Bad girl

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen.

The silence when Rich and Lisbon spotted Libia was deafening. She found herself shrinking into Damon's hold as their cold stare bit at her.

"Dad, Mom, welcome home," Carol murmured quietly.

"Yes, thank you Carol," Rich said, his voice cool and collected, with no hint of affection for their youngest daughter.

And suddenly, Lisbon slapped a big, fake smile on her face.

"It's so nice to finally have you for dinner, ah...?"

"It's Libia, Mom, you know this," Damon half-growled.

Quickly, Libia trailed her fingers up his back, finding the familiar spot between his shoulder blades. As her fingers traced the line of his spine, he found himself relaxing without his consent. He almost shook his head in disbelief. The girl had more of a hold on him than he cared to admit to himself.

Libia forced herself to be bold as she smiled politely at the two that approached. "It's nice to see you both again." Of course she was lying through her teeth.

"Ah, yes, you as well," Rich told her, nodding his head, before turning to his oldest son.

"Jackson, did you manage to set up dinner?" He asked him.

It made Libia blink in the realization of the meaning of those words. They weren't polite, or even just a friendly question. They were demeaning and bordering on condescending - as if they didn't expect him to be able to, as if he were so below them that he bordered on being stupid.

She could feel her hands clenching, so she reached behind her and gripped Damon's shirt tightly. She could no longer keep her face polite, so she settled on keeping a smooth poker face.

Now it was Damon's turn to calm her down, sensing her want to speak up,  he moved his hand down to her arm and squeezed softly, before carefully rubbing up and down.

"As a matter of fact," Jack said, his face hard as he stared straight back at his father - accepting his challenge, "The roast is in the crockpot and has been since this morning."

Carol cleared her throat, squeezing her brother's hand once in a warning, before looking up. "It shood be ready in a few hours so...we should all go and sit on the back porch. I made lemonade."

They were all on edge as they watched them walk past, and when they dissapeared into the kitchen, the relief that relaxed everyones shoulders was palpable.

Letting out a deep breath, Carol looked over at Libia with a small smile. "I'll go and get the cups filled. Jack, will you help me?" She looked up at him.

He nodded, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced at Libia and Damon, who were standing close together. He noticed Libia's hand clasping Damon's shirt in a vice-like grip from behind, and met her eyes with a smile of his own.

"Next time, we should have dinner at your house - Damon says your mom and brother are great people," He murmured.

Libia found a smile on her lips as she nodded immediately in agreement. "It'll have to wait a bit though - my mother and brother are still recovering from that virus."

"Of course," Jack's eyebrows furrowed in worry.  "I hope they get over it okay."

She released Damon's shirt to wave a hand in dismissal. "They're fine. My mom's a soldier and my brother is too hyper to let something like this pull him down for long."

Chuckling at the truth of her words, Damon dropped his hand down and thread his fingers through hers.

"Well," Carol pulled on her brother's hand, leaning slightly around him as she said in an obvious voice, "We're gonna go...get the lemonade ready. You come on out back when...you're ready," She shot Damon a wink, before hightailing it out of the foyer, dragging a reluctant Jack along.