Addicted: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance(67)

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."

His grin softened, and he nodded in acknowledgement. "Yeah, you're right about that. And of course, she has the world's best daughter too. Thank you again for coming early, honey."

"No problem. Uh John, I don't want to touch on a sensitive subject, but when is Julian arriving?"

John chuckled sadly. Julian was Johnathan's only true weakness. For years, he'd endured hatred and spite from his only son and heir because of the lies his first wife had brainwashed Julian with. I'd seen some of the letters and e-mails John had gotten from Julian over the years, he never threw out any of them. Despite all the pain and the angry words, John treasured anything his son sent him, to the point he even still wore the cufflinks he'd gotten from Julian for Father's Day when Julian was five years old. Despite it all, Johnathan refused to tell Julian the truth about his mother, not wanting to shatter his relationship there as well. "He told my office assistant that he'd be arriving two days before the ceremony. If he shows up, it would be great."

"He won't stand with you, will he?"

John shook his head, and pulled me in for a hug. "It's okay. I know you'll be there for Sandra, and that's important too. I got your uncle Keith to stand in as my best man, and there's a few guys I know from business and around the area who said they'd be groomsmen."

"Okay. Well, it looks like your wedding planner has sat in the sun stewing long enough. I'll let Yuki take me upstairs to unpack, and let you get back to what you were doing. Seriously Johnathan, it's great to be here. Thank you."

"No, thank you sweetie."

Johnathan went back to his work with Roberta the wedding planner, while I turned and left with Yuki.



Chapter 4