Dakota stopped dead in the middle of the path. He still liked her even though she drove him insane. What was up with that? Grayson would say he had a compulsion to save and protect the weak. Jay would simply call him a bleeding heart. He'd tried to be perfect for his mom so she'd never have a reason to be sad again, until he'd realized it was stupid. Was that it? Or was it even worse? Did he want to save Robyn to make himself feel good?

He kicked a couple of pine cones and started walking again. h.e.l.l, no. She deserved to die an old maid and probably would with an att.i.tude like that. His steps slowed as he pictured her distraught face. He sighed. f.u.c.k it, he was going to have to go back and get her.

Chapter Ten.

Robyn glanced at Dakota as he sat opposite her, a frosted bottle in his hand, a smile on his face. When he'd reappeared in the trailer and told her to get dressed and come have a beer, she'd almost refused. Why would he want to be anywhere near a b.i.t.c.h like her? Did he know how close she'd been to telling him who she was?

Of course, she'd had to fight back, hadn't she? Fight against her desire to please him, to tell him everything. And Dakota knew it, but she'd done it anyway, and hurt him in the process. She swallowed a lump in her throat. Was she incapable of trusting another man? He was a good guy, she knew it in her soul, and yet she still felt she had to keep him at a distance.

'Cheers.'

She jumped as he clinked his bottle against hers. The bar was small and dark. There were only about six customers including the bartender. Country music blared from a jukebox and an elderly couple shuffled around the minute dance floor to the sound of George Strait.

'Would you like to dance?'

Robyn blinked as Dakota put down his beer and came to stand beside her. He held out his hand.

'Me?'

He pretended to look around. 'Don't see anyone else I'd like to dance with.'

'OK, but I'm not very good.'

'I am.'

He took her hand and guided her through the tightly packed empty tables. The music changed to a slower tempo, Dolly Parton began to wail about standing by your man. Dakota put Robyn's hands on his shoulders and drew her close.

'Just move your feet, honey. Let it all out.'

She laid her cheek against his chest, felt an absurd desire to just breathe him in. He wrapped his arms low around her hips bringing her against the whole of his body.

'I'm sorry, Dakota.'

'For what, honey?'

She shrugged, felt her nipples harden against his chest. 'For what I said, about your mom and you.'

His lips brushed her ear and she shivered. 'Apology accepted. I probably deserved it.'

She risked a glance up at him. His eyes were closed, his mouth relaxed in a slight smile. Warmth flowed around her, his scent as familiar now as her own. It was hard not to let herself unwind with him, to believe that because she'd started to turn her life around, fate had sent her Dakota as some kind of compensation prize. But she had to keep moving, to keep growing. Laying all her problems at a man's feet and expecting him to save her was so not going to happen this time.

Robyn glanced to her left as the other couple moved past them and exchanged a smile with the elderly woman held in her partner's arms. A wedding ring glinted on the woman's finger. What would it be like to share your life with someone, to know they would be there for you even after all those years? She tilted her head back until she could see Dakota's face.

'Why did you come back?' The question came out of her mouth before she even realized it.

Dakota sighed. 'I don't know. I just knew I couldn't leave you there, hurting all alone.'

'I wasn't hurting.'

He stared into her eyes. 'Honey, you were, and part of that was my fault.'

She shrugged. 'I guess I'm a little defensive.'

His smile widened. 'I guess.'

She dropped her gaze to his fancy brown boots. 'It's just that, whenever I've let my guard down, it comes back and bites me in the a.s.s.'

He chuckled and drew her even closer. Someone coughed loudly right by Robyn's ear.

'Excuse me, miss?'

Robyn reluctantly raised her head. It was the woman again, her face alive with the kind of speculation Robyn knew all too well.

'You are "her", aren't you?'

Robyn tried to smile as her throat closed up.

'Robyn, the little girl from Sparrow's Nest, on the TV?' the woman continued.

Dakota stepped in front of Robyn. 'Ma'am, I don't think . . .'

Robyn pushed him gently to one side. 'It's OK, Dakota. Yeah, that's me.'

He hesitated and looked down at her, surprise and recognition dawned on his face.

Robyn managed a laugh for the lady's benefit. 'I'm surprised you recognized me now that I'm all grown up.'

The woman smiled triumphantly. 'When you've had as many grandbabies as I have, you know what to look for in a face. You were such a little cutie.'

'Was I?'

The woman patted Robyn's hand. 'Yes, you were, sweetie.'

Dakota's hand came to rest on Robyn's shoulder; his fingers ma.s.saged her tight muscles. Thoughts circled in her head like a screaming chorus. Why hadn't he walked off and left her? Why was he still there?

The woman squeezed Robyn's cold fingers. 'I don't want to interrupt your evening, dear. I just wanted you to know how much Bill and I enjoyed your show. We were sorry when they took it off the air.'

Robyn had been ecstatic, but she didn't see the point of saying that to the woman. Why not leave her with her happy memories?

'Thanks for saying hi, then.'

'Thanks for entertaining us with your sweet little voice for all those years.'

'You're welcome.'

Robyn managed to detach herself from the woman's firm clasp and head for the door. She didn't check to see if Dakota was following, but there he was, opening the door for her, taking her hand to lead her in the right direction back to the RV park. She realized she was trembling. Her legs felt like jelly.

Dakota squeezed her fingers. 'It's OK, honey, take a few deep breaths and you'll be fine.'

She rounded on him. 'What the h.e.l.l would you know about it? She was nice to me, but most of the time it's like being a dumb animal at the zoo surrounded by idiots who want to see a reaction, preferably an angry one.'

She stopped at the entrance to the park and faced him.

He took a step back and held up his hands. 'Don't start on me. You're the one who should be apologizing.'

'Why?'

'Because you didn't tell me who you are.'

'I don't have to tell you anything.'

He shrugged. 'That's true, but it would've been nice to know I've been harboring a celebrity.'

'f.u.c.king one you mean.'

His expression hardened. 'What do you think I'm going to do? Run off and give all the intimate details to the National Enquirer?'

She let out her breath, aware of how ridiculously she was behaving. 'They wouldn't care anyway. I'm way too pa.s.se.'

He still looked mad, his gaze fixed on hers. 'I don't kiss and tell. A rodeo friend of mine ended up in the Enquirer and it wasn't pretty.'

Robyn wrapped her arms around herself, painfully aware of the lack of Dakota's warmth and strength surrounding her. 'Can we go back to the trailer? It's too cold to argue out here.'

'Sure, if it's not too much of a hovel for you.'

Robyn pressed her lips together and started up the road. Dakota had a right to be angry with her. Her only hope was that he'd get over it and still be prepared to give her a ride back home. She waited by the door as he unlocked it and held it open for her.

The inside smelt of the toast and coffee they'd made for supper. Robyn halted in the kitchen. Where exactly did she intend to go? There wasn't enough room to hide a cat in here, let alone a grown woman. She'd have to face him.

Dakota brushed past Robyn and put on a fresh pot of coffee. Not that he needed it, but he wanted something to do that didn't involve Robyn. Despite the fact that he'd only known her for a short time, he felt hurt she hadn't confided in him. Stupid, he knew, but there it was.

Robyn sighed. 'I suppose you want to talk about it?'

He turned to look at her, noticed the tension in her shoulders, the apprehensive look in her brown eyes she tried so desperately to hide. 'It's up to you. It's your life.'

Jeez, now he sounded like a sullen teenager when in reality, just like all the other jerks, he was dying to find out how one of America's former darlings had ended up stealing pain medicine in a two-bit garage store.

'I'd like to tell you.'

He stared at her, biting back the obvious retort that she could've saved them both a lot of trouble by telling him up front. He nodded and gestured to the couch. 'Sure, I'll get the coffee.'

She settled on the very edge of the seat, knees drawn up to her chin, arms around them. He put her coffee on the crate and cradled his own, glad of the warmth and for something to hold on to. He tried to sound relaxed.

'It's weird, now I know who you really are, I can't believe I didn't see it earlier. I kept thinking I'd known you before and blanking on why.'

'A lot of folks feel like that around celebrities.' She hunched her shoulders. 'And it was a long time ago. I keep hoping people will forget.'

'Honey, Sparrow's Nest, with you and your sisters was one of the top-rated shows on TV for years. Even I watched it and I'm a guy. How could you expect people to forget?'

'Because I want to forget?'

'Was it that bad?'

As he studied Robyn's haunted expression, he thought about all the child stars that had crashed and burnt over the years.

'It wasn't at first. But then we all got famous and things started to fall apart.'

'Were you a real family?'

A smile flickered over her face. 'Just us three sisters. Our mom and dad were played by actors. We were supposed to be the late-80s version of the Partridge Family.'

Dakota drank some coffee. 'You must've been kind of young when you got into it.'

'I was five. I wasn't given a choice. My mom was the cla.s.sic stage mother, always shopping us girls around the studios, making us take cla.s.ses, impress at auditions. It was a strange existence.'

'I bet.'

'Of course it all went to my head.' Her smile this time was bitter. 'By the time the show came off the air, I was fifteen, already abusing alcohol, taking drugs and well on my way to becoming anorexic. I was also a first-cla.s.s spoilt brat used to getting what I wanted.'

'Wow, now that does surprise me.'

Robyn shot him a narrow glance. 'Funny, Dakota, real funny.' She sighed. 'You would not have liked me at all. I didn't like myself much either.'

'I can't imagine what that must've been like,' he mused aloud. 'Growing up in the spotlight.' He smiled cautiously at her. 'I hate being recognized now and I'm an adult.'

She picked up her coffee, took a small sip before looking directly at him for the first time since they'd come inside. 'Are you OK with this?'

'That you're a big star?'

'That I'm hitching a ride back to the coast with you.'

There it was, that hint of vulnerability, the little catch in her voice that he'd begun to realize made him want to hold her tight and never let go. No chance of that now. Once they hit LA he reckoned she'd be gone. He forced a smile.

'You're still welcome to tag along.'

She bit down on her lip. 'Thanks, Dakota, I really appreciate it.'

He raised his eyebrows at her. 'That's it?'

'What?'