He Who Wants A Rose, Must Respect The Thorn

Still A Doof

JULIAN'S POV

Dinner was awesome. My mom always cooked a tasty meat, veggies and all the good stuff. It was a day I could ease up the diet a little, but not too much. We still had a game to play next week. But right now, it was a little after 6pm and we wanted to get the gifts passed out before my nieces headed on up to bed. It was quite cute really, they'd been fascinated by Penny all day, she was the first English person they'd met. They kept saying she sounded like the Queen when she spoke and asked her really random questions. I had to hand it to her, she took it all in her stride today, meeting my crew was a lot to handle all at once. But here she was, she'd survived, quite happily too if the smile on her face was anything to go by. And she was sat beside me on the love seat by the window in my mom's sitting room, snuggled up into my side, smiling at the girls opening their gifts from us. Us. Man, this time last year I never thought I'd be in this position.

..........

"tell me again why Jason isn't helping right now?" I asked me dad as we stood side by side in the dimly lit kitchen doing the dishes. "because I made him help me last night" dad replied, passing me a ladle to dry. "what time do they fly out tomorrow?"
"2pm" I nodded, thinking we were grateful to have this time together, and that my sister in law wasn't sharing today with her side of the family. But neither was Penny. "do you think next year she'll be joining us again? Or will you be making a trip to merry old England?" I turned my head sharply, seeing my dad with a smirk on his face. I chuckled, "honestly, as long as she's still in my life, I wouldn't care" looking out of the window into the back yard, I could see her sitting around the open pit with my family, laughing at something. It sounded cheesy, but the glow from the fire lit up her face, she looked so beautiful. The blanket she had wrapped around her covered her form, but her long blonde hair curled around her face. Man she was something else. "I used to look at your mom like that when we were dating" dad said, pausing his movements to reminisce. I tore my eyes away from her to look at him. "still do" he smiled. I grinned at him, seeing a very rare side to my father. "she's just something that was so unexpected that came into my life. The moment I met her I knew I had to keep her with me" I said, "so," my dad sighed, "when's the wedding?"

......

"what have I missed?" I asked, walking out armed with a tray of hot chocolates and bags of marshmallows. "Penny was about to tell us how you actually managed to get her to go on a date with you" Jason laughed. I glared at him, making him laugh a little more. No one else spoke up until we'd all grabbed a mug and I'd taken a seat beside Penny, pulling her against me and wrapping the blanket over us both. "do you wanna answer his question?" I asked looking down at Penny, she looked back at me and smiled, then turning to look at everyone else said, "he lied to me"

My mouth dropped open in shock she'd actually said that, my dad and Jason started laughing and the girls gasped in shock. My mom the first one to scold me, "Julian Francis!" I didn't know what to say, I looked back at Penny, and she was giggling at me. "you told me you met her in that Candy store you love!" Nicki laughed. "he did" Penny grinned, looking back at my sister. "I just didn't tell her who I was!" I interrupted. "so you gave her a fake name?" Jason laughed, "no" I sassed him, he just grinned at me even more. "well Julian, what did you do?" my mom asked, I scratched the back of my neck nervously, not daring to look at her. "um, I just didn't tell her my full name, or my job..." I answered her, I started to shuffle in my seat under my mom's angry stare. "to be honest, I started to get a little nervous about why he seemed so vague about everything." Penny jumped in, "but as soon as I found out, I understood." she looked up at me and smiled. "I probably would have had presumptions about him if he'd have told me, but nothing changed when he told me, he's still the same doof he was when I met him" she giggled. I raised my brow at her description of me. The others laughed, and I looked across to my mum, thankfully she was smiling at the two of us. I think I was in the clear.