“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 to think about it.”
“What would I even want? I really don’t know. I didn’t really know my cousins, and now, I love having them all around. It wouldn’t be the same. But…I don’t know. If it’s true, it’d be really fucking weird.”
I laughed unexpectedly. “It would be. I’m sure he’d be just as weirded out by all of this as you are. It would take some time for you all to adjust.”
“You’re good at this.”
Years and years of therapy. That’s what I wanted to say, but instead, I just smiled. “Thanks. Worst-case scenario-ing is kind of my forte.”
“I’m more of a best-case scenario kind of guy,” he said with a wink.
He pulled into the parking for Mackenzie Park. We were early enough that there was still enough parking for us to find a spot. As soon as the sun began to set, everything would be jam-packed for miles.
I grabbed my bag and helped him carry blankets across the grounds. The Wrights had already set up a large space at the center of the park. A slew of blankets and a dozen foldable chairs dotted the area. Other people were quickly filling in around them.
“Hey, y’all!” Nora said as we approached. She was lying across her boyfriend, August. His floppy surfer hair was half in his face as he waved at us. Her best friend, Tamara, was seated next to them, her red hair framing her face, her nose buried in a magazine.