Page 5 of Her Rock Star's Dark Secret

“What about you?” he asked. “How do you like being a salon owner?”

“I love it. I’ve been doing hair since I was five. My salon is a dream come true for me.”

An expression flashed across Lauren’s face that he didn’t understand. What was that? Worry? Stress? That didn’t make sense. She was talking about her dream coming true. Why would that make her worried?

He decided he’d better change the subject before he brought up something uncomfortable for her to talk about.

“Were you in Maple Creek the entire time I was gone?”

“Yep. I commuted awhile to go to hair school when I was first married, but I still lived here.”

Chase had a hard time imagining what it must have been like for her to have always lived in the same town. He’d traveled all over the world. He’d seen so many different cultures and people—but you could do that when you were a celebrity. Despite her thorny exterior, Chase sensed an innocence to Lauren that he found appealing. She seemed so grounded.

“Do you ever miss living here?” she asked.

“No. Not really.”

She frowned, and he sensed that he’d said the wrong thing again. This date wasn’t going as well as he’d planned. But what had he expected? He hadn’t known Lauren was his blind date. He never would have agreed to go out with her. He was sure she hated him. He’d known since high school.

She was gorgeous—she always had been—but she was untouchable. All the guys had known it. Except for whatever loser had married her and then mistreated her.

He figured she was still just as untouchable as she’d been back then. But why should that bother him? It wasn’t like he was interested in Lauren. After this date, he probably wouldn’t interact with her much. They may have grown up in the same town, but he was nothing like the boy she had once known. That boy was long gone. And he had nothing in common with Lauren.

Realizing how different they were made him sad, and he wasn’t sure he understood why.

Chapter 3

“Can you push me on the swings when we get to the park, Mommy?”

Lauren sat Penny on the couch and knelt to tie her daughter’s shoes. “Of course, honey.” It was the first Saturday morning she’d had with Penny in a while. Usually, she was booked up on Saturdays, her busiest day, but the morning hadn’t filled with appointments, so Lauren took the morning off. Penny was starving for her attention. She felt like she’d barely seen her daughter in the last several weeks.

They pushed open the door of their tiny two-bedroom apartment, and Lauren turned around to lock the door.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

Lauren whirled to see Chase standing in the open doorway of his sister’s apartment. “I live here. What are you doing here?”

“I’m staying here.”

“And you couldn’t afford a hotel?” she said coldly.

She knew his type, and they were all the same. Loud partiers. Brandon had been one of them too. She’d thought the parties were fun at first, but then she’d gotten pregnant with Penny, and he kept going to the parties without her. She’d gotten a little bit of child support from Brandon until Penny turned one. She was able to finish up hair school and get a job in her grandmother’s salon. Her grandma had raised her and Maggie because their parents had been killed by a drunk driver. It was why Lauren never drank.

Chase smiled at her. “Alexis heard I was coming into town, and she insisted I stay with her.”

And then she’d insisted he go on the blind date. Lauren needed to have a long talk with Alexis soon. That girl got some hair-brained ideas into her head sometimes, but this one topped them all. They hardly even talked about Chase. It was like he had died after he went away. He’d had this huge falling out with his parents. His mom had to read the tabloids to know how her son was doing, and that wasn’t the most reliable source of information.

Lauren looked up at where Chase stood in the narrow hallway with her, closer than she would have normally felt comfortable. But he smelled good, earthy like the woods on a sunny afternoon after a rainstorm. And he was dangerously attractive with a strong jawline and golden-brown eyes that saw straight into her. Every time he looked at her, her breath caught in her throat, whether she wanted it to or not.

“Do you want to go to the playground with us?” Penny asked, tugging on the hem of his shirt.

He crouched down to her level. “And who are you?”

She regarded him with her gigantic blue eyes. “I’m Penny. Are you our new friend?”

A wide grin spread on his face, and Lauren could tell he was trying to keep from laughing. “Yes. My name is Chase.”

“So, are you coming with us, Chase?” Penny asked in her tiny voice. Lauren wasn’t sure who was charming who at this point.

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