"Hi, Dylan."
Kendall greeted him and asked, "Do you want some creamy egg risotto?"
She assumed that he was used to his sumptuous feasts and would not be enticed by her risotto.
"I only see one bowl of it, and yet you're asking if I would like a share. Are you going to give me that bowl if I say I want some?"
Kendall froze for a moment, but she smiled and said, "If you want to have it, then I'll give you this bowl and make another for myself."
"Then go and make another one. Mr. Miller, bring her bowl over."
Amos stepped forward at once and held his hand out. "I'll take the bowl, Young Mistress Kendall."
"...Alright," Kendall said after a pause.
She handed her bowl of freshly-made risotto over to Amos and watched as Amos returned to Dylan's side. Then, she heard him say, "Same place as always."
Amos passed the bowl to Ronnie before pushing Dylan out of the house.
When they were finally gone from her sight, Kendall muttered under her breath, "And here I thought he wouldn't give my risotto a second look, but instead, he even took the entire bowl away from me."
She smacked herself on the lips and chided herself, "Why did you have to blabber?"
There was none left in the pan, as she only made one serving.
She was too lazy to start cooking risotto all over again, so she decided to whip up a simple plate of stir-fried noodles.
By the time she finished her noodles, Dylan had come back to the house.
"Do you eat your meal at the pavilion every day?"
"You have a problem with that?"
"I wouldn't dare to," Kendall replied.
Dylan snorted. "You seem quite daring, in my opinion. You even managed to send my mother into a fit of rage after talking back to her. She made sure to complain to me the moment I came home."
"Your mother… is the one who's trying to make life difficult for me. She wanted to order me around like I'm some kind of unpaid housekeeper, so isn't it a given that I wouldn't let her get her way? If I backed down the first time she did, who's to say that I'll ever have a moment of peace again?"
Dylan's eyes were fixed on Kendall.
She had given him her hair clip, so her hair fell freely behind her. He was tempted to go over and tug at it.
"You should take a walk after dinner to help with your digestion."
Dylan abruptly changed the subject.
Kendall got the message and went behind his wheelchair to push him out. "Since you want to take a walk, you should get out of the wheelchair and walk by yourself. That way, you'll be training your muscles as well as preventing indigestion."
"What's the matter? Scorning the fact that I'm in a wheelchair?"
"Why must you always assume the worst of people? I'm saying this for your own good. You should exercise your muscles a little more and do more physical therapy. Only then will you be able to recover."
Dylan declared icily, "You can never tell what people truly think."
"You're the one who's hard to read. Trying to understand you is like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
Dylan's expression darkened.
Kendall was behind him and she could not see his expression, so she continued, "Isn't it so inconvenient to be stuck in a wheelchair? Don't you want to recover your mobility? With how handsome you are, the moment you start walking again, those women will fall at your feet once more."
"So what if I can walk again? No one would marry me if I still have that dysfunction. Only a silly girl like you would insist on marrying me."
The moment Kendall heard Dylan, she stopped moving. Dylan felt her moving closer to him, and he could smell the scent that emanated from her.
"Dylan, are you really impotent?"
Kendall asked in a low voice.
"What's the matter? Regretting your decision now?"
"What's there to regret? I told you. I don't care what you've become, and I won't regret anything."
Dylan snorted. "Then why did you cut your wrist back then?"
"That's… Well, after a brush with death, I realized that you're a pretty good guy. At least you're not a two-faced person who'd put up a mask in front of me, so I changed my mind."
Kendall had a small fright. This sly fox had nearly gotten her to spill the beans again.
Dylan scoffed but did not say anything.
Kendall continued to push him down the path as if nothing happened, but she thought to herself, So he's really impotent now, huh? I won't have to be worried about tempting him then.
Hahaha, I've found his weakness!
Suddenly, she saw a hair clip popping up in front of her.
"Take it and put your hair up. The wind's pretty strong, and you look like a ghost with your hair in a mess. It's quite scary."
Kendall was speechless.
Was it so hard to say something nice if he intended to give her a present?
What a sharp tongue.
If she ever heard something pleasant coming out of his mouth, she had better check to see if the sun rose from the west that day.
When she took the hair clip from him, she saw that it was from Chanel, which cost way more than what her old one did.
"Thank you."
"It was just the polite thing to do since you gave me one too."
Kendall chuckled and thought, Still so stubborn!
…
Jackson drove his car to the front entrance of his house and honked the horn. A few moments later, someone came out to open the door for him.
A few minutes later, he stepped into the house and heard the sound of people playing cards. His mother must have invited her friends over again. His eyes slowly filled with irritation, but by the time he went over to his mother, he had a pleasant smile on his face. Leaning in to take a look at her cards, he asked, "Mom, did you win a lot today?"
"Just a Louis Vuitton bag," Rosemi replied. She looked up at Jackson and asked, "You're home early. No business dinner tonight?"
"I arranged to meet my client at nine. It's still early, so I decided to come home and see you."
"You always say such sweet things."
Even though Rosemi could tell that he did not mean it, she was still pleased to hear it.
"Mom."
"Hang on, I'll talk to you once we're done playing cards."
Jackson chuckled. "Fine. I'll go upstairs and wash up first."
Rosemi made a sound of acknowledgment, and Jackson straightened up. He nodded at the other women in the room before heading upstairs.
Once he left, the other women began to ask questions. "Mrs. Whittle, I heard that Jackson wanted to marry that girl who just returned to the Parker Family?"
"You heard wrong, Mrs. Zucker. It's the Parker Family's daughter who fell in love with Jackson and shamelessly wanted to get married to him."
"Jackson is far too kind. He's willing to marry her so that he doesn't break her heart."
Rosemi waited for her friends to finish their criticisms before saying, "Kendall is a good girl. Even though she didn't grow up in the Parker Family, she's still a decent girl, and I'm fine with Jackson marrying her."
Kendall was the only blood-related daughter that the Parkers had, so the entire Parker fortune would most likely be going to her.
Furthermore, Kendall was completely in love with Jackson. If Jackson married her, then as long as Parker Corporation was handed to her, he would become the true owner of the company. This was why Rosemi was willing to go along with Jackson's plan to marry her.
"Your future daughter-in-law hasn't even joined the family yet, and you're already so protective, Mrs. Whittle," Mrs. Zucker teased. "I've met that girl before. She's quite pretty and carries herself fairly well. At least based on her looks, she does make a good match with Jackson."
"Jackson is also a good judge of character."
These women were observant enough to start singing Kendall's praises once they noticed Rosemi's attitude toward the marriage.
"Jackson has always had a good eye for people." Rosemi laughed. "I spoke to Mrs. Parker this morning to discuss when to go over for a formal proposal of marriage, but she hasn't responded to me yet. I suppose she needs to run it by Adam."
Just then, Rosemi's phone rang.
Once she picked it up and saw who was calling, she said to her friends, "Speak of the devil. It's Mrs. Parker who's calling."
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Love Knows No Bounds novel (Kendall and Dylan)
Beautiful story....