Stepbrother Bad Boy's Baby Boxed Set(5)

Part of what worried me was that in every picture of Julian Castelbon I'd ever seen, physically he was the sort of guy I was into. Tall, dark haired, with the same sort of Nordic skin and features that made me think that in the Castelbon family tree there was a distinct Viking bloodline somewhere. The picture of him throwing down with that rapper's pose, his tank top torn off and his muscles rippling, had sat uncomfortably in my mind for weeks. If I had any safety, it was in the fact that by all accounts, he was a total selfish *. I'd worked around enough of those in the culinary world that I didn't need to worry about dealing with that in my personal life as well.

Ringing the doorbell, I was greeted by Yuki, John's.... well, I never have quite figured out what to call Yuki. A beautiful Japanese woman, she in a lot of ways would be considered a butler, if her name were Alfred, if she were British, and if she were a man. Still, she ran the house well, and John depended on her to take care of keeping Castelbon Manor in top condition. "Ah, Krystal, how are you?" Yuki greeted me. That was another thing I liked about John, he never insisted on formality unless it was some society function sort of thing. Yuki had extended the same comfortable familiarity with me, a sign that she respected me. It was only with people she didn't like that she used the words mister or miss. "I hope your flight from Chicago went well?"

"Of course it did Yuki, thanks for asking. And how is Lizette?" By the way, Yuki is a lesbian. Kudos to John for hiring a Japanese lesbian as the person to run the manor in super conservative New England.

"We're both ecstatic. With the new court rulings, well, you know." I did know. The culinary industry has a high percentage of gays and lesbians too, and there'd been a lot of proposals and stuff like that over the past few months. "It is good to see you. How long after the wedding will you stay?"

"Only a few days," I said with real regret. Yuki was a little more than ten years older than me, and she really was nice. I wish I could have gotten to see her more often. "I got selected to be on a team for Iron Chef America."

"Really? Congratulations! If you can, can you get Masaharu Morimoto's autograph? My uncle in Kyoto is a big fan of his, even back in his days competing in the Japanese version."

"I'll see what I can do. Is John or my Mom around?"

"Yes, of course. John is in the back talking with the wedding planner. Sandra is in town, however. She's getting last minute adjustments to her dress. By the way, what will you be wearing?"

The two of us walked through the foyer to the entrance to the main garden. In my opinion, calling a property that is roughly the size of Central Park a garden is the height of understatement, but they've done a great job with it. Once you get past the first hundred and fifty feet or so of English manicured garden style stuff, John's let the area be a mix of hardwood maples and open patches of grass. John was standing in the middle of the manicured area, chatting with who I assumed was the wedding planner. On that note, why is it every wedding planner I've ever met wears a polyester blend suit, even if they're going around outside? "John!"

John turned and his grin threatened to dislocate his jaw. He's not super tall, just a shade over six feet, but he had the sort of debonair handsome look that I totally understood why Mom found him attractive. He kind of looked like Harrison Ford did when he was about fifty, although Johnathan Castelbon has a lot more silver around his temples. The sexy kind of silver too, not that sickly white of an old man. He kept himself in decent shape from what I could see, and Mom said he could still rip it up on the slopes when he wanted. "Krystal!" he said, totally ignoring the wedding planner to come over and give me a big hug. "I'm so glad you could make it early. Sandra is going nuts, and having you around would be very helpful."

"It's good to be here, Johnathan," I said. It was another thing I liked about him. While he treated me with affection and care, I could tell he had no need for me to call him Dad or Daddy. "What's Mom going crazy over?"

"Just nerves, and all the people coming in. I'm glad Yuki is here to help us, but I had no idea just how much political games went on when a Castelbon married a Hepburn. Roberta here is still trying to figure out the seating."

I just shook my head and smirked. "You know Johnathan, you could have just done a quiet personal ceremony. Mom wouldn't have minded. Me neither, for that matter. You know I'm not into this whole society scene."

"No way," he said with a sheepish grin. "My first two marriages were done low key and on the fly, and see how they turned out. Maybe I'm just being stupidly superstitious, but there's no way in hell I'm putting myself through that again. Three strikes and you're out, as the old saying goes."

"Really?" I laughed. "Tell that to Elizabeth Taylor. But seriously John, you have nothing to worry about. There's one big difference between my Mom and your two ex-wives."

"What's that?"

"Mom." It was a true statement. One of the things I did after Mom told me she was dating Johnathan was to do my research. I'm a little overprotective of my mother. In both instances, John had been taken advantage of by some gold digging types. His first wife had cooked up some accusations of mental abuse and adultery that even the court didn't believe, and had in fact hit her up with a contempt of court charge that landed her in jail for twenty days. Johnathan had still been taken to the cleaners since the couple lived in California at the time, a no-fault divorce state that had given her half of the marital assets they'd gathered in the eleven years they were together, although he fought tooth and nail getting custody of Julian, which back in those days was a rarity. His second wife hadn't waited as long when she realized that she wasn't going to be putting out a little heir to the Castelbon riches (rumors were she was infertile, but honestly who knows), and ditched him after only three years. Twice bitten, most people thought Johnathan would be content living the life of a bachelor for the rest of his days, until he met Mom. "Mom's different."