“Addileigh! Addileigh! Who's your date?” I couldn’t pinpoint the person speaking on the other side of the flashing cameras.
I couldn't help the giggles pouring from my already painful smile, when I answered him: “The best chance I ever took.”
It was another fifteen hour day on the lot filming the second season. I was running on the good news of being picked up for another season and coffee by hour ten. Luckily, I didn't find Layla to be too complex. She was to the point and struggled with love the way we all do, learning to do it the right way.
Palmer was a natural behind the camera. She knew exactly how to evoke whatever she wanted. She'd leave the hard scenes for last on purpose so that your body was ready to give out by hour fifteen, and the emotions hung on you like wardrobe.
I was piling pasta on my plate, when my phone rang, and I immediately answered without even checking who it was.
“Just finishing up here. Want me to pick you up?”
That was what I forced him to start every sentence with after a drop or really anything Hector wanted him to do. I knew for privacy reasons he couldn’t say anything on an open phone line, so that was my compromise. My lungs never really breathed enough air until I heard his sultry voice speak those words.
Letting out a sigh, I looked down at my plate of pasta when my publicist came over. “Addileigh! That’s carbs. You never eat those. What… are you pregnant?”
I knew her sarcasm was in full swing, but my husband on the other end of the phone only picked up the question not her laughing after letting him in on the joke.
“What did she say?”
Part of me wanted to jump in and claim I had my period, claim I was coming down with some kind of ailment that made you crave food instead of detests it. None of that would be true. I hadn’t had my period in three months and as much as I wanted to convince myself I was overworked and it was being scared away by stress – I wasn’t. I thrived for ten or fifteen hour days doing what I loved doing and going home to the only thing I loved more: Hunter.
We both knew the risks of not using protection, and neither of us spoke of it. Now we had to.
I shooed my publicist away and said into the phone, “Can you come to the lot? I still have three more hours here.”
He must have heard the seriousness in my voice dropping from my normal bubbly to a deeper tone. “Addileigh, this isn’t funny. Your jokes are cruel and unusual punishment.”
Our cat and mouse games became even more sinful after we admitted to loving each other. Instead of teasing and taunting until our skin became tough, now we played jokes on each other that took our breath away. Worst case scenarios rubbed in each other’s faces until we couldn’t hold the laughter back. We weren’t much for foreplay; this was our version.
Except this wasn’t one of those times.
“Hunter.”
With his name rolling off my tongue, silence overwhelmed the other end of the phone line to my ear. He knew I was serious, all foreplay aside.
“I’m gonna call him Danger,” he said so matter of fact, just like when he told me I'd marry him.
A smile spread like a wildfire across my face, sparking my light grays to shimmer even brighter with all the stress dissolving. I could lean into the idea of pregnancy now that Hunter knew.
“How do you know it’ll be a boy?”
“Because the world isn’t ready for another you. No one will survive.”
So much for joking aside.
A boy named Danger? That sounded about right. His name would literally be a warning sign: ”Proceed with caution,” because he’s not gonna steal hearts; he’s going to break them.