Accidental Secrets: A totally gripping, steamy, sexy contemporary romance (Accidental Love Book 3)

by Dana Mason

  Accidental Secrets

  A totally gripping, steamy, sexy contemporary romance

  Dana Mason

  Books by Dana Mason

  Accidental Groom

  Accidental Lies

  Accidental Secrets

  Available in audio

  Accidental Groom (available in the UK and the US)

  Accidental Lies (available in the UK and the US)

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Epilogue

  Accidental Groom

  Hear more from Dana

  Books by Dana Mason

  A Letter from Dana

  Accidental Lies

  Acknowledgements

  Prologue

  Rachel

  Fourteen years earlier

  I know it’s a wasted effort, but I have to do it. I have to get this letter written and get the words out, if only to save my own sanity. This secret I’m being forced to keep—this lie—is so much more than my parents make it out to be. I have no clue where their sense of right and wrong has gone. I don’t understand how they can be so cruel. People don’t do this sort of thing in real life, do they? It’s so soap opera-like, so callous.

  If I thought I could do this on my own, I’d leave right now. I’d call Mike and pack a bag and get the hell out of here. But I can’t. I don’t have anywhere to go, and neither of us is ready to be parents on our own. Unfortunately, I can’t trust his parents to help us in any way either.

  I have no choice but to fold under my mother’s demands that I keep this from Mike. With that heavy thought, I put my pen to paper and write the words that I know will haunt me forever.

  Dear Mike,

  I’m so sorry for disappearing. I know you must be worried and hurt and utterly clueless about where I am and why I left, but I want you to know that nothing has changed. Our love will never change or diminish for me. This love, you, are everything to me. I don’t know how I’m going to do this without you, and I wish there was another way, but right now, I can’t find one.

  I stop writing to wipe my tears. My eyes are raw, and my face is swollen from all the crying. I’ve been like this since we left for the airport this morning. I can’t help it. I don’t want to be here, I want to go home, back to Portland… and Mike. I hate my mom for what she’s done.

  I take a deep breath and get back to my letter.

  What you don’t know is I missed my period. I didn’t even realize it until my mom pointed it out. She made me take a pregnancy test, which was positive. She’s livid and insists that I’ve ruined my life. Worse than that, she forbids me from telling you about our baby. She brought me to California to live with my dad.

  I don’t know what to do, Mike. I’m scared, and I miss you.

  She’s watching my every move. She even stood guard while I packed my stuff to keep me from calling you. I’m writing this because I know I owe you an explanation. You’ve done nothing wrong except shown me warmth and love where I thought it never existed. You thawed the coldness I’ve been raised in. This image-driven, self-important, frigid family I come from isn’t good enough for you, and isn’t good enough for our child.

  I hate what’s happening. I hate that I can’t call you and that I’m never going to see you again. I hate that I was careless, and that because of my carelessness, I had to leave you. I love you more than you’ll ever know, and this is breaking my heart. But I’ll do what I have to do to protect our child, even if it means giving you up. I just don’t know what else to do. My mom is crazy, and I’m afraid of what she’ll do to us and our baby if I don’t go along with her plan.

  I’ll make sure to raise our baby in a warm home full of light. I promise our child will feel loved every day. I swear with my whole heart.

  I love you,

  Rachel

  I close my journal, knowing I can never actually send this letter. But at least I can get the thoughts out of my head. I need to keep my mom happy to protect myself, Mike, and the baby.

  One

  Michael

  I’m not sure what to do. I stare down at my phone and reread the email I just received.

  To: mmurphy@crossfitforlife.com

  From: shouldbemurphy@email.com

  Subject: A secret

  I think you’re my dad.

  That’s it. Five words. Five of the most unsettling words I’ve ever read. I lean back against the sofa cushions in the office of the Oakland CrossFit and reread the email… which is stupid. It’s not going to change from one moment to the next. I try Googling the address, but nothing comes up that matches explicitly. I’m not sure what I was expecting from an email address like should be murphy, but I thought it was worth a try.

  Gavin smacks my arm, bringing me out of my haze. “Dude, why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

  I hand my phone to him, and moments later, his mouth gapes. “Oh shit, Mike. You have a kid?”

  “No, I don’t.” I point to the phone. “It’s got to be a prank, but I can’t figure out who did it.” I give Gavin a long calculating look and say, “Are you messing with me, asshole?”

  He draws back with an amused chuckle. “Nope, not me.” He hands back the phone and says, “Just ignore it if you really think it’s a prank. Nothing gets under people’s skin like being ignored.”

  “That’s true, but I want to know who the hell sent it.”

  He settles down into the office chair. “So, respond to the email and see what happens.”

  I hit reply and sit there, finger poised to type. What should I do, ask questions? Tell them to screw off? Play along with the asshole? Whatever, I don’t need to overthink it, I just need to start typing.

  To: shouldbemurphy@email.com

  From: mmurphy@crossfitforlife.com

  Subject: RE: A Secret

  I don’t have a kid. Why would you think I’m your dad?

  Before I can change my mind, I hit send. “Alright, it’s done. We’ll see what happens.”

  “Good. Let’s get back to work.” Gavin pulls out the color samples we’ve been considering for our new CrossFit location in Sacramento. “I’m thinking, keep the walls dark, like Oakland. Navy blue with a lime green stripe all the way around the main gym. For the Pilates studio, we can add a wall of windows h
ere, to divide it from the open gym.”

  “Right, but I want to keep that room light. I like the contrast.”

  Gavin writes down the colors then taps his pencil. “I like that too. How about the logo on that far wall?” He points to a photo of the room.

  “Yeah, that’s a good spot.” My phone pings with a new email alert. I pick it up and tap the screen until the message pops up. It’s a reply:

  Because my mom dated you in high school about nine months before I was born.

  My pulse kicks up, and my mind immediately scrambles with the faces of the girls I dated in high school. One specific face comes to mind. The girl. Rachel Williams. The girl I lost my virginity to. The only girl who was capable of breaking my heart. But there’s no way she could have had my kid. I’d know it. She would have told me.

  My mind lingers over the memory of the last time I saw her. We’d been hanging out at the park, throwing the ball for my golden retriever, Bart. Just a normal day… I had no idea it’d be the last time I’d see her. She just stopped coming to school and disappeared. After weeks of showing up at her house and pounding on the door, her mom finally answered and told me she’d moved to Boston to attend a private school. I didn’t believe her, not at all, but after weeks of trying to find her with no luck, I had no choice but to give up.

  I sit back down and try to remember those last few months together… and then the misery I felt after she left. I started my senior year in such a funk because of her. That was the summer I became obsessed with running and working out. Physical exertion was the only thing that cleared my head, and I’ve been addicted ever since. I eventually started dating other girls and got over it, but I still think about her often. I always wondered what happened to her and why she didn’t tell me she was leaving. Hell, she could’ve at least called to say goodbye. I was broken hard over that girl and really pissed at her for a long time.

  “Mike, what’s up, man? I thought we were deciding on this shit today.”

  “Sorry.” I shake my head. “I just got another email from this prankster saying they’re my kid.”

  “No way!” He leans over to look at my screen. Then he says, “So what if you did date the mom? That doesn’t mean she had your kid.”

  “Yeah, I know, it’s just creepy.”

  I quickly type out another email.

  Where did your mom go to high school?

  Just as I hit send, Gavin says, “You dated a lot of girls in high school, didn’t you? Weren’t you some local football hero? Maybe you should ask them to narrow it down a little.”

  I lean forward and rest my elbows on the desk as I wait for a reply. “I mean, yeah, I dated a lot my senior year, but I didn’t sleep with a lot of girls.”

  “Right, but this person doesn’t know that.”

  “True.” When my phone pings, I tap to open the email and read it.

  The same high school you went to, Hogan High.

  I hold my phone up to Gavin. “They know which school I went to.”

  He snatches my phone and says, “And like I said, you were a local football hero, lots of people know that. It might even be in your bio on our website. Let me try something.” Gavin starts typing, and after I hear the swoosh of an email being sent, he hands it back to me. I read what he wrote.

  It’s easy to get information like that. What’s your mom’s name? If you’re serious about this, tell me something that isn’t public knowledge.

  Well… at least he didn’t type fuck off.

  Again, my mind lingers on Rachel Williams. I’d like to say I haven’t thought about her in a long time, but memories of her drift through my thoughts more often than I want to admit. We met when we were thirteen and fourteen and slowly became friends. Then as we got older, we got closer. By my junior year of high school, we were one hundred percent committed to each other. I loved that girl hard.

  Loved her hard enough for her disappearance to have a huge impact on me… But I don’t have time to think about that now so I shake away the funk and get back to work.

  Gavin and I decide on the color scheme and design then take the time to type it into an email for Wesley, our third partner. When we dreamed up this business, we wanted to open three CrossFit boxes. One for each of us to run. This Sacramento box will be mine, but the decisions are still majority vote. We’re all three still partners in each location.

  Next year, we’re going to open the third location. We’ve been discussing West Sacramento, but since it’s where Gavin has to settle, he’s not totally sure he wants to stay in Sac.

  When my phone pings, I grab it and open my email.

  I know that you lost a front tooth trying to do tricks on your skateboard while drunk.

  “That’s pretty specific,” I mutter. “They know my front tooth isn’t real.”

  Gavin glances up from the laptop and says, “Most of your friends know that, Mike. It’s a prank. Delete it and move on. Don’t let that crap get inside your head. We have work to do.”

  I blow out a breath and nod. Gavin is right, I need to get my head in the game. We open in a few weeks, and we don’t even have paint on the walls yet. “Okay, you’re right.” I put my phone down and get to work.

  Once we’ve decided on almost everything, I close my laptop and say, “I’m heading to Sac. When are you coming up?”

  “I’ll be there to help by the end of the week. I have three personal training sessions and a class tomorrow.”

  “Great! That gives me time to get all the painting supplies picked up. I plan to be ready to start painting on Monday.”

  “Perfect. I’ll be there Monday morning.”

  As I’m heading out to my Chevy Tahoe, my phone dings. I lift it to glance at the screen, then click the notification. It’s a text from my mom.

  Mom: Hey, Mikey! Look where we are.

  There’s a picture with the text, and it’s my mom and my dad with the Hollywood sign behind them.

  Mom: We’re with Diana and Olivia. Tomorrow we’re going to Disneyland. Wish you could join us.

  I’m a little surprised. My parents haven’t traveled in years. Since losing my little brother Bradley in a drunk-driving accident, they’ve been mired in grief. Diana and I have both tried getting them out of the house more. I’ve even offered to pay the airfare for them to visit me, not that they need my money. They’d never come, but I’m glad to see they’re doing something at last. I’m happy they’re finally building a relationship with my niece Olivia.

  Diana got pregnant with Olivia by accident, after a brief affair with a marine. By the time she found out she was pregnant, he’d been deployed. Unfortunately, he was killed three days after arriving in Afghanistan. Diana never even got the chance to tell him she was having his baby.

  My parents were pissed off at her for a long time. They even threatened to disown her. Fortunately, they didn’t take it that far, but they made it clear that they thought she’d ruined her life. Olivia was born a few months before Bradley’s death and it was only the beginning of our rocky relationship. Since Brad died, things have just gotten worse. It’s been seven years and I’m starting to feel like maybe there’s an end to the dark tunnel they’ve been living in.

  Me: Sounds like you guys are having fun. I’m busy getting the Sacramento CrossFit box open. If it wasn’t for that, I’d join you. Give Olivia and Diana a kiss from me. Love you.

  Mom: So proud of you, Son. Love you too, and I hope we get to see you soon.

  Aw, Mom. I feel a little flutter in my chest when I read that. They always wanted me to play football, and were very disappointed when I was injured and gave it up entirely. Since then, they’ve never once said they are proud of me. Not even when I graduated from college. But she makes it hard for me to be mad when she sneaks in little nuggets like that.

  Feeling a little lighter, I load a couple more boxes into the back of my car. I’m slowly moving my stuff from Oakland to Sacramento. My East Sacramento apartment is a massive upgrade from the shithole in Oakland I’ve
been living in. I can’t wait to get settled. It was my old friend Kelley who helped me decide to move to Sacramento and open the new location there. She helped me research the neighborhood and find the property. She’s also one of the reasons I don’t have a good relationship with my parents.

  Kelley was engaged to Bradley when he died. She was actually in the car with him during the accident and was severely injured herself. My parents blamed her for everything. Publicly blamed her, and it’s partly their fault she lost her professional dancing career. Of course, none of it was her fault. She was a victim of Bradley’s reckless behavior—he was the drunk driver and essentially killed himself and nearly killed her too. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that she started to bounce back from what happened. Now she’s married and very happy.