“Holy cow, Stefano!” Hazel was paging through stacks of printed emails, each inflaming her temper more than the last.  “You are some evil genius or something! How did you get this stuff, isn’t this illegal?”

“Very. But I am Italian so what can they do? Sue me?”

It was two days after Hazel had provided Stefano with all her passwords along with access to the company email system. At the time she hadn’t even felt guilty about it. What were the chances that Stefano would see anything more than her own emails? The only reason she'd gone ahead with his crazy scheme was because, at the time, it had felt empowering. Thanks to Stefano, she felt back in control of her life. She’d even felt confident about continuing her relationship with Dean (and thank goodness she had; they couldn’t keep their hands off each other). But now, sitting around the breakfast table with her quirky, made-up family of Dean, Indigo and Stefano, she felt a stab of guilt.

“Yeah, but I can’t use any of this! I’d have to tell Liz that I hacked into the work computer. She’d kill me!” She looked to Dean for support but he was nodding at Stefano.

“You didn’t hack into the work computer,” Dean said. “Your crazy, uncontrollable, Italian house guest did. Plus, Liz is more likely to kill Samuel, once she sees this stuff.”

And it was true. “This stuff” was highly incriminating. Hazel paged through the conversations between Samuel and his IT buddy, the one with the daddy on the Board. These emails outlined the entire scheme to get Samuel on the project. Not only had they hacked into Hazel’s account to get her designs, they’d hacked into Liz’s account to see if there were any client requirements she hadn't told them, and then, wait for it, they'd hacked into the client’s account to make sure they hadn't missed anything. All of this was, at the very least, a firing offense if not grounds for legal action. Stefano had just saved her career. She had her career back!  She stood and crossed to Stefano’s chair, grabbed his face, and kissed his bony cheek. He blushed, Indigo laughed, and Dean called out, “Hey now, you stay away from my woman,” making Stefano blush more deeply.

“I’m terrified though,” Hazel said. “What do I do now? Should I call Liz? Mail this stuff to her? What?”

“You should call her.” Dean crossed over and put his arm around her shoulder. “This is amazing news, Hay. It means you still have a chance at the partnership.”

“Yeah, but only if I sell this house and get the equity.”

“We’re taking care of that!” Indigo said. And she was right. They were taking care of it. They had made leaps and bounds worth of progress over the last two days. The four of them were a great team. “Although I don’t know why you want that stupid job. You’re far too creative for it.”

“Yeah, you’ve said that before Mother, and I’ve told you before. I’ve been working for it my whole life. Is there something wrong with wanting to be a success?”

Dean released his grip on Hazel and went to rub Indigo’s shoulders instead, “Okay you two, back down,” Indigo melted under his hands, a goofy grin on her face. “Hazel needs to call Liz. Is now a good time, Hay?”

“It’s perfect. She’s just waking up. Will you stay with me, Dean?”

“Of course. I’ll hold your hand.” He grinned over to her, and she winked back.

Indigo groaned. “You two are too much. Let’s go Stefano. We can start shredding the wallpaper off of that back bedroom.”

“Thank you, Stefano!” Hazel called as they left the room, “I owe you one!”

They waited until they heard steps on the landing above them and then Dean crossed to Hazel and took her into his arms. The team had already assembled in the kitchen when he’d arrived so he hadn’t kissed her yet. He did that now, letting her know how much he had thought about her since kissing her goodbye the night before. She smiled under his lips and leaned her weight against him. They'd been doing a lot of kissing.

“Will you really leave me and go back to Jacksonville?” he whispered as he moved his lips to her neck.

“Oh God,” she rolled her eyes. “Will you really leave me and go back to being a world famous movie star?”

He pulled back just far enough so he could look her in the eye. “Too early for that conversation?”

Hazel was stumped for a moment. It was true they had an amazing connection. She’d hardly slept the past few days, replaying every moment they’d spent together in her head. He was the sexiest man she had ever been with. Let’s be honest he was the sexiest man she’d ever seen. But she hadn’t dared to dream that he was considering a relationship beyond this incredible summer. His question had taken her by surprise. Did she want to have that conversation? Hell, yes! Right about now she'd give it all up and live a life as a Hollywood housewife. But she needed to be realistic and running away with a famous movie star wasn’t realistic. She extricated herself from his hug and gave him a sheepish smile. She didn’t want him to feel the pounding of her heart.

“I’d better phone Liz.”

Dean stuck his lower lip out, but she ignored him and pulled her phone from her pocket.

“What is with you and 5:00 a.m.?” This time Liz didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was already up. “How’s Dean?”

“He’s right here. Do you want to talk to him?”

“Oh my God, no, NO! Don’t you dare put me on the phone with Dean McLean, you crazy lady. What would I say to him? I’d just die!”

“Okay, I won’t. Don’t panic! I’ve something serious to talk to you about. But promise you’ll stay calm.”

“Calm? How can I stay calm when I know that I am within talking distance of Dean McLean!”

“Ok, I’ll make him leave the room. He’s going.” Hazel shook her head at Dean who smiled and gave her a thumbs up. “Okay, he’s gone. Now are you ready for the serious stuff?”

“Yeah. Hit me. But you’ve already stressed me out this morning, Hay, so this had better not be bad.”

“Oh, it’s bad Liz.”

“Oh gosh. Okay, go for it.” Liz said.

“So I have a friend over here who’s fantastic with computers.”

“Okay.”

“He heard our conversation the other day about my suspicions about Samuel, so he took it upon himself to do a bit of digging.”

“What does that mean, digging?”

“Okay, well don’t freak out Liz, okay?” Hazel reached out and grabbed Dean’s hand, “He hacked my computer. Or, to put it more accurately, he hacked your email system.”

“He did what? When? Why are you telling me this? Are you mad? I so did not hear this. La, la, la, la, la.” Hazel could just see Liz standing in her living room with both hands held tightly over her ears.

“Liz! Liz! I need you to know something else!”

“Okay tell me,” Liz sighed. “I’m already implicated. You’re killing me.”

“Samuel stole my stuff and I can prove it. Not only that, but he hacked into your email and stole all the other upcoming proposals, and worst of all he hacked into the client’s computer to get as much info as he could. I have it all documented in printed email chains.”

“Wait. This doesn't make sense. Samuel's a hacker? You're telling me Samuel is some kind of computer whiz?”

“No, not Samuel. He was working with Michael Blackwell.”

“Michael Blackwell! You mean Michael Blackwell, nephew of William Blackwell, partner and Board member, William Blackwell?” Liz gave a shaky laugh. “What are you doing, Hay? Seriously! You're killing me.”

“Yeah, but don’t you see Liz? Now we have proof! You said we couldn’t say anything because I didn’t have proof. But now I do. I have proof that Samuel stole my designs.”

“Hay - you have proof that Samuel stole your designs with the help of the nephew of an extremely influential and powerful board member. This isn’t an easy fix!”

“What do you mean? I’ll just mail you these emails, and that’s all you need! What difference does it make who was in on it? Samuel stole my designs, my client, and tried to steal my career!”

Dean stood up into her line of sight and motioned down with the palm of his hand in front of her face. Calm down. He was right. She needed to calm down.

“Listen, Hay. I know this might seem black and white to you, but it’s not. It's all kinds of crazy shades of grey. I’ll have to think about what to do, okay? Give me a few days. Let me think about it. I promise I'll call you back. Okay?”

“Okay,” Hazel said. “Okay, Liz. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.”

After she’d hung up the phone Dean wrapped his arms around her again. “You did good, babe. That was tough. You’re tough. I admire you. Just give her some time and we’ll keep thinking too.” He stepped away and moved toward the stairwell. “I’d better check on the work of the dynamic duo. But don’t worry, I’m on your side. We’ll make sure you get whatever you want out of this.”

Hazel watched Dean as he turned to climb the stairs. What if that’s part of the problem, she thought, what if I don’t know what I want anymore?