The Bad Boy's Princess

Ch. 9 - The Wrong Kind of Churchill

Delacour looks and feels the same now that the boys were back in town and all together once again. Charles arrived two days ago, to prep for the annual Youth Above marathon hosted by our companies, and this year, Lodge Holdings as an additional host. Avery's wish of course.

"So, I heard your dimwit's brain decided it would be funny to let Ave think Sicily was your daughter." Cameron nonchalantly drank his cocktail as we were waiting for the other two to arrive. The private balcony table at Delacour was always our go-to hang-out spot for years until we all went our separate ways.

"I didn't deny it, true. But I didn't confirm it either. Not my fault her head was in the gutter." Sad as it was, that was one of the most amusing moments I've had in a while. Adulting was fucking boring.

"You're an ass. Of course, she would assume that. You know her. It's not like she wanted to hear lively updates about your entire family from Ali over the years to know Sicily Vanderbilt is Nate's daughter."

"She could have asked." I rolled my eyes at his baseless defense.

Before he could continue his moral lecture, Harry and Charles arrived together. Probably coming from the speedway or shooting range— that was their thing.

"The golden goose finally got some time for us peasants, huh?" Harry bear-hugged Cameron from behind, making him almost choke on the tri-tip slider.

"If you keep yapping, the golden goose wouldn't hesitate to bite you." Cameron glared at him. "What took you guys so long?"

"Did you forget how horrendous LA traffic was during rush hour? The 405 is no joke. I almost forgot why I would never live in Malibu, no matter how beautiful the beach babes are here." Harry hadn't changed. He was still a mischievous womanizer after all these years.

But the one thing that did change was the odd cold war tension between him and my cousin, Ellie. She grew into a beautiful, sophisticated, soft-spoken woman, much like Aunt Macy. That hasn't changed.

But unlike back then, she wouldn't even give Harry a glance, let alone a word. As curious as we all were, I refuse to inquire as it would probably drive me into an early heart attack.

God help me when Ali gets a boyfriend, which I had some suspicion about. I was certain she was seeing someone secretly, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get any information out of her.

"Why not just take the heli?" Cameron was deadly serious. "It would be much more efficient."

As they said, you could take the man out of luxury, but you could never take luxury out of a man.

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear those privileged words come out of your mouth, Mr. Backpacker." Charles made a face at Cameron before chugging down his Walker on the rocks in one gulp. "Onto a more important matter, you guys are all coming to the marathon after-party right?"

"As if we had a choice." Not only was it our tradition,  but we also had to be there for networking matters. "I'm taking Senna as my date this year. If you see me drunk out of my mind that night, mind your own business. Misery is never a good look on me."

"Why do you have to torture yourself like this again?" Harry asked after we placed our orders with the waitress. "Senna Churchill isn't even all that."

"Yes, but her father, Michael Churchill is." Cameron answered on my behalf. Even after all the months spent living on nothing but his backpack, he was still sharp on business world politics and social hierarchy.

Much to my disappointment, the Churchills were not related to Mr. Winston, but still a formidable force to reckon with. They owned half of the hotels on the East Coast.

"Don't tell me you're trying to expand into the hospitality industry, too. Save some for the rest of us, man." Charles shook his head in amusement. "Do you even have enough hours in the day, Jay?"

"Enough business talk. We haven't gotten that dull have we? Fuck." Harry threw a bread roll at Charles. "Are you ready for the marathon? How's the prep going?"

"It's going quite well. Ave and I finished our training yesterday, Our coach said to save our energy on resting these next few days before the marathon." I almost, with a strong emphasis on almost, forgot that he was her partner.

As if my dismay was loud as a drum, Charles quickly looked in my direction, an unfathomable expression on his face. I gave him a shallow nod, letting him know I didn't mind.

But did I?

"I'm assuming Senna is also coming with you to the event?" Cameron raised an eyebrow like my misery was his goddamn entertainment.

"Very hilarious, haha. Laugh on my pain, yes. Jace Vanderbilt, the misery award of the year." I sighed.

Don't get me wrong, Senna was fine. But it was biased as it seemed like every woman on this planet seemed mundane at best, compared to her.

And I fucking hated it.