Page 75 of Ex's Accidental Baby

“Meredith? But she was barely filmed?—”

“Doesn’t matter. The camera loves her, apparently.”

“Then why are you calling me instead of her?”

“Because she'll never go for it, doing a commercial by herself. You know how camera-shy she always was. She got stage fright in theater class, remember?”

Of course, I remember. She’d come to me sobbing, telling me she’d embarrassed herself in front of the whole class, and I’d kissed her until she stopped worrying about it.

“Vaguely.” I get up and get dressed in a simple three-piece suit. “I’m headed to the office now. I’ll talk to her, but I can’t make any promises.”

“That’s all I ask. It’s what the people want, and it’ll make you more money.”

“And you more money, by proxy,” I drawl, and I can practically hear Grayson’s grin over the line.

“Exactly.”

I hang up with Grayson and head to the office, picking up a latte for myself and a decaffeinated one for Meredith. I feel like I’ve read somewhere that caffeine is bad for pregnancy.

“Decaf," I tell her when I hand it to her, and she smiles.

“Thinking ahead, are you?”

“Of course. I want to do anything I can to make this baby happy and healthy.”

She nods, looking up at me with a small smile, and I think this may be the right time to ask her.

“Listen, how would you feel about doing another commercial with me?”

She blinks. “Why me?”

“Apparently, social media loves your smile.” I pull up my phone, showing her the comments.

All of them reference her pretty, white teeth, her big, blue eyes. Some of the guys get a little too sexual, and I wish I could hunt them down, but it’s the internet. What else do I expect?

Meredith flushes. “I don’t know about that. I feel nervous.”

“You shouldn't be. Everyone loves you, princess.”

“Don’t call me that,” she says automatically. “Especially at work.”

I sigh. “Fair enough. But will you do it?”

“When do we start?”

I smile at her, hoping that this is a step toward us really being friends. “I’ll ask Grayson.”

There’s a line outside the door before we even open, and I can barely breathe all day from the amount of customers we have signing up.

We end up having to do a wait list for some of the vehicles with bigger mechanical problems, but I’m bringing in fistfuls of money. Which is good news, given how much I’ve spent on the renovations of the garage.

Meredith leaves before I do, and I frown, wishing that I’d stopped her.

I don’t know what I would have said to her, but I could have saidsomething.

Luckily, I have the commercial to look forward to.

Two days later, Meredith and I arrive at almost the same time at the garage. It’s a Saturday, so us and Grayson’s team are the only people there.

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