Noah

Julian opened the email and said it was from his grandfather. Then he got quiet as he read, and I only saw it was a fairly long letter.

"He's being cordial, at least." Julian scrolled down a little. "They read the article about us."

"That’s good." I rubbed his neck gently, sensing the tension in him. Turning to the others, I acted as if nothing was wrong and did my best to contribute to the conversation. "Ash, before you put your foot in your mouth and have to face your daughter's wrath, ask yourself if you're against this because she's your baby girl or if it's the profession."

"Don't come here and give me logic, Collins," he bitched.

Daniel laughed.

"Technically, you came to him," Zane pointed out with a smirk.

They continued bantering—though Asher probably didn’t find it funny at all—and I refocused on Julian.

"They want to have dinner with us," he said quietly, and that revelation was a surprise. "He says he wants to give us the benefit of the doubt… Christ. I don't know whether to tell him off or just give him a chance."

I could relate there. They'd given us the doubt long before the benefit, I reckoned. But they were Julian's family; everyone fucked up here and there.

"If there's a chance they wanna reconcile and apologize, I think we should accept." I kept my voice low and pressed my lips to his hair. "We don't wanna live with regrets or what-ifs."

He sighed and rubbed his forehead, a crease between his brows. "I suppose you're right. But they have to fly out to us. I'm not going to Pittsburgh."

"That's fair. Did he say anything else?"

"He liked the trailer for the film." He gave me an uncertain smile. "Wouldn’t that mean they're keeping track of what's happening?"

Given that the trailer was released yesterday, I'd say yes.

"Sounds like it." I hugged him to me. "That’s good." He seemed to relax a bit, which made me happy, too. "Tell them we're happy to take them out for dinner if they decide to come out here. After Cannes, maybe."

The festival was only a couple weeks away.

"Okay. Yes." He nodded and got to typing.

Thankfully, we had a packed day ahead of us, so once he got that out of the way, we were all distracted for hours. Music blared out of our new surround sound system, and we assembled furniture and drank beer to rock legends.

Around lunch, we all ruled out a barbecue for dinner 'cause we were sweaty and tired already. After a quick dip in the pool to cool off, we were back at it and decided to order pizza for dinner later.

The funniest part of the day was without a fucking doubt when Asher, Daniel, and Julian struggled to carry our new pool table upstairs. We were lucky the stairs were wide, but it was a close call at the first landing where they had to flip the table in an upright position to pass. Then they got their own laugh when Zane and I almost dropped the flat screen going in the man cave.

I had to admit, that shit nearly gave me a heart attack.

"Are you okay?" Julian snickered at me.

I blew out a breath. "I will be. Fuck."

That made him crack up, and I lifted my T-shirt to wipe some sweat off my forehead.

"Jesus Christ, love." He eyed my abs.

I smirked. "Not to quote this fuckawesome song or anything, but you wanna pour some sugar on me?"

"Maybe…" He drew a finger down my stomach.

Asher felt the need to ruin the moment as he passed us with a box of movies. "Forget about it, you two. Make yourselves useful and call for pizza. We're starving."

Checking the time, I saw it'd gotten pretty late, and I was hungry, too.

I headed downstairs again and ordered some pies, and then I surveyed the living room, now empty of boxes and trash. We only had the desks left, but Julian and I could do that later. I'd hit a wall and didn’t feel like being productive anymore.

To Julian, I showed my manliest goddamn pout, and he snorted and took pity on me.

"I suppose we can call it a day." He pinched my ass.

Daniel shook his head at Julian. "You're so whipped."

"Don't you mean smart?" Julian countered and tapped his temple. "You old folks need rest, or I'll have to go without sex tonight."

I widened my eyes. "You absolute shit."

He and Zane laughed their asses off while Daniel and I ignored them and went to the kitchen to get plates and whatnot. The cooler outside needed refilling with ice and beer, too.

"How about we turn this into a poker night?" Asher suggested as he joined us.

"Hell, yeah." I nodded and grabbed a stack of napkins. "A heads-up, though. Julian plays innocent, but he's got game. Don't fall for his act."