Under His Roof

chapter twenty-six

Needless to say, Kimberly's parents hadn't been pleased when Julian finally opened the door 10 minutes after they had arrived. Her dad had on his perma-frown and her mother just looked bored. But once they saw the large brace around Julian's leg, all their displeasure flew out the window. They must have thought he had been rushing as quickly as he could from the other end of the house, because they spent the rest of the night apologizing to him for being so impatient, barely noticing Kimberly as she came out to greet them.

Ha, little did they know.

Julian had showed them to the cottage behind the house, telling them to make themselves comfortable, and Kimberly decided to follow them in and spend the evening with her parents. She hadn't seen them in months and wanted to catch up with them before they all had to be together with Julian.

It was nice seeing them, but by the time dinner rolled around, Kimberly was so hungry that she literally had to drag her parents out of the cottage to come and eat. The three of them entered the main house and found Julian in the kitchen, pulling out a tray of fancy looking mac-n-cheese from the oven. He had already set the table as well, and everything just looked so good that Kimberly was convinced Chevelle was hiding around in a corner somewhere.

And even after all this time, Kimberly's parents still felt so bad about what had happened earlier, that instead of just telling him she was vegan, Kimberly's mother took a plateful of mac-n-cheese and ate every last bite, forcing a smile the whole way through.

Both Kimberly and her dad found that to be a little excessive, but neither of them commented on it.

The dinner was amusing to say the least. It consisted mostly of Kimberly's parents worshipping Julian from across the table as they tried to slip in as many apologies as they could. She was both entertained by it, and jealous that Julian was getting more attention that she was. She figured it was for the best though, because the less talking she did while he was around meant the less of a chance there was for her to give away the fact that they knew each othermuch better than her parents thought.

"Julian, I don't think we've ever actually properly thanked you for how you looked after and took care of Kimberly when she had her accident." Kimberly's dad had placed down his fork and was now staring across the table at Julian with the kind of look a man gives his wife on their wedding day. Cringe. "You always go above and beyond, and I just don't know how to thank you. You didn't have to help pay for her medical bill."

Kimberly looked over at Julian, unsurprised that he hadn't told her about it, but still touched by the gesture. By now she knew well enough that Julian liked to work in secret. It was like he was afraid she wouldn't accept his help if she knew he was giving it to her. Kimberly wasn't dumb though. If she was fond of someone and they happened to be rich and want to help her out, she wasn't going to refuse them. Over the years she had learnt that accepting help every now and then can really take a person far. And sometimes you needed other people to do something you wished you could do alone. That was just the reality of it.

She smiled at him, "You paid for my medical bill?" she asked.

Julian stole a glance over at Kimberly and she saw the sides of his mouth twitch upwards. He looked back over at her father and waved his hand dismissively, "Oh please, Marcus, you give me far too much credit. I just did what any other responsible adult would have." He smiled at the two of them and took another bite of his food, nonchalant as ever.

Kimberly was impressed at how good he was at pretending there was nothing going on. He barely even looked in Kimberly's direction – save for a few sneaky glances – meanwhile she was finding it torturous not being able to admire him as freely as her heart desired.