88Chapter 1: Rhode Island
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New Port, Rhode Island.
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Daisuke Uchiha, known to his close families and friends simply as Caleb, was in a foul mood. He was the kind of man who expected doors to open when he knocked, phones to be answered when he dialed. What he didn't expect and hate tolerate was having his Range Rover break down on a narrow two lane road ten miles from his destination. At least the car phone had allowed him to track down the closest mechanic around here. He hadn't been overly thrill about riding into New Port in a the tow truck while he had to endure an ear splitting singing from the driver who sing and off-key tone in between bites of an enormous sandwich.
"Joe, you just called me Joe." the driver had told him. "Syd will fix you up good. Best damn mechanic around here, you ask anyone."
Caleb decided that he would take the driver's words for it. To save time and trouble, Caleb has asked the mechanic nicely as possible in his black mood, to drop him off at a local restaurant for lunch and to have the address of the auto shop. Of course, while his car was in the garage, he did not waste any time getting some work done. Caleb heaved a sigh as he thought over why he bothered to come up to Rhode Island himself. While driving from New York seemed like a good idea at the time, he did not registered the fact that he had left loads of paperwork behind for his secretary to file.
Maybe the chance of getting out of the Big Apple was the chance that he could not pass up. He loved New York, not to be mistaken, but the thought of getting out of the busy streets, the glamorous lifestyle and tall skyscrapers was, in his estimation, worthwhile. It was that and the fact that his mother had been dropping hints of grandchildren on his life lately.
He adored his mother and that is a fact. Sakura Uchiha was a woman who knows her power and used it full to the extent. Born and raised by her father, she knew how to manipulate everything into her advantages all the while looking so innocent. He recalled the many times she made her husband, Caleb's own father, Sasuke Uchiha, slept on the couch because he had done things like not coming home on time for dinner with his family or could not make it to the his sons' soccer games or his daughter's recital.
This brought some other problems against him in a completely different matter. He hated to disappoint his mother. He had always been a mama's boy since he was little. Doing everything in his power to avoid having his mother look so down was his main objective, but to have her meddle in his life was out of line, even for him. He could not tell his mother to poke her nose in someone else's business would greatly upset her, so he ended avoiding her altogether until she leaves him alone, which is highly unlikely in his opinion.
Then there was his father. Opposite of his mother, Sasuke Uchiha was a quiet man who always cheered his children on becoming what they want in life. Caleb had always looked up to his father as a role model as well as a father. Sasuke Uchiha, in his opinion could be the most caring family man alive or the most ruthless businessman, depending on how one looked at things. He cherished his family above all else and tried his best to be apart of his children everyday lives. It was definitely hard to run multi-billions dollars empire while running around from school to school to catch his children's games and activities.
Caleb was glad that his father did not push him toward marriage. It was enough with his mother on his tail. Having to work along side with his father since he graduated in the top ten percent from New York University, he immediately went in to work in the Uchiha Empire from the lowest status of the rank and work his way up to the Vice president of the Uchiha real Estate Empire. Sasuke had been quite impressive with his determination and intelligence, but that did not apply for some other people. While he did not have to prove to his father, he certainly had to towards other people. He was used to hearing useless babbles about how he got to his place because he was the son's of the owner. It bothered him greatly at first but somewhere along the way, he suppressed that anger and molded into sheer determination to show them his real abilities.
His opportunity came knocking on the door when his father handed him his first project of building a new resort in Rhode Island. He was thrilled and decided to tackle the job full on with his team. Now, the only hard part of this whole project was to convince five stubborn women to sell their rickety mansion to the Uchiha Company and everything would be set to start the actual construction. He calculated that it would not take longer than three years to build the whole resort and hired the necessary staff for the hotel, but it looked like his plan was off since he did not add in a broken down car engine.
The waitress placed his lunch order with an unnecessary smile before winking at him flirtatiously. Caleb responded with a cold nod before returning his thoughts. He was used to having women eyed him like a piece of trophy. Thanks to the Uchiha bloodline and his mother good genes, he was 'ridiculously handsome' as one of his past girlfriend had told him. Caleb mentally snorted at that thought. Lily had gushed over that he was a perfect specimen of the male species because he had looks, power and money, which was why she clung to him all these months.
Honestly, he never had imagined himself truly in love with any women. He was used to one-night stands and flings with actresses, models and singers, but none lasted more than a month. It was not that they were not interesting in their own rights, but none had succeeded to capture his attention. They were all-eager to come to him and gets very clingy when the relationship ends. Caleb bit into his lunch and tried his best to ignore the little voice inside his head that told him he was just being picky and an ass.
Glancing at his Rolex watch, he had wasted almost an hour with idle thoughts of the past. Taking out his wallet, he slipped a fifty-dollar bill, left a generous tip before picking up his briefcase, and asked some locals for the direction to the shop. It certainly was a nice day out with the spring breeze blowing by. While Newport was notoriously known for huge mansions and ancient castles, it did not change the fact that many tourists come each year to enjoy their summer. As he walked down the cobblestones street, he had seen many tourists, young and old enjoying the festivities that the locals put out. Yes, the resort was going to be the new attraction.
The walk to the auto shop was less than ten minutes as Caleb stopped before a small shop with three cars with the hoods all up along with the radio blasting loud rock song of Aerosmith. He mentally smiled at the choice of song. Glancing around the small vicinity, his brows scrunched together as he spotted no one around. Picking his way through the oil and car parts, his nose picked up a ridiculous sent of vanilla and ocean breeze. Narrowing his eyes, he finally saw a pair of scruff boots moving in tune to the rhythm from underneath his car. He suppressed a sigh as he made with way toward the target, intending on asking about his car so he could leave.
"Excuse me?" he called loudly over the music, but the boots kept rocking as if ignoring his call. Narrowing his eyes in annoyance, he kicked the one of the boot lightly with his fine Italian leather shoes only to respond with a kick back from the boot. Quirking a brow, he bend down and poked one of the leg with his fingers.
"Excuse me?" he said again, this time, a grunt was heard.
"What?" the voice from underneath the car said rudely.
"Would you mind coming out of there for a minute?" Caleb asked in what he hope was a polite tone. He was getting impatient now.
"Can't." was the gruff reply he got. "Save me from those rich idiots who have the money to buy expensive cars but didn't take time to care for it. What were they thinking?" was the mumbled that he heard next. Quirking his brow, he was tempted to pull the boots out so that whoever was working on his car could say it to his face.
"Would you care to tell me about my car, please?" Caleb asked, tapping the sole of his shoes with annoyance as he turned off the radio. The damn song was giving him a headache.
There was a paused before he heard the clanking of the wrench hit the concrete floor in a dull thump. "This is your car?" the voice said from underneath the car.
"I believed I already clarified that." Caleb said lacing his voice with irritation. "Would you come out from there and discuss this professionally?"
The sound of wheels rolling from under the car had him grinning in victory. "Are you Syd?" he asked as soon as he saw a young face covered with grime and car oil clad in a dirty overall denim jumper.
"Depends on who is asking?" the boy said with narrowed gaze. Caleb took his time studying the young fellow in front of him. He could only classify him as 'pretty.' Since the lad possessed classic bone structure, pout lips, slim body and very pale unblemished skin, a baseball cap covering his head.
"The owner of the car." He relied easily enough.
"Then yes I am." He replied. For a boy, the lad certainly possessed a very feminine voice. He caught the pale blue eyes taking in his business attire, gaze traveling from the tip of his dark hair to the toe of his Italian shoes clad feet before the boy gave a wrinkle of his nose.
"Figures." Syd mumbled before moving on to take a rag lying around and began cleaning the dirty fingers along with the matching grimy face. "Your car needed a lube job three months ago and the transmission is becoming a little loose." Syd said, "Do you even take your time to check the car over before you drive them long distant? The way you take care of it now, your car could be overheating and you would not even notice. When you buy a car, you need to take care of it, like you do with yourself." He continued to rant facing away from Caleb.
Caleb quirked a brow at the boy's lecture. He certainly nagged like a woman. " Young man, I did not come here to listen to your rant. I want to know if my car could be fixed today?"
Syd narrowed the pale blue eyes at the supposed customer. "Yes, it can be fixed today, and I am not your young man." The voice took a tone of anger before swinging around to face him once more. Caleb suppressed his shock as a very feminine, very beautiful face glared at him coldly.
"Oi, you're a girl." He slipped out before he could stop himself.
Syd narrowed her eyes before nodding once, not trusting herself to speak. As soon as she rolled out of the expensive Range Rover, the first sight she seen was a pair of black leather Italian shoes. Suppressing a sigh, she knew that she would be facing another rich businessmen with their expensive suits and gold cuff links and weird accent from different states, but her shop was doing poorly because not many on the island have the need to fix a second hand car. Therefore, the best way to handle this was to suck up her impatient and deal with the stuffy men calmly. Too bad that resolve flew into the ocean as soon as Syd came in contact with the dark colored wine tie. Every sensible woman knows that the wine tie was the epitome of arrogance itself.
"Come into the office and we'll settle the bill." She said before marching into the shop without waiting to see if he followed or not. Caleb resisted the urged to roll his eyes at the behavior and followed in suited.
He saw her sitting behind a messy desk with papers everywhere. She gestured toward the cracked leather chair opposite of the desk and Caleb thought that was the closest of her telling him to have a seat or stand through their whole ordeal.
What a rude woman!
Sitting on the chair, he did not missed her movement as she pulled out a pad from draw and a pen from her pocket before writing some numbers on the blank paper. Caleb found himself staring at her slim fingers as she quickly jotted down some numbers while mumbling under her breath. He was not sure why in the world he was fixating on her fingers. It was just an ordinary finger with nails and creases. He should be focusing on the payment, making sure that she was not ripping him off with the high price, but he just could not take his eyes off her fingers.
"—and that's the total." Syd said as she pushed the pad towards him. Caleb cleared his throat before glancing at the pad. It was a reasonable price considering the brand of his car. "Cash or charge?"
"Charged." He answered as he leaned to the side, dug his black leather wallet out, extracted a platinum Visa card, and handed to her. She took it without glancing before sliding it through the machine and handed back to him just as quickly. Caleb found himself wondering why she was so hostile toward him. He was usually considered a sociable person to talk to and he was sure that he did not smell, so why was this woman so bent on belittling him? Caleb decided that it was time he brings out some of his old charms back. "You lived here long?" he asked when they were waiting for the process to go through.
Syd turned towards him with a confused look at the randomness. "Yeah, most of my life." She replied with a nod.
"Then you must know the local favorites" He offered with a smile. Syd found herself letting a small smile slip before clearing her throat. It was entirely ridiculous that he made her want to smile along with him.
"You can't go wrong with the seafood. Shellfish is in season and you can bet that every local restaurant have their own unique recipes for the sucker." She said with a small smile. Caleb mentally smirked in victory. All he needed was a little charm to make the girl more talkative.
". I will be here for a while and maybe you could show me around town." He said casually as she handed him the receipt so he could sign it. Taking out a slim silver pen from his breast pocket, he signed his name on the line and handed to her, liking the small smile she wore on her face.
"Well—I would have to-" she stopped mid-sentence as she read the name he just signed. Her face instantly contorted into anger before she whipped around and placed the receipt in the draw before she literally threw the car key along with the alarms at him. His quick reflex caught the keys. "A simple no would suffice." He said coldly as he placed the keys inside his trouser pocket.
She glared at him with tenacity before she opened her mouth. "Men like you do not comprehend a 'simple no.' you tend to get things your way and when you don't, you try every possible way to manipulate others to do it for you." She said with such anger that it actually surprised him.
"Have I ever run over your dog before?" he asked sarcastically. He once heard it from his twin, Jordan that women tend to get overly defensive when it comes to their pets.
"My name is Sydney Langston and I want you to get your money grabbing hands off my house." She said with so much hostile in her tone as she stopped directly in front of him, her lithe frame of barely five- four was ludicrous compared to his six two height.
Caleb registered in his mind this was one of the five sisters who he needed to convinced to sell the mansion. Well, might as well start with the most difficult one. Schooling his feature, he pasted a smile on his face and held out his hand. "Pleasure to meet you." He said professionally.
Sydney looked at the hand offensively. "Not mine. I want you to leave my family alone and hound some others for their home."
Caleb's smile remained in place, but damn, he had never tried to so hard to retain some calmness. "I'm not here to throw you out of your home. I am here to look at a property in request of Mrs. Kyle."
Sydney narrowed her blue gaze doubtfully at him. "I don't believe you." She said shortly.
Caleb nodded once before opening his briefcase and pulled out a thick quality paper written neatly in script. Sydney instantly recognized her elder sister's handwriting as she snatched the paper from his fingers. She read each word thoroughly as if trying to figure out if this whole thing was a fraud. After reading it about three times, Sydney felt that her anger had surfaced once more. Caleb had also noticed this changed and he swiftly retracted the paper from her crushing fingers.
"I take it you were not informing of my coming." Caleb said as he placed the paper back into the briefcase and locked it.
"Somewhat." Sydney snapped as he mumbled incoherent babbled to herself. Amidst the whole situation, Caleb found himself smiling over her rant. He was beginning to get used to her habit of talking or mumbling to herself. It was quite adorable if one could take the words 'freaky' and 'weird' out of the equation.
"I assure you that I came here by invitation." Caleb declared as he watched her face calmed down a bit. Those snapping eyes were still aiming daggers at him but he got the feeling that her temper was only half directed at him this time. Her sudden smile, however, was a different matter. It was not innocent like he had witnessed before, but this one was full of mischief and very wicked.
"I'll bet. Now, why don't you stop by the house to meet the other four women who invited you here?" she said in a mocking tone. Caleb narrowed his gaze in suspicion. He knew that kind of smile all to well. After all, his sister, Alexandra or Lexi, had her own version of the smile. Of course, whenever she directed those smile towards him, he ended up doing the most ridiculous things in the world.
"I'd be happy to." He replied, his gaze holding her as he let her know in a silent way that he was ready to accept whatever she had in store for him. He was not called an Uchiha for nothing.
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Sydney Langston started her truck as the edge of her eyes caught the sight of the said Uchiha climbing into his fancy Range Rover that was possibly more than her income for a whole year. She was used to all of the expensive clothes and fancy cars since a lot of tourists and residents come here every summer to show off their wealth. She was used to the riches flaunting their money around on the most expensive hotels and retreats and their own mansions. Useless things if one asked for her opinion.
Pushing the gear into drive, she drove down the street toward her house. To be truthful, she must have been on crack to invite Mr. Fancy pants to her own private home. She knew that her family was in on a very tight budget and they were border on being kicked out of their own home completely because they could not afford to pay the mortgage as well as having to fix up the mansion itself. So what if this month and the month before, they barely covered the expenses? That certainly was not the reason to force people out of their homes? Moreover, to add to that, what was Mary thinking? Sydney was fully aware of her family's situation and they had talked about selling a couple of times, but this was all too soon.
She did not have much more to pay for her student loans, and she did have some of the credibility to take a loan out from the bank. Knowing her eldest sister, Mary would undeniably refuse to have Sydney take any loans out. Sydney sighed in frustration. Things were supposed to get better since they paid off the loan last month from one of the banker, and she knew that her four sisters had worked their asses off to pay the bills on time.
The only problem was the mansion itself. The classic Dracula castle blended in with 1960s Victorian style, it was huge for five women and two children to live in, not to mention the maintenance of heat and gas and electricity. The better parts of the house were only the first two floors where the sisters pitched in whatever little bits of money they have to help keep it in shape. Of course, that had taken almost all of the money from their paychecks, not counting the bills and everyday expenses.
'If only they were alive.' Sydney thought ruefully as she pulled to a stop light. Her parents had set sailed on their anniversary around Atlantic Ocean and caught in the storm. While her father was alive, her mother had instantly died. Sydney was only eight years old then when the accident happened. It took a very long time for the whole family to heal and when she turned sixteen; her father remarried to his second wife before he passed away three years later, a tragic left the whole family in grief.
The worst followed when a week later, the lawyer had requested a meeting to the family fortune. The fight broke out when Viola, her stepmother claimed the mansion as her own. Since her father did not specifically divide any of the fortune, everything was a mess. Sydney along with her sisters had fought vehemently over the rights of the mansion and they did succeed, but along the way lost every cent to Viola.
Sydney never regretted their decision of claiming the mansion. It was their childhood home and it held a very special meaning to all of them. The mansion itself was build by her father to her mother when they got married. It belonged to the Langston and it will stay as a Langston.
Pulling into the garage, Sydney turned off the engine and got out of the car. She turned to look at the rising sun on the sky and smiled. It was another great day in Newport despite the heavy storm last night. She felt the presence of the black haired executive next to her.
"The view is wonderful." He said in awe as he looked out towards the calm ocean.
"This is the best part of town." Sydney found herself replying before something kicked her. This man is going to take her home away from her family. Despite everything, she was not going to make his stay easy. "Of course, I would not find it amusing if you don't see this in the busy city of Boston. City people do not appreciate nature as we do here."
Caleb found himself smiled in amusement. She was deliberately trying to pick fights with him over the smallest things. Too bad, he was not going to fall into such childish trickery. "I'm not from Boston." He corrected her. "I'm from New York."
Her pale blue gaze snapped at him with anger. "It's the same thing: Big cities with tall building and no appreciation towards nature."
Caleb quirked a brow. Was she some kind of a nature lover? "I could not help but get the feeling that you don't like me?"
"You think?" she snapped sarcastically before walking around him. He caught her wrist easily and swung her to face him once more.
"Why don't you tell me what your problem is exactly?" he said.
"Do you really want to know? You here to take my house away and turn it into one of your glitz hotel with glass doors and twenty foot chandeliers and spouting fountains."
"You have something against fountains?" he asked with amusement.
"I don't want one in my living room." She snapped back angrily.
"Why don't we make this clear right now? I am not here to take your house or your car or your pet away from you. I am here on business and it is not up to me if you decide to sell or not." He said clearly as his gaze never left hers.
Sydney's face softened as her eyes sparkled. "You're wrong." she whispered out as a strong gust of wind blew over them catching the baseball cap she wore and it dropped haplessly on the soft grass revealing the long silvery blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail. The loose strands framed her pale face as Caleb scrunched his brows. Who would have thought the little spitfire was a blonde?
The sound of school bus engine roared down the street and seconds later, her niece and nephew jumped out from the bus and ran straight toward her. Sydney sniffed before pulling out of his grasp just in time her niece swung her little arms around her legs.
"Aunty Syd." The little girl squealed as Sydney bent down to pick her up.
"Hey squirts." Sydney said as she leaned over and ruffled her nephew's blonde locks.
Caleb found himself in a staring contest with the hazel eyes boy who gave him a confused look. Kayla wriggled out of Sydney's grasp and walked hesitantly toward the newcomer. "Hello, my name is Kayla." She said with a grin as she locked her fingers behind her back and Caleb found himself smiling as he spotted her two missing front teeth. "Are you Aunty Syd boyfriend?" she asked innocently. "Mommy said that Aunty Syd is not going to get marry with her attitude."
Caleb chuckled as Sydney swung her gaze towards him with a flushed face. "That's enough out of you squirt." Sydney grumbled before ushering them both into the house. "Go tell your nosy mommy that her guest is here." Sydney remarked before the two monsters race towards the front door.
"So?" Caleb began. "When can I get to see the rest of the house?"
Sydney smirked. "When cow sprout wings—golden wings that is."
"I don't think you need to wait for that." Came an amused voice behind Sydney. Another blonde, taller than Sydney said with a smile on her pretty face. " Liza, please to meet you." She said as she stuck her hand out in a shake. Caleb was relieved to see that the obnoxiousness did not run in the family.
"Caleb Uchiha. Very nice to make your acquaintance." He replied as he took the hand. He hid a smile when he heard Sydney snorted softly from the side.
"I see you met our youngest sister. A tough shell, isn't she?" Liza teased as she linked her arm through his and began walking toward the house.
Caleb relaxed as he felt that this sister was giving him the welcome he needed. "I've met tougher shell that this one."
Sydney mumbled something that sound suspiciously like 'choke', and 'kill' before bypassing them and straight into the house. "We are not finished." She warned as she passed him by.
"Not by a long shot." He murmured back as he stared at her nicely formed rear end. Liza giggled at her sister's attitude.
"She's always take a while to warm up to new people." Liza assured as she reeled him into the house after Sydney. "Why don't you go freshen up before dinner? You'll want to meet the rest of the family I'm sure."
"That would be great." Caleb replied. He was sure he was going to need to freshen up to face Sydney again.
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Author's note: Okay, after so muuuch thoughts and many messages from you readers urging me to write a follow up story of Sasuke and Sakura's children, I got one planned for the first few chapters. It is going to be another romance and very AU, bit I am sure most of you know that already.
Hope you like this starting chapter.