Page 6 of Secret Daddies

She started to go over everything I would need to know, and I did my best to stay tuned in and wrap my mind around all of it, even as my head felt like it might explode. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’tbelieveit. After so long avoiding him, so long working to build my life up again—I was going to be working with the asshole? How did I not know this?

Lana couldn’t have known, of course—well, she couldn’t have known that it mattered, at least. She had no idea that Devon was really my son’s father, because I had never told her, because I had assumed it would never come up. I had never intended to come back to work, and if I did, I never pictured it being on a set like this, where I might actually run into him again.

“So, that’s about it,” Paula finished up, clapping her hands together. “Any questions?”

Shit. I hadn’t taken any of that in. I would have to hope that my muscle memory served me well enough to get through it without making a total ass of myself.

“No, I’m all good,” I replied, quickly pasting a smile on my face. “Thanks. I’m just going to grab a coffee…”

I slipped out of the trailer before she could say another word to me and sucked in a deep lungful of air the second I was outside, tilting my head back and trying not to let the freak-out turn into a full-blown panic attack. I felt like I should have known about this. Some mystic sense should have started tingling the minute he came within a ten-mile radius of me. But it hadn’t, and now Iwas standing here on set, with no idea where he was, wondering how long it would be before I ran into him…

Wait, had I passed his trailer on the way in today? The thought made my stomach churn. Being that close to him, after so long…being so near to him after I’d imagined I would never see him again, I couldn’t cope with it.

I couldn’t do this. The snap decision was made in my head before I had a chance to think any more about it. I needed to get out of here, before I exposed something that I had worked so hard to keep to myself for so long. I couldn’t just get to work here like nothing was wrong—I couldn’t be around him, I couldn’t risk it. Even the thought of running into him now was a terrifying prospect, and I darted around the back of the trailer, seeking a bit of quiet so I could figure out what to do next.

I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through all the digital copies of the contracts they had sent me. There had to be a way out, right? A panic button I could slam if something came up at the last minute. Of course, I doubted they had planned foraccidentally got pregnant by one of the leading men before he dumped her with no warning,but a girl could dream…

I frantically looked over the contracts, but they were ironclad. There wasn’t a single way I could squeeze out of this without having to pay a hefty fee—and it wasn’t like I had the damn money for that. No, I was stuck seeing this through, and that meant…

And that meant that I was going to have to work with the father of my child, the father who had no idea his son existed. No idea that his son was a huge fan of his work. Oh, and Matty, of course, would be clamoring every day to hear what I’d been getting up toat work, and I had no idea how long I could keep a straight face in the midst of all of this.

I put my head in my hands and drew in a deep, shuddering breath.Come on.I had dealt with harder shit than this before. Yes, it was far from ideal, but I could find a way through it—I was going to have to, wasn’t I?

Steeling myself, I drew myself up to my full height—not much more than five-three, but still—and swore to myself that I wasn’t going to let Devon Hart cause any more trouble in my life. No, that asshole had done plenty of that as it stood.

And I was not in the habit of letting the same man get under my skin twice.

4

DEVON

I yawnedas I made my way to the makeup trailer, rubbing a hand across my face to try and wake myself up. Dammit, these early mornings always kicked my ass. I just had to focus on how much good this movie was going to do for my career—and the fact that I could take a couple of months off when it was all done.

Taking a sip of my coffee, I let the warm, bitter flavor spread over my tongue. Even though it was probably some of the shittiest coffee on earth, there was something I enjoyed about the taste of a cup of joe straight from the communal machine at the food stand on set. Reminded me of when I first started doing this, when so much as having a coffee before I began filming felt like a luxury. Even now, in the middle of shooting for a movie that probably cost more than I would make in a lifetime, it took me back to those early, hungry days when I would have done just about anything to make a name for myself in this business.

And make a name for myself I had. I passed the trailer labeled with my name, and I couldn’t help but pause and grin at the sight of it. Didn’t matter how many times I saw it, it would always be anovelty to me. If I could go back in time ten years and show the teenage version of myself all of this, I doubt he would believe me.

Nah, that was a lie. He would have. I’d always known I was destined for big things, in that arrogant way you do when you’re a kid. Nothing and nobody could have convinced me I wasn’t going to get everything I wanted handed to me on a platter. Sure, there had been a whole lot of hard work before that platter arrived, but now that I was here, I knew it had been worth it. Every step.

Well. Almost every step. You didn’t get as far as I had without stepping on a few people in the process. God knew I’d probably made some enemies over the years, but in a business like this, you had to be cutthroat if you wanted to get where you were due to go.

I let out one more yawn and popped a piece of gum before I opened the door to the artists’ trailer. I knew from experience that no artist appreciated having coffee breath huffed in their face first thing in the morning, and the best way to make it work on a set as big as this was to keep everyone on your side. I had seen some real messes springing from guys who just weren’t able to keep their egos in check and treat the rest of the crew with basic decency—shit, some of the makeup jobs and costuming I’d seen in revenge were downright hilarious…

“Hey, good morning,” I said to nobody in particular. I didn’t know who I was going to be working with on this movie specifically, but I figured there would be at least some of the same crew who had worked on Cormac. But instead of hearing the usual rush of cheerful voices greeting me, I heard just one.

A voice I recognized at once.

“Hi, Devon.”

My head snapped up, eyes widening. There was no way that could be who I thought it was, not a chance in hell. I hadn’t heard that voice in years—the better part of a decade now, at least. Finally, my gaze fell on her—and there was no more denying that it was exactly who I thought it was.

“Maya?”

Her name escaped my lips before I could stop myself. The shock was written all over my voice, even I could hear it. She looked a little different, but it was still undeniably her. The same long auburn hair pulled back into a braid at the back of her head, the same green eyes with flecks of gold where they caught the light, the same smattering of freckles over her slightly uneven nose. The same woman I’d fallen for all those years ago, standing right in front of me as though I had managed to whisk her here from the past.

“Oh, so you do remember my name?” Maya replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She gestured to the seat in front of her, next to the mirror. “Sit. I need to get to work.”

“I—what the hell are you doing here?”

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