“Comeon.” Ben pulled Coco on down the stairs.
Sten took another step backward. “I’m really sorry about this. I’ll talk to the kids and their mom.”Theirmom. So then neither of the children was his? “I’ll make sure they leave you alone and also that they understand not to tell people you’re in town.”
“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 shehadsaid 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, soreal.
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 withget lostwritten 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.
* * *
