He had the feeling she wouldn’t give up on this, so he started talking. He explained that he’d flipped the cottage. “And then I decided to keep it and rent it out.” He told her about his mom, who’d managed a local bakery and always kept a beautiful garden until she died five years ago. He shared way more than necessary about Larson Boatworks, the company his dad had started thirty-five years before. “We do fabrication and remodeling of sport and commercial fishing boats, mostly. I’ve been working with my dad for about six years now. He moved in with me after my mom died.”
“And before you went to work with your dad?”
“In college, during school breaks, and for a while after, I worked on small fishing boats up and down the West Coast, from California to the Bering Sea. It’s rough work, commercial fishing. But I loved it.”
“Why did you quit?”
“It’s good money, but not good enough. And my dad wanted me to come in on the family business. Eventually, the company will be mine—mine and Karin’s. She runs the office now.” She’d taken over when Ella quit. “I’m there when I’m needed and I can also fool around with real estate and construction.”
“You’re a busy guy,” she said, and leaned in. “Got a girl, Sten?” She literally twinkled at him. A princess from a Disney movie, for sure.
“Damn.” He took a long pull off his beer and set the mug down firmly. “You are nosy.”
She laughed. “Well, I want to know, so I asked.”
“There’s no one. Your turn,” he said, before she could ask another question about his currently nonexistent love life. “Make it good,” he instructed. “Tell me something no one else knows.”
“Wait a minute.” She huffed a breath in pretend outrage. “All I asked for was a bio, but you want my deepest secrets?”
“That sounds about right to me.” He gazed at her steadily and she stared right back. That special something swirled between them. It felt like a promise of what was to come. Right at the moment, he didn’t care that it was a false promise and nothing was going to happen between them. He was having a good time and she seemed to be enjoying herself, too.
She leaned in again and stage-whispered dramatically, “You would have to swear never to tell a soul.”
“I won’t tell anyone.” He put up a hand, to make it look official. “Not a soul.”
And she launched into this crazy story about how she’d been switched at birth by some local rancher who didn’t want his wife to find out he’d been fooling around. She said she was born into the Bravo family and the switch had happened soon after her birth. “My name should have been Aislinn,” she said.
Sten knew the Bravos. They were a prominent family in town. He and the second-born brother, Matt, had been in the same grade in school.
The thing was, now she’d mentioned the Bravos, he really could see a family resemblance. Especially between her and the Bravo sisters, Harper, Hailey and Grace. She looked nothing like Aislinn, the oldest sister. Aislinn had dark hair and eyes—and come to think of it, none of the other Bravos looked much like Aislinn.
“I came here to get to know them, this family I just found out I have. I’ve been here for days now.” Her husky voice had turned plaintive. “Days. And I can’t quite drum up the nerve to get in touch with them. I mean, they already know about the switch.Theyreached out tome. Theywantto meet me. I said I would call or whatever when I was ready. And here I am, in the town where they live. And somehow, I can’t make myself contact them.”
She looked so lost now, her glittery brightness dimmed. The most beautiful girl in the world, the girl who had everything. Except the family that should have been hers from the first.
“What can I do?” he asked, and realized he meant it. “How can I help?”
She sat a little straighter. “You mean that, Sten? Because I really, really want to take advantage of you.”
“Whatever you want. Name it.” So much for steering clear of her, for playing it cautious and smart. He’d just asked her to use him. And he couldn’t wait for her to tell him what she wanted him to do.
She sucked in a long breath. “Okay, it’s like this. I’m still not there yet. I’m not ready to go and see my lost family. I need more time. Time here, in this house. Without my PA or my driver or my housekeeper or my security team. They’re all terrific, the best at what they do, but I just don’t want them here, hovering. I want to change up some stuff in my life and I need the time and space to do that.”
“Madison.”
She gulped. At that moment she looked so young, young and confused and in need of a friend. “Yeah?”
“Just tell me what you want from me.”
“There’s a Subaru Forester downstairs in the garage.” Before he could ask what a Subaru had to do with anything, she chattered on, “My security team had the car rental agency deliver it here before we arrived. It’s actually a getaway car. See, if the media gets on to the fact that I’m here and I need to get away, I need one guy to drive, say, a Hummer or a limo—some big, fancy vehicle—as a decoy. The decoy rides off and the paparazzi chase after him. He leads them all the way to Portland International, where he drops off the Hummer and catches a commercial flight back to LA. And then, once all the reporters have followed the Hummer, another guy will drive me in the Subaru to the local airfield and the private jet that’s waiting there to whisk me away.”
“So you’re warning me that you’re planning an escape?”
She laughed. “No, I’m really just saying there’s a Subaru down in the garage and I have the keys to it, but I can’t drive it.” Her cheeks flamed pinker than they had in the half bath, when she’d realized that he knew she’d broken that chain on purpose. “Okay, it’s like this. I let my driver’s license lapse a few years ago. It just never occurred to me that I might want to drive myself somewhere. But now, well, I don’t want any of my people here. And that means, even though I have a Subaru, I have no way to get around. I’m afraid to call an Uber. What if the driver recognizes me? Things will get really hairy if word gets out I’m here.”
“You want me to drive you somewhere, is that it?”
“Yeah.” Those eyes of her could make a man do foolish things. “If you would, that would be terrific—well, I mean, when I do get up the nerve to reach out to this family I’ve never met. I’ll pay you, of course, and I—”
