Page 5 of Secret Daddies

I stoodat the entrance to set, glancing around. It was total chaos here—set dressers running back and forth, PAs chattering into Bluetooth headphones, producers pinned to their cells. Conversation was filling the air, the sense of frantic energy almost overwhelming.

Before I could stop myself, a huge smile cracked over my face.I’m home.

I still couldn’t believe I had actually managed to find my way back to a movie set, after what felt like a lifetime out in the cold. It had been way, way too long since I had set foot anywhere like this, and even though some of the technology looked a little different, the excitement and the anticipation was the same. I didn’t even know what damn movie I was going to be working on, but it didn’t matter. I was just glad to be back, glad to finally be where I belonged once more.

They had been in such a rush to sign a new makeup artist that I was pretty sure, as long as I hadn’t given anyone any major disfigurements over the course of my career, they would have taken me regardless. It had all been such a rush—the NDAs sentover, the contracts signed, the stipend paid up. My rent was covered for the next couple of months, but more than that, I could actuallyworkagain. I could hardly wait.

I’d worried that Matty wouldn’t take the news well, but when I had assured him that he’d get to spend some evenings with his favorite sitter and that our movie nights weren’t going anywhere, he seemed to take it pretty well. In fact, he loved the idea of me working on a movie—since we had started watching them together, he’d grown an interest in the industry, as much of an interest as a boy his age could, at least. He had made me promise, in deadly seriousness, that I would give him all the stories I could from set. Well, I was pretty sure the NDA didn’t apply to my son, right?

Strolling past the set of trailers where the stars of the movie were going to be hanging out, I made my way straight to the makeup trailer, where I would be working for most of my time here. On the door was the working title of the film we were on—T3 Team-Up.It didn’t mean much to me, but then, I wasn’t exactly keeping up with the comings and goings of the movie world while I was taking care of Matty.

Inside the trailer, a handful of makeup artists had already clustered. I could always tell who the makeup artists were, because either they had scrubbed-clean faces without a dot of color on them, or they were wearing the most extravagant looks imaginable. Two ends of a spectrum, I supposed. A woman who was on the first side of that spectrum, with perfect skin and gorgeous brows, turned to me with a smile on her face.

“Maya, right?”

“That’s me,” I replied, extending my hand to her awkwardly. Were we meant to shake hands? I couldn’t exactly remember, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt.

She took my hand, giving it a firm shake, and nodded at me in greeting.

“I’m Paula, I’m the head makeup artist on set,” she replied. “Have you worked for the studio before?”

“I haven’t…”

“Let me run you through some of our protocol, then,” she replied, steering me toward a large makeup table at the far end of the trailer. There were several pictures pinned up around the edge of the mirror, most of them guides for applying and contouring for the various characters we would be working on for this movie. One in particular caught my eye. It was a man, a man with a shaved head and brown eyes who looked familiar.

“Who’s that?” I asked, pointing toward the image before I could think better of it. Paula turned to me, her eyebrow cocked.

“You kidding?”

My heart skipped a beat. Crap. Had I already managed to make a fool of myself? I shook my head.

“N—no. Sorry, I came on to this movie last minute, I don’t know much about it…”

“Yeah, but even still, you must know who Taylor King is, right?” she replied. “One of the Trio?”

“Oh, shit, yeah!” I exclaimed as it all fell into place. I had watched one of his movies with Matty not that long ago—howcool that I was going to be working on a film with him in it. Matty would be so excited when I told him.

“I didn’t realize he was going to be working on this film,” I remarked. “I really like his work.”

Paula gave me another strange look out of the corner of her eye. I could tell something was bothering her, and I got the feeling that I was putting my foot in it.

“You really don’t know what film this is,” she asked again, incredulous.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, they didn’t give me much more than the contracts and the NDAs to sign before I came here.” I let out a slightly nervous laugh. “Why? What is it?”

“It’s the Trio team-up feature,” she replied. “You know, the one where all three of them join up and star in a movie together?”

I blinked at her for a second. A ringing rose in my ears, and I tried to ignore it. Because I must have heard her wrong. There was no way, no way in hell this could be what I thought it was…

“So all three of them are going to be in it?” I asked. “Taylor King, Lee Kennedy, and…”

“Devon Hart, yeah.”

Oh, fuck.

Everything stopped around me. I could vaguely make out the other makeup artists in conversation a few feet away, but I couldn’t take in a damn thing they were saying. My knees were buckling, and I gripped the edge of the makeup table in front of me.

“I know, it’s a big deal,” Paula remarked, mistaking my reaction for surprise at working on such a huge movie. “But trust me, it’ll be just like anything else you’ve worked on, once you get down to it. So, the protocols for this set…”

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