One Night with a Star (Second Chances Book 2) (9 page)

Okay, maybe not the bedrooms.

By the time her brain caught up with what she should be doing, it was too late. Simon had sidled his way right up to her and stood within arm’s reach. He didn’t say anything, he just looked at her, lust personified. It was so blatant, so obvious, and yet her body ached to throw herself into his arms and pick up where they’d left off the night before. It wasn’t fair that the pull between them was so magnetic.

She had to do something. That something ended up being crossing her arms, resting her weight on one hip, and shaking her head.

“It’s not going to happen,” she told him.

“What’s not going to happen?” His innocent act was so tempting that her gut quivered with longing.

“I’m not going to kiss you again like I did last night,” she said.

“Aw, why not?” His eyes flashed with mischief.

“Because it was wrong, it was foolish, and it was born from the fact that you had me at a disadvantage. I was upset.”

“You kissed me,” he reminded her.

“Doesn’t change the fact that I was at a disadvantage.”

“Are you at a disadvantage now?” he asked, inching closer to her.

If she moved away, he would know that he’d gotten to her. If she didn’t, well, history might just repeat itself. She was stuck were she was, aching and confused.

“Might I remind you that I have a boyfriend?” she said, arching an eyebrow.

Damn him, but Simon slid even closer to her. “Does he make you feel the way I do?”

No. Absolutely not. In fact, no one had ever made her feel the way Simon made her feel. It was a fact that was decidedly inconvenient right then.

Time to move on. She cleared her throat and peeled away from him.

“Another advantage of this house is that it has a two-car garage. I don’t know if you’re the type of star who likes to collect cars, but you could at least make a start if you buy here.”

“I don’t care about cars, I care about you.”

She ignored him. “The owners are eager to sell. The price they’re asking is really good for this area. It’s only twenty minutes from downtown Portland, so you would have all of the amenities of a modest city close by. And it’s only forty-five minutes from Twin Pines.”

She stopped and turned to see if he was keeping up. Not only was he following, the act of stopping landed her right in his arms. Or would have if he had reached out. He didn’t. He stood perfectly still where he was, as if waiting for her to be the one to embrace him.

“Excuse me,” she said, trying not to breathe fast and shallow. “You’re in my personal space.”

“And?” he asked.

A shiver of longing twirled through her. Dammit, why did she find his cockiness such a turn-on?

“I’d appreciate it if you’d back off and let me do my job.” Those would have been strong words if her voice hadn’t nearly cracked while saying them.

Simon took a large step back. He sucked in a breath and pivoted to survey the living room.

“No,” he said at last. “Not this one.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Jenny snapped before she could think better of it.

“Too far away.”

“From what?”

“From Sand Dollar Point,” he shrugged. He turned back to meet her eyes. “From you.”

She tried to ignore the pulsing pleasure of that comment, opting for a frown.

“I have nothing to do with this, remember? I’m not living with you or seeing you. I’m not part of your life.”

“But you are,” he argued, calm as glass. “You’re Daniel’s mum, and you’re going to have to drive him to my house, or vice versa, when I want to spend time with him. This would be too long of a drive. Besides, I can see about a thousand dangerous corners and outlets and ways that a toddler might injure himself. This isn’t a kid-friendly house.”

Dammit. She did not want him to go spouting perfectly reasonable reasons for rejecting the house. Reasons that showed just how much potential he had to be a good father.

“Two of the other houses you liked are closer to home,” she said, defeated. “The one is in Summerbury, on the beach.”

“Let’s look at that one.”

“I’ll have to set it up.”

He nodded. They walked back through the living room toward the front door.

“While you’re setting that up,” he began, “how about arranging for Daniel to spend the weekend with me?”

Jenny froze. Her throat closed up. “The weekend?”

“Yeah.” Simon walked ahead of her and held the door for her. “You know, some father-son time for me and the kiddo. I’d love to have him at Sand Dollar Point for the weekend.”

Jenny stepped out into the morning sunlight, a whole new fear assailing her. Letting go of Daniel. This whole time, she’d been going on about how Simon could be a part of Daniel’s life, but not hers. Only now was she making the connection that that meant she would be without her baby for days. Panic rushed in like waves after a storm.

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, rushing on to the car.

“For Daniel to spend time with his father?” Simon followed her, a frustrated scowl creasing his brow.

“He’s so young. He’s still breastfeeding. I don’t know if I’m ready to give him up like that.”

Dammit, in her rush to make excuses, she’d gone and blabbed the truth. She wasn’t ready to give Daniel up to anyone, not even his father.

“I understand,” Simon said, trying to be reasonable. “It’s a big step.” He walked around to the far side of the car.

“It is a big step,” she said, the car between them.

Simon leaned against it, resting his arms on the top of the door. “So why don’t you come and spend the weekend at Sand Dollar Point too? It’s got tons of rooms.”

Something about Simon’s tone of voice hinted that he might be joking out of impatience. There was no joke about it. Sand Dollar Point. Scene of the crime. Location of that one, gorgeous night. The thought of spending a weekend there with Simon—with Simon and Daniel—was beyond tempting. Her heart sped up and an army of butterflies staged a march from her stomach to a point much lower and more intimate.

“Okay, I’ll think about it,” she said, opening the car door and sinking into the driver’s seat before he could see her face.

Simon opened his door and climbed in with a startled expression. “Really?”

Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea.

“Sure,” she said, doing her best to play it cool and mature. “You said you wanted to be part of Daniel’s life. I’m not ready to let him go for an entire weekend. Sand Dollar Point isn’t far from my parent’s house anyhow. We’re responsible adults, so why not?”

It wouldn’t end well. She turned on the engine, backed the car out of the drive, and started down the road.

“Well, that was easier than I thought it would be,” Simon said once his surprise wore off. He chuckled.

“Don’t laugh at me because I care about my son,” Jenny grumbled.

“I’m not. Trust me, I’m not.”

But he couldn’t hide his good mood as they drove back to her parent’s house. What was she going to tell her mom and dad? They wouldn’t like the idea of Daniel going with Simon alone, but they’d like the idea of her spending the weekend with him even less. Not that it was any of their business. The fact that they were helping her through a tough time didn’t mean she was a teenager under their supervision again. They would just have to put up with it. Besides, she was a mature adult, capable of spending a weekend in a gorgeous beach house, alone with the father of her child, who she’d just kissed with enough passion to light the entire Maine coast less than twenty-four hours ago.

Another aspect of the problem that she hadn’t given a single thought to was waiting for her in her parent’s driveway.

“Crap. Neil,” she said as she pulled into her parking space in front of the garage and cut the engine.

Neil sat against the side of his car, arms folded, a pissed-off look on his face. He glanced pointedly at his watch as Jenny checked on him in her rear-view mirror.

“What’s he doing here?” Simon asked, sounding about as pleased as Neil looked.

“I said I’d have lunch with him today. What time is it?”

Simon checked his own watch. “Quarter to one.”

“Shit.”

Steeling herself for the litany of complaints that was sure to come, Jenny opened her car door and hopped out.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she told Neil with the best penitent smile she could muster. “I was showing Simon a house up near Portland. You know how lunchtime traffic gets.”

Neil didn’t say anything as she approached. Possibly the worst sign of his mood that she could have asked for. If things were fine, he would have complained.

“Let me just run in, feed Daniel quickly, and we’ll go.”

“Oh, so now that you’ve humiliated me by being out with this guy, you’re going to ditch me again for Daniel?” Neil snapped.

Jenny stopped halfway to the front door and spun to face him. “I’m sorry, but my baby needs to eat something and I happen to be the source of that something.”

“Can’t you just pump it and store it, like other women?” Neil huffed.

“Hey, give her a break.” Simon stepped around the car and glared at Neil.

“What’s it to you?” Neil leaned forward to challenge him.

“Would you two just chill?” Jenny said. “I’ll be ten minutes.”

She didn’t want to deal with Neil’s bull-headedness or whatever defense Simon was about to mount to cause trouble. Without waiting to see what the two of them would do, she charged into the house to find Daniel. At least there was one man who was unreservedly happy to see her. He was playing on the floor with her mom in the den, and lifted his arms with a drippy smile at the sight of her.

“That’s my boy,” she said, suddenly joyful again, scooping him into her arms. “You hungry? Mommy’s got to give you lunch quickly before going out to lunch herself.” She settled herself in an armchair near the window and opened her shirt to give Daniel what he needed.

“What’s going on out there?” her mom asked. She stood and moved to the window with a frown.

The day was warm enough that the window was cracked open to let in fresh air. Unfortunately, fresh air wasn’t the only thing that was being let in.

“I’m sick and tired of finding out second-hand that my girlfriend is running around with you,” Neil barked at Simon.

“She’s helping me to buy a house. If you’re insecure enough to worry that it’s more, that’s your problem, not mine,” Simon fired back.

Her mom turned to give her a wary look. “Dad said you were kissing Simon in the entryway last night,” she said.

“Not now, Mom.”

“Find some other realtor,” Neil went on. “This one’s taken.”

“I’m helping Jenny by enlisting her to find me a house,” Simon said. “Or do you not care that she’s in a pinch at work these days.”

“What I care about is stupid celebrity baby-daddies trying to get into my girlfriend’s pants,” Neil fired back.

“I’m not trying to—”

“Those are
my
pants to get into, buddy,” Neil cut him off.

“Oh dear,” her mom said, stepping away from the window. “Dad didn’t mention
that
.”

“Well, he wouldn’t,” Jenny sighed.

“I always thought Neil was so nice,” her mom went on.

At the same time, outside, Neil shouted, “I’m not going to let people like you push me around, and I’m not going to let you suck up all of my girlfriend’s time.”

“Fair enough, mate,” Simon replied, “but don’t you think you should let Jenny decide how she wants to spend her own time and with whom?”

“No. Not when she keeps making crap decisions like you,” Neil said.

Jenny’s mom sank to sit on the couch opposite her as Daniel sucked away. “Sweetie, do you think that now might be a good time to swear off men for a while? All men? At least until Daniel is a little older?”

A wry grin tweaked the corner of Jenny’s lips. “The thought has crossed my mind.”

“Because if you want to break up with Neil, I’ll support you,” her mom went on.

“I don’t know, Mom,” Jenny sighed. “I just have so much to think about right now.”

“I understand, sweetie.” Her mom gave her a sympathetic smile.

Daniel finished eating. At some point, Simon and Neil finished their verbal pissing contest, and Simon left. It was a relief in some ways and a disappointment in others. Jenny burped and settled Daniel, leaving him safe in her mom’s care, then dragged herself outside to face the next round. If she was lucky, she would make it through lunch with Neil in one piece.

Chapter Nine

“And for whatever reason, Jan seems to think the new building will be done in time,” Neil rattled on as he and Jenny sat across from each other in a booth at Neil’s favorite Summerbury bistro. “Granted, very few residents actually live in the old wing anymore, but the board has plans to expand marketing to draw in residents. My entire financial plan for the place has centered around a big marketing push.”

“Mmm hmm,” Jenny responded to his brief lull. She wasn’t entirely certain what he was talking about. Work. Definitely work. Not only did accounting bore her, it went way over her head.

“I don’t care what the production company says about donations and funding a new building, I don’t trust them as far as I can see them, and since they’re in L.A….”

Trusting people was a tricky business. She’d trusted Simon last summer, and look how that worked out. The problem was, every instinct within her was screaming that she really could trust him now. He’d been so honest with her, and not the kind of honest that masqueraded as real honesty to get her in the sack. She’d seen enough of that in her life, and Simon’s behavior over the last few days wasn’t that. She believed that he really did care for her, and more importantly, for Daniel. It changed everything.

“I mean, you can’t just look at this situation from a cost analysis basis,” Neil went on, getting more passionate as he made his point. “The disruption involved is staggering, no matter what line they’re trying to feed us about participation on the part of the residents being healthy for them and waivers and disclosure and all that legal jargon.”

And then there was that kiss. Jenny hid the flush that came to her cheeks at the very thought of it by taking a bite of her grilled cheese. Man, that kiss could have brought down the house. She didn’t know what she was thinking. There was no thought involved, just want. Want and the memory of how great she and Simon had been together, how much promise that one night had held. Well, of course that night had been full of promise. That was the night they had made Daniel. She could be pissed off and aggravated at Simon all she wanted, but their stupidity had given her the best thing that had ever happened to her.

“Jenny.”

She loved Daniel. Yeah, sure, she’d had to give up a lot to have him, but it was worth it.

“Jen.”

Nothing could replace her baby boy. Nothing came close to the love that brought her to life on a daily basis each time she looked into his sweet, trusting, smiling face. Nothing except maybe the need to plaster herself against Daniel’s daddy again and lose her soul in that amazing—

“Jenny!”

“What?” Jenny snapped out of her reverie to find Neil frowning at her across the table.

“You weren’t listening to me,” he said, flat and grouchy.

“No, I was, I was. It’s just that I’ve been so tired lately, what with Daniel teething and all.” Hopefully he’d believed that.

“You should see a doctor then,” he suggested, still frowning. “Or send Daniel to the doctor.”

“I think we’ll be okay.”

“In that case, I think you and I should go away for the weekend, just the two of us.” Still cold and frowning.

“Neil, we talked about this already,” she sighed, rubbing her temples. “I can’t leave Daniel for that long.”

“Your mom can watch him.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Are we going to spend any special time together at all in the next year?” he snapped.

Her eyes went wide. “Not if you use that tone of voice with me when you ask.”

Neil held up his hands and sat back in his seat. “Sorry, sorry. I’m just frustrated.”

“I noticed,” she muttered.

“It’s just a little bump in the road.” He gave himself a pep talk. “It’ll all pass, work will sort itself out, Daniel will get big enough so that you don’t have to be around him all the time, and everything will be all right.”

“Think positive,” she said, her stomach knotting at the idea. Neil’s wasn’t the scenario she would have imagined if she was thinking positive.

“All right, I will,” Neil said. He leaned across the table and took Jenny’s hands so fast she almost knocked her drink over. “Let’s get married.”

“What?” Her chest locked up as though someone had just suggested they go bungee-jumping at Mo’s Discount Thrills.

“It’s the perfect solution,” Neil went on, face brightening at the idea. “We’ll get married. I make enough money that you can move out of your parent’s house and be a stay-at-home mom. No more worrying about that nonsense job of yours.”

“Excuse me…nonsense?”

“No more smarmy celebrity clients pawing all over you—”

“Simon has not once pawed all over me.” Okay, not exactly true.

“—No more of Daniel keeping us apart. You can put him to bed when I get home and we can have our time together.”

“You know nothing about how babies’ schedules work, do you.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Neil rushed on. “We’ll be together. We could even have kids of our own.”

And ship Daniel off to some boarding school, like an old English novel, when he gets old enough so that Neil could pretend he’d never existed.

“Neil.” She pulled her hands out of his, had to yank so that he would let go. “We’ve never even talked about marriage before.”

“So? We’re talking about it now.”

“Yeah, and I’m not interested. I don’t want to get married.” Also not exactly true.

What was with her today?

Neil clenched his jaw and sat back in his seat, answering her question for her. “It’s Simon Mercer, isn’t it. You’re spending too much time with him.”

“He’s a client,” she argued. “He’s the only client I have at the moment and the only thing that’s keeping my nonsense job.”

“Well, find another client. I don’t want you to see him anymore.”

“That’s not for you to decide, Neil.” She did a quick search of the restaurant, wondering if she could just leave. Neil had driven, though. He was her ride home.

“I think it is for me to decide,” he said. “I’m your boyfriend.”

“Not for long if you keep acting like this.”

He reacted as if someone had lit his pants on fire. “Are you going to break up with me?”

She didn’t answer. Everything in her wanted to answer yes, to leave and call her mom to pick her up.

“You can’t just break up with me, Jenny. We have history together,” Neil insisted.

“History doesn’t mean you aren’t acting like a total jerk right now.”

“You want to see me act like a total jerk?” He raised his voice. Several sets of eyes snapped their way. Neil didn’t seem to notice or care. “How’s this for being a jerk? You stop seeing Simon Mercer, get rid of him as your client, or I’ll call Jan and have her renege on the deal to let that damned TV show film at Twin Pines.”

Jenny’s heart caught in her throat. Second Chances. The whole reason Simon was buying a house nearby. The reason Spence and Tasha were settling at Sand Dollar Point. The show was supposed to film at Twin Pines Senior Living Center. The same place where Neil worked as an accountant and served on the board. She really
hadn’t
been listening to him this whole time. She hadn’t paid attention. Fatal mistake.

She told herself there was no need to jump to conclusions.

“Come on, Neil. You’re just the accountant. You can’t make that sort of a decision for them.”

“Wanna make a bet?” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

“What are you going to do? Call the head honcho and tell them to cancel more than a year’s worth of preparation by a big Hollywood company and put a hold on expansion plans that the show is paying for?” She’d been paying enough attention to catch that much.

“No, I’m going to call Jan, Dr. Janice Brunswick, chair of the facility, who is already on the fence about whether this whole thing is a good idea, and tell her that I’ll back her up if she wants to change her mind and put up a fight.”

He wasn’t joking. Jenny wished she hadn’t wolfed down her lunch so fast. It might just come up again at this rate.

But no, Neil liked to whine and bluster and throw his weight around. He wouldn’t actually undermine so many people’s livelihoods like that, including her own.

“I’m not dropping Simon as a client,” she said, holding eye-contact with him like a pro. “And since he’s Daniel’s father, I’m not cutting him out of my life. Live with it.”

He stared at her, jaw flexing with frustration, then lifted his phone and tapped it a few times. He held it to his ear.

“Hi, Jan,” he said a few seconds later. Prickles broke out along Jenny’s arms and back. “Yeah, we need to talk about this whole Second Chances thing. I know you’re not crazy about it, and you know I’m equally against it. Well, I think between the two of us we can come up with a strategy for ousting Hollywood while still raising the funds for the new wing.”

The bottom went out of Jenny’s stomach. She swallowed.

“Yeah, yeah, I am free to meet with you later,” he said, arching an eyebrow at Jenny. “Great. I’ll talk to you then.” He tapped the phone to hang up, treating her to a smile that was so smug she wanted to throw the last of her soda at him.

“Take me home,” she demanded.

“Sure, no problem,” he smiled.

Jenny slid out of the booth, shaking with anger, and with something worse. Neil couldn’t actually pull this off, could he? There was no way one jerky accountant had the ability to cancel filming of an entire show. Even if he was telling the truth about this Dr. Jan not wanting the show to film there either, they had to have contracts in place, legal stuff out the wazoo. Neil wouldn’t be able to mess with that, would he?

She could logic her way through the details of the whole thing all she wanted, but it didn’t change the heart of the matter. If Second Chances didn’t film at Twin Pines, they would have to film somewhere else. Somewhere else would take Simon away, possibly far away. And that would be the end of that.

Simon couldn’t remember many times in his life when he was happier than he was right then, strolling through Summerbury with Daniel in his arms and Jenny by his side on a Saturday afternoon. Even if Jenny was a little distant and prickly.

“What’s that? What’s that?” he cooed to Daniel as his darling son raised his hand to flap at a seagull. “Is that a birdy? Yes it is.”

He peeked at Jenny. She walked with her arms crossed, her eyes trained on the ground in front of her. She’d been that way since she arrived at Sand Dollar Point with Daniel an hour ago.

“I think our son is probably the smartest baby on the planet,” he said, adjusting the floppy sun hat Daniel wore. “He already knows his sea birds.”

Jenny replied with a distracted smile. It turned genuine when Daniel smiled and gurgled at her, but all too quickly it was gone.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, that urge to help and fix and make things better pulsing in his solar plexus.

“Nothing,” she muttered.

“Not buying it,” he said.

She sighed and gave him a look that could have been meant to wither, but had nothing behind it. “I don’t know,” she said instead.

“You want to talk about it?”

They turned the corner and started down the long stretch of road that ran past the marinas where all of the working boats were moored. A few people noticed him and stared, but it was the off-season, and most of the locals were used to the occasional celebrity wandering around due to Second Chances.

Jenny chewed her lip and shrugged. It was so opposite from the reaction he expected her to have when he pried into her personal business that his pulse ratcheted up in alarm.

“You can talk to me about anything,” he insisted.

“I don’t know,” she repeated. “I kind of feel like I did something stupid, but….”

She didn’t finish. Simon liked the sound of things less and less. At least he was reasonably certain it didn’t have anything to do with him or the mistakes he’d made.

“I’m here for you if—”

“Simon Mercer,” someone called out from farther down the street.

Simon and Jenny both glanced up to see who it was. A flurry of camera clicks followed. The man who had taken the barrage of pictures lowered his camera and smiled with a nod.

“Thanks,” he said.

“For what?” Simon scowled. Taking his picture was one thing. Bothering Jenny and Daniel was a whole other level of asking for trouble.

The photographer nodded at Daniel. “Who’s baby?”

“Mine,” Simon snapped, standing straighter and putting a protective hand on Daniel’s head.

The photographer perked up like he’d just had the best orgasm of his life. “No way.”

“Simon,” Jenny hissed. She scooped Daniel out of his arms and sheltered him against her chest, hiding his face.

“Oh my God,” the photographer laughed. “Simon Mercer has a love child, and no one has broke the story yet.” He started toward them, practically dancing with each step. “Who’s the mother? Are you involved? What’s the baby’s name?”