Second Chances (Pebble Harbor Book 1)

by Brenna Ash

  I've waited so long for this. She kept thinking back to that sentence he whispered as he pulled away. What did he mean by it? Was it anything or was she making it into something? Building it up in her mind as something for her to cling to, hoping it grew.

  ***

  Hayden glanced up from his laptop when she entered the kitchen. “Good morning.” He stood and wrapped her in his arms, kissing the top of her head. “Coffee?”

  She nodded. He filled a mug and handed it to her. Cream and sugar were out on the table so Sunny accepted the cup and sat down. She tilted her head toward his laptop. “Are you working?”

  “Nah. Just checking in with Ellen and Anna.”

  “Girlfriends of yours?”

  He barked out a deep laugh, his eyes twinkling. “Hardly. Ellen is my agent and Anna's my PA. Things have been difficult lately, I was just seeing if things had calmed down.”

  “And?”

  Taking a sip of coffee, he shrugged. “Things seem okay for now.”

  “What was the issue before you came back?”

  He let out a curt laugh. “Some bitch blogger has it out for me for whatever reason, I don't know.” Sunny felt all the color drain from her face. Hayden didn't notice though, and he continued. “But she was posting a bunch of shit that was so far from the truth, it would've been comical if it hadn't affected my work. But it did. I got let go on one of my movies and my offers have gone down. I'm picky about the parts I take. I only want to work on something I can feel. When the parts are fewer and fewer, it's harder to be choosy. I don't want to be a part of some shit movie just because I'm getting a bad rap by a blogger that doesn't have anything better to do with her time and tanks my career in the process.” He took another sip of coffee and smiled at her. “Probably more information than you wanted to hear.”

  Sunny shook her head. “Who's the blogger? Why don't you correct her or shut her down?” She held her breath, waiting for his answer. Sunny knew she should tell him. But after the wonders of the night before, she feared that it was too late to come clean.

  “I've tried. Ellen and Anna have tried. She posts anonymously and has hidden her tracks really well. We haven't been able to identify her yet. We're working on it though, so hopefully, we'll have that info soon and can get her to retract the shit.”

  Sunny was quiet as he spoke, fiddling with the handle on her coffee cup. She peered at him through her lashes. “Is she still posting stuff like that about you now that you're here?”

  “No. That's the thing that doesn't make any sense. Since I've been home, she did post that I'd come back here for a vacation or whatever, but she's only had nice things to say. It's like she was posting the stuff just to get me out of L.A. or something. It's messed up. When I get my hands on her, she'll be lucky to be able to keep the computer she writes her posts on once I'm through with her.”

  Sunny paled. “Hey.” He reached for her hand. “Don't worry. I would never physically harm someone. But this person needs to know how much damage they've done and know there are consequences for their actions. That's the problem with so many of today's kids. And I'm pretty damn sure it's some entitled little twit that's never held a real job in their life. They think they can hide behind their keyboard and never have to face the music. Well, they've dicked around with the wrong person on this one.”

  “I should go.” Sunny stood.

  “Really? Do you want any breakfast? Or we could go grab something.”

  “No, I'm good. I've got some orders I need to do so I can mail them out tomorrow.” It was a lie, but she needed to leave. She rinsed her coffee mug in the sink. He came up behind her and tucked his arms around her, burying his face in her hair.

  “You sure I can't convince you to stay?” He ground his hips into her.

  Sunny turned in his arms, and forced a smile on her lips. “I'd love to.” She kissed him lightly, her stomach threatening to revolt. “But I really can't. A rain check?”

  He grabbed her ass and kissed her again. “Fine.” He growled. “But it'd better be soon.”

  Chapter 12

  Sunny was truly done. She pounded the steering wheel of her car with her fist. She had to come clean and tell Hayden that she was the one behind the blog and his undoing. Her nerves left her in a rush this morning when he'd mentioned the blogger. She hadn't realized that she was solely responsible for him coming home and getting out of L.A. What the hell?

  At home, she checked her email and had several from Sharon. As she read through them, each one getting more and more angry, Sunny knew she'd made a mistake in believing what this woman had told her and posting the info.

  She should've never changed her format. Her blog had been doing fine as a Hayden Wagner fan-site. She didn't have to take it to the next level.

  The last email caught Sunny's breath.

  I know who you are and that you're sleeping with him. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to find out the person he's fucking is the person that is fucking him over. Enjoy your bed. You made it, now you can lie in it.

  Sunny reread the email, multiple times.

  How the hell did Sharon even know she and Hayden were sleeping together? It had just happened. Was this woman stalking Hayden? Was she in Pebble Harbor?

  She had to figure this out. There was no way that Hayden could learn she was the blogger from anyone other than herself. She had to be the one to come clean. How she was going to do that was a whole other issue. Things were just getting really good between them again. They'd cleared the air. She had no idea where their relationship was headed, but there was definitely something there and they both wanted to build onto it.

  “Shit!” She should've told him the day he confided his reasons for leaving her ten years ago. For him, his leaving was still all about them. She couldn't say the same thing about her blog.

  Yes, it had started that way. It was a way for her to support him and his career. Sunny thought it was a way for her to follow him and still be a part of his life even though she really wasn't anymore. That in some sick way even though he'd rejected her, he couldn't get rid of her that easily. Obsessing over his every move allowed her to constantly be immersed in Hayden's lifestyle. Then she got in so deep. Lost her purpose. After years of watching him move forward and knowing she wasn't a part of it, she grew bitter. She started covering the grittier stuff. Stopped showing him in a positive light all the time. The blog was picked up by a number of gossip websites and syndicated.

  The Scoop was getting a lot of recognition nationally as the go to source for all things Hayden Wagner.

  She was getting emails from all over the place about Hayden. Most of them were bullshit, even she could tell that, and she vetted everyone that had a story or tidbit that sounded plausible.

  For whatever reason, her source's emails rang true. Sunny had no idea why. Was she just disillusioned with Hayden and needed him to be that bad boy that she'd made him out to be in her mind after all that time? Even she didn't truly know. So she hadn't vetted this source as well as she should have. And now she was going to pay for it.

  She felt awful that she hurt Hayden in the process. If the stories were true, then if they hurt him it wouldn't have mattered because he really was doing those things. He could be mad all he wanted, but it was the truth being reported.

  These were blatant lies. Sunny knew better. When had she thrown her integrity out the window?

  A trip back home was unexpected. She hadn't ever thought she'd see Hayden again. She thought he was gone for good. But here he was. And she was sleeping with him. And she'd managed to piss off her source who now, in turn, was going to reach out to Hayden. What the hell was she going to do?

  Hayden valued loyalty and trust over everything. She'd broken both. There was no way of coming back from that. Tears slipped down her cheeks as Sunny reflected how stupid she was to have ever started down this path. She wiped them away angrily with the back of her hand. It was her own fault. She knew it wasn't right and s
till went forward with it anyway. Some type of sadistic 'he hurt me, now I'm going to hurt him' subliminal thought process.

  She had to find Sharon. And she had to come clean before this woman did it for her, which would be a hundred times worse than if Sunny did it herself.

  After a quick shower, Sunny pulled her hair back in a ponytail and dabbed on blush and mascara. She had to meet with Linc, her computers-are-my-bitch friend, and get him to do some research to locate Sharon. If that was even her real name. Once she knew Sunny could plan her attack. She would need Marlene's help as well. Her stomach dropped at the thought of telling Marlene how everything had suddenly gone from good to way bad. Marlene was the only person she'd ever told about her blog, wanting to keep it to herself. Now she was going to need to tell the world to save her and Hayden. She just hoped her explanation was enough.

  ***

  Jimmy Lincoln glanced up from his scrunched over position in front of his laptop at the sound of Sunny's knock. “Hey, sweet thang! You here to enter my dark world?”

  Sunny snorted and handed him the coffee she'd brought along to butter him up. Jimmy was an oxymoron if she'd ever seen one. They'd met in their senior year of high school when his dad transferred to Pebble Harbor for work. He'd quickly become one of her closest friends and confidants. Her nerd with flair. He dressed the part of the angsty hipster and then he opened his mouth and fabulousness spills out. Today he was dressed all in black. T-shirt, jeans and black boots with buckles. He topped off the look with a black knit beanie cap.

  “Hi, Linc, you wish.”

  “Hey, I always try to recruit, but no one wants to sign up. It's a sad, sad day.” He sighed dramatically, took the coffee and raised it in thanks. “So, what services can I offer you today?”

  “I need your help.”

  “Don't you always?” He chortled. “What can I do you for? I'm at your beck and call.” He bowed low, his hand out in offering, balancing the cup so he didn't lose a drop.

  “Can you find out who somebody is by just an email address?”

  “Depends. How much info do you have?”

  “That's just it. I don't have a lot. Just the email address. Her phone number. And Sharon. I have no idea if that's her real name. I don't have her handle, or whatever you call it in your world.”

  “Handle? What am I, a truck driver?” He put the coffee cup down on his desk and rubbed his hands together. “Okay, what'd you bring me?”

  “Just my laptop. You can do whatever you need to do with my email account. It's where she's sending all of her correspondence.”

  “How do you know it's a girl?”

  “I've talked to her on the phone. The way she words her emails. And she's really into Hayden.”

  He cocked his head her way. “Hmph. Have you seen him lately? No need to be female to enjoy that fine piece of ass.” He smacked his lips together.

  She punched him in the shoulder. “I have seen him lately. Don't talk about him like that.”

  “Jesus, are you still hung up on him?”

  “Still or all over again. Whatever you want to call it. Yes.”

  “He's in town, you know.”

  Sunny feigned shock. “Really? I hadn't heard.”

  “Yeah, he came in last week or something. I don't know what he's doing here. I'm surprised he didn't reach out...” He stopped as caught the drift of the expression on her face and whistled low. “Damn. People never tell me anything.” He winked at her. “So, was it worth the wait?”

  She just smiled and handed Linc her laptop. “My email's already open. You'll want to plug it in fairly soon though so the battery doesn't die.”

  “Nice change of subject. So you don't want to talk about it. I'm cool with that. Hurt, but cool.”

  “You're so full of it.” She sat in the extra chair near his desk and studied the multiple monitors set up everywhere that space would allow. Each screen displayed some different kind of code that meant absolutely nothing to her, but everything to him.

  Linc was familiar with her blog. He was the one to set it up for her in the first place. Whenever Sunny experienced any type of tech issue, Linc was the first person she called.

  “What's the deal on these emails? She trying to extort you or something?”

  “Not yet. She sent me a few bogus stories and since I refused to post them, she's pissed. I believe her main focus is Hayden, though, and she might be stalking him.”

  “What gives you that idea?”

  Sunny shrugged, “She knows certain things that let's just say haven't come into the public light yet.”

  Linc gave her a devilish grin. “Okay, Miss Secretive. Keep all the deets to yourself. I see how you are.”

  “I'm just not ready to put everything out there. We're in the beginning stages.”

  “All right, let me take a look.” He pressed a couple of keys on her laptop and scrolled down her email, finding the ones from Sharon. She had no idea how he was making sense of what he was studying. That's why Linc was the techie and Sunny painted accessories. Within a few minutes, he shut the lid and handed her the laptop. “I've got what I need. I should have something for you shortly. Anything else you need?”

  “No, not right now. I owe you one though. Thanks a bunch, Linc.”

  “Anytime, love.”

  ***

  Charyn Bliss. That was the name Linc came back with not an hour later, along with her contact info. He'd told Sunny Charyn's phone had been the key. While she covered her tracks fairly well with her email info, she forgot to do the same with her trac phone. Between that and a contact he had in the PD, it was a pretty easy task.

  She welcomed the information and thanked him profusely. She'd buy him dinner one night later this week. The woman had given her real name, just spelled it differently.

  Sunny went about googling the name, but didn't come up with anything relevant. Just the normal details you find when you search for someone. With such a unique name, finding her on Facebook was fairly easy. The page was set to private, but her profile pic was of, surprise, surprise, Hayden. Sunny was glad to have found the right page, though she still had no idea what she looked like. She had Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter accounts, all with pics of Hayden, and Sunny really couldn't glean all that much information from any of the pages other than the woman really like Hayden Wagner. A lot.

  Sunny thought she was obsessive. This chick might actually have her beat. She wondered if Charyn and Hayden had dated. Maybe she was a jilted lover. She'd mention the name to Hayden and see if it sounded familiar to him. Or maybe she was just some psycho that had seen him in one of his movies or shows and had the warped sense of reality that he was hers. That kind of thing happened all the time.

  She and Hayden had a lunch date for that afternoon. They were meeting at one at Trinny's. Sunny still had time before she had to leave for that. Her email notification popped up. She opened the application and found an email from Charyn.

  You're running out of time and haven't yet posted the stories I've sent you. Do you really think Hayden will take kindly to finding out the woman he's screwing is the very one that was fucking him over all over the internet? To find out you're not any better than the rest of us trying to get our own little piece of Hayden? You're using him in your own way. It won't end any better for you than it did the rest of us. I'm the voice of all the others that he's screwed over. If you won't be that voice anymore then things will need to be taken into my own hands. Enjoy what little time you have left with him because the second he finds out you're the one behind taking him down, he'll be gone before you can blink an eye.

  What the hell was Charyn talking about? Her rantings definitely sounded personal. She had definite anger issues with Hayden. Sunny bit her lip. Charyn wasn't the only one to figure out the identity of the other person. Time to play along.

  Sunny clicked the reply button and replaced the email address with the one she'd received in the contact info from Linc. Sugar alw
ays worked better than vinegar, so she'd try the sickly sweet approach and see how that worked. Hopefully, the longer Sunny could keep her engaged in email exchanges, the longer she'd have to explain things to Hayden before he found out by someone else, which would be the worst thing that could possibly happen.

  Charyn, so nice to hear from you. While I appreciate all of the leads you have provided me over the past year, after vetting some of your latest emails, I've found them to be unsubstantiated and cannot be confirmed. Therefore, they cannot be posted. My blog is about promoting Hayden Wagner's career and keeping track of his accomplishments. It was never meant to be a place to trash him and bring him down. I'm very sorry that I posted the leads I did that you had previously sent. They hurt Hayden in a way that I never wanted and have had ill effects on his career. Also, something that I never wanted. If the claims were true, this would be different, but to post blatant lies about a man that is truly good down to his core, is not something I'm willing to do any longer. You can continue to threaten me all you want. But as you can see, you are not the only one who figured out the other's identity. It's a two-way street. I don't know what your angle is or why you have this deep hatred for Hayden, but I no longer want to be a part of it.

  After proofreading her email, she sent it off into the ether. Time would tell how Charyn would respond to that. Glancing at the clock, Sunny jumped up. It was closer to one than she thought. After a quick freshening up, she snatched her keys and headed out.

  ***

  Trinny's bustled with customers when Sunny walked in the door. The parking lot was full and she assumed they would have to wait for a table, but Hayden stood up from where he managed to snag one and waved her over. He was dressed in a blue t-shirt that fit him perfectly and gray shorts that showed off his tanned, muscular legs.

  She rushed over. “Sorry, I'm late.”

  He bent and kissed her cheek. “I was early.”

  She knew he was lying, but leave it to Hayden to make her feel better for running behind.