Noah (25 page)

Same went for everyone else I cared for. They weren't merely friends to us. We were surrounded by family, and I wanted moments captured. Brooklyn, always attached to her sponges and brushes. Tennyson, bothering with a shitload of paperwork to pull through something he believed in. Sophie, who'd earned her stardom in front of the camera. Asher, when he visited with his and Brooklyn's daughters.

Daniel and Zane were supposed to visit too, but one day they got the call they'd been waiting for. Then they packed their bags and flew off to adopt a boy and his baby sister.

On the flight to southern France, we celebrated them as best as we could. Sophie, Brooklyn, and I got some online shopping done. They covered the baby shit, and I focused on the daddies-to-be.

"I think they need a flat screen in the bathroom," I said, scratching my nose. "That way, they won't miss out on games during bath time."

Brilliant, I reckoned.

In the meantime, Julian put his headphones on and tinkered with an app where he could compose. He mentioned a lullaby, which I thought was sweet as fuck. Lastly, Tennyson made some calls to hire a party planner for a welcome-to-parenthood shindig when we all got home. Sophie had wanted to do it, but she'd go overboard.

"You know what this means, right?" Sophie, seated behind me, tapped a pen on my head. "You and Julian are next."

I laughed, side-eyeing Julian to make sure he hadn't heard. But he had. He gave me a look of amusement in return and rolled his eyes.

What the hell did
that
mean?

I wouldn’t rule it out simply 'cause I couldn’t predict the future, but I couldn't say I was interested in changing diapers and giving up, you know, sleep. The uncle gig suited me far better. I did love children, but I also liked the opportunity of handing them back to their parents. Always had.

Julian removed his headphones and kissed my shoulder. "Don't overthink it, love. I'm too selfish to share you."

I let out a sigh of relief and stole a smooch. "Good. There's plenty of other shit I see in our future."

"Oh, yeah?" He quirked a brow and smiled lazily. "What kind of shit?"

I shrugged. Maybe I'd opened my mouth too fast. I didn’t wanna scare the kid.

"Well, we're buying a house together when we get home." I rubbed the back of my neck, and it was probably best I left it at that.

"Very true. I can't wait." He threaded our fingers together and gave my hand a squeeze.

"Me either."

*

Our first evening in Nice, I went to dinner with Sophie and the young guy who'd be playing April's son as an eighteen-year-old. Brad was a sweet kid, and Sophie had already taken him out for dinner back home, when he landed the part. But getting relaxed in each other's presence before a scene was always a good idea.

We went over the scenes and my plans for them while we feasted on seafood platters, plenty of beer, and salad the way you could only get it around the Mediterranean. By halfway through dinner, Brad had visibly relaxed, and he was looking forward to shooting. He said he loved acting but was also interested in directing, so when he asked if he could come with us when we returned to wrap up the last scenes in Paris, I agreed right away.

"You can shadow my PA," I said, licking butter off my thumb. "Julian is always nearby."

"PA in this case is short for man of Noah's dreams." Sophie smiled widely. She was a bit lit. It was cute.

"No argument from me, but I'm trying to keep it professional here," I laughed. "Julian almost had my head when I referred to him as my boyfriend on set the other week."

Brad chuckled and Sophie aww'd for some reason.

"He wants to impress you and show his worth," she said with a firm nod. "Speaking of. If I want to show my worth tomorrow, I should get some sleep.
Someone
has to be up at four to sit through a hard-core makeup session."

True, Brooklyn was gonna add ten years to Sophie. And both Tennyson and I were demanding fuckers. We wanted it subtle and real for when I shot close-ups.

*

Sophie wasn’t the only one who was up early the next morning, though. So was I. I showed up at the hospital around five, and the parking lot looked like a war zone. The only reason we'd been allowed to shoot here was because the east wing was under construction.

I passed our trailers and the trailers that belonged to the construction site and followed Lucia inside. We'd only flown down with the first unit, so we didn’t have too much crew milling about.

She brought me up to speed, and time flew between having the lighting adjusted, covering anything that looked too out of place for an American hospital room, and going over continuity issues with the script supervisor.

"I want a complete run-through of everything before lunch," I said. "See it as a rehearsal." We'd spend the rest of the day as well as tomorrow reshooting and getting more angles, but I wanted to run it all through once before. It would also help my script supervisor keep track of everything on screen.

Another perk of shooting digitally was you could include rehearsals without worrying about wasting expensive film. So regardless of the first results today, there was no waste.

"Understood." She nodded.

Julian showed up little past seven with coffee, breakfast, and a hard kiss.

"We're at work, baby." I smirked and took a sip of my coffee. "I thought kissing was a no-no."

He shrugged and started walking backward toward Lucia and Shawn. "Sometimes I can't help myself." He winked and then turned around.

I chuckled to myself, feeling ridiculous for how happy that guy made me.

Soon, everything was set up, and I slipped into director-mode. Sophie was beautiful, which might've been an odd way to describe her. Beautiful for her role. She looked thin, her hair lacked luster, and her aging had been created realistically.

Brad came down the hall as well, dressed like a shy high school kid with glasses, a flannel over a T-shirt, a backpack, and khakis.

Lucia and I worked together like a well-oiled machine, and as soon as Shawn declared he was ready, Lucia called for cameras to roll.

I didn’t use my monitor this time. Brad stood outside the observation window of Sophie's room, and she was inside. The pale walls were empty, and she paced aimlessly, sometimes pausing to draw invisible patterns with her finger.

I called for action, and Shawn filmed Sophie from the outside of the room—Brad's point of view. Then slowly, Shawn included Brad in the frame, revealing that years had passed. We saw Brad hesitating and, in the end, not entering the room.

"Cut!"

We did the scene once more, and then Lucia announced the second set was finished in the art studio.

In there, April's paintings were stacked, canvas by canvas, and some hung on the walls. With the cameras rolling, Sophie mixed some paint and straightened in front of a blank canvas. Head tilted, Shawn catching her expression from the side.

She hummed. Brad watched in the background while she remained oblivious to his presence.

The humming morphed into the lullaby April used to sing to her son.

I made a motion to keep filming. It wasn’t the main angle I wanted, but Sophie was acing it, so I needed to see what she'd bring. It wouldn’t be the first time something from a rehearsal shot made the final cut.

"Don't worry, dear boy," she sang softly, "Mommy can shelter you well. Don't worry, dear boy, Mommy can catch you stars." The canvas wasn’t in the shot when she started painting. And even though it would be replaced with another canvas to show April's art, Sophie drew the brush gracefully and with purpose. "Don't worry, dear boy, Mommy can keep you safe. Don't worry, dear boy, Mommy can catch you stars."

Shawn moved the dolly backward, a living god with his camera, and I called cut.

It was…somber, the mood on the set. We had some scenes left to shoot in Paris, and the second unit was working around the clock with inserts and coverage, but this still felt like the end. It
would
be the end once the film was finished.

"Last scene!" I announced.

"Ugh, don't say that." Lucia pouted. "I'm not ready for this to end."

I frowned and looked behind me, seeking out Julian. And there he was. It wiped the frown from my face, and his smile made me smile, too. Nah, this wasn’t the end at all.

We were only getting started.

Epilogue One

The following year

We'd found our beach house not too far away from Daniel and Zane's around the same time I turned forty-two in February. But since we'd been buried in post-production work, we'd only managed to make the downstairs feel like home.

This time, I gave a fuck. No matter how much I loved our loft, this house was ours from the beginning, and copying a couple pages from a Pottery Barn catalogue wasn’t enough.

Julian took care of most of the furniture. I wasn’t picky, though I liked what he did with Sophie's help, mixing old with new, sorta like in our loft. But I focused on keepsakes and pictures. I had Julian's script from
Catching Stars
framed, 'cause it had his sheet music doodled across the pages. He'd bought some souvenirs in Paris too that I found spots for in our living room. Combined with photos from our sightseeing and from work, it was beginning to feel a lot like we'd stay here more than at the loft.

I was sure as fuck okay with that.

Now, with
Catching Stars
finished, we had time to tend to the upstairs of our house, too. Asher, Daniel, and Zane were on their way over to help us put together some shit we'd had delivered.

Breakfast was served on the deck outside, and I watched in amusement as Julian laid out a rubber mat in the living room. He was protective of our hardwood floors and said the smallest scratch would shine like a beacon since the wood was dark. It was cute as fuck, seeing him fretting.

One day he'd almost panicked because we didn’t have a cover for the pool yet, and he worried Blue was gonna jump in. Snowball's chance in hell; she hated water.

"Isn't it easier if we assemble the furniture upstairs?" I asked.

He replied as the doorbell rang. "Not the desks for our study."

He had a point. We had a study and our bedroom down here; guest rooms and ultimate man cave would be upstairs.

Heading to the hallway, I let the guys in and assured them we'd stocked up plenty on beer and that breakfast was ready.

"Cheers for helping out, guys," I said.

"No problem." Daniel slapped my shoulder on the way to the living room. "This daddy's not gonna drive today! Hey there, Julian."

I grinned and turned to Zane, who was rolling his eyes.

"The kids are with his folks. God knows what's going to happen today," he drawled. "He's complaining that we don’t get out as much anymore, yet he's the one canceling plans and refusing to let anyone watch our children unless it's our parents."

And their parents lived out here, so when they were in New York…they were shit outta luck?

Asher chuckled. "So basically, either he's gonna get shit-faced, or he's going to worry himself sick about the kids."

"Pretty much," Zane laughed. "Let the party begin."

We all went outside to get some grub, and it was nice to have a day for just us guys. Shame Tennyson couldn’t make it, but he was living his own daddy life up in Mendocino now. They both tried to be there as much as possible when Kayden and Ivy had school, though sometimes it was impossible.

"I don't think you want that one." Julian smiled slyly at the sandwich I'd grabbed for myself.

I unwrapped it and saw bacon everywhere, to which I grimaced. "Yeah, no shit. Thanks, baby."

He handed me one with mozzarella, pesto, and sundried tomatoes instead, and then we dove into a conversation about Asher being disgruntled because his eldest had just gotten a job in modeling. But she'd graduated from college with good grades; I didn’t see what was so wrong with testing it out. Zane, being a former model, had a lot to say.

"Noah," Julian whispered.

I didn’t know why he was keeping his voice so low, but I leaned in and asked what was up.

He showed me his phone. "I just got this. Should I open it?"

I squinted at the display and saw it was an email.
Shit
. From his grandparents.

"That’s up to you," I murmured.

We hadn't heard from the Hartleys even once. To be honest, I had hoped to get some kind of reaction after our interview had been published last Christmas. We'd even debated sending them an advanced copy but had eventually decided against it, mainly because Julian and I had made the cover along with another Hollywood couple. We'd been kinda hard to miss that month.

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."

I'd learned that the hard way.

The doorbell rang at that point, so Daniel took what was in my hands so I could get the door. On the way, I pulled out my wallet, noticing I didn’t have much cash. Julian's wallet was in the hallway, though, so I snatched a couple bills from him.

Then I opened the door, and I kinda froze. Fuck me twice. It was Nicky. Fucking
Nicky
. Maybe hysteria got ahold of me for a beat because I laughed.
Hard
. Part of me felt like a complete prick, but fuck it, this was karma.

His expression hardened. He stood there with our pizzas, glaring, seething, and I couldn’t stop laughing.

"I'm sorry, kid," I wheezed out. "Goddamn, this is too much."

It was evident he'd had no clue we lived here or that he was delivering to us. I did my best to smother some of my amusement as I handed over the cash and took the pies, and I made a mental note to never order from that place again. Next time, he'd undoubtedly spit in our food.

"You ruined my career," he gritted out.

"That was the fucking point," I said, down to chuckles. "Lord, Nicky. You just made my day. I can't wait to tell Julian."

"Go to hell, Collins." He stuffed the money into his pocket and turned away.

"Hey!" I called. He didn’t face me, but he paused. "Unlike you, you scheming little asshole, I'm not a douche. I believe in making amends. But until then…" I walked over to him and stuck five bucks into his jacket pocket. "I always tip my waiter. Or delivery guy. Now, fuck off."

I closed the door in his face and chuckled to myself as I walked through the house and out to the deck.

Asher, Julian, Daniel, and Zane looked at me quizzically.

That made me laugh all over again. "You're never gonna believe this…"

*