Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Aubrey

"You are. Un. Real."

Sonja threw up her hand as she glanced over her shoulder at me. "What? There isn't!"

I looked over the granite countertop of the huge kitchen island I was sitting at into the open refrigerator she was standing in front of. A fridge that was easily as big, if not bigger, than the ones I'd worked with when I was bussing tables at Denny's. And this was in her frickin' kitchen , not back of house in a restaurant.

It was full of food. More food than everyone here could consume in a month. And she was complaining there was nothing to eat.

"Sonya… right there, in front of you… what's that?"

"This?" She pointed to the serving plate with a clear cover over it, exactly like you'd find in a restaurant.

"Yes."

She removed the guard for a second, leaning in. "It's… veal marsala, I think"

I spread my hands. "Well?"

"Eww!" She scrunched her nose in distaste. "Leftovers? No way!"

"Oh. My. God." I shook my head in disbelief. "Are you for frickin' real?"

"We," she replied pointedly, "are not in the dorm right now, and that means I do not have to settle for leftovers."

I sat back on my stool at the counter. "Wait… so you're telling me the only time you've ever eaten leftovers is at school?"

"Why would I?" she answered with an actual look of astonishment. "When I'm home, there should be food in the fridge! And if not, I can order it!"

I leaned my head back and groaned. "I have literally seen you eat cold pizza slices for breakfast straight out of a box that's been sitting on our coffee table for two entire days , and you won't eat leftover veal marsala for lunch here in your own home? For the love of god… why?"

"I shouldn't have to," she huffed in reply.

"I… I have no words for you."

Sonja closed the refrigerator door with a thunk and turned to face me, arms crossed. "If you're through dissing me, I'm going to Uber Eats something for lunch. What would you like?"

"Umm… veal marsala. And guess what"—I thrust my hand toward the fridge—"I don't have to wait! It's already here!"

"What. Ever."

I loved Sonja like a sister, and during the three years we'd attended UC Davis together she'd been as fierce a friend as any person could hope for. She'd gotten me through Calc 401, Chem 435, Professor Mandelson's Advanced Spectrometry class, two failed relationships, three terrible one-too-many-Cosmos hookups with fuckboys I still couldn't believe I'd let myself give into… and every step of the way she'd been the grounded, pragmatic, no-nonsense person I needed.

And yet the minute we'd stepped through the front door of her father's mansion, she'd turned into a literal fricking princess. And not the Disney kind either.

As she tapped away at her phone ordering food she didn't need, I looked around the kitchen once again. I'd come here on break at her invitation, not really knowing what to expect. I wasn't from California, and prior to arriving here I hadn't even heard of Dana Point. We'd gotten in at night, but even then, I could tell this place was fancier than anything I'd ever been at in Michigan. The gated entrance opening to a road winding up a hillside, the curved drive that ended at the front of a mansion straight out of a scene from a movie… Everything I'd thought I'd known about Sonja had been woefully short of the reality. What I'd seen when she'd ushered me beyond the front door had only reinforced that, and when she'd introduced me to the tall, dark-haired, and incredibly handsome man standing just inside the doorway as her father, well…

Sonja had led a double life, and I was still discovering the depth of it.

For the next twenty minutes, I rummaged through the fridge looking at the food that could easily provision a restaurant while Sonja waited for her lunch order to arrive. I ended up with the plate of marsala that I popped into a microwave big enough to cook a Thanksgiving turkey. It took several minutes of stabbing my finger at the little touchscreen to get it to work, but finally I got the thing going and my food heated up. When hers arrived, we sat down across from each other at the island counter, eating in companionable silence.

After taking an enormous bite of the panini she'd ordered, she made a theatrical groan of pleasure, shooting me a smug look as she swallowed.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered. Before she could tease me any further about my leftovers, I decided to quiz her about something I'd been curious about since we'd arrived.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Have I ever stopped you before?"

"Taylor Par?—"

She thrust up a finger. "Oh, no. No, no, no. We're not having that conversation again."

"Okay, that wasn't what I wanted to ask anyways."

"Then, what?"

"All of this…" I gestured with my hand to the entire mansion around us. "What does your dad do to be able to afford all of this?"

Sonja tilted her head. "That's what you wanted to ask?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "I dunno… just curious, I guess. I mean, it's gotta be something pretty substantial to pay for a place like this, not to mention the ginormous Uber Eats bills you clearly run up when you're home."

"Oh, ha fucking ha," she replied with a scowl.

"No, seriously"—I spread my hands—"is he a… CEO or something? A hedge fund manager? Or… maybe an inheritance baby?"

Sonja gave a sharp shake of her head. "He's definitely not an inheritance baby."

"Okay, sooo… c'mon, tea?"

She braced her elbows on the counter, chin in her hand. "Let's just say he's in… business."

"Business." I shook my head. "That's a pretty broad field, Sonya."

"The acquisitions business," she supplied.

"Acquiring…?" I drew out the word, cocking an eyebrow.

"Things."

"Things." I wasn't sure why she wanted to play this game, but I wasn't giving up now. "Oookaay… and what kind of things would those be?"

"The money-making kind I don't pry into," she answered with an end-of-discussion tone.

"You don't know what he does, do you?"

Sonja slumped, rolling her eyes. "Sure. Let's go with that."

The tap of footsteps brought both our heads around at the same time.

"Afternoon, ladies."

I swallowed. It was Sonja's father. As he smoothly entered the kitchen, I tracked him, wondering how much he'd heard of our conversation.

"Hey, Daddy," Sonja answered brightly.

"Having lunch?" he asked as he moved to kiss her forehead.

"Yeah. Did you want me to order you something?"

He shook his head, smiling. "No, I'll be fine, thank you."

He stepped from beside her, moving around the island toward me.

Sonja had once told me her mother had left her and her dad years ago, and I'd never really given it much thought because she rarely spoke of her parents or her life at home. But now that I was here, and had met the man, it was hard not to wonder why he hadn't remarried. He was tall, and charming, and suave, but not in the smarmy way you sometimes found in older men. He had a demeanor and projected confidence that definitely made him a very attractive man.

No, not just attractive… he was frickin' hot .

"Aubrey." The sound of his voice behind my back brought me out of my reverie, and a second later, arcs of electricity danced up my spine as his hands came to rest on my shoulders, kneading gently. "Are you enjoying your stay here?"

Oh, god. "Yes, sir," I managed to get the words out ahead of a tiny moan that wanted to slip up my throat. "You have an incredible home, Mr. Delgado."

He leaned forward, his breath a feather against my neck. "Aubrey… I told you before… call me Antonio, please."

"Yes, sir." I forced the words to be more than the whisper they threatened to.

"Are you showing your guest our hospitality, mi chica ?" he asked his daughter from over my shoulder, his fingers still working.

"I'm trying to, Daddy," Sonja replied, pointing with her sandwich, "but she wants to play the starving college student and eat leftovers out of the fridge."

Mr. Delgado chuckled. "You're a guest in my home, Aubrey. Please order whatever you want. It's not a problem."

"But…" I pointed to my plate. "This is really, really good!"

"Mmm, you're a very sweet girl," he rumbled with approval, "but really, this is your vacation. If you want something special, all you have to do is ask."

I gulped. "I… if I think of anything, I promise I will, Sir."

And again, his breath brushed over my skin as he bent in once more. "You promise? Anything at all, yes?"

This time I couldn't stop it from being a whisper. "Yes, sir."

"Good girl."

Daddy. Good girl. I clenched my fingers around my fork, shoving down a tremor. If Mr. Delgado could read my mind, he'd know the buttons he was pushing right now. And given what he was doing, and the man—not one of the fuckboys from school but a man —I was beginning to suspect he was, I had a suspicion he knew more about my reactions than I was able to hide.

And that was equally as thrilling as his touch.

"So, what do you two have planned for this coming weekend?"

"Nothing special." Sonja shrugged. "Just chilling."

"Ah, I see."

Mr. Delgado removed his hands from my shoulders, and I wanted them back immediately.

"Well, you'll have the entire place to yourselves," he continued as he headed to the end of the counter, "so enjoy."

Sonja narrowed her eyes. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I have some business I need to attend to with your uncle," her father replied.

"Tomás?"

"Yes."

"So, you'll be gone all weekend?"

"I'm afraid so."

Sonja shot her arm into the air. "Woohoo! Party!"

I snapped a glance at her. "Huh?"

She turned her gaze my way. "We're going to have a fu—" She darted her eyes to her father. "A frickin' Pee Eh Are Tee Why!"

"Oh, you think so, chica ?" Mr. Delgado asked quietly.

"Uh… yes!" she answered with a broad grin.

Her father shot a faux surprised wide-eyed look back. "Uh… no!"

"Daddy!" she cried.

"Sonja… no."

"But why?"

"Because I said no," he answered firmly. "Not while there's no one here to oversee."

"Dad!"

"No."

Sonja growled with frustration. "Have… Have Alex come over and watch us."

"Oh, Alex, huh!" Mr. Delgado snorted. "That'd be the fox watching the henhouse."

"Eww!" Sonja scrunched her nose. "Alex is my cousin; he's not gonna try anything with me."

Mr. Delgado looked in my direction. "It's not you I'm worried about."

Sonja followed his gaze. "Okay, still eww. He's like eight years older than Aubrey."

"Trust me, chica ," he replied quietly, "that doesn't matter."

I shivered, drawing in a tiny bit of my lower lip with my teeth. The corners of Mr. Delgado's mouth ticked up, and I swore he must have seen what I'd done.

"I just don't understand," Sonja said, turning his gaze away from me, "why we can't have a party. We're both over twenty-one, and we can take care of ourselves. Plus, we've been to plenty of parties at school."

"Oh, really? And would you care to tell me about these parties?"

Sonja gulped. "Yeah… no."

"I didn't think so."

For a moment, the two stared at each other until finally Sonja heaved out a sigh.

"Daaaddyyyy…"

"No."

"This is so not fair," she huffed with a slump of her shoulders.

"Sometimes life isn't, princesa, " he replied simply.

Princesa . He said it as a term of endearment, and I couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to be addressed like?—

Aubrey, stop. What the hell is wrong with you? That's Sonja's father. He's… at least twenty years older than you! Are you seriously thinking of him like that ?

I shouldn't have been, but the memory of his—‘ good girl' —then the way he'd looked when he'd said ‘ that doesn't matter ' was living rent-free in my head, and I couldn't stop it.

"Listen," he continued, breaking my train of thought, "I'm only going to be gone until Monday. Once I'm back, I promise you can throw a party then. Invite as many of your friends over as you want."

"You promise?" Sonja demanded.

"Absolutely, and since I'll be back, I'll be able to enjoy it with both you"—he shot another glance my direction—"and Aubrey."

Something about the way he said that…

"Until then… enjoy the house, do whatever else you'd like, but by yourselves. No one else."

" Fiiiiiine ," Sonja sighed. "I guess we'll find a way to have some fun somehow."

Mr. Delgado gave a wry grin. "I'm sure it'll be a struggle, but you'll survive."

With a final glance in my direction, he left Sonja and me sitting in the kitchen. While she began rattling off a list of things we could spend our time doing over the weekend, all my brain would focus on was Antonio Delgado. A man I absolutely, one hundred percent shouldn't have been thinking about the way I was. There was something about how he'd looked at me, the things he'd said up to and including ‘… enjoy it with you and Aubrey ' that sent a thrill reverberating through me. The problem was it shouldn't have. There was no reason to keep replaying his words and wondering if or what hidden meaning there might've been in them. Everything the man had said was likely nothing more than him being the best host he possibly could to a friend of his daughter's. Overthinking it into something else, especially what I was turning it into, was insane.

And yet nothing I did could stop it.

Nothing could prevent my brain from recalling the touch of his fingers on my shoulders. The crinkle of a knowing smile at the corners of his mouth. Whatever secrets lay hidden behind those dark, searching eyes he gazed at me with.

No, nothing could stop me from wondering what it would be like to be with a man like him. A rich man. A powerful man. A man I could see myself having no problem calling…

Daddy.