Page 3 of Rescued by the Single Dad

He reached the point where he was up at the tide line, but directly in line with the lump.

The lump that didn’t move.

Fuck.

He blinked a bunch of times, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the light of the moon a little better, but nothing worked. He needed to get closer.

Careful not to slip, he was mindful where he put his feet, keeping his eyes on the ground as much as he could so he didn’t step on a rock covered with slippery green seaweed.

He lifted his head again now that he was closer to the lump.

Oh fuck!

That was no seal.

That was a fucking person.

A naked person.

Was that a mermaid?

He squeezed his eyes shut, shook his head hard enough that he nearly lost his footing, then blinked them open again.

Or was it a dead body?

Oh God.

“Hello?” he whispered. “Are you a mermaid?”

Did mermaids speak English?

Oh, you drunk idiot. Mermaids do not fucking exist.

Hopefully, the person didn’t hear him ask that.

But also, hopefully, they weren’t dead.

He stepped closer, his shoes on the rocks making the stones slide across each other and the normally banal noise of pebbles across pebbles suddenly sounded like a foghorn in the eerily quiet night.

“Hello? Are you okay?”

He was only about fifteen feet away now. It was definitely a person. They had legs. Not fins.

And they were basically naked, aside from black underwear—well, more like a black thong. Shit. Long blonde hair covered the person’s face as they lay curled up in the fetal position. But when he leaned in closer, he noticed breasts. Fuck. Fuck. It was a woman.

Not that it mattered whether it was a dead man or woman. A dead person sucked either way.

But given that he’d come out here to silently self-destruct over the death of his wife, just added another layer of gravy to his open-faced shit sandwich.

“Hello? Are you okay? Do you need some help?” He crept closer.

He finally reached her and sunk to his knees, rolling her over onto her back. Her hair fell away from her face.

And holy flying fuck.

It was Brooke Barker.

The Brooke Barker. Hollywood sweetheart. Big screen phenomenon. Two-time Oscar nominee, Brooke Fucking Barker.

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