?"

Gray hair shooting through what had once been solid black hair, Bob answered, "She's looking better every day and I'm looking older. It's not fair."

Marguerite laughed and gave her husband a love tap. She said, "You just haven't been dancing in the kitchen often enough."

"How's the jewelry business?" William asked. Bob and Marguerite had given them a beautiful necklace for Lucy as a wedding present.

Bob smiled and said, "Pretty good. I've got a couple of people making the jewelry for me now, while I'm doing the special order stuff. It is nice being an artist."

"We really liked the necklace. It's a real beauty."

Bob glanced over at Marguerite and said, "I wanted to give her a silver chain mail top, but Marguerite didn't think Lucy would approve."

Raising his eyebrows, William said, "But William would have approved."

Marguerite laughed and said, "You're so much like your parents. It's good to see you again William."

Mary Gold sat down at the table and said, "Hello, William."

Her voice had only gotten sexier with time. William said, "Hello, Mary. Thanks for helping out with the names last night."

"It was nothing," she said. She hesitated as if she didn't want to bring up a bad topic.

Knowing that she was about to embark on a subject that he hoped he could have postponed for much later, he said, "Okay, tell me about it."

"I've assembled some people for you to interview," Mary Gold said. She had already put the candidates through one of the most grueling interview sessions that any employee had to survive to get it down to two candidates for each position. She even had Ed interview each one just to validate their character. "I've arranged the interviews for when you get back from your honeymoon."

"And?"

"I arranged for an office where you're living."

William nodded his head. Although he had grown up with a family that had a large staff, he wasn't comfortable with having people work for him. He already had Lisa, Ken, Rock, Colt, Natalie, Nicole, and Derrick working for him. He asked, "So how many people are in this staff you've assembled?"

"I thought you'd want to start off small. I found you a receptionist, an administrative assistant, an aide, a clerk, and an accountant." The staff for the Carter Clan had grown even larger than that over the years. Only the original staff still lived with the family.