“Coco and Ben can come visit me anytime.” The words were out of her mouth before she even realized she would say them—and now she had said them, she didn’t want to take them back. The two children were charming and sweet and why shouldn’t she get to know them a little?
As for hunky Mr. Fixit, well, Madison had shared on-screen kisses with some of the best-looking men in the world. But there was something about this one, with his slightly scruffy haircut and those lean muscles he had from doing actual work. He was so...natural, so real.
And definitely wary of her.
And just possibly, married.
She really needed to find out for sure if he was or he wasn’t. “Your kids are just too cute,” she said with a wide smile.
He almost smiled back, one side of his mouth curling up reluctantly. “They’re my sister, Karin’s, kids.”
She kept a straight face, though inside she was happy-dancing. “You all live together, right?”
He nodded. “Bud, Karin’s husband, died in a fishing accident more than three years ago now.”
Her silly glee that this hot guy was almost certainly single vanished. “I’m so sorry.”
He raked his hand back through all that unruly hair. “Yeah. It was rough. Coco was just three at the time. They’re doing all right now, though. She and the kids moved in with Dad and me last summer. They’re all downstairs together—Karin, the kids and my father. I’ve got the second floor to myself. There’s plenty of room and my sister’s a great cook. Dad and I pitch in watching the kids. I’m one of those single guys who likes having family around, so overall, it works out pretty well.”
One of those single guys...
Yes! Inside, she fist-pumped like a crazy woman—seriously, what was she, twelve?
In some ways, yes.
She’d done a nude scene last year. Millions of people had seen her bare butt. But when it came to relationships in real life, Madison Delaney, America’s Darling, suffered from a serious case of arrested development.
It was kind of sad. And not only that she knew nothing about men, IRL. But also, well, just imagining the house next door, with Sten and the kids, Sten’s sister and his dad, too...
She envied them.
To have family. To have a brother or a sister, nieces and nephews, and to have them close. She’d always wanted that—and maybe, when she finally got up the nerve to get in contact with the Bravos, she would have what she’d always wanted.
After she got to know them all. Eventually. Over time...
Sten took a step closer. “What’s wrong? You look so sad, all of a sudden.” He lifted one of those fine, big hands. Her skin burned with the knowledge that he was going to touch her—brush a finger over her cheek, maybe smooth a loose ribbon of hair behind her ear.
Every nerve in her body had snapped to quivering alert.
But before his fingertips made contact, the glass door leading into the cottage slid open. Sten glanced over his shoulder as Dirk, her bodyguard, stuck his head out. “Everything okay?”
Sten lowered his hand.
Madison gave Dirk a tight nod with get lost written all over it. “All good.”
Dirk pulled his big head back inside and shut the door, but he didn’t go anywhere. He remained right there on the far side of the glass, legs braced wide, meaty shoulders back, watching. Madison was very fond of Dirk and Sergei and all of her bodyguards, but sometimes having round-the-clock security sucked—times like now, when she was not going to feel Sten Larson’s hand brush her cheek, after all.
“I should get going,” he said. “If you need anything, just let me know.”
She tried to think of something clever and sophisticated to say to make him stay. But she was working without a script and her mind was a witless blank.
Over on the table, her phone started spinning in a circle, the screen lighting up with a picture of Rafe in one of his bespoke suits, his dark face impossibly handsome, supremely confident. Resigned, she went to answer it as Sten headed for the stairs.
* * *
What the hell just happened?
Sten scowled as he ran down the steps. Did he get struck by lightning?
The movie star was freaking gorgeous, with those acres of streaky blond hair, that thousand-watt, dimpled smile. She was also friendly and outgoing and easy to talk to. No wonder they called her America’s Darling.
He might have just come down with a serious crush on the woman. What the hell? Like he was fourteen again, all knees and elbows, overwhelmed and tongue-tied in the presence of Sharlee Stubbleman, a senior and the prettiest girl at Valentine Bay High.
Madison Delaney.
What was the matter with him? Talk about out of his league.
She’d looked so sad, though, there for a minute, hadn’t she? Sad and a little bit lost.
And he’d wanted to pull her close, comfort her, maybe even taste those pillowy lips of hers. He might have done it, too, if not for the bodyguard shoving open the slider just as he was making his move.
She doesn’t want to be disturbed.
He needed to remember that. The woman wanted to be alone and his job was to make sure nobody bothered her or found out that she’d rented his cottage at Sweetheart Cove. Madison Delaney had paid a lot of money for her six-week stay and for the total privacy he’d promised her assistant she would have.
Sten returned to his workshop, put his tools away and shut the roll-up door, smiling to himself as he thought of Coco and her little-girl crush on the star of her favorite Disney movie.
Too bad his niece wouldn’t get to spend any more time with Madison. He would have to have a talk with Karin about how to make Coco understand that she was not allowed to pester the tenant or tell anyone else that a movie star was staying next door.
* * *
That night after she put the kids to bed, Karin joined him out on the deck. They sat in the comfy red cedar chairs he’d made a few years ago and watched the trail of the moon reflected, shimmering, on the ocean. The gulls were feeding, circling and calling and then diving for fish and just about anything else that happened to catch their eye.
There was a chilly wind blowing. Karin smoothed dark hair away from her face and wrapped her bulky sweater more tightly around her. “I’m guessing you’ll want to discuss the movie star next door.”
He grunted. “You noticed that Coco jabbered about her nonstop through dinner, then?”
“I did, yeah. What’s up?” She turned her eyes to him. They were blue, like his eyes and their dad’s and Coco’s, too. In the moonlight, they looked almost black. Black and too somber. Three years since Bud died fishing the Gulf of Alaska. Sometimes Karin still looked way too sad.
“You signed the NDA, too,” he said. “The tenant is not supposed to be disturbed and no one else can know that she’s here.”
“What? The big star got all offended because my little girl’s a fan?”
“Whoa, Mama Grizzly. Take it down a notch. Madison really liked Coco. She said Coco and Ben could come over anytime they wanted to.”
Karin leaned between their chairs and peered at him a little too closely. “Madison? So we’re on a first-name basis with America’s Darling, are we?”
“Stop.”