Baby On His Hollywood Doorstep. Lauri Robinson

that second category. She also couldn’t hide something else. She was scared. Beyond scared. Her hands were trembling and she kept glancing at Grace, almost as if the baby might pop up and fly away like some little bird.

      “What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.

      She looked away while gnawing on her bottom lip. Even her arms were trembling. So was her chin.

      “What’s preventing you from accepting my offer?” he asked.

      “Nothing.”

      His hope rose. “Nothing?”

      She shook her head. “Everything.”

      Huffing out a breath, he asked, “Which is it? Nothing or everything?” Maybe all of his imagining her on the big screen was because she could act. Or lie. Had been lying all along. “Is Grace not who you say she is? Is she your baby and you made all this up about Vera and Joe?”

      “No.” Her shoulders squared as she leveled a glare on him. “Everything I have told you about Grace and Vera is true. The letters say as much.”

      He didn’t need to read the letters. He knew she wasn’t lying. He was just stuck between a rock and a hard spot. “I’m sorry. I do believe you.” Standing, he rubbed at the tension in the back of his neck. “There is one other thing that I haven’t mentioned yet. Another reason I need you to care for Grace.”

      “What is it?”

      “Right now, while I’m making this movie and getting it out to the public, I can’t have word spread that I’ve taken in Joe’s abandoned baby. This is Hollywood. The rules change daily. That could be enough to have me blackballed for still associating with my brother.” His own words sickened him. “I know that sounds selfish, but it’s the truth. I can’t argue for it or against it, it’s just what it is right now.”

      “So you want me to pretend like Grace is my baby?”

      He didn’t want to face her, but did. “I want you to go on taking care of her, not saying anything, one way or the other.” He wasn’t proud of this, but he had to think of his future, of what this movie meant, perhaps even more now than ever. He had Grace to think about. Her future.