Page 7 of Her Rock Star's Dark Secret

“What’s your favorite kind of fruit snacks?” he asked her.

Penny snatched a generic package and waved it to Chase.

“Awesome choice.”

Lauren wandered to the coffee machine and filled herself a cup. She glanced over her shoulder to see Chase leading Penny to the register. He grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler near the register. “Add that cup of coffee as well.”

Lauren snapped the lid on her cup and rushed over to them. “What are you doing?”

He turned and flashed her a disarming grin. “I’m buying.”

“No, no, no. You don’t need to do that.”

“You let me buy you dinner last night. What’s the difference?”

“I didn’t have a choice about that. It was a blind date,” Lauren pointed out.

He leaned close to her and said in a low voice, “You always have a choice, Lauren.”

She stared up into his golden-brown eyes, frozen in time for a moment. A chill ran down her spine, and her lips parted. Was this why millions of women swooned over him? How was she supposed to withstand falling for this guy when he talked to her like that?

He must have taken her paralysis as her surrender because he turned back to the counter to finish the purchase.

Still in a daze, Lauren clamped her mouth shut. Chase led Penny to the exit, and she stupidly realized she needed to follow them. Chase opened the door, and Penny skipped through. He held the door open so Lauren could exit with them. When they stood outside the shop, he opened Penny’s fruit snacks and handed them to her.

Penny chatted happily beside Chase like she’d known him for years instead of ten minutes. How had he won over Penny so completely, so fast? Maybe the same way he’d been winning Lauren over. There was something so enticing and intoxicating about him. She couldn’t help but follow him when he spoke.

She didn’t like it one bit. She wasn’t a robot. She was a grown adult, a hardworking businesswoman. Not some lame, teenaged groupie.

Lauren hoped Penny didn’t get too attached, because after he left, she’d probably never see him again. She didn’t believe for a minute that he had plans to stick around. Once he saw how slow-paced their town was compared to the crazy life he was used to, he was sure to get bored and head straight back to his life of concerts and after-parties. She’d seen enough of him in the tabloids to know he was quite the party animal. Although it puzzled her that he said he didn’t drink. That didn’t seem to match up with how he looked in the magazines.

Chase turned, looked back at Lauren, and smiled as he took Penny’s hand to cross the street toward the park with the duck pond and playground. She wanted to find an excuse to be angry with him, but it was difficult when he was being such a perfect gentleman.

As she walked past him, she caught a whiff of his cologne, and she fought to keep her eyes from rolling back in her head. Why did he have to smell so good?

She followed them through the crosswalk to the park. Penny squealed when she saw the geese swimming around the pond. She pointed to the machines with the bird food and said, “I wanna feed the duckies, Chase!”

Lauren usually skipped those machines because they were expensive. She’d only bought the duck food for Penny once, and now the little girl begged her to buy it again every time they came to the park.

Chase reached into his pocket and pulled out some change. He handed Penny a quarter and picked her up so she could put the money in and turn the dial. “Hold your hand at the bottom so you can catch the food when it comes out.” He pulled her hand up to the spout. She took her other hand and twisted the handle with him.

Lauren couldn’t help but recognize how incredibly sweet he was with Penny. It warmed her heart. But she didn’t want to feel that way. She tried as much as she could to push it away. She arranged a scowl onto her features. She had to keep reminding herself to be angry with Chase. But she wasn’t in a particularly good spot now, because she wasn’t exactly staying angry. It was nearly impossible when he was so kind and charming.

So far, he wasn’t fitting the image she’d created of him from reading the tabloids over the years. He was supposed to be a selfish jerk. She didn’t know how to react to this new version of Chase. He’d caught her completely by surprise. Maybe it was just an act to draw her in. Brandon had done the same thing to her. He’d played the nice guy until she committed to him, and then he’d turned on a dime.

Chase led Penny to the side of the duck pond, and she threw her little handful of food into the water. She cheered when the birds swarmed the spot where her duck food bobbed in the water. “More food!” Penny chimed.

“No, Penny. That’s enough food this time.” Lauren didn’t want Penny to take advantage of Chase.

“It’s no problem,” Chase said. “See? I have another quarter right here.”

“We don’t need to take your money.”

“It’s a quarter. I think I can handle it.” Chase gave her a half-smile that thawed a layer of the ice she’d packed around her heart.

“Okay.” Lauren felt ridiculous objecting to him spending a quarter. It wasn’t like he’d offered to spend a fortune. And he was welcome to do whatever he wanted with his money. Even if that meant he wanted to spoil her daughter.

Penny was ecstatic when Chase helped her get another handful of food from the machine, and it did Lauren’s heart good to see her daughter so happy. It had been a rough few years for Penny. She never saw her own father anymore. He was too busy staying drunk and womanizing. A year after he stopped paying child support, he opted to have his parental rights removed so he wouldn’t have to pay anymore. He’d gotten his visitation supervised because of an incident where he abandoned Penny at his house and spent the entire night out carousing while his daughter slept alone with no sitter. Lauren had bumped into him out on the street.

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