Page 15 of Rescued by the Single Dad

“You’ve just been staring off into space for like two minutes. I asked you if you wanted me to call someone and you just sort of went catatonic and didn’t say anything. Are you sure you’re okay? Do you think you might have a concussion?”

She swallowed and blinked. “My head really hurts. I ... I don’t think it’s a concussion, though. I never hit my head, and it wasn’t that far of a fall from the yacht.”

Clint nodded, then took off to the kitchen. “You’re probably dehydrated. I can give you some acetaminophen and water. Hang on.” He rummaged around in a cupboard for a minute, then filled a glass with water from the tap and returned to her a moment later.

She thanked him for the water and Tylenol, then washed down the pill. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until she took that first sip. Then she guzzled.

“Just tell me what you want to do, Ms. Barker—”

“Please, call me Brooke,” she said, exhaling after having drained the water glass.

Clint nodded, concern still burning in his dark blue eyes. “Okay, Brooke, what would you like to do?”

“I need to pee,” she said, which was the first thing that came to mind. “And I know I had a bath last night, but ...”

“You’d like to have another bath or shower?”

She nodded. “I’m cooking right now and super sweaty. Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” He bent down, about to scoop her up like he had last night, but she shook her head.

“I can probably manage,” she said, hoping she wasn’t offending him.

He quickly bobbed his head and stepped back. “Right, sorry.”

She swung her legs over the side of the couch and went to stand up, but putting pressure on her feet was more painful than she realized and she winced and sucked in a sharp breath.

“Dad,” Talia said, swatting him on the arm, “carry her.”

Brooke’s cheeks grew warm, but she gave a little nod. “If it’s not too much?”

“Not at all,” he repeated, scooping her up into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he carried her effortlessly—or at least it seemed that way—up the stairs.

Every muscle in her body hurt. Sure, she did Pilates three days a week, and yoga the other four, while also running twenty miles a week on her treadmill, but swimming was a different beast. It used muscles you forgot you had. And she’d also swam for probably well over an hour and fought the current. No wonder her body was rebelling now.

Clint pressed his lips together, then twisted them to the side in a cute way as he slowly climbed the stairs.

He was a very nice-looking man. With a strong jaw covered in a thick, but tidy scruff, dark blue eyes and a seriousness about him that drew her in and made her want to ask a million questions and learn everything she could about this man.

Starting with: where was his wife?

They arrived in his room. It was clean, with a made bed and sliding glass door that led to a private balcony. She saw no signs that a woman lived here, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

His bedspread was a dark tan color with matching pillowcases. Blackout drapes, the shade of a blue jay, hung on either side of the sliding glass door. No pictures or artwork graced the walls. The headboard was wooden and looked handmade, and it matched the bedside table, which had a lamp with a burlap shade and a book sitting upside down on it.

He set her down on the bed. “The bandages should hold through a bath,” he said. “Unless you’d rather shower? It’s a big stand-up shower with a bench, so you won’t need to put pressure on your feet.”

“A shower sounds great. Just need to rinse off. I’m overheating in these sweatpants. I don’t normally sleep in ... anything.” Her cheeks got hot when she said that last part.

“I can run into town and grab you some clothes later today. But for now ...” He opened up the third drawer on his tallboy dresser and pulled out a black ribbed tank top and a pair of khaki-green board shorts with a drawstring. “Maybe this will be better than sweats.”

“Thank you,” she said, her cheeks still hot.

He smiled and nodded. “Is your towel from last night hung up on the drying rack in there, or would you like another one?”

“I hung it up. I will be fine.”

He nodded one more time, gave her a grim, closed-mouth smile, then ducked out of the bedroom, softly closing the door behind him.

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