Page 49 of Secret Daddies

I was surprised by how forthright she was. I had expected her to be doing everything she could to play it cool after what had happened the other day, but I guessed this pushed past the tension between us.

“It’s fine. I’ll find someone else to do it.”

“You just said you wouldn’t be able to get anyone at short notice.”

“You don’t have to worry about it?—”

“I thought that was your problem, me not worrying about it enough?” she reminded me. “I’m trying to help you. I’m trying to show you?—”

She stopped herself before she could go any further down that path, though I knew at once what she was getting at. She was trying to show me that she could be trusted with this kid stuff—that, regardless of the fact that she had kept the pregnancy from me, she was still a good mother, and she wasn’t going to let anything change that.

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I can handle this. I’m fine.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Taylor, I know how hard this job is, remember?” she pressed me. “And it’s even harder when you won’t accept help from people. I can pick up Martha, take her where she needs to go, and be back here in an hour or less. They don’t need me till this evening. I promise, this is the easiest way to go about this, if you’ll stop being stubborn about it.”

“I just don’t know if I can trust you.”

“Then let me show you that you can,” she pleaded with me, shaking her head. “I know—I know I should have been more honest with you. But you have to understand how hard this has been for me, how confusing it’s all been. And how—how everyone deserves a second chance. Even when they screw up.”

I stared down at her for a long moment. She didn’t break my gaze for a second. And I had to admit, there was something to what she was telling me. As much as it would be easier to just tell her that she had lied to me, that she had kept something so huge from me, that I couldn’t trust her around my daughter or anything else…I knew that I needed her right now. She understood where I was coming from better than anyone else on this set, and she knew how important it was to create a life of somewhat-normalcy for your kid, even in the midst of such chaos.

“Please,” she added. “Let me do this for you. Let me show you that you can trust me.”

This was…new to me, that much was for sure. After Martha’s mother had screwed up, had cheated on me and lied to me more times than I could count, she had never asked for another chance to prove herself to me. She had never tried to make amends or fix up the damage that she left in her wake. No, none of that had seemed to matter to Emily at all. She just assumed that I would roll over and take it because that was what I had done up until that point, and I had proved her right, because I wanted the best for my daughter.

But Maya was asking for a chance. And I guessed, given that she might be having my baby, I should at least give her that.

“Okay,” I murmured, and she clapped her hands together, beaming.

“Okay, great!” she exclaimed. “Well, I know where the school is, but where am I taking her afterward? And what should I tell them…?”

I filled her in on everything that she would need to know, and dropped a text to the school to inform them that someone else would be picking Martha up that afternoon. I wasn’t sure how my daughter would feel about a stranger turning up to take her to her friend’s place, but she was a sociable little thing. No doubt she and Maya would be the best of friends by the time Maya arrived back on set.

“Thanks, Maya,” I told her, before she took off to take care of business. “I—I owe you.”

“No, you don’t,” she replied, flashing me a smile. And with that, she was off. I watched her as she went, and felt something shiftinside of me at the sight of her so willing to do what she could to help me out.

Like we were a partnership. Like I had helped her before, and now she was doing what she could to take the weight off my shoulders. I had been a single dad for so long, I had never really allowed myself the space to think about what it would be like to share this work with someone—well, the work, and the good parts too. The joy, the excitement, the success—all the parts that made being a parent worthwhile.

I realized, as I headed back to my trailer, that there was a smile on my face. I didn’t know quite where this left us. But I knew that whatever anger I had been holding against her had begun to dull, to be replaced by something that felt a whole lot more like affection.

And maybe even more.

25

MAYA

I tooka deep breath as I stood there, staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I had no idea how this was going to go, but I knew I had to try. And this, tonight, was my last chance to make that happen.

Outside, I could hear the chatter of the cast and crew as they popped bottles and clinked glasses to celebrate wrapping up on our final day of shooting. There was still plenty in the way of postproduction to take care of before the movie would be ready for release, of course, but it still felt like a victory—all this hard work, all these early mornings and late nights, and now they had the raw materials of the biggest blockbuster of the decade.

But all that paled in comparison to what I was trying to do tonight. I had to find a way to convince the three stars of the show to take a break from the cast party, and come back to my place, so I could tell them exactly what they needed to hear—and come clean about everything I felt for the three of them.

I had everything organized to make sure I wouldn’t be disturbed. Lana was taking care of Matty, and I had a nice dinner planned that was waiting for us back at my apartment. I knew there wasno way we could have these conversations surrounded by the people who had been working with us all this time, not without them instantly making the jump to the front pages of the gossip blogs.

And if they said no…if they decided they didn’t want to give me the time, then I had to accept that. Devon had made it clear he wanted to be part of my life, but Taylor seemed less sure, even though I had tried to prove myself to him by helping out with his daughter. Lee, for his part, didn’t even know I was pregnant, and I didn’t have a clue how he was going to take the news. After today, there was no telling when all four of us would be in the same place at the same time, and I wasn’t going to miss the chance to tell them what was going on in my head.

At last, gathering myself, I pushed open the door and stepped outside. Across the set, everyone was hanging out, the booze already flowing, the food being shared from the taco truck that had been parked up outside to cater. I almost wished I could have something to drink myself, just to take the edge off the nerves that were coursing through me right now, but that wasn’t an option.

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