“Neither am I when it comes to things like this. I’d much rather hash it out and move on.”
“I get it. I hate awkward silences.”
Priest raised his eyes to Logan, and it was his turn to say, “Imagine that.”
“Touché. But I’m serious. Tate left for a week when we first got together, and I thought I would go insane. Did you at least know where Robbie was?”
“Was?” Priest said. “He didn’t leave. He just feels a bit distant right now.”
“Hang on,” Logan said as he sat up and reached for the bottle of scotch. “You’re this mopey because he won’t talk to you but he’s still sleeping at your house? Wow, you’ve got it bad.”
Priest tried his hardest to glare Logan to death, but when it was clear the fucker wouldn’t die, he said, “Are you quite done?”
Logan shrugged. “Probably. But I’m not promising anything.”
Priest pressed his fingers to his forehead as if that would somehow grant him patience, and then he had an idea. Logan knew Robbie better than most—more than Priest would like, in actuality—and that was the only reason he did what he did next. He asked for Logan’s advice.
“What do you think would win him over again? Make him smile?”
“Robbie?” Logan took a sip of his drink, and then laughed.
“What?” Priest said, and Logan sat forward and put his paper cup on the desk.
“Robbie is a romantic. He wants that grand gesture.” When Priest glowered, Logan held his hands up. “Relax. I don’t know that from experience. But when he went off at me that day in my office, I saw a side of him I hadn’t seen before. It was vulnerable and, dare I say, sweet. He always used to joke about things with me and Tate. But I think deep down he did that because he saw what we had. He wants to be loved, Priest. More than anything else, he wants to feel ridiculously, stupidly loved by the…men in his life.”
Priest sat back in his chair and thought about that for a minute. Logan was right: Robbie was a romantic, and hadn’t Priest and Julien just been talking about that? That they had to find the right time to tell Robbie how they felt? And lucky for them, they knew all about falling ridiculously and stupidly in love.
After all, this was now the second time for the both of them.
Chapter Twelve
CONFESSION
We have a plan to make you smile again, Robert Bianchi, and nothing’s going to stop us now.
“ARE YOU SURE about this, mon amour?” Julien asked the following night. Priest was sitting silently behind the wheel of the SUV beside him. They’d just left the condo after getting changed for the evening, and Priest had hardly said two words. He was all up in his head about what they were going to do tonight, and Julien didn’t think he’d ever seen Priest look so…worried.
He reached across the console and put a hand on Priest’s thigh, and when his husband looked in his direction, Julien said, “We don’t have to do this.”
“I know,” Priest said, a look of consternation on his face. “But I think Robert might need this, don’t you?”
A smile automatically curved Julien’s lips and he thought, I think we might too. “Oui, I do.”
“Did he text us back?” Priest said, looking down at the phone in Julien’s lap, and if Priest hadn’t appeared so concerned, Julien would’ve teased him a little. Instead, he took the opportunity to enjoy this nervous side. It was so rare and so beautiful, and showed Julien just how deep Priest was in with their princesse.
“He did. He’s meeting us there at eight. He said that he and Felicity should be done by then. Elliot was just blow-drying her hair.”
“Good,” Priest said, and then looked back to the road. “That’s good.”
“Mhmm, it is.” Julien settled into his side of the car and studied Priest’s strong profile as he sat with his hands braced on the steering wheel. His broad shoulders were covered in a black turtleneck tonight, which emphasized the strength of the body underneath, and Julien loved everything about the man.
“Joel?” Priest glanced in his direction, and when those steely eyes found his, Julien said, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I know,” Julien said. “And I think it’s time he knew too. Don’t you?”
Priest reached across the car to take Julien’s hand in his as they came to a stop at a light. “It’s time to let go and just fall, isn’t it?”
Julien squeezed his fingers and nodded. “It is. Of our hearts and our heads, mon amour. He knows my secrets. He knows yours too. There’s really no doubt anymore that he wants both.”
“I agree.”
Julien’s heart filled with joy at the thought of finally telling Robbie what they were feeling, and seeing if he was on the same page.