Page 140 of Rescued by the Single Dad

“Coffee?” he asked Rocco.

“Please.” Rocco followed him into the kitchen, but Brooke wasn’t alone for long.

Talia joined her. And she didn’t even ask before she climbed into Brooke’s lap, forcing Brooke to move her mug of hot tea. “I don’t want you to leave,” Talia said, giving Brooke a big pout.

“I know, sweetheart,” Brooke said, trailing her hand down Talia’s hair. “But I need to go. Me being here is bringing way too much attention to the island, to your family, and to you. You got hit by a car, honey. A car that was here because of me.”

“It was an accident,” she protested. “I could have been hit by a car any day.”

Brooke, taken aback by the little girl’s grip with reality, looked into Talia’s eyes in order to drive the pint home. “I know, but the parking lot was fuller than usual. And that car was here for me. Had I not been here, that car wouldn’t have been here and you wouldn’t have gotten hit.”

Tears flooded her blue eyes. “I hate this. It isn’t fair.”

A thick ball formed in Brooke’s throat as she continued to stroke the little girl’s head, pulling her tighter into her embrace until Talia’s head rested against Brooke’s chest. “I know, angel. I know. This doesn’t have to mean goodbye forever. You can call me anytime. Day or night, and I will answer. You need something? I’m your gal. You want to complain about your dad and how he’s being such a dad? You call me and just vent. Let it all out.”

“You can stay here and I can complain to you, too, you know?”

“I wish I could. But it’s not safe. Not for you, anyway.”

Talia sniffled, and when Brooke glanced down, she saw Talia’s dark gray droplets had mixed with Brooke’s on her hoodie. “When do you leave?” Talia asked.

“Inez, my assistant, is coming to get me at four o’clock.” Last night when she told Clint that she was leaving, he texted his brothers and they all agreed to let the kids play hooky from school and hang out with Brooke for the day. “So we have all day together. Whatever you want to do. You’ve got me for at least seven hours.”

“It’s still not long enough.”

Brooke pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I know, honey. Not for me, either.”

Clint didn’t make a sound, but he didn’t have to. She felt him. Felt his heated stare, his intensity ... his love.

She glanced to the sliding door where Clint stood just in the frame, watching Brooke with his daughter. His expression grew more and more strained until she hiccuped a sob and looked away. He must have peeled away, too, because when she glanced back, he was gone.

She squeezed Talia even tighter and pressed another kiss to her head, inhaling her fruity children’s shampoo and imprinting that scent on her brain for eternity, too. “What’s the first thing on our agenda today?”

Talia lifted her head, her cheeks damp. “Friendship bracelets. The permanent kind you have to tie on. And we can never, ever take them off.”

A breath stuttered out of Brooke as a new fissure formed in her heart. She mustered a smile. “Sounds perfect.”

Noon came in the blink of an eye, and Brooke said goodbye to her brother with fat tears blurring her vision.

It gave Brooke pause about how different their lives were.

He bussed and cabbed and walked all over, while she had a private driver most of the time. She couldn’t even remember the last time she sat behind the wheel of a vehicle and drove herself anywhere.

And she definitely couldn’t remember the last time she took a cab, let alone a bus.

She knew she was privileged, but she was really beginning to hate how much. How the simplest things like driving to the store for milk never happened anymore. And she couldn’t recall when that simplicity and domesticity had been stripped from her.

One thing was for sure: she was going to take it back when she got to Monterey. She was going to drive to the store herself to get groceries. She would take a bus or call a cab. She didn’t need a private driver all the time. If Keanu Reeves could ride the subway and chill on a park bench without the paparazzi hounding him, so could she. She didn’t want to be exclusive or a big deal. She didn’t like it. She wanted to conspicuously do everyday normal person things like walk her dog—because she would absolutely be getting a dog when she got home—and pick up her dry cleaning. And if Inez fought her on it, well, tough.

“Call me as soon as you land,” Brooke said as she hugged her brother for the third time, squeezing him even tighter than the first two.

“You don’t have a phone,” Rocco replied with a chuckle.

“Well, call Inez.”

Grumbling, he suppressed his sarcasm. “I’ll email you.”

“I really wish the two of you would bury the hatchet already. It was so many years ago. You’ve both grown up since then. You have successful careers. And I’m pretty sure she’s moved on and is no longer crushing on you.”

---