Love Beyond Words (City Lights, #1)(53)
“Thanks, honey. I’m happy for you too.”
#
The following Sunday, her day off, Julian was to spend the night at her apartment. He arrived just as she was checking her mail. She started to lead him up the stairs but he held back.
“I want to meet them. Niko and his wife.”
Natalie hesitated, a strange pang of anxiety twisting her stomach. “Okay. If you want.” Maybe they won’t be in today.
To her dismay, both Niko and Petra were in the café. The jolly Greek man nearly shook Julian’s arm out of its socket before deciding a bear hug was more appropriate.
Petra pinched Julian’s cheeks. “Look at this gorgeous boy, Natalia! Those eyes!” She then pulled his face close to hers and said, “You treat her good, yes? Or I come and find you.”
Natalie was mortified, but Julian smiled with genuine affection and they chatted for a bit before Natalie was finally able to extricate him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, once inside her apartment.
“Nothing, it’s just…weird.”
“Why?”
“It just is.”
“They’re in love with you. That’s obvious. They’d adopt you if they could. If you’d let them,” he added gently.
“I suppose.” She sat on the couch and picked up the closest book, flipping it open absently.
“Natalie...”
“Would you replace your mother?” she snapped and then shook her head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just…I don’t want to talk about it.”
Julian glanced at the ski trip photo on her bookshelf. “You’ve never told me about them. About the accident.”
“Why would I?”
“To let it out. To lance the wound.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.” He sat down beside her on the couch. “Don’t let the feelings fester—”
“It’s not just feelings…”
“It’s pain, and I hate to see you suffer it. Let it go.” He took her hands. “You can tell me.”
“It’s not as simple as that, Julian,” she said, snatching her hands away. “It’s not like they got killed and it hurts and I don’t want to talk about it. That’s bad enough, but it’s more than that. I can’t talk about it because not talking about it is what keeps me from remembering.”
“Remembering…?”
“I was there,” she said slowly. Getting even this close to the memory was dangerous. She could feel the tight knot of it writhe like a nest of snakes. “It’s not like I got a bad phone call or a cop showing up at my door. I saw it. I saw it but it’s in bits and pieces and if I talk about it, they’ll come together. And I don’t know what will happen if I see that again.”
“You’ll be okay,” he said. “You’ll be better. You’ll go through it and come out the other side. I know you will.”
“Better,” she said. “I can’t imagine it. And I’m scared.” She met his eyes. “I’m just not ready. Okay?”
“Okay. And when you are, I’ll be here for you.”
Natalie moved back into his embrace. “Thank you, Julian. That’s all I need.”
#
On Wednesday—solely because Julian wanted badly for them to get along—Natalie found herself having lunch with David Thompson.
They sat across from each other at a sidewalk table at the Crepevine, her favorite brunch spot in her neighborhood, and chatted, haltingly, about the only thing they had in common besides accounting. But even before their food arrived, Natalie itched to leave and struggled to banish the nervy disquiet that hummed along her skin from being in David’s presence.
“Julian is something special, isn’t he?” David said. “I’m lucky to call him a friend. And he’s lucky to have me, if I don’t say so myself.” He laughed. “He has no head for numbers—can’t take care of his own money at all. I mean, royalties will only get you so far. I made the bulk of his fortune for him with smart investments.”
Natalie smiled faintly. “His money’s in good hands.”
“It is, though I’d like to think I do more than count his pennies. An accountant and personal assistant…Hell, even his interior decorator!”
“You designed his apartment?” Natalie sipped her iced tea. That explains a lot.
“I did! Do you like it? It needed serious attention and Julian was too busy working on a book. The one about some village queen with a deformed hand?”
“Coronation,” Natalie said thinly. She thought reducing that masterpiece to one sentence was like saying The Great Gatsby was about ‘a rich white guy,’ but bit her tongue to keep from saying so.
David shrugged and laughed. “Right. He was up to his eyeballs in that so he let me redo the place. And good thing too. Julian thinks crown molding is something that happens at the dentist!” He laughed uproariously.
Natalie managed a smile. “It’s very lovely, though not...what I expected he would like.”
“Oh, it was all his idea. I mean, I worked on the particulars, but Julian was very clear about the overall theme. He wanted something kind of cold and…aloof.”