Page 36 of Indescribable Love
“Juliette, no. I…”
But she was already out the door.
Mumbling a curse, Simon stood there, frozen with indecision. It shouldn’t be like this. He was a grown man and shouldn’t let the things that happened to him as a kid affect him this much. That was the past and he’d moved on…grown…healed.
Have I, though?
While he should have gone after Juliette, he turned and picked up his phone instead. He had twenty minutes before the video call started and he was on the verge of a panic attack. The last time he felt like this, he’d talked to Jax, but this time he was calling Noah—and he didn’t care if he was in Hawaii or the office. He needed to talk to his levelheaded brother.
“Simon! Hey!” Noah said when he answered the phone. “Is everything okay? You rarely call me when I’m at work.”
“Okay, yeah. Sorry. How was Hawaii?”
“Amazing! I never thought it was a place I wanted to go, but I’m so glad I let Lily talk me into it. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been that relaxed in my life. So what’s going on with you?”
“Do you have a minute?”
“I actually have ten,” his brother said with a small laugh. “Then I’m due in a meeting. What’s up?”
“When you met Lily, did you ever think that things from our past would be a deal-breaker for her?”
“I’m not sure what you mean. Like what specifically?”
“You know, like…her finding out about our childhood and Dad. Did you ever think of just not telling her?”
“Um…wow. That’s an odd thing to ask, but…maybe? At first? Then it felt like it was something I had to share, and I was fairly open with her about our upbringing. She comes from an amazing family and just assumed everyone did. I lashed out one night and told her the whole sordid story of my life and it didn’t really faze her. She felt bad for me, which I kind of hated, but…” He paused. “Okay, this is about the documentary, isn’t it?”
It wasn’t a question.
“I’m supposed to get on a call with everyone in a few minutes and we’re at a standstill because there are things they want—an in-depth dive into my childhood—and I want to keep that all…you know, buried.”
Noah sighed. “Totally understandable. Why are they so hell-bent on this?”
“Because I have a reputation for being this nice guy with no genuine drama.”
“So they’re pushing for the drama. Got it.” Another sigh. “Damn. And Mick’s agreeing with all of this?”
“Only because I haven’t shared anything with him. I just said that part of my life is off-limits.”
“Which naturally makes everyone even more curious.”
“Exactly.”
“Can you back out?”
“I think so, but…is that the right thing to do? Other than this one issue, I think the documentary can be amazing. There are so many of them out there now thanks to Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, and I know I can add something unique without the drama. I just don’t know how to make anyone listen to me.”
“Don’t you have a new PR team? What do they say?”
He didn’t have time to get into that whole angle with his brother. “They support me in whatever I decide, but you know I’m a people pleaser, Noah. The thought of backing out and disappointing everyone or—worse—having them looking at me like I let them down, is more than I can take.”
“Damn, I really wish I had more time right now.” He muttered a curse. “There’s no way to make everyone happy, Simon. It’s not possible. Either the film people are happy and you’re miserable, or you step away and have peace of mind, and your management team is miserable. I mean…”
“If you were me, what would you do?”
“I’d fight for what I want,” Noah told him. “And I’d make sure my publicist and manager and agent and assistant and everyone else on my payroll had my back. If you agree to everything except this one stipulation, they have to respect that.”
“On some level they do, but…I don’t want to go into the specifics. I just want them to know this is a topic to stay away from.”