Page 23 of Mr. Aster
John:I thought I’d check in and see if you’re still alive after being forced to live in California.
I grinned at my baby brother’s text. John was an OBGYN oncologist at Saint John’s Hospital in LA, and he cemented a respectable name for himself, making the family proud after all his successes and publications in various medical journals. John had had a rough run with the family for a while, and I wasn’t proud of myself for my part in that, trying to pull him away from his life in LA and his now wife, Mickie.
Our parents raised us to focus on furthering the family’s legacy, but John bucked at tradition and snuck out the back door, pursuing a life of his own as a doctor and living in California. It didn’t blow over well for a long time, and it wasn’t until I lost Melissa that we all realized life was too short to let our stubbornness keep us apart. After all, we were Asters, which was more important than anything.
Sebastian:This whole thing is a disaster. I haven’t talked to our father since last week when I told him how bad off this place was, from the debts to the fact that it needs a complete overhaul.
John:Ah, well, I just got off the phone with the old man, and I’m doing my brotherly duty by inviting you to visit me here while my bride is away, visiting her parents. Well, that, and I’m bored. Maybe I’ll visit our family’s latest and greatest investment instead?
I wasn’t going to sit here and text all night when a phone call would clear this up faster, so I called my brother instead, and he answered on the first ring.
“What’s up? I was fine with texting,” John said with humor.
“Yeah, well, you know me. I’d rather not play on my phone. I prefer a five-minute phone conversation than a twenty-minute text message exchange.”
“Right, and that is why no one ever pinned you for being the fun one in the family,” he said with a laugh.
“Listen, I can’t make it down. I’m buried in shit up to my fucking eyeballs at this place. I think our parents assigned me to do this as punishment.”
“Our parents, the ones you still allow to control your sorry ass, always have some form of punishment in mind whenever they are allowed to dictate what we do with our lives.”
“That’s your opinion, not mine. They weren’t punishing you by expecting you to live your life as you were raised.”
“I hope you just understood what you said out loud to me,” he chuckled. “No one gets to have expectations about how someone else lives their life.”
“John, I’m not getting into this with you again. You’re the baby of the family, and Mark’s life is off the rails, and because of that, I have no other option but to keep our family’s businesses alive by taking everything on by myself.”
“Spare me the guilt trip and your big brother manipulation tactics,” he said dryly. “You can live your life any way you deem fit. If you think you’ve got to be the future king and keep the wealth going—as if it will ever run out—then so be it. Be the prince you are, do our parents’ bidding, and don’t complain to me that they are punishing you. You’re not being punished; you’re living the dream as the eldest child of Sebastian the Third and Margot Aster.”
“I’m thankful I declined your invitation,” I said with annoyance.
“That’s a shitty thing to say to your little brother who knows for a fact that what you’re doing right now is far from the punishment you’re probably about to receive.”
“What are you going on about now?” I questioned with a roll of my eyes, sobering up from the tequila that’d fully relaxed me a moment ago.
“Well, I was on Jake Mitchell’s yacht yesterday. I only went for the one night since Mickie had to fly out early this morning.”
“Jake Mitchell? You’re talking about Jim’s brother, the doctor?”
“Yes, Dr. Mitchell, my colleague and friend?”
“And?”
“Anyway,” he said with a bit of humor in his voice, “Jake and Jim’s wives were there conversing with a lovely, beautiful woman.”
“You’re not setting me up with anyone out here,” I said, wanting the conversation to end now that I knew the real reason John had gotten in touch.
“No, no,” he laughed. “Though, I am trying to prevent that with this call.”
“Stop fucking around and get to the point. If you want to prevent me from being set up with alovely, beautifulwomanseven hours away, then I think you’re in the clear. So, get to it, and tell me why you are talking about this at all?”
“Okay, calm down, big guy,” he said. “I was only wondering if you’d met her. Her name is Darcy Burke.”
Dear God, what is Darcy Burke doing hanging around my baby brother…and the Mitchells?
“What the hell with that woman?” I questioned. “I think she’s a gold digger or something. First, she’s talking about Maxwell Barbison with her mother in their kitchen, and now, she’s chumming it up with all of you on Jake Mitchell’s yacht?”
“She’s friends with both Mitchells’ wives, and now mine, apparently. She’s quite the firecracker,” he said, finding all this humorous.
