Chapter 7

The last few camping trip days flew by amidst a flurry of activities, before the Adams family drove back to Edmonton with Bryan and Dahlia in tow. After checking Frank's condition, it was decided that he couldn't be subjected to a long road trip just yet, since Michelle had deemed the four and a half hours to Edmonton very taxing on him. So Frank would be staying at Bryan and Michelle's for another two to three weeks, after which he would be put on a plane to Winnipeg.

The rest of the Adams family continued on to Saskatoon, where they were to visit family and spend the night before resuming the trip home. His mother's uncle and cousin lived there with their one-year-old daughter. Clark and Lunaria belonged to this city's considerable group of people who were directly or indirectly employed by the big local university. He was a palaeoclimatologist, and she a biotechnologist.

Following the carefully written directions and marked map of the city, they made their way to a nice neighbourhood that looked fairly high-income. It consisted of medium to large family homes, and Dave wouldn't have been surprised if the average home value lay around two hundred thousand dollars.

"We've been here before," Ed suddenly said.

Dave took Ed's word for it, because he knew his brother had a very good memory.

"Yes, we have," Angelica replied. "I'm surprised that you remember. You were only two when we visited Aunt Daphne here!"

"I remember everything," Ed said. "I even remember that Vinca dressed Frank up like a girl."

"I thought that was Lunaria," Dave said. He didn't remember it happening, but they took a picture of Frank in girls' clothes. The writing on the back said that Lunaria had dressed Frank up.

"So did I," Alan added.

"It was definitely Vinca," Ed insisted. "Ask Lunaria when we get ... ah, that's the house."

Dave followed his pointed finger to a two story house at the upcoming street corner. The well lit driveway and double garage doors faced the street they were on, and he spotted a young man and woman playing with a baby a little over a year old. The young woman was bent over as she called to the child, and the jiggling cleavage told Dave she had to be family.

She was no goddess, but she was fairly attractive. Her classic Roman nose was prominent, but fit in well with her sensually thick lips, stormy grey eyes, wavy black hair and oval-shaped face. She straightened up as she spotted them, and Dave guessed she was about as tall as Iris, with a body shape that was similar save for the breasts. The dark beauty was noticeably more top-heavy that Iris was. He didn't think she would necessarily transcend a D-cup, since his first sex buddy had explained that the letter merely denoted how far the fullest part of the breast stuck out from the ribcage, and that a 40D was a lot more voluminous that a 34D.

"That's Vinca!" Angelica exclaimed. "God, I haven't seen her in ages. Aunt Daphne couldn't make her come out and say hello during the last two family reunions."

"The fact that she saw her father keel over and die when she was three or four years old probably had something to do with her oddness," Alan said.

His father's statement shed a whole new light on matters. Dave had known that his mother's eldest aunt was widowed a few months before he was born, but he hadn't known that Vinca saw it happen.

Vinca picked up the baby, and the young man picked up the tricycle and moved it out of the way so Alan could park in the driveway. He deftly manoeuvred the large vehicle into its temporary resting place. Then they all got out, and Dave was glad he would be able to move around again. It wasn't as bad as the drive from Winnipeg to Edmonton, but they had been on the road for a solid nine hours, excluding the one hour stop at Bryan and Michelle's house, and the many shorter stops along the way.

"Hi Angelica," Vinca greeted shyly.

"Vincaaaaa!" Angelica said happily, as she closed the distance and gave her cousin a sideways hug and a kiss on the cheek. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Vinca answered. Then she nodded at the child in her arms. "This is Castanea."

Castanea was a cute little thing, with loosely curling dark brown locks and large hazel eyes that regarded the newcomers curiously.

"Ah, my newest cousin," Angelica cooed, as she held out her arms.

"Not quite," Vinca's male companion said. "You're forgetting my half-brother."

Angelica frowned as she balanced the curious young girl in her arms. "Your half-brother?" Then a look of recognition crossed her face. "Jules?"

"Hey, cousin. Long time no see," Jules said. He wore the easy smile of a guy who thought he was very good with the ladies. He probably was, because he had the same kind of androgynous good looks that Ed did, bolstered by what Iris would call a stylishly scruffy three day stubble beard.

Angelica turned towards Dave and Ed. "Guys, I don't think you've ever met Cousin Jules. Aunt Rubia started a feud with grandma before you were born, so they never came to family reunions."

Jules grinned and stuck out his hand. "Jules Petit."

Dave, Ed, and Alan shook hands with him.

"So, what brings you here, Jules?" Alan asked. "Family visit, like us?"

"Not exactly," Jules said, and swaggered over to Vinca. Then he hugged her from behind and kissed her neck.

"Jules and I are couple," a blushing Vinca said, unnecessarily, since the hug Jules had given her basically said the same thing.

"How did this happen?" Angelica asked eagerly, and Dave rolled his eyes at his mother's thirst for gossip.

"It's actually pretty funny," Jules began. "I didn't know she was going to college in Ottawa. The last time my mom gave me a family update, she told me Vinca was going to college in Vancouver."

"Kelowna, actually," Vinca corrected. "But that college had a three year culinary programme, and I thought I'd try and add a fourth year at a prestigious culinary school. I badly wanted to earn that school's French Cuisine diploma, because it really opens doors. So I applied and was accepted. Anyway, he bumped into me at a Halloween party."

"I literally bumped into her, because the place was packed," Jules continued. "I accidentally put my hands on her arse—"

"Accident my arse!" Vinca teased. "Pun very much intended."

Jules heaved a quasi exasperated sigh. "She still won't believe it was an accident. I thought I was going for her lower back, but she's 5' 10", and she was wearing heels! I had misjudged the positioning of my hands, and I was in the middle of an apology when she grabbed my middle and index finger."

"I would have broken them, but when I touched him I felt a spark jump over, and when I met his eyes the spark jumped back. So instead of breaking his fingers, I nodded to the dance floor. My date wasn't amused, but he didn't want to dance, and he kept going on about how he'd rather be somewhere else, so I felt that blowing him off was justified."

"It was the most intense first date I'd ever had," Jules took over. "There was no verbal communication. Our attraction was definitely primal, and that was fitting, since we were both dressed as werewolves."

Dave smiled as he heard that. It appeared that the genetic sexual attraction had played a part in their relationship as well.

"You didn't talk at all?" Angelica asked.

Jules shook her head. "She just wrote her number on a napkin before she took off. I didn't even have her name, and at that moment I knew how the prince in Cinderella must have felt."

"How romantic!" Angelica simpered.

Vinca laughed. "But a number is more information than a glass slipper. He called me about two minutes after I'd left, and we made a date for a picnic in Hog's Back Park. He almost forgot to tell me his name, and to ask for mine."

"And she just gave me her middle name, so at that point I was still clueless about her being my cousin."

Vinca smiled. "I've only recently come to appreciate my given name. Everyone in Ottawa knows me only by my middle name."

"And her middle name was all I knew, until after our fourth date. She took me to her studio, where I had the best sex I—"

"Jules!" Vinca exclaimed, blushing furiously now.

"Well, it was," Jules answered flatly. "But I'll leave out that detail, if it makes you uncomfortable."

She sighed. "Never mind. The damage has been done."

Jules grinned. "A night of the best sex I'd ever had up until that point was followed by an equally impressive breakfast."

"I was at the top of my class I Kelowna," Vinca interjected proudly. "That's how I got my scholarships, and how I was able to afford the tuition in Ottawa. That place is mad expensive!"

"She ended up at the top of her class in Ottawa, too," Jules complimented Vinca as he stared at her adoringly.

"So when did you find out that you banged your cousin?" Ed asked evenly.

"Ed, don't be so crude," Angelica said reprovingly.

"What?" he asked innocently. "It's not like I'm judging them. I'm banging mine, after all."

"You are?" Vinca asked, looking surprised.

"My double cousin. Your Cousin Bryan's elder daughter, Dahlia." Then he gestured towards Dave. "And he's banging Iris."

Jules shook his head. "Wow! First Luna marries Uncle Clark, then Victor shacks up with Mom, and now you're banging your aunt. What a family!"

"I'm not banging her," Dave said defensively. "I intend to marry her someday."

"I didn't mean to offend you. I intend to marry Vinca someday, too," Jules said, after which Vinca gasped and went pale.

"Oh my God ... Jules? Did you just say..." She looked too shocked to finish the sentence.

Jules' eyes widened, and the colour drained out of his face as well. He probably had never admitted as much to Vinca. "Oh ... errr ... well, someday. If you'd have me. I mean, it's been a great seven months, and I don't think I'd be happier with any other woman," he said quickly.