He glanced at the image, that, admittedly, made no sense unless you’d been in the room when it had been taken. “Can we go back in? Can they do it again?”
She laughed, more dismay than humor. “No. They had a waiting room full of patients.” She stood. “And I have to get back to work.”
He pulled her back to the bench and sat next to her. “Baby, I’m so sorry. A paramedic called me from Lila’s phone. Told me she’d been in an accident.”
Zahara tilted her head. “In LA?”
“No, here.”
She sighed. “That woman is a goddamned wrecking ball. Is she okay?”
“She’s fine,” he bit out. “I mean, she hit her head, but it was a fucking fender bender. She acted like she’d lost a limb.”
Anger stirred. “A few days ago, you told me you were a hundred percent there for me and our baby. Today, Lila came first again.”
“I didn’t know it was just a fender bender,” he shot back. “It could have been serious.”
“With Lila, a hangnail is serious. You know her, yet you keep falling for every trick.”
“I don’t want to talk about Lila. I want to talk about you. What did the doctor say? Does everything look okay?”
His frustration was palpable. On the one hand, she felt for him. Being used was no fun. On the other, she was pissed and scared, and she had a child to think of.
“Fine. We’re both fine. Is Lila still at the hospital?”
“I ordered her an Uber and told her to leave, but she does whatever the hell she wants, so who knows?”
She studied his tight body language, his tortured expression. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Chase exhaled. His shoulders slid lower. “She threatened to leak our relationship if I don’t continue the charade of her and me.”
Zahara’s mouth dropped open. “Did you tell her—”
“No.” His denial was immediate and sharp. “No, I didn’t tell her anything. She’s desperate and grasping at straws.”
“Wow, that’s a new low. Even for her.” Zahara shook her head and looked down at the picture again, her hopes of stability between herself and Chase fading. “But Lila isn’t the problem, Chase. You are.”
“What?”
“You and that huge heart of yours. I love that about you. I love how real you are, how much you care about others. But this baby has to come first now. And not just in lip service either.”
“I get that. Do you get what an impossible situation I’m in?”
Zahara huffed a laugh and stood. “The last time I checked, I’m the one who’s pregnant with a tenth of your income.”
“Z.” He took her arms and bent to look in her eyes. “Baby. We want the same thing. Please be patient.”
She met his gaze deliberately. “This isn’t about me. And it’s not about you. From here on out, it needs to be about the baby. This kid needs you to be a dad first. Everything and everyone has to come second to that, including me. I grew up as an afterthought. I know what it feels like to be no one’s priority. I won’t have that for my kid, Chase. This child will come second to no one. Do you understand me?”
He closed his eyes, hung his head. “I do.”
She pushed the picture of the baby into his hand. “Here’s a reminder. I’m going to walk back to the set. I need time to think.”
14
Zahara kicked out, nailing a sidekick to Curt’s flank, immediately followed by a double jab-cross to his face. Curt made all the essential sounds and moves to convince an audience the heroine was kicking the ass of a bad guy on the roof of a government building in DC.
“Nice,” Keaton told Curt. “Any better and we’d be out of a job.”