Page 72 of The Beachside Rental

The next day Simon was miserable.He’d barely gotten any sleep the night before.All he could think about was Jenna and how he needed to fix things with her.

He blamed himself.If he hadn’t mistakenly thought that she was the one who sold information about him to the tabloids, he would have gone to her right after Gwen left.He would have clarified things with her.Instead, the thoughts had festered in Jenna’s mind, and it was going to take something special to convince her to hear him out.

He’d heard her leave for work extra early that morning.Now he had until she got home to come up with a way to convince her to give him another chance.Was that even possible?

It had to be.He refused to accept any other answer.But first he had to get her to understand that he hadn’t been cheating on her.

And so, he started to plan his way of winning Jenna back.It didn’t take him long to realize he was going to need some help with this plan.

He reached for his phone.He had Myra’s number from when she watched Gus while he went to the ER after his fall.

His finger hovered over the keypad.Would she even talk to him?After all, he’d seen how close she was with Jenna.

Feeling like he was backed into a corner, he didn’t have much choice.He would do whatever it took to win back Jenna—even if it meant groveling.

Myra’s phone rang and rang.He wondered if she was busy or if she was ignoring him.Just when he thought it was going to switch to voicemail, he heard: “What do you want?”

Simon swallowed hard.“Myra, it’s Simon.”

“I know who it is.What do you want?”

“I need your help with your sister.”

The sound of a huff came across the phone.“And why do you think that I’m going to help you?”

He knew convincing her to help him wasn’t going to be easy, but he was starting to get a little warm under the collar.“Because you want your sister to be happy.”

Then he heard the most unexpected thing.Myra laughed at him.“You want me to believe that you make her happy?”

“Yes.”He said it confidently because it was the truth.“When she isn’t mad at me, we’re very happy together.I don’t think she wants to lose what we’ve found any more than I do.”

Somewhere in his explanation the laughing had ceased.He could only hope it was progress.

“It sure didn’t look like you cared about my sister when you were kissing that blonde.”

“You saw that?”

“You aren’t even going to try and deny it?”

“No.It happened.But I didn’t kiss her.She kissed me, and I quickly ended it.It was unprovoked and unwanted.”

“Uh-huh.”Disbelief rang out in her voice.

“It’s the truth.I love Jenna.”He couldn’t believe those words had crossed his lips, but now that they were out there, he had no intention of taking them back.“If she would just give me another chance, I swear I won’t mess it up.”

“Now you’re talking.Does Jenna know any of this?”

“No.That’s why I need your help.”

There was a slight pause.“What do you need me to do?”

He filled her in on his plan, and Myra once more surprised him when she gave him some tips of her own.It seemed as though he’d won over one of Jenna’s sisters.He could only hope his plan would win over the woman of his dreams.

She was nervous.

Jenna had arrived at the market early that morning.She’d used her key to get in through the back door, just like her father had done when she’d gone to work with him as a little girl.She still struggled with him being gone.She couldn’t believe she’d never hear his voice again.

She pushed aside the wave of grief that had come over her.She focused fully on her presentation.Neil’s eyes momentarily widened when she set up her visual presentation on the computer.