Page 36 of California Sunsets

Jay put down his phone and wondered what on earth to do with himself. Even on a Sunday, he nearly always had work to do, but today he just wasn’t up to it. There were all kinds of things he could do, people he could call, but he didn’t feel up to any of that either. He couldn’t stop thinking about Erin. He wanted to apologize, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t even think he could face it today. He needed a day to lick his wounds, get himself back into fighting shape. Because he felt as though he was in a battle—a battle to win her back, or at least get them on the comfortable, friendly footing they’d enjoyed for so long.

It wasn’t until Jay had showered and shaved and come downstairs feeling a lot more human and ready to take Nelson for a proper walk on the beach. He opened the door and noticed an envelope sitting atop his welcome mat. His name was scrawled on the front in unfamiliar handwriting. He frowned—his first instinct always being to brace for trouble—but when he opened it, he found a note from Clark, thanking him again for the camera and a chance at his dream job in Hollywood. Jay smiled. A hand-delivered note was a nice, personal touch. The kid would go far.

But then he saw something else in the envelope. He pulled out a black and white photograph and his heart began to beat double time.

Clark had developed the shots from the coffee shop. All that fussing and moving of paper cups and changing of poses ever so slightly had really paid off. If a picture was worth a thousand words, this one was about two people who looked really, really good together. Erin was so pretty, beautiful in a way she didn’t even realize, because she’d always been so overshadowed by Mila and her movie-star and rock-star brothers. But quiet, unobtrusive Erin was a knockout. And the way she was lookingat him, the way he was looking at her... He could feel again the sensation of her shoulder against his chest, how good she felt nestled in his arms.

As he looked at the photograph, he no longer had any doubt he had to try to get Erin to forgive him. To give him a shot. Because he had never felt this way before and he wasn’t about to let her slip through his fingers.

But how was he going to fix the mess he’d made?

He needed to clear his foggy head, so he donned sunglasses, clipped an ecstatic Nelson to his new leash, and the two of them set off for a glorious long walk on the beach. Not even his hangover could stop him from enjoying the fresh breeze, the sand, the surfers out daring the waves, the couples strolling arm in arm, and of course, the other dog walkers. It was just a happy place, and when he was with Nelson it was impossible for him not to be happy there too. He couldn’t help searching the other dog walkers, wondering if Erin might be among them, even though he knew she wouldn’t be. If shewaswalking Buzzy, then she would have found a spot so far away and so secret that newcomer Jay would never have known about it.

No, he wasn’t going to be bumping casually into Erin on the beach anytime soon. If he wanted to make it right with her, he was going to have to think of something else. And fast.

Chapter Twenty

By the time Jay arrived home, he’d come up with the beginnings of a plan.

He glanced down at the copy of theSea Shell, the one where he’d been profiled, still lying on his desk.

Telling Nelson that he’d return soon, he called a car service so he could pick up his car. Then, on impulse, he headed for the library. Libraries had been his refuge when he was a kid with no money to buy books. They’d been a safe place where he could hang out and read, escape into other worlds, learn things he never learned properly at school. Even now, donating to libraries to help keep them afloat was one of his biggest charitable endeavors. It made him happy to think about kids like him or people who just didn’t have a lot of money being able to access everything from recent thrillers to all the great classics. They also carried newspapers and magazines, and he was pretty sure the local library would keep back issues of theSea Shell.

But when he got there, the library was closed because it was Sunday. He felt like banging his head against the closed door.

Back home he was greeted by Nelson as though he’d been gone a year, then found the library website. They had online services, and to his delight all the issues of theSea Shellwere available. He put on his glasses and settled down to read, searching out only Erin Davenport’s byline. He read everything she’d written in the last two years. Every single thing. There were profiles of important people and celebrities who’d moved to the area, her Dog of the Week feature—which was probably his favorite thing she did—articles about school playsand funding, and he noticed that a few times she referenced romantic comedy movies. That was funny, because it was one of the things she’d asked him about in their interview: Why was he always making movies likeShock Tacticsand not putting his actors into rom coms? Now he realized that, as well as calling him out on some blatant sexism, she had also been showing him a side of herself he hadn’t seen before—a softer, more girly side, that loved to cozy up with a rom com.

He took off his reading glasses and settled in his chair. He’d spent a couple of hours getting to know Erin in a new and intimate way. He’d been inside her mind, he understood her wry sense of humor, and most of all, he understood what moved her, what caught her heart.

And he knew another thing for sure: she was a damned good writer. She could set her sights a lot higher than theSea Shellif she wanted to, but knowing Erin, she wouldn’t want that at all. If he’d ever known someone who was exactly where she wanted to be, it was Erin Davenport. She was the least wealthy of the siblings, and her ambitions weren’t nearly as lofty, but she lived with a kind of contentment that was rare to see. Spending so long with Erin’s voice, absorbing every story and every word, he could feel her sliding deeper and deeper into his heart.

Maybe Smith was right. Maybe thiswaswhat love looked like. He shook his head in disbelief.

He was in love!

And now that he had finally faced the truth, he knew exactly what he could give Erin to show her how much he cared.

As quickly as his fingers could type, he messaged his assistant.

Pull every romantic comedy script that’s come in and send them to me asap.

Even though it was Sunday, Gina was far too much like him. She responded within seconds. It was one of the reasons he employed her and paid her an extremely healthy salary.

Is this some kind of joke? Or are you delirious with fever?

Great. Even his assistant thought he was a one-trick action-movie pony. He assured her he was serious, and within an hour, she’d emailed him half a dozen scripts and told him he’d have paper copies by courier first thing in the morning. He felt better than he had all day and, his plan in motion, settled back in his chair with his tablet.

Soon, though, he began to frown. In his opinion, they were all terrible.

“I could do a better job than this.”

Nelson opened one eye skeptically, then sighed and went back to sleep.

* * *

On Monday morning, Erin was still seething over Jay Malone’s embarrassing juvenile tactics to get her into bed. How could he not have seen that she was already there and didn’t need some cheesy, tried-and-tested line? She had been showered, shaved, primped, wearing her best underwear and her prettiest dress, her body already tingling, imagining how the evening would end. And in her wildest dreams she’d never imagined he’d make such a spectacular mess of it all. If he’d just kissed her, gently and softly, if he’d just showed her that he cared, he’d have had her. Instead, he’d treated her like a woman he’d just picked up in a bar and figured she’d fall for his stupid lines.

On some level, she still felt that he’d deliberately sabotaged himself, that he didn’t know how to be himself instead of the deal-sealing Hollywood agent character he’d so carefully crafted over the years. But knowing that was one thing, forgiving itanother entirely. She was still too angry to really consider the psychology of what had gone down on Saturday night. All she knew was that she felt insulted, furious—and if she never saw Jay Malone again it would be too soon.

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