like.
“I’m here whenever you’re ready.”
And I meant it.
31
Jennifer
My brand-new Canon hung around my neck as I paced my house, waiting for Julian. He’d gotten me the new camera when we returned from Mexico, and I couldn’t even hold in my excitement about the newer, fancier model.
Piper and Blaire had already gone on ahead to the fireworks. They’d offered to take me with them, but I’d assured them it was unnecessary. I wanted to hear what had happened with Julian’s dad. He’d been vague and unavailable all afternoon. So, I was jittery with nerves about this and my last shoot of the day.
When the doorbell finally rang, I yanked it open before Julian even removed his finger. “There you are!”
I threw my arms around him, and he laughed.
“Hey, you.”
“How are you? I’ve been wondering how everything went all day.”
“Good. Things went…good.”
“Good?” I asked. “Really?”
He cringed. “Eh, I don’t know. Good-ish.”
“Tell me everything on the way.”
His gaze followed me as I walked past him and locked the door up. Bacon meowed from the bushes, coming to twine herself around Julian’s ankles.
“She likes me.”
“Don’t let Cado see. She’s protective of Bacon,” I said warily. “She still hasn’t forgiven me for moving. I don’t know if she ever will.”
“But she’s shown up for food again?”
I nodded. “Yeah. She’ll eat my food, but she doesn’t have to like me.”
He chuckled. “Sounds like a cat.”
“For real. This is why I never liked cats.”
“Too bad.”
I pet Bacon a few times. “We have to go. Give Cado my best.”
Bacon meowed, as if in answer. Then we headed over to Milli, idling in the driveway.
“Do you really think it’s wise to bring the Jag to find parking?”
“Would you rather park the SUV in a tiny parking space?”
I considered it. “No. That would suck.”
“Thus Milli.” He held my door open for me and then took the driver’s seat. “You seem keyed up.”
“I have one more shoot, and I’ve been waiting all day to hear from you.”
He smirked and kissed my fingers. “Didn’t realize you were waiting for me.”
“I was.”
“What’s the shoot?”
“You’ll see.”
He arched an eyebrow as he pulled out of the driveway. “Mysterious.”
“So…your dad?” I prompted.
He sighed, as if he’d been hoping to avoid the question. “He says that it’s not his kid. That he’d been contacted by Weston before and handled it.”
My eyes rounded. “Wow. He already knew about this? Why didn’t he let you know?”
“It happened after we left. He said the guy isn’t even Weston Wright. He’s Weston Smith. And is convinced that my dad is his dad.”
“That’s…wow.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And you think he’s telling the truth?”
He shrugged his shoulders, looking defeated. “I want to believe him.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“I know. I know that it’s stupid to put it off. My dad has lied before, but would he lie to us about something this important? I just don’t know.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Well, I’m doing nothing. Jordan and I agreed not to email Weston.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s…well, we didn’t tell Dad, but we’re hiring a PI and going to investigate the guy. Jor couldn’t find any information on him online, and he’d rather have some concrete proof before we put it behind us.”
“That sounds smart. Also very much like Jordan.”
A hint of Julian came back at that. He laughed. “Yeah, tell me about it. I don’t know why I didn’t even think about doing something like that, but it makes perfect sense.”
“Yeah,” I said, thinking it through. “You don’t have to talk to the guy if it’s not true. And if your dad has nothing to hide, then there’s no reason not to look into this.”
“Except that it makes me feel shitty.”
I startled at that. “Why?”
“Like I’m spying on people instead of trusting people. Even though I don’t trust my dad. I felt like we were at least working on trusting him again. And now, we have this huge thing between us.”
“You don’t have to hire the PI,” I said.
“But we do. I need to know the truth or else it’ll always burn me up.”
I nodded at that. At least he was finally talking about it. This last week, he’d been completely mentally absent.
“What do you want to do if you find out that he is your brother? Do you want to get to know him?”
Julian’s eyes widened. “I really haven’t given that much thought. I so desperately want it all not to be true.” He sighed. “But also, I don’t even know what I want.”
I covered his hand with mine. “You might want