I’d been on set first thing that morning, so Lew’s text was a couple of hours old when I finally got it. Holy shit, I’m going to be a father. And then I thought, He’s gonna kill me.

The words Guess What? didn’t tell me anything about how he was feeling. What should I say back to play it safe?

I’ll start looking at two bedroom apartments. Do you want to run away to Vegas for a few days once I’m finished filming?

There, acknowledge the problem and offer solutions, then let him make the decision. I’d either get blasted all to pieces, or he’d tell me what he wanted and I could just…give it to him.

Why Vegas? he texted back. Okay, so not mad. But I knew that Lew had always wanted kids earlier than later. We’d planned to be married a few years before we tried for any, though I guess I’d blown that schedule out of the water. I texted him back that we could get married, and then, only half as a joke, forbade him to book an Elvis impersonator as the officiant.

He texted me back with a threat about sleeping on the couch, which was actually hilarious because the one time he’d gotten mad enough before to threaten me with something like that, he’d been the one who broke first. I expected that, if I did end up sleeping on the couch, Lew would just end up on the couch with me.

Although if we were going to have a baby, a comfortable couch for napping on might not be a bad idea…

One of the grips came around. “They’re ready for you, Mike,” he said. I thought I heard the phone buzz as I slipped it into the pocket of my jacket, but in the noise I couldn’t be sure. I’d get it when I got back—hopefully we’d get the scene right this time.

I walked into the terrace of the restaurant at the Hilton and spotted my agent immediately. She waved to me, then looked back down on her phone as I threaded my way between the tables toward her.

“Hey,” I said and slid into the chair opposite her. “You said it was good news?”

“It is,” she said with a smile, and set her phone aside. “We got an offer on the action film, and a romantic comedy.” She pulled out an envelope and spilled two sets of papers out into her hand. “They’ve already cast someone for the hero, that omega Tam Laydon that’s causing all the stir, and they don’t want you for the villain, said you’re too clean-cut looking for it, but the part of the younger brother is yours if you want it. It’s not as much money, but rumor has it that Grady Kildare has been tapped to play the villain, and with Laydon headlining there should be a lot of press, so the exposure will be good. Or there’s the romantic comedy. Again, not the lead, but it’s a substantial part and you know how those almost always roll over into sequels.”

“Which do you recommend?” I picked up the paperwork and started to read over it.

“It’s pretty even. The action film is less screen time but more money per minute. It’s definitely supporting actor material but could help establish you as someone who would be believable in action films. And the careers of actors who work primarily in these types of roles are getting longer lately. The romantic comedy is definitely something you’d be capable of, though I’m not fond of the character himself. He reads as smarmy on page, and who knows what a director will do with that, right? But romantic comedy is an easier path into dramatic work and the actors will have a longer shelf-life that way. My only concern is getting branded as being the person that the character is written as.” She stopped for a sip of her latte and watched me as I looked over the offers.

Truthfully, I didn’t really remember the part of the little brother in the action script. I’d been concentrating on the hero part, or the villain in a pinch, and hadn’t paid much attention to the other roles. The romantic comedy… with Lew and I only a month engaged, I wasn’t sure I wanted to push the trust he was placing in me by taking on a role that would have me running around half naked with a bunch of pretty young starlets. “Let’s try the action film, then. I don’t do smarmy very well.”

She toasted me with her coffee. “You do smarmy exceedingly well, but you also do earnest and responsible even better. I think it’s probably the right choice. Certainly, I can parlay it into more offers.”

“Should I sign this one?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll call them and tell them you’re interested but that you have another offer on the table and see if we can get them to sweeten the deal a little.” She gathered up the paperwork and stuffed it back in the bag. “When’s that fiancé of yours coming back to town?”

“Soon as I find a place big enough for two,” I joked.

“We’ll have to sit down and plan out how we’re going to spin that story. It should be good for some heartwarming moments in interviews. John Richmond’s supposed to be negotiating with the author of that romantic thriller, the one that was on all the talk shows in the spring? If we can spin this romance of yours a bit coming up to the announcement, it might help me get you in for a reading.”

“I’d give my left leg to be in a John Richmond film,” I muttered, only half joking.

“Don’t say that. You’ll need your leg to run away from the explosions in it,” she joked back. “Other than this, how are things with you? The filming is going well?”

“Almost done. Long hours though, I’m getting tired.”

“I can see that.” She reached out and tapped my cheekbone. “Makeup must be having fits trying to camouflage those bags.”

“They do a good job.”

She checked her phone. “I’m going to have to go, I have another meeting. Let me know when your fiancé is coming back, I can slip something out to the tabloids, make sure your name is coming up a little more often.” She stood up and I put out a hand to stop her.

“There’s one other thing,” I said. “Lew’s pregnant. Not very far along, but it looks like we’re having a baby next spring.”

She frowned and squinted off into the distance. “Is the reason you two are getting married simply because you knocked him up?”

I shook my head.

“You sure? It’s not going to hurt your reputation if you have a child outside of wedlock.”

“I’m sure. I’ve asked him to marry me twice in the past two months. We haven’t talked about kids in years, but we always planned to have them.”

She sighed and checked her phone again. “Okay. Let me think about how to deal with it. Will you be getting married right away or are you going to wait until after the baby comes?”

“I don’t know how Lew feels about it. We’re going to talk tonight.”

“I’d recommend you wait until after, in terms of the optics of it. You rush into a marriage now, with a baby on the way, and it’ll either look like he trapped you or like you fucked up and now you’re trying to make it right. It’s gossip and exposure, but maybe not the kind you want at this point in your career. You don’t have the momentum to carry that off yet.”

That startled me. She didn’t curse much, so the swear word in the middle of her thoughtful analysis shocked me. But also the idea that I might have to ask Lew to wait to get married, to have the baby without the social protection of a husband that omegas still seemed to need so badly, in order to salvage my career. I’d already done something like that to him once before—I wasn’t going to get a third chance.

I shook my head at her. “If that’s what he wants, a quick wedding right away, I’m still doing it. It’s your job to figure out how to spin it. That’s what I pay you for.”

She twitched and then smiled at me. No, grinned, a wide flash of teeth and approval. “Now you’re starting to sound like an A-lister. Don’t worry, I can make this work. But it would be easier if you guys could wait.”

“I’ll see what he says,” was the only thing I could tell her. I wasn’t even sure I was telling her the truth, because the thought of telling Lew I wanted him to play second banana to my career again made my palms sweat and my heart race with anxiety.

“All right. Let me know as soon as you come to a decision.” She shouldered her bag, dropped a casual kiss on my cheek, and breezed away from the table.

I shook my head and left, back to finish the last scheduled scene of the day, then home to talk to Lew and figure out what we were going to do.