One Night with a Star (Second Chances Book 2) (7 page)

They pulled into the mall parking lot and found a space.

“This will have to be quick,” Jenny said. “Lunch only. I’m on thin ice at work anyhow, and this stretches the limits of ‘client meeting.’”

“What, you don’t usually take your clients to the mall for lunch with your son?” Simon teased as he shut the car door and walked around to where Jenny was taking Daniel out of his car seat.

“No,” she answered, no humor at all.

Simon reached out for Daniel as Jenny struggled with her purse and the diaper bag. She frowned and huffed and glanced longingly at her son, but eventually handed him over, moving much more freely once she did.

“Daddy’s got you,” Simon said to Daniel. The intense satisfaction that zipped through him as he supported his son, as Daniel touched his face and looked into his eyes, was enough to make any dressing down by Jenny’s dad worth it. If anyone tried anything funny with Daniel, he’d be just as fierce.

They walked toward the mall’s food court. Jenny was silent, watching the two of them with wary eyes.

“What?” Simon asked.

“Nothing,” she replied.

“You look nervous.”

She shrugged. “Maybe I am.”

“There’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s just me and my little guy here getting to know each other.”

She didn’t buy that for a minute.

“What?” Simon pressed her.

Their conversation was delayed as he reached for the mall’s door and held it open for her with one hand. A pair of older women coming out of the mall did a double-take when they saw him, but walked on. Simon ignored it. Unlike Spence, who was too handsome for his own good, outside of make-up, Simon was pretty sure he didn’t look that famous.

Jenny didn’t say anything else until they’d ordered a few slices of pizza and sodas and taken them to a remote table. It may have been a mall, but before noon on a Monday, it wasn’t that crowded. Jenny took Daniel out of Simon’s arms to feed him while Simon ate.

When Daniel was settled and happy, sucking away with a light blanket draped over him for modesty, Jenny said, “How long is this going to last?”

“Probably until Daniel’s had his fill and I can stop imagining the gorgeous, plump breast right under that thin blanket,” Simon teased, staring at Jenny’s chest.

Jenny huffed. “
Simon
.”

“What? I’m being an honest. I’m a red-blooded male faced with a beautiful woman that I’m involved with.”

“We are
not
involved,” she snapped.

“So you say.” He bit into his pizza and wiggled his eyebrows.

She growled, and the corners of her mouth twitched. Simon considered it a victory and a sign that he was getting under her skin.

“I’ve moved on,” she insisted.

“What, with Neil?” He took another vicious bite of his pizza to underscore his point.

“Yes, with Neil. You have no idea what he’s like.”

“I think I have an idea.”

“No,” she insisted. “You don’t. You don’t know anything. You walked back in here three days ago, and now you act like you have everything under control. That’s exactly what you did last summer. A handful of days, making promises and flashing that smile of yours as if you’re right at home, then you were gone. I’m not letting you do that to Daniel. You can’t leave when you get tired.”

“I didn’t leave because I got tired,” he insisted. So much for not being serious. He scooted forward, leaning across the table toward her. “Look. You deserve better.”

“I do?”

“Yes. You deserve better than that sniveling wanker, Neil.”

“You don’t know him.”

He waved away her statement with his free hand. “You also deserve better than the man I was last year.”

Jenny narrowed her eyes. “You know, you’ve spend a lot of energy telling me that things weren’t right last year and that you had to go away for my own good for some reason, but you’re too damn cagey about exactly what you did and why.”

“That’s because it wasn’t pretty.”

“No? Well, to me it just sounds like a bunch of hot air, just another excuse to make what you did sound right.”

“I had problems, all right?” he defended himself, sitting back and reaching for his soda. “Problems I’m not proud of.”

“Poor Simon,” she shot at him. “Problems you’re not proud of. Kind of like the problem of being pregnant by a movie star you got snookered by? The problem of having everyone snicker at you when they think you’re not looking because you refuse to tell who the baby’s father is? Or maybe the problem of moving back into your parent’s house after being independent because you can’t hack it?”

Each of her accusations hit him like an arrow in the heart. He’d never meant to cause her pain. It just seemed like pain followed him wherever he went.

“How about a coke problem that drains your bank account and your self-esteem?” he suggested.

Jenny blinked and flinched. “Oh my God.”

“How about an identity crisis that lands you in a hotel room, hosting a party for some of the seedier citizens of the Big Apple, contemplating whether you should OD in the bathroom or go out and beg the expensive hooker for a blow-job?”

She stared at him. “How come I never heard anything about that?”

He shrugged. “Not every celebrity vice gets reported the second it happens. There’s a lot that goes on in our world that the public will never know about. Why do you think Spence was so eager to get away?”

She hesitated before saying, “Is that why you came to Sand Dollar Point last summer? To get away?”

“Yes,” he answered. “It’s also why I kept going. I had a bigger journey ahead of me before I could come back.”

“You,” she started, blinked rapidly and swallowed, then went on. “You intended to come back?”

“Always.”

“But….” Nothing followed.

Simon took a breath. “I can’t exactly say that meeting you made me want to change everything about myself, Jenny. I already wanted to change everything about myself. I hated that lifestyle, but I was trapped in it. Addiction is a powerful thing, and I will always struggle with it, but when you reach the point where you find something you want more than your vice, it changes things.” He met and held her eyes. “For me, that thing was you. Now it’s you and Daniel. You’ve changed things for me.”

“Yeah, but….” Her words dried up and she just stared at him. A few moments later, her face pinched to a sharp frown. “You can’t lay all that on my shoulders, Simon, or on Daniel’s shoulders. I’m not responsible for whatever changes you’ve made in my life.”

“You are,” he insisted, “but it’s not your responsibility, not like that.”

“Easy for you to say.”

Daniel let out a fussy sound, and Jenny was tugged out of the conversation as she settled him and put herself back together. Simon offered to hold Daniel while Jenny ate. She didn’t seem happy about it, but she handed Daniel over anyhow. They finished the meal in grumpy silence.

“I didn’t ask for any of this,” Jenny said as they headed back to the car. “You can’t just throw all this on me now, not when I’ve moved on.”

“I told you, I’m not throwing anything on you,” he said. “You asked me why I left. I told you. That’s the past.”

“And now you want to think about the future,” she said with more than a little bitterness, like it was cliché.

“Exactly.” Simon nodded to Daniel in his arms, but his son was groggy now and ignored him in favor of squirming and fussing.

Jenny plucked Daniel out of Simon’s arms and strapped him into his car seat once they reached the car, but it felt to Simon like a diversionary tactic to stop them from talking about what really mattered. He climbed into the passenger seat and waited for Jenny to join him. He’d been so confident just a few short hours ago. Now he had no idea what move was the next right move to make.

By the time Jenny got into the car and turned on the engine to drive home, Daniel was wailing.

“I hate it when he cries like that,” she said, glum herself, “but he’s just tired. He’ll wear himself out and fall asleep.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Simon tried to joke.

Jenny flashed a quick, unamused look at him. Simon threw up his hands in defeat. It looked like it wouldn’t be as easy as he’d planned to swoop in, confess his sins, and start over.

Chapter Seven

What if she was wrong?

The thought wouldn’t let Jenny go as she tried to pull herself together and focus over the next few days. She had a career to rebuild, a son to shelter, and a relationship with Neil to maintain. She couldn’t afford to sit around wondering if all of the assumptions she’d made about Simon and his motives in the last year were wrong.

She squirmed in her chair, searching through listings that might fit Simon’s needs online, and doing everything to stop herself from clicking around, searching for “Simon Mercer” and “addiction” that she could.

Ivy popped her head up over the edge of the wall that separated their cubes. “Hey, Jenny,” she whispered. “Sarah Jenner said she saw you having lunch with Simon Mercer at the mall the other day. Is that true?”

A sick twist hit Jenny’s stomach. She sighed and frowned, keeping her eyes on her computer. “Do you think I have time to skip off to the mall for lunch with a celebrity the way Carol has been breathing down my neck lately?” she asked. If she was lucky, Ivy would make up her own answer.

“I won’t tell,” Ivy said. She inched around the edge of the cube and invited herself to sit on Jenny’s desk. “Are you guys seeing each other? I thought you were still dating Neil.”

“I am still dating Neil.” Though saying it made her feel even more sick. She’d ignored two calls from him in the last couple of days and barely replied to a whole flurry of texts.

“Because seriously,” Ivy went on, “if I had to choose between dating Simon Mercer and Nerdy Neil from third period, you better believe I would be with Simon Mercer.”

Jenny fought not to roll her eyes. She dragged her attention away from her computer and turned her chair to face Ivy. “Neil hasn’t been nerdy since puberty.”

“He’s an accountant,” Ivy said as if it was the same thing.

“And movie stars bring a lot of baggage with them.”

Like old drug habits and bad behavior. Behavior that they swore they were trying to kick, that they
had
kicked, if what Simon said was true. Did people actually recover from addictions or did they just say that for the press? What if Simon had turned over a new leaf with her in mind?

“I don’t care about baggage if it comes in a package like that,” Ivy said with a dreamy sigh. She snapped straighter. “You haven’t seen his package, have you?”

Jenny willed herself not to throttle Ivy. That would definitely get her fired. It didn’t help that she had seen the package in question, and that it had been spectacular.

“I’m not having this conversation,” she said, turning back to her computer. “I need to work. I need to get something going or I’ll be fired.”

“Well, I have this young married couple who is looking for a starter home,” Ivy said, standing and walking back into her cube. It didn’t shut her up. “You can have them. I’ve got so many other irons in the fire that I don’t have time for them.”

“Sure.” Not that the sale of a cheap home would do much to help her bank account.

Ivy was quiet for a few seconds only before squealing, “Ooh! Speak of the devil.”

The bell on the office’s front door jingled a moment later, and Jenny’s heart dropped to her stomach. He wouldn’t bother her at work, would he? Simon wouldn’t be such a jerk as to ambush her where she couldn’t defend herself.

She stood, ready to whisk him right back out into the parking lot to give him a piece of her mind, but it wasn’t Simon striding toward her, waving to Laurel as he went, it was Neil.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he approached her with his best fake smile. His eyes were angry.

“Hey, babe.” Jenny met fake smile for fake smile.

She did a quick survey of the office. Carol’s door was closed as she met with Gladys. Ivy and Laurel were pretending not to watch. The intern poked his head out of the coffee room to see what was going on. Great.

“What are you doing here?” she asked Neil, crossing her arms and leaning against her desk.

“You haven’t been answering your phone,” Neil said with false cheer. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine.”

Over the low cube wall, Ivy made a face that said she saw a break-up coming. She might have been right.

“I miss you.” Neil took a step closer and brushed his fingers along her jaw. Jenny tried not to flinch. “We’ve barely talked and we haven’t seen each other at all since the wedding. I’m beginning to feel a little lonely.” She would have given him the benefit of the doubt if his gaze hadn’t slipped straight down to her breasts.

“I’ve been so busy,” she said. “I’ve got to step it up here at work.”

“All work and no play,” he hummed, sliding a hand down her arm. The same gesture two weeks ago would have turned her on. Now it just creeped her out.

“Yes, but all play and no work gets me fired.”

Neil shrugged. “I make a ton of money. I could support you.”

“No way.” Jenny took a step back. “Working isn’t just about money, it’s about self-respect.”

“Well, I respect your self a lot.” He stepped closer to her, eyes focused below her neck, reaching for her waist. “We need to spend some quality time together. Why don’t we go up to the mountains this weekend?”

“Because I have Daniel to think about,” she said. The closer he got, the more trapped she felt. “And I’ve got a client who might buy a really big house to work with. He’ll want to see houses this weekend.”

Neil’s expression tensed and hardened. He leaned even closer and said, “It’s that cocky movie star, isn’t it? Simon Mercer. A little birdy told me the two of you were seen at the Maine Mall together the other day.”

Jenny cleared her throat and stepped away from him and out of her cube. Ivy, Laurel, and the intern were all blatantly watching her now. She wasn’t about to give them a show.

“Come on.”

She gestured for Neil to follow her out of her cube, across the front of the office, and outside to the parking lot. There was enough traffic on the road beside them to cover the sound of a quiet conversation.

“What?” Neil dropped his nice act as soon as the others couldn’t see or hear him. “It is that movie star, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Jenny answered. No point in keeping it a secret. No point in keeping any of it a secret. “I’m helping him to find a house, but there’s more.”

Neil hissed out a breath and combed a hand through his hair, agitated beyond what Jenny expected. “It’s those damn TV people,” he launched into a rant before she could finish what she’d been about to say. “They push their weight around everywhere, thinking they can get whatever they want if they smile enough and throw money at you.”

“What are you talking about?”

He rounded on her. “They want to keep filming at Twin Pines, and they’re meddling in everyone’s business.”

“What do you care?” She didn’t like the feel of where this was going at all.

“I care because I can’t stand seeing them get their way all the time,” Neil went on with a whine. “They’re messing up the accounting and pushing all sorts of things through that the board doesn’t want.”

“You’re on the board.” Jenny remembered him mentioning something about being invited to join the board of Twin Pines Senior Living Center months ago. It hadn’t seemed interesting or important then. Now it did.

“I can’t stand seeing them win,” Neil went on. “Who do they think they are anyhow? Who does this Simon Mercer asshole think he is, taking you out to lunch when you’re
my
girlfriend.”

Jenny’s brow flew up at the intensity of his claim over her. Fine. Neil wanted to play like that? She would play like that.

“Simon is Daniel’s father,” she said, crossing her arms.

Mid-eye-roll, Neil froze. As soon as what she’d said sunk in, he blew a gasket.

“What?” he shouted.

“He’s Daniel’s father. We had a thing last summer. He wants to be part of Daniel’s life now.” Somehow, spilling the truth to Neil didn’t bring the same sense of satisfaction with it that telling her parents had.

Neil looked at her as though she’d just puked all over herself. “You let that celebrity dick seduce you?”

“It was before I met you,” she fired back.

“We knew each other in middle school,” he argued.

“Okay, it was before I met you again. It’s none of your business.”

“Like hell it’s none of my business,” Neil raged on. The traffic sounds weren’t enough to drown out what he was saying from any passing ears. “You’re my girlfriend.”

Not if he kept talking to her like that.

Out loud she said, “Nothing is going on between us right now. He just wants to be part of his son’s life. I’m not going to deny him that.”

“Why not?” Neil snapped. “It’s not like he’s done anything to try to be a part of Daniel’s life—or your life, for that matter—before now.”

She flinched at the accusation. It was too close to what she’d been thinking. “Simon’s been through a lot in the last year,” she found herself defending him, although God knew why. “He’s trying to turn over a new leaf. Give the man some credit.”

“No,” Neil said flat-out. “I will not give any celebrity who is trying to hit on my girlfriend and take over my workplace any sort of credit at all.”

“Why are you so sensitive all of a sudden?” she fired at him.

“Because these people are fucking with what’s mine,” he growled. “Literally, it would seem.” His eyes flashed with a new, furious light. “Are you sleeping with him now?”

“What?” A burst of guilt sizzled down her spine, as if she had entertained the idea.

“Because you’re certainly not sleeping with me at the moment.”

“I’ve been busy with the wedding and with Daniel,” she defended herself.

Sleeping with Simon. What if she had the chance to do that again? That night last summer had been so—

“No,” she blurted, for Neil and for herself. “I am not sleeping with Simon. I’m not sleeping with anyone right now.”

“Yeah. I know,” Neil tossed at her.

“Is
that
your problem?” She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You’re pissed at me because you’re not getting any?”

“Maybe?” He sounded like the pouty middle school boy she’d known.

“Well, you’ve got a hand, haven’t you?” she said.

“That’s not funny,” he grumbled.

“Neither are you. Now go back to work and deal with your pushy celebrities and let me deal with mine. I’m trying to save my job here, and you’re not helping.”

“Jenny, I won’t—”

Whatever he wouldn’t do or say, Jenny wasn’t interested. She turned on her heel and marched back into the office. Men. They were such assholes sometimes. Maybe she was better off without one. If Neil decided he wanted to run off and discover himself or go through some recovery process for being a bona fide jerk, she wouldn’t complain. At least Simon had the balls to face up to his shortcomings and do something about them.

She marched past Laurel and Ivy—who wore expressions like they’d seen the whole confrontation and would have given their firstborn to know what had been said—to flop into her desk chair. Goddammit, she should not be thinking of Simon as the better man in this scenario. He was the one who had left her, and Neil had come in to support her when she needed it. For a few weeks, at least. When had he turned into such a possessive moron? Not that Simon was any better, with his arrogance and assumptions.

No, what she needed here was to take back her life and her pride. She’d help Simon buy a house, but that was it. If he wanted to spend time with Daniel, he could figure out another way to do it. Skype, maybe.

She was ready to pack the whole thing in and consider moving to China or someplace when a reminder popped up on her computer screen. “4:00. Meeting with SM at SDP.” Crap. She’d told Simon she would meet with him fifteen minutes from now to narrow down his list of potential homes. Well, she wasn’t going to take this whole thing lying down.

She stood, grabbing her purse and keys, determined to do her job and only her job.

“I’ve got a client meeting at four,” she told Laurel as she headed out the door. “I won’t be back in the office today.”

“Is it a meeting with Simon Mercer?” Laurel perked up.

Jenny didn’t answer her. She marched outside to her car. Neil had gone, thank God. She got in her car and turned on the engine. Her car was clean, for a change, but she would not admit that she’d cleaned it because she was going to have to drive Simon around. She would not admit that she’d do anything special for him.

By the time she drove through Summerbury and along Beach Avenue to make the turn into Sand Dollar Point, she had worked herself into a fit rather than calming down. No one was going to take advantage of her or Daniel again. Not even if they were a gorgeous celebrity. She parked and headed up to the porch, knocking on the door, then letting herself in.

“Jenny,” Simon greeted her from the living room. He lounged on the sofa, bare feet propped up on the coffee table, laptop open in his lap. “Right on time. I’ve just been going through the listings you sent me. There’s a lot of nice houses—” He stopped when she stormed into the living room. “What’s wrong?”