Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Darcy
M y parents were in full swing of embarrassing themselves in every way possible in front of two of the most influential people in the world, and part of me found relief in that. I loved that my parents could be real no matter who they were with.
It was pure comedy that Sebastian’s parents had shipped in food for Antonio to prepare to accommodate their stuck-up eating habits since that’s what Sebastian had done with his ridiculous, fancy tequila and remodeling the place so he could live amongst us comfortably. I found it intriguing that Sebastian was annoyed that his parents were exhibiting the same behaviors he had demonstrated.
“And for you, Se?orita Darcy,” Antonio said, setting my plate down minus the lamb because he knew I wouldn’t eat if he paid me to.
“This food smells so delicious, Antonio,” Mom said with delight. “I love that you can cook anything we bring into that kitchen and make it better than any other chef in the world.” She smiled warmly while Antonio went to the other side of the table where Sebastian’s parents and my dad sat.
The seating arrangements gave me a good laugh, too. I’m sure the Asters expected to have formal dining placements, with the two patriarchs seated at either end of the table, but my family didn’t give a damn about formality or patriarchy, for that matter. Certainly, the Asters must’ve felt like they were sitting at a backyard barbecue with all of us facing each other at the center of the table. They were probably expecting the food to be served on paper plates.
The energy exuding from Sebastian’s dad, who sat directly across from Sebastian, was palpable and filled with a thickness of growing agitation and masculinity that my father, bless his na?ve heart, kept breaking with lighthearted jokes.
“I see you’ve not taken the lamb. May I ask why?” Sebastian’s mother questioned, her piercing eyes studying me. She sat as straight as an arrow like she’d been planted on a stake. She looked as uncomfortable as hell but seemed perfectly relaxed in her rigid posture.
“I hate lamb,” I said without fear or apology. “I’ve yet to taste a bite of lamb that doesn’t remind me of a petting zoo.” I shrugged while both my parents laughed at my honesty.
“If I had known, I wouldn’t have requested the meal,” she said, as if I were visiting her house and her chef had wasted time preparing the food.
“There’s one thing you should know about me,” I said, sipping their wine, which tasted like any other wine in my honest, non-wine enthusiast opinion. “I don’t expect anyone to accommodate my needs, especially while eating. I’d rather everyone else enjoy the food, regardless of whether my taste buds like it.”
“That’s a promising thing to know,” his mother responded.
“Darcy is easy to please. That’s what you’ll love most about her being your wife,” my dad said to include Sebastian, utterly oblivious that Margot was attempting to make me look like a piece of shit for not eating the special food she’d requested.
“If you are easy to please,” Sebastian’s father spoke as he looked directly at me, his eyes identical to good old El Diablo’s before we had a similar exchange in this dining room, “then why can’t you be bothered to enjoy the lamb? Perhaps this would be the one dish you would enjoy?”
I heard Sebastian stiffen beside me, and I smiled to reassure him that this wasn’t bothering me. It’s exactly what I expected from his disapproving parents.
“I don’t want to insult Antonio,” I said, “and I’m not gagging down something I do not like to please anyone. Antonio is an outstanding chef, and he doesn’t deserve to see me looking disgusted by his food in front of my parents’ important guests.”
“How very considerate of you, my dear,” Margot said.
“You don’t like lamb?” Sebastian finally broke through his parents’ bullshit with some humorous shock in his voice.
“I hate lamb,” I said, wrinkling my nose at him with a smile as all the tension in the room faded. “That’s a far cry from grasshoppers in Mexico, eh?”
“Did Darcy have you try the chapulines, Sebastian?” my mother said with laughter.
“She did,” Sebastian answered, his dark expression broken up by the lighthearted humor of our memories in Mexico. “If that was on the menu tonight, I’d probably opt out the way Darcy did with the lamb.”
“No way,” I answered with a laugh. “You enjoyed them, especially when you dipped them in the guacamole like chips.”
“That’s the only way Darcy would eat them,” Billy laughed.
“Okay, enough about the food,” my mom interrupted, waving her hands. “I want to know exactly when you two got engaged. Who asked who?”
“I’m curious to know as well,” Margot said, focusing solely on Sebastian.
“No one really asked anyone,” Sebastian spoke before I could since I was trying to think up a lie to cover for that lie. “It just sort of happened.”
“It sort of happened ?” Mr. Aster practically seethed.
“Yes,” Sebastian confirmed, smiling humorously at me. “One moment, we were speaking about our sudden relationship, and the next moment, Darcy asked if we should take things to another level.”
“Interesting,” his mother said flatly.
“Yeah,” I said to Sebastian. “I was only testing you, you know?”
“And I matched your games, my love,” he smirked, then took another bite of his lamb.
“Testing and games,” Margot stated as if she were throwing up a bit in her mouth. “Entirely unlike you, Sebastian.”
“A lot of things have been entirely unlike me over the past year, as you well know,” Sebastian told her. “However, this version of me feels very alive and authentic.”
“Your authenticity has driven you to make thoughtless and spontaneous decisions,” Mr. Aster said. “While I appreciate you living with the Burkes and getting somewhat back to your old self before Melissa passed away, I also feel this family has rubbed off on you in a way that has the potential to be very hurtful to those who care about you.”
“How so?” I said, irritated this self-righteous fuck had so casually insulted my parents and me as if we weren’t present.
His gaze fell on me, and I returned it with as much disdain as I knew he felt for me.
“Simple. This entire business was failing when I invested in it. After numerous dinners with your father and learning his motivations when he purchased it, it was evident that it was done without a business plan or even an end game. As such, it failed, taking someone who makes thoroughly thought-out decisions, such as me, to save it. Nothing survives that is not driven with purpose.” He glanced back and forth between his son and me, “I assure you that if you’ve not taken the proper amount of time and care to plan your future, it will fail just the same. My son never does anything without carefully considering all angles before he makes decisions that affect himself and others’ well-being. I can only assume he has done so in this regard as well.”
“And I’m happier for it,” Sebastian said, but I couldn’t gauge his mood by the odd tone with which he’d just stated that.
“That’s all that matters,” my mother said. “That’s how love blossoms and grows, and I love that you two are just moving forward with your energies and accepting one another wholeheartedly.”
“I concur,” my dad said, his excitement matching my mom’s, whose energy was opposite of Sebastian’s parents’ energy. “Too many people waste away staying engaged for years or remaining miserable in marriages they planned and carefully considered . It’s why there are so many divorces.”
I had to cover my smile. My parents and their far-out way of thinking about love and everything in between couldn’t have been farther from the Aster’s views.
The funniest part was that while Sebastian and I were working our asses off to get everyone to believe this fake relationship, no one here was even questioning it. Who knew? Sebastian’s parents were hard to get a good read on, and my parents were gullible as fuck, so I was just going with the flow at this point.
“Speaking of the vineyards,” Sebastian said, his parents entirely focused on their food and no longer any of us. “Why were you preoccupied with visiting San Francisco while I was away for the last week?”
If looks could light a person on fire, Sebastian would’ve burst into flames when his father abruptly set his knife and fork to each side of his plate and leveled his son with the darkest stare the man could probably muster.
“I could send the exact question your way, Sebastian,” he started, “because I am very curious as to why you chose to take a last-minute vacation to Mexico when your mother and I were due to arrive to find out more about what was going on with you and your new relationship and to go over the vineyard’s business models.”
“The vineyard was fine without me here and having Jim Mitchell join us in Mexico allowed him and me to walk through the numbers while there. He and I have devised an excellent model we would like to see integrated moving forward,” Sebastian said, looking toward my dad in a friendlier manner than the look he’d just given his father.
“Mr. Mitchell has informed your father of the newest models, and he is very pleased,” Margot said while her husband virtually seethed beneath the surface of his skin. “That is why Mr. Mitchell will be flying here first thing tomorrow to go over the plans you derived on your vacation in Mexico.”
“Then, I’m unsure why I’m being questioned about visiting the country without my father’s permission,” Sebastian argued, his irritation bubbling on the surface.
“Because your mother doesn’t join me on business trips,” Sebastian’s dad stated in a low, calculated voice. “She merely came along to meet the woman who invited us here,” his eyes fell on me, “only for you to change your minds and plans at the last moment.”
I felt a full internal cringe at the memory of when I called this pissed-off man and told him to come out and see for himself that his son was in a happy relationship, only to have Sebastian change the plans at the last minute.
“Um,” I said, still at a loss for words.
Sebastian covered my clenched fist with his strong hand and smiled at me reassuringly. “She had no idea that I’d planned to take her to Mexico to announce to our friends that we were engaged,” Sebastian answered calmly, almost humorously. “It was very last minute, and there was no room for debate. I insisted we go, and though Darcy was devastated not to be here to receive both of you, she was fine with going.”
“I see you took enough care to invite your friends to announce your engagement. Perhaps you can inform your father and me when you had planned to announce this to both of us?”
“You found out the same way they all did, obviously.”
“John?” Sebastian’s father answered. “You mean to tell me your brother called and informed them?”
“No,” my mom finally spoke up, her cheerful voice cutting through all this insane back and forth. “That’s not how we found out, anyway.”
Margot’s lethal gaze went to my mom. “Pray tell, how did you learn of the news?”
“Oh, you know. We found out from social media just like the rest of the world,” my dad answered.
At that moment, the only sound to be heard was the clang of Margot and Sebastian Aster’s silverware dropping onto the table.
“Social media?” Sebastian’s dad growled, looking only at his son. “I see our family is a sudden joke to you now?”
Sebastian instantly stood, and I knew it was because his dad was about to unleash the demon that’d been thrashing inside him all throughout the dinner.
“If you will please excuse my parents and me. I believe we must have a discussion before words are said at this table that cannot be taken back,” Sebastian said.
His dad rose. The sharply dressed, silver-haired man who matched the same dominating height as Sebastian reached down for his wife’s delicate hand, which she refused to give.
“I am not leaving this table,” Margot snapped. “I have not finished my meal.”
“Mother, we should take this conversation in another room to have the privacy that the situation calls for,” Sebastian said.
“And for what?” she said menacingly. “So that they are not insulted for believing the asinine notion that they might be married into our family?”
“Precisely,” Sebastian countered.
This family was in one hell of a situation for a fantastic write-up in my gossip column magazine. Too bad the repercussions of writing about them would most likely land my ass in jail after they dug something up to destroy my life.
“I feel they should learn exactly what they are marrying into,” Margot said.
“Margot, let us retire to another room. Sebastian has done enough to cause embarrassment for the family for at least a decade with all the foolish decisions he’s been making since sending him out here for business and not pleasure.”
“I will see you later this evening,” Sebastian said with a warm smile.
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Isn’t that what your brother said to Mickie when they were dating before she didn’t see him for a year?” I whispered into his ear after he bent to hug me.
“I’m not my brother, lover,” he said before he gave me a quick kiss on my neck. Then, all three Asters were marching out of the room, leaving my parents and me staring at each other with wide eyes.
“What in all creation is that boy up against with his parents?” my dad questioned.
“I don’t think any of us want to know,” I answered.
“And you’re okay with marrying into that, sweetheart?” my mom asked, somewhat annoyed. “Don’t get me wrong, I see that your love has grown since the last time I saw the two of you, but it’s gonna take something a whole lot stronger than love to keep you wanting to remain with him and those people.”
“You’re positively right about that,” I answered, biting into the now-cold vegetables on my plate. “I swear, how can anyone live like that? Ordering your child around as if they are your property?”
“You feel that way because we raised you the opposite,” my dad said, leaning back with his wine glass after finishing every last bite on his plate, not allowing the tense atmosphere to derail him from enjoying his dinner. “If you marry this young man, you must promise yourself that you will not conform to that strange family’s controlling behavior.”
“Or the next thing you know,” my mom added, sipping her wine, “you’ll be an alcoholic, prescription drug abuser and probably snorting cocaine just to care for my precious grandchildren in all that chaos.”
“Let’s not be wildly outrageous, Mom, okay?” I said, smiling at my parents and picking up my plate. “Now, I’m going to the kitchen to heat this up and finish eating there. If you both want to know how Mexico was, ditch that French wine and come get the real booze flowing with me, Antonio, and Ines.” I laughed when my parents shot up from their seats, giggling and pretending to scramble to beat me inside. “I’ve missed you guys like crazy. Are the kids here, or are they still at summer camp?” I asked, not having seen Antonio and Ines’ kids since school let out.
“They won’t be back until next week. They met some friends at camp who invited them to another camp at Big Bear,” Mom said. “I’m sure they’ll hate to have to come home one of these days, but when they do, they’ll sure be surprised to learn what their favorite person has been up to.”
“I’m thankful they’re not around any of this bullshit,” I said, placing my plate in the microwave and heating it up. “I have a feeling that things won’t be getting any better.” I looked at Mom and Dad while I rummaged through the fridge, looking for some leftover carne asada or carnitas…any protein because I was starving. “Besides, I want to know why the hell you guys were up in San Francisco with those two and how all of that went.”
God only knew what was going on between our parents before we came home, but if Sebastian’s parents had been anything like they were tonight, I would be fucking livid. My parents were very good-natured people and didn’t deserve anything but kindness in return.
Sebastian’s parents, on the other hand, seemed to hand out death sentences to anyone who dared to speak to their children without their permission, so I could only imagine what they had in mind for someone who was attempting to marry one.