19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
Something was definitely up.
Simon had sensed there was something going on with Gwen since she’d arrived. And what was she doing on the island? It’s not like she held her authors hands through the publishing process—at least not to his knowledge.
She was acting differently. He struggled to put it into words, but her smile was extra bright, and though he was used to her touching him with a pat here and an air kiss there, she’d never tucked her hand into the crook of his arm.
He was glad that Jenna was at work. He didn’t think she’d be too happy with his agent’s touchy-feely gestures. He wasn’t too comfortable with it either.
When he stopped at the end of the walkway to mention it to Gwen, he turned to her. The next thing he knew, she was pressing her lips to his. He was stunned—absolutely floored. It took him a moment to make sense of what was happening.
And then he gripped her shoulders and gently pushed her away. “Gwen, what are you doing?”
She sent him a coy smile. “I think you know exactly what I’m doing.”
He lowered his arms. “What I mean is why are you doing it?”
She sighed. “Don’t tell me you didn’t like it.”
His mother taught him that if he didn’t have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all. He remained quiet.
“Oh, come on,” Gwen said. “This is our chance.”
“Chance for what?”
“To be together. We’ve always had the worst timing.
Either you were in a relationship when I was single, or I was in a relationship when you were available.
And then there was that time when we were both free, but your ex decided to destroy your life by selling you out to the tabloids.
I tried to be there for you as much as you would let me, but you swore off relationships. That leaves us with now. It’s our time.
He shook his head as he walked to the cart. Lunch was the last thing on his mind, so he would take her to the ferry because whatever she’d dreamed up wasn’t going to happen.
She followed him and sat down. “I didn’t think you’d be so surprised. It’s not like you haven’t felt what’s going on between us. It’s been building for years.”
With his hands on the steering wheel, he looked at her. “I don’t feel that way about you. I never did.” He could see the surprise closely followed by disappointment in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“What is it? Did you meet someone else?”
There was no point in hiding the truth. “Even if I hadn’t, things were never going to be any more than friendly between us.”
Anger sparked in her eyes. “You mean I flew here for nothing?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
Her glossy red lips pursed together as though she were holding back a litany of grievances. After a strained moment, she said, “Take me to the ferry. Now.”
As he drove, he couldn’t help but wonder how he’d missed the signs of her liking him. Maybe it was the fact that he never saw her as anything more than his editor.
The only reason she was involved in his stalking episode was because it was related to his books, and there was a lot of press coverage at the time. But he’d otherwise never drawn her into his private life. He had no idea how he’d given her the wrong idea.
But he knew after this incident, it would be impossible for them to work together again.
He hated the thought of losing her as an agent because she was very good at what she did.
But if this had to happen, at least it was at the beginning of a new series.
The readers wouldn’t notice the shift from one agent to the next.
When he pulled up at Starfish Harbor, he looked over at her. She was now wearing big dark sunglasses that hid her eyes. “Are you going to give me a hard time about ending our contract?”
She frowned at him. There was a tense pause. “I suppose I have no one else to blame but myself. We’ll negotiate terminating the contract.”
She got out and walked toward the ferry. He was left to wonder what exactly negotiating would entail. He didn’t think it’d be cheap, but he had an attorney to help with that.
He turned around and drove back to the beach house. This was only going to make his comeback with a new series all the more complicated.
How had Gwen gotten the wrong idea? He replayed his memories of their interactions. He couldn’t think of any instance of giving her the wrong idea—at least not intentionally. He just didn’t look at her that way.
But then he recalled Gwen saying that this thing she had for him had been going on for years. And he’d been totally oblivious. He’d just assumed that her fun, flirty way was the way she was with everyone. And now it was all stuck in his head.
When he reached the beach house, instead of going to his door, he turned and went to Jenna’s door. He didn’t know if he would tell her about what just went down with Gwen. He didn’t know how to explain it to himself much less her.
He just needed to hear Jenna’s voice and bask in her warm smile. There was something about being around her that grounded him and made him feel like everything was going to be all right.
He rapped his knuckles on the door and waited. After a little bit, he knocked again. Again, there was no response.
He turned and headed back to his place. Gus raised his head from where he was sleeping on the couch. The dog whined as he yawned. Then he put his head back down and went back to sleep.
Simon shook his head as he made his way over to the couch. With Gus stretched out, there was no room for him, so he sat down in a nearby armchair. He picked up his laptop from the coffee table and opened it.
The login screen didn’t automatically come up like normal. He pressed a couple of buttons to see if he could wake it up, but that didn’t work either.
He recalled dropping it when Gwen had shown up at his door. A knot began to form in the pit of his stomach. Surely that hadn’t fried his computer. Please say it isn’t so.
He pressed the power button. Nothing happened. As he thought about his new book being on the computer, his pulse increased. He pressed on the power button again. This time he held it down, waiting for something to happen.
And then at last the lights on the keyboard lit up. He breathed a sigh of relief. It just needed a full reboot. That was fine. He would wait.
And wait he did because the computer in its infinite wisdom decided it was in need of a software upgrade. He set aside the laptop and went into the kitchen to get some iced tea.
When he got back, his computer still had the spinning donut as it worked on updating the software. He opened up his phone and looked at the tabloid articles about himself.
It appeared it had come from only one tabloid: The Gossiper.
The other publications were regurgitated information.
So, that was interesting. Whoever had sold the story and pictures only sold it to one place.
He couldn’t help but wonder how much they’d gotten for invading his privacy.
He couldn’t imagine his story was worth much, but maybe he was being modest, considering his books were bestsellers, and his movies were blockbusters.
He didn’t know. He just wished people would leave him alone to write his stories.
That was all he wanted to do—well, not quite.
He also wanted to spend time with Jenna—a lot more time.
He set aside his phone. He turned his attention back to his laptop. He breathed easier when he saw the login screen. Everything looked right.
He logged in. He opened the word processing software that he’d been using since he’d started his publishing career. Usually, when he opened the software, the last documents he’d been working on would open on the screen. That wasn’t the case this time.
He went to the hard drive to open the file, but it wasn’t there. How could that be? His body tensed as he continued to search the laptop for his book file. He looked in this folder and that folder, but it still wasn’t there.
He didn’t store his files on cloud storage. He didn’t trust his files being out of his control.
He let out a frustrated groan. He lost everything he’d worked on that day. Gus lifted his head and looked at him.
“It’s okay, Gus.” It wasn’t, but there was nothing Gus could do to help him.
Frustration coursed through him as he realized that he’d lost hours of work. He’d never be able to re-create the scenes the way he had them. Some people say that rewriting chapters makes them stronger. He wasn’t sure that he believed it.
At least, he still had the opening chapters of the book. They were safely stored on his flash drive. He backed up his files at the end of each day.
His gaze moved to the coffee table, where he’d had his flash drive along with his notebook. The only thing was that he didn’t see his flash drive. It had to be there.
He set aside his laptop and stood. He lifted his notebook. The flash drive wasn’t under it. He got down on his knees and looked under the coffee table. It wasn’t there either.
He searched under the furniture in the living room and then the kitchen. It wasn’t in any of those places. How was that possible?
Then he thought that it might be in his pants pocket. He didn’t normally keep it there, but he hadn’t been feeling like himself since the accident.
He took the stairs two at a time and rushed into his bedroom. He grabbed the clothes he was wearing the day before. He checked the pockets. There was no flash drive.
He searched his bedroom. He went back downstairs. Gus got to his feet and followed Simon around, as though he sensed something was wrong.
After checking everywhere he could think of, he collapsed into the armchair. He was certain the flash drive didn’t sprout legs and walk away on his own.
Ding.
Frustration and worry churned in the pit of his stomach. He picked up his phone. There was a text message from Gwen.
He thought of just ignoring it, but maybe she wanted to smooth things over. They did work well together. But he wasn’t sure if they could go back to the way things had been.
He opened his messages. To his surprise, there wasn’t a message, just a link. He clicked on it. The Gossiper opened up on the screen.
The headline read: Thomas Sinclair’s new series.
His gaze moved to the article: Author of runaway series, Time of Reckoning, is coming back with a new series that is out of this world!
As Simon kept reading, he felt as though he’d been sucker-punched. This tabloid had the gist of his upcoming series. And there were only two other people who had that information.
He typed a message to Gwen: Did you leak the info about the new series?
Immediately, a response came back to him. Of course not. You should look at those close to you.
Simon knew she meant Jenna. He just didn’t want to believe it. But he clearly recalled how he’d told her about his new concept for the book when he’d been tired of sitting around the hospital and anxious about getting stitches not only in his arm but also his nose.
Still, he couldn’t believe Jenna was the leak. He had an easier time seeing Gwen as the culprit, especially after the way she came onto him. Maybe she thought he would lean on her and something would happen between them. But even that was a stretch.
The truth was that he didn’t know who had leaked the information. That acknowledgment had his guard going up. The only one he could trust was himself. It was a lonely but necessary position.