Chapter 1

"Good luck mom." I whispered to my mother as I took her coffee cup off the desk and her co-anchors cup too and darted off to the side.

"Your on in…Three…Two…One…" A short guy with a microphone in his ear, and hideous blue shoes on, motioned his hand towards my mom.

I listened to her saying good morning to Carmel. I turned on my white Steve Madden ballet flats and threw the cups away. I did this all silently of course.

You see, every summer the Ackerman kids are required to get a job. My stepfather Andy asked me if I wanted to take over Jakes position of lifeguard at the Pebble Beach Resort.

Right. At the place where only last summer I had met the crazy nightmare of a guy named Paul Slater. So not happening.

You may be wondering where Jake, or rather Sleepy to me, is. He is taking a summer school class at the college he was attending to. Which was very shocking to me when I heard because Sleepy is so not the summer school kind of guy (who is?). Then I learned that a very hot (in Sleepy's eyes not mine) incoming senior at the college was teaching the course and all made sense again.

Anyway, after I turned down the life-guarding job, my mom offered me the option of interning at the newsroom where she worked at. She is a news anchor for the mornings, which also did not appeal to me. I mean, come on. Early mornings during the summer? No thank you.

I finally accepted the offer when I learned I only had to be there when she was. Which means that I get off at lunchtime. Granted, I have to get up at the crack of dawn, but whatever.

My plan was that I could spend the rest of my afternoons with the one and only Jesse. My boyfriend. Who used to be a ghost. Boy, was I ever dreaming.

Anyway, I tiptoed out of the shooting room into the reception area/bull pen. The bull pen's where all the reporters kept their desks.

"Susannah, there you are." Angela, the receptionist said as soon as she saw me from where she was sitting. It looks like she made a big effort to come find me.

"Need something?" I asked. My mother failed to mention to me that interning would not involve the occasional field story like I had hoped, but rather in me doing all the dirty work for everyone else. Like for instance getting their coffee, faxing papers, filing papers.

"Some guy called for you. I told him you would call him back." Angela said as she buffed her nails with a filer. She was such a cliché.

"Some guy? What guy?" My heart pounded in my chest. Could he FINALLY be calling?

"Jason..Jerry…"

"Jesse?" I asked trying to force my self to stay cool.

"Yeah Jesse." She didn't look up from her nails.

"Did he leave a number?"

"Yeah. Here." She handed the piece of paper to me.

Your probably wondering why I'm getting so hung up over the fact my supposed boyfriend is calling me. That reason is because he has been in lovely San Jose helping Father Dominic for the past two weeks. Father Dom is the principle of my school and I suppose a mentor of such.

"Ok thanks. I'm going to take 5." I muttered to Angela as I walked to my mom's cubicle to use the phone. I think I'm the only 17 year old on the planet not to have a cell phone. Heck, Jesse just got one (hence the needing the phone number thing) and he doesn't really like technology that much. Granted he was born 150 years ago.

"Hey Jesse!" I said cheerfully into the phone.

"Querida." He replied.

Oh jeez. Visions of his sexiness danced in my head.

"Hows it going up there?" I asked playing with the cord of the phone trying to be cool.

"Good, Father Dominic and I should be home in a few days."

He had said that last week. And the week before that.

It was really weird to be talking to him on the phone. He doesn't really like to either I've noticed. When I call him or something we never chat for millions of years like my friends CeeCee and Adam do. They do the whole "no you hang up!" "No you hang up first!" thing. If I ever said that to Jesse he would. Hang up I mean.

"Well, Susannah, I just wanted to say hi. You have my number now?" He asked.

"Yes I do. But hold on. You PROMISE you'll be home soon?" I asked him not wanting to say goodbye. I missed him. I could drive up there to see him if I wanted to. San Jose is only an hour away. I can borrow the Rambler in the afternoons since Sleepy had bought his own car and Brad (aka Dopey) is working for Andy until the evenings, but I have a feeling that my mom wouldn't like it very much. Plus I'd probably get lost and end up in San Francisco.

"Si querida. I've got to go." Jesse hung up abruptly.

I stared at the receiver. Um hello? What happened to I love you? I sighed.

"Susannah!" Angela hollered at me. A few reporters that where mulling by the water fountain looked at me.

"Yes?" I asked.

Why didn't he say I love you?

"Larry here needs a favor." Angela gestured to a field reporter that was leaning against her desk. His hair was black with a white mustache. The kind that looks like you got from drinking milk.

"Yes Larry?"

"Take my car and go down to the public library. Get me as much information on this guy as you can." Larry handed me a piece of paper with Dr. Harold Navy written on it.

Great. Busy work.