Anna DePalo - Tempted By The Movie Star

He stepped inside the house and paused to take a calming breath. Barreling in looking agitated would provoke a bunch of questions. He’d like to do this with as little discussion as possible. He’d already talked about the subject more than he wanted to.

During dinner Phil had asked whether he had publicity folks doing damage control and he’d described his meeting with Geena. He wasn’t surprised that Damon had been ready to escort her straight back to town, but that wasn’t his responsibility or Phil’s.

The living room furniture had been moved aside for dancing, and now that Damon and Phil had left, only four people occupied the floor. Cade and Lexi were teaching some elaborate new move to Herb and Rosie. Matt hated to break that up, but it couldn’t be helped.

As he approached the group, Cade glanced at him. “How about you partner with Lexi? I know this already.”

“I’d be glad to, but I have a little errand to run. Can I borrow the ranch truck for a couple of hours?”

Herb looked puzzled. “Certainly, but I can’t imagine what sort of errand you’d have to run at this hour.”

“Don’t pry,” Rosie said. “Maybe he’s heard from an old girlfriend.”

Cade nudged back his hat. “That would be a trick, since he made such a huge deal about turning off his phone for the next week.” His voice softened. “What’s up, bro?”

“We have an uninvited guest and I need to escort her back to town.”

Rosie blinked. “A woman’s outside? Did some starstruck fan follow you here?”

“No, she’s not a fan. Look, if it’s okay, I’ll just get the keys and take care of this.”

“Hang on,” Cade said. “If it’s some damned reporter, let me go out there with you. I’m sure between the two of us we can convince her to get lost.”

Matt sighed. He probably should have spit it out in the beginning. “She’s not a reporter, either. It’s Geena. If I can borrow the truck for a couple of hours, I’ll—”

“Great.” Cade started for the door. “I’m delighted she’s here and she’s not going anywhere until I’ve told her exactly what I think of how she treated you.”

“No!” Matt blocked Cade’s progress. “Nobody’s going out there except me. All I need is the keys to the truck. She doesn’t know the area so I feel an obligation to make sure she gets back to town okay and has a hotel room. Then I’ll make damn sure she knows that she has to leave in the morning.”

“Matt.” Rosie sent him a look of reproach. “The woman traveled all the way from Los Angeles to see you. I realize you’re annoyed with her, but shooing her away after she’s made that kind of effort isn’t good manners.”

He stared at his foster mother. “She showed up uninvited. That isn’t good manners, either.”

“True, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Sending her back where she came from might give you temporary satisfaction, but it’s not the gracious thing to do.”

“But—”

“Is she an evil person?”

“No.”

“Has she deliberately harmed you in any way?”

Matt sighed. He’d lived with Rosie long enough to know where this was going. “No.”

“Then you need to take the high road, son. Invite her to join us and I’ll offer to put her up.”

Every instinct told him that this was a bad idea. “I don’t want her here, Mom.” He clenched both fists. “Whatever nastiness happened in LA stays in LA. I don’t want you and Dad involved. Or anyone in my family, for that matter.”

Rosie studied him for a moment. “I understand that and I appreciate your desire to protect us. That’s very gallant. I can tell you’re very angry that she’s come here, but let’s think about why she did. Her job is to make you look good, right?”

“Supposedly, but I don’t like her plan or the fact she came to my home uninvited. I’m going to fire her.”

“Do you have a replacement lined up?”

“Not yet.”

“Considering you need a PR person to guide you through this incident, you might want to hold off ditching the one you have. I agree that you shouldn’t apologize for something you didn’t do, but she’s on your turf now.” Rosie smiled. “You don’t agree with her plan for handling things, but now you have a golden opportunity to change her mind.”

Cade nodded, a gleam in his eyes. “And I have a golden opportunity to give her a piece of mine. Yeah, let’s invite her in. Can’t wait.”

“Cade Gallagher.” Rosie pinned him with her gaze. “You will not ambush someone who’s a guest in this house. In fact, I’m going out there to issue the invitation myself. You boys stay right here. And once she walks through that door, you’ll be on your best behavior with her at all times. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Matt and Cade said in unison.

Lexi’s muffled snort was the only sound in the room as Rosie turned and left.

* * *

Geena reasoned that she hadn’t completely lost out. Matt was enough of a gentleman to make sure she found her way back to Sheridan and that she had a place to stay. While she could handle everything herself, she’d accept his help because it would give her a chance to accomplish what she’d come for.

Sometime during their interaction she’d apologize for assuming he’d accosted Briana. Then she’d make her case for having him come back to repair the damage to his reputation. Grabbing a few moments on the fly wasn’t ideal, but at least her trip wouldn’t be completely wasted.

God, he’d been angry, so angry that his blue eyes had glittered like a pair of Fourth of July sparklers. The effect had been thrilling, actually, seeing him go into protector mode concerning his home and family. Now wasn’t a good time to think about it, but that cowboy turned her on.

When the front door opened she expected him to come out bringing all his Matt Forrestness with him.

Instead, a plump woman with blond hair walked out on the porch and down the steps. She approached and held out her hand. “Hello, Geena. I’m Rosie Padgett, Matt’s foster mom.”

“Foster mom?” Geena heard herself and cringed. “Sorry, that was rude.” She accepted Rosie’s firm handshake. “It’s just that from the way Matt talked about you, I thought he was your son.”

“He is. They all are. Many years ago Herb and I started taking in boys with nowhere else to go. Most of them ended up calling us Mom and Dad, which pleases us no end. We couldn’t have kids of our own and now we’re blessed with a huge family. We love it.”

“Wow. So this ranch used to be a foster home?”

“Sure did, although once again, the boys usually dropped the word foster after they’d been here awhile. The ranch was just home.”

“That’s wonderful.” She was beginning to realize how little she knew about Matt. But she doubted Rosie had walked out here to give her a quick history lesson.

“It has been. Listen, I know you’ve had a long trip. I’ll bet you could use some food and something to drink. Why don’t you come in?”

Whoa. Talk about falling down the rabbit hole. “Uh, because Matt doesn’t want me to?”

“You’re right, he doesn’t. He’s embarrassed about the mess with Briana Danvers and hates how it’s affected his life. He made the trip without going back to his apartment because he didn’t want to be waylaid. He asked me to shop for him today so he’d have a few clothes and some toiletries.”

“Poor guy.”

“He’s hurting, that’s for sure. And he doesn’t want any of it touching his family.” Rosie paused. “But unless you have paparazzi hiding in your SUV, I can’t imagine how bringing you inside would involve us in the scandal.”

“I promise I’m not dragging a gaggle of reporters behind me. Sheridan isn’t the easiest place in the world to access by air. Matt’s not a big enough story to warrant suffering through long layovers and tiny planes.”