“Really.” I grinned back at her. Whatever those goggles were for, they were supercute on her. When she spotted me eyeing them, she groaned and clawed at her face to get them off.
“Don’t take them off,” I said. “They look good.”
She stopped and slowly pushed them back into place. “Really?”
“Absolutely. What do you wear them for?” They didn’t have lenses.
“I get motion sickness.”
“Ah. May I try them on?”
The girl thrust them at me. I put them on and vogued. “Who wore them better?”
Giggles erupted from them.
The youngest squealed, “June Bee’s wearing Bethany’s glasses!”
“I’m just a girl like you.” I winked at Bethany as I handed them back. “Can I trust you both with a secret?”
Rhys cut his head toward me, a furrow bisecting his brow, one I itched to outline with my finger. The line was new, but it fit him. He’d always been a serious kid.
The girls were quiet, waiting for me to continue. I had their rapt attention, but their dad had half of mine.
“I don’t want anyone to know I’m here for a while,” I confessed. “I just need some time to relax.” To lick my wounds. To repair my pride. To figure out why the hell I’d been so gullible. “Can you keep seeing me to yourselves?”
“It’ll be our secret,” Hannah said. She had her dad’s dark-blue eyes and chestnut hair.
“Thanks.” I clutched the blanket as a shiver racked my body.
Rhys punched the heater on and turned it up to high. “Girls, you don’t keep secrets when a stranger asks you to, even when that stranger’s acelebrity.”
I bristled at his tone. I was more than a media puppet. I was more than a caricature of a singer. I wrote my own music and I sang to my strengths. My talent was real.
I just had to figure out what else was. “Are we strangers, Rhys?”
His eyes narrowed. This man was not used to being challenged. But he had a point. He had daughters to keep safe and I was a stranger to them. And to him too.
I sighed. “I shouldn’t have asked you guys to keep a secret, but if it’s okay with your dad”—I lifted a brow at the brooding man behind the wheel—“I’d appreciate it if you kept my visit quiet.”
“Daddy?” one of the girls said.
He worked his jaw. “Yeah, that’s fine.” Without looking at me, he said, “Do you need to call Tate or one of your other siblings?”
I shook my head. “Can you just take me to the cabin? I’ll deal with the car on Monday.”
He slanted a quick glance toward me like he wanted to ask more questions, but there were two sets of ears in the back seat. “Do you have some luggage you need to bring?”
“I can get it later.”
“With what?”
Good point. My new car was the only set of wheels I had. “I’ll go grab it.”
He shook his head and kicked the pickup into gear. He pulled up next to my defunct car. I put my hand on the door handle.
“Don’t.” He twisted in his seat. The position made his chest broader, and those abs... I bet he still looked good with his shirt off. “Stay here and don’t bombard Miss Kerrigan with questions.”
Miss Kerrigan? I was highly insulted he, of all people, had addressed me so formally but also soothed because how blissfully normal did it sound? “Junie is fine. And I’m okay with questions.” I loved chatting with kids. But he shot me a disgruntled look. I held my hands up. “But your dad said no questions, so no questions.”
