Page 18 of Secret Daddies

We reached the trailer, and I planted my hand on the door, glancing back toward Matty to make sure he was ready. He gripped the straps of his Trio-themed backpack, his jaw set tight, as though he was preparing to walk into battle. And then, he nodded up at me, and I pushed the door open to introduce him to his heroes—and his father—for the very first time.

He froze for a moment as he stood in the doorway, staring between all three of them—Lee, Devon, and Taylor, sitting around a table in the center of the room, each of them holding a coffee and dressed down in their day-to-day wear. I could feel Lee grinning in my direction, trying to catch my eye, but I avoided it, not wanting to let myself get distracted by his flirtation now of all times.

And then Matty suddenly bolted inside, racing toward Devon and throwing his arms around his legs.

“Hey, little guy,” Devon laughed as he rose to his feet, patting Matty on the back lightly as Matty clung to him for dear life. I could only stare, trying to take in the sight before me—my son, hugging his father for the first time. The two of them together, after a lifetime of having no idea the other existed. Of course, Matty wasn’t hugging Devon because he was his dad, he had no idea of that. He was just hugging him because he was one of his heroes, because he was making sure he was actually real, but seeing his little pudgy arms holding on to him like that…

I bit back a swell of emotion and pasted over my reaction with a laugh, taking a step forward and gently untangling Matty from Devon’s legs.

“Hey, sweetie,” I murmured to him. “I think you should introduce yourself first…”

“Yeah, I’m feeling very ignored,” Lee joked playfully as he dropped down to his haunches in front of Matty, flashing him a big grin. “What’s your name?”

“Matty,” Matty managed to squeak out, and Lee pushed a hand through his hair before offering it to my little boy.

“Well, it’s sure good to meet you, Matty. I’m Lee. And you already met Taylor, right?”

Matty lifted his gaze to Taylor, and nodded.

“Yeah, he picked me up from school,” he replied, sounding a little proud. I slipped down into one of the seats around the table, and Matty scrambled up into my lap—not something he made a habit of these days, but I guessed he wanted the comfort of something and someone he knew, given that he was surrounded by some of his biggest heroes in the world.

The guys were so sweet with him, asking him questions, even offering to sign his backpack for him—Matty just stared as the three of them passed it around the table, each adding their names to the cheap fabric. I could never have imagined when I picked that backpack for him that it would be turned into a collector’s item with their signatures on it, but I was so grateful for how kind they were, how patient. It was clear that the reason they had landed these roles wasn’t just because they were good at their on-screen jobs, but because they could keep up the fantasy for kids off-screen too.

But the whole time, I couldn’t relax. Not entirely. Because I found myself watching Devon, keeping an eye on him as I tried to work out just how much he had pieced together. I hadn’t told them outright how old Matty was, but it couldn’t be that hard to work out, given that Taylor had picked him up from school. DidDevon know? Had he figured it out, that this was his son? That the timeline matched up for Matty to have been a product of our brief affair? I didn’t have a damn clue, but I wished I had the nerve to ask.

Soon enough, the half hour that the guys had all put aside to meet with Matty came to an end—and, judging by how exhausted Matty looked, he was probably glad for that. The excitement and anticipation had worn him out, and I could tell he would sleep like a baby tonight.

“Thank you!” he blurted out to all of them as we headed for the door once more. He was clutching his backpack like it was the most precious thing on earth, and I ruffled his hair fondly.

“Yeah, thanks, guys,” I told them. “I really appreciate it, you taking time to hang out with him…”

“Anytime,” Taylor replied, smiling kindly as he waved Matty off. He seemed to know exactly how to handle my little boy, likely because he was a father himself—I wondered if Lee and Devon knew that, or if he had kept it from them too.

Anyway. Lana was picking Matty up for me after this, and I was picking up a few overtime hours on set this afternoon—I was sure Matty would spend the entire time babbling to Lana about meeting his heroes, and I had primed her as best I could to let her know that he would probably be a ball of excitement.

No matter how complicated my relationships with these three men seemed to be, I was glad that I had managed to give Matty something he could treasure, a memory that he would never forget. For so much of his life, he’d had to hear me telling him no—and God, did it feel good to tell him yes once in a while.

10

DEVON

I paced backand forth in my trailer, my mind reeling, as the encounter I’d just had played out over and over again in my head.

The door to the production trailer opening. That little boy, standing there, with a mop of reddish-brown curls…the way he bolted toward me and hugged me like he never wanted to let me go. The way he looked up at me, and there seemed to be, for a moment, a flash of recognition in his eyes…

And the feeling that I might just know who he was too.

There was no way. There was no fucking way—no fuckingwaythat she would have just sprung that on me with no warning, was there? But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, the possibility—the way she had looked at me when she saw her son and me together like that. As though this was what she had wanted, this was what she had been waiting for.

Like she was testing me to see if I would catch on.

He was—what, six or so? That would line up with when the two of us had been together. But she would have told me, wouldn’tshe? She would have said something if she got pregnant. She wouldn’t have just let me walk away from her, walk away from our baby, if she had known that she was going to have a child…

I couldn’t make sense of it. It felt like my head was going to fucking explode. I needed to get her alone in a room with me, and I needed to knowexactlywhat the hell was going on with that little boy, because…

Because if I was his father, then everything I thought I knew about my life would change. And I didn’t know if I could handle it.

I sent out a quick message to Paula, telling her to send Maya over to my trailer for a touch-up before my next scene—it was the better part of an hour away, but I just hoped Paula would be so busy she wouldn’t think anything of it. She fired me back a text telling me Maya was on her way, and I picked up my pacing where I had left off, trying to figure out exactly how I was going to put all of this into words, when my head felt like such a mess I could hardly control it.

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