Page 47 of Wilde Secrets

Harper choked on the last word, as if she’d been crying. That wouldn’t do. Logan turned off the water and, wrapping a towel around his waist, left the bathroom.

He found Harper curled up at one end of the couch in the living room, her head buried in her hands. Right where he liked to sit when the weather was bitterly cold. The fireplace was empty right now, the flat screen TV above it reflecting him in his towel.

“Harper? What’s wrong?”

He crouched down beside her and tentatively reached out to touch her shoulder. She shook her head, keeping her face hidden and hiccupped.

“Who was that on the phone?”

She looked up, her cheeks streaked with tears and her eyes red. “King. Isla’s bodyguard.”

Logan nodded. “Bad news?”

Harper nodded, her bottom lip wobbling. Logan’s chest tightened and he dropped onto the couch next to her, not caring about the wet towel. He slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward him. She came willingly and dropped her head onto his shoulder, her hand reaching up to curl near her cheek where it rested on his chest.

He absently brushed his fingers over the back of her arm, smiling when she sighed and snuggled into him.

“Yeah, bad news.”

Logan waited a few beats. “Want to talk about it?”

Harper pulled back to look at up at him. “You wouldn’t mind?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She nodded and settled back against him. He was becoming very quickly used to touching her, having her next to him, holding her like this.

But a city girl who is used to the bright lights won’t want to settle for a small town guy like you.

His lips thinned, but he pushed aside the thought. She was here and she needed him. That was enough for now.

“Look at this,” Harper said, pulling her phone from the couch next to her and unlocking the screen.

She passed the phone to Logan who took it and scrolled through the website she’d opened to. It was some kind of entertainment news site, and his stomach rolled at the memories of similar sites—but for football—that his name had been plastered all over years ago. His hand tightened on her shoulder.

He read page after page of supposed news about Harper, her sister Isla, their father, and even her bodyguard. King’s relationship with Isla was speculated on and even one imaginative commenter claimed they had seen not only Isla, but Harper as well in the arms of King. At the same time.

Harper looked up at him. “None of it’s true.”

He nodded. He handed the phone back to Harper. “It’s not great, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen.”

Harper nodded. “That’s just the start.” She navigated to a different site and passed the phone back to Logan.

This time it was a press announcement from Isla’s record label. She had been dropped..

Logan’s brows knitted.

“Can they do that based on rumors?” He asked.

“But they’re not rumors.”

“Do they know that?”

Harper sat up and tucked her legs underneath her, facing him on the couch. “According to King they do. He wouldn’t say how he knew that for sure, but he was certain.”

Logan frowned. He didn’t like that this guy was calling Harper and making her upset. “He upset you.”

Harper gave him a strange look. “Not really.”

---