Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Sebastian
T o say that shit was about to hit the fan and explode all over this home’s dining room once we all gathered for dinner in less than ten minutes would probably be an understatement.
“Aren’t you going to trailblaze this shit and meet up with your parents before we start dinner?” Darcy asked, coming out of the bathroom and wearing a long, flowing red skirt with a white lace bandeau top.
“Goddamn, you look gorgeous,” I said, walking over to her and running my hand over her exposed, tanned stomach.
My lips touched hers briefly before they worked their way to her jawline, prompting a soft moan that encouraged me to taste her delicious coconut, strawberry, and vanilla body spray freshly spritzed onto her neck.
Her fingers came up, and she ran them through my hair before tenderly kissing my head. I relaxed into the gesture, absorbing the sweetness of the moment while my hands rested on her sides and my head against her chest.
“I can stay like this forever,” I admitted. “I hate that we have to go deal with this.”
“No more than I do,” she said, pulling back and bringing my eyes to meet hers. “Of course, my parents are always a great time and easy to deal with. The only shit I’m expecting to get from them is about how they found out we were engaged from someone other than me. Other than that, things are all good on my side.”
“I assure you that my parents will be on their best behavior,” I informed her, smiling down into her sparkling blue eyes.
She arched an eyebrow at me. “Unless you spoke to a psychic and they told you that, I wouldn’t be too confident, buddy.” She exhaled with a smile, but I could sense her nervousness.
“As I said, just pretend that we’re back to the fake relationship status, and you’ll be fine,” I coached her.
“Easy for you to say. You’re not me, dealing with feelings I do not want to have.”
“You don’t want to have feelings for me?” I teased, but I was becoming concerned that she might start fighting this.
“No,” she said, and I could only laugh in response to her honesty. “I really don’t. It’s stressful enough, trusting a man with my emotions, but it’s worse knowing it’s you who I’ve allowed myself to go down this road with.”
“Well, you don’t have a thing to worry about with me. I’ve never felt this happy, and I don’t plan on losing any of this.” I bent to kiss her lightly on her nose, “More importantly, I don’t plan on losing the woman who made my happiness possible… you. ”
It was a well-known fact to me now, and I wouldn’t let anything ruin what Darcy and I found in this unexpected craziness.
I snatched her hand before we could have another moment to concern ourselves about what awaited us downstairs. I was more curious about what might be playing out between our parents than I was about their reactions to us. It amused me to think of what we were about to walk into after they’d spent the past few days together in San Francisco.
“Se?or Aster,” Antonio greeted us first, and his expression was lively.
It was a good sign that the chef was still happy when my parents were in the home. However, maybe they just hadn’t yet had the chance to meet him and ruin his self-esteem by insulting his food.
That’s when the smell of lamb filled my senses, and I couldn’t resist asking about the menu for tonight. My mom’s favorite food was being prepared, which was enough to make me roll my eyes.
“Do I smell lamb?” I asked.
“Se?ora Aster has requested it, and I am happy to accommodate,” he said graciously. “Your father had lamb from Mont Saint Michel flown in for the meal I’ve been honored to prepare this evening.”
My parents were too fucking much. They’d asked Antonio to recreate one of my mother’s favorite dishes, prepared by Chef Alain Passard at Arpège, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Paris. Antonio was referring to the lamb from the Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, known for its rich flavor because the sheep grazed in the salt marshes.
“Allow me to make a wild guess,” I said, hearing Darcy rightfully sigh. “You’ll be serving the leg, roasted to a perfect pink, with an oyster emulsion and perhaps a selection of grand cru vegetables and potato puree?”
It wasn’t necessarily my mother’s favorite meal, but I knew what was happening here. My mom was putting pressure on Antonio, the chef brought in from Mexico and revered amongst the Burke family. Margot would never accept such treatment of a staff member. The staff members were her servants, and she wouldn’t dare fraternize with any of them. I was wholly put off by my mother’s audacity to demand the chef prepare what she wanted, the way she wanted it, and with the ingredients she chose, and then I realized why Darcy had found me so rude when I arrived. I’d been no better than my mother.
“Of course, Se?or,” he answered with a smile, pots steaming in the background while Ines was pulling together the last of the meal. “Combining the lamb’s natural flavors with the minerality of the oyster sauce makes for an exquisite meal. I do hope it meets everyone’s expectations this evening.”
“Well, if it does not,” I smiled at him, “rest easy knowing that I’ll be begging you to make some of your delicious mole to replace my mother’s rudely requested meal.”
I felt Darcy laugh at my side, probably because she knew I finally understood how rude and entitled I’d been when I arrived.
“Your family has also requested the French Syrah they had flown in to accompany the food.”
That’s when I exhaled in utter annoyance, “It’s one thing to order a particular, special tequila to unwind with, but it’s entirely another thing to stay at a winery you own and still order special wine from the Rh?ne Valley to complement the lamb.”
“I am merely serving what was requested, Se?or,” Antonio stated.
“I’m not trying to shoot the messenger here, Antonio. I’m just pointing out that while I was a rude bastard upon my arrival, I can see I’m no match for my parents.”
“Would you expect anything less?” Darcy finally spoke up after Antonio nodded and quickly dismissed himself to plate the food.
“Honestly, I sort of did,” I admitted, guiding her toward the dining hall. “I thought my parents would be out of their element and thrown off once they arrived.”
“Well, don’t forget, they haven’t been here the entire time. I don’t think they have had a proper introduction to my parents yet, and it’s obvious my mom hasn’t given your mom any spiritual yoga sessions.”
I forced a smile in response, but I was internally shaking my head. My parents believed they were above everyone else, and they never pulled shit like this unless their status felt threatened in some way. How my parents could meet Darcy’s parents and feel threatened enough to order in from another fucking country was the question I needed an answer to.
“Darling,” my mother said, the first to greet us when we walked into the dining area, needing to remain in superior control of the evening. “You look well.”
I stepped to the side, avoiding her usual greeting of air kisses to each of my cheeks, and I turned to look at Darcy, forcing my mother to bring her attention to the stunning woman standing at my side.
I smiled at the simplicity and beauty of Darcy. Her hair was shimmering in its relaxed golden blonde waves, softly flowing down the center of her back, while my mother’s coiffed hair was as stiff and bleak as her personality.
“Allow me to introduce you to Miss Darcy Burke,” I said, bringing the back of Darcy’s hand to my lips. I looked at my mother’s fake smile, knowing the woman was holding her shit together the best way she knew how when her insides must’ve been raging like a hurricane. “As I know you are aware, she is the?—”
“A pleasure,” my mother purposefully interrupted me and stared intently at Darcy while clasping her hands together. “I’ve been made aware that you’ve stolen my handsome son’s heart. Not just that,” she looked at me with a cold and affectionate smile, “but that he intends to marry you?” She finished by bringing her calculated expression back to Darcy.
“Oh, great. You’re all caught up, then,” Darcy said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Aster.” She looked toward the table where everyone was silently watching this weird exchange, “I look forward to meeting Sebastian’s dad, too.”
“Forgive me,” my mother said with a touch of snark. “I thought we might be properly introduced before I passed you off so abruptly.”
“Why don’t we join everyone who is staring at us while we rudely stand here and make introductions without them?” I seethed to my mother, who was trying to start something I would not allow her to finish.
“As you both wish,” she said as if this was her home, not the Burke’s.
It was refreshing to see that Billy and Tina were wearing their usual casual wear, the same as their daughter, and that nothing had changed with them to impress my parents. That was probably why my mother ordered a fucking Michelin-star meal to be cooked using saltmarsh munching lambs and the tears of seventeenth-century French monks. She was bothered by the fact that she couldn’t intimidate this family. I smiled, loving everything that’d bugged me about these people from before, from their natural way of wanting everyone to love each other to their constant desire to be happy and get along with everyone.
This would be an interesting dinner, to be sure.
“My sweet girl,” Tina said, breaking all sense of propriety my mother was trying to establish by being the first to greet the two of us. “You are glowing and radiant, and you will tell me about this engagement I only heard of because Ines and the kids have all those social media Snapgrams and Instachats.”
I grinned, keeping my eyes on Darcy. I knew Tina was sending my mother’s nerves on a downward and frantic spiral, and I was living for this moment.
“We can talk about it later, Mom,” Darcy chuckled.
“And you, my handsome future son,” Tina said to me, bringing her hands up to my face unexpectedly and kissing each cheek, a gesture that would’ve customarily irritated the shit out of me; however, knowing it was setting my parents down on their asses helped me to appreciate it that much more. “That you got the girl I love with all my heart to trust you with hers is the most wonderful news I’ve ever heard. You will tell me how all of this happened.”
“Tina, my love, you are always so full of sunshine, but please sit down and allow Darcy and Sebastian to join us at the table,” Billy laughed, bringing my attention to my father’s solemn gaze. It looked like he was intently studying the corpse at a funeral,
“Lovely to see you, Mr. Burke,” I acknowledged the friendly man while pulling out Darcy’s chair for her to sit in, then carefully sitting at her side and bringing my attention to the last man in the room I cared to speak to. “Father, it is nice to see you looking well.”
“Likewise,” he said, leaning back while Ines poured the wine for us.
When Ines arrived at me, I covered the glass to reject it, sending the impression to my dad that I wasn’t going to participate in this bullshit move he pulled, importing French wine to dinner at a goddamn California winery.
“Is there a problem with the wine?” my father said, most likely chomping at the bit for a combative moment between him and me.
He wanted me alive, right? He’d wanted to get his son back in the game and ready to take over the family business when he was worried I wouldn’t have what it took after losing Melissa. Well, he was about to see that I was back, and he had the stunning gem at my side to thank for that.
“Yes, indeed, there is,” I answered.
“Please, inform us,” my father said, and everyone seemed to disappear as we intently focused on each other. “What could be the problem with the perfect wine to complement this meal that your mother requested?”
“The fact that you’re sitting in a winery you invested in and making the presumption that its wines cannot enhance the flavors of the meal. Instead, you brought in a foreign wine.”
“It was your mother’s choice,” my dad answered coldly.
“Happy wife, happy life,” Billy said, all smiles and shockingly not insulted by what my parents were trying to pull on everyone at this table.
“And if you know that,” Tina said, leaning over to reach eye contact with me from where she sat to the right of Darcy, “this marriage will work out flawlessly.”
“If you will not drink the wine I’ve chosen for this dining experience, what will you drink, my dear son?” my mother said in a tone I knew was condescending, but everyone else probably thought it sounded like she was concerned.
I looked at Ines, who seemed to be waiting for my response. Saying I would stick to drinking water would make me seem like a little bitch, and I was not about to go down that road.
“I prefer the 2017 Cabernet from our vineyard,” I said with a smile.
“ Delicious choice,” Billy added. Typically, his personality would’ve been irritating, but I appreciated it right now. “Next time, you need to try that one. That was a good year for the estate and one of our preferred cabernets,” Billy said, speaking to my father, but the man’s eyes were like dead fisheyes, deep set in their dark irises and focused solely on me.
“Dinner is served,” Antonio said, breaking the icy dark, ominous cloud of my father’s threatening gaze.
The night and dinner were just getting started, and once we broke free of all the distractions at this dinner table, my father would have his talk with me. Little did he know that I was prepared for his bullshit. The young bull was about to take on the old bull of the family, and this time, I was prepared to win that battle and get this power struggle that’d gone on too long between my father and me out of the way.