Page 36 of Rescued by the Single Dad

“Can’t we just tell your brother to act like you’re dead?” Talia asked.

“Where is he?” Clint asked.

“Rio de Janeiro.”

“You think he’ll fly back here?” He plunked his hands on his hips.

“He might.”

Clint sucked in a deep inhale through his nose and pondered. Then he stroked his chin and pondered some more.

Brooke could watch the man ponder all day. It was a sexy look, and it eased the ache in her chest.

“Email him,” Clint finally said. “Tell him you’re okay, but that he needs to act like you’re dead. Be vague about what happened, but reassure him you’re safe.” His brows narrowed. “Is he your next of kin?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Then he’ll be in charge of all your funeral arrangements and stuff, anyway. So tell him to hold off. To tell the press that he’s going to hold out hope that you’re okay. Since they haven’t found a body, he’s not going to accept your death.”

Brooke nodded and opened a browser. She logged into her email and brought up her inbox. It was flooded with messages.

Did people think there was email in heaven?

Or hell …?

She cringed at that thought.

She hit compose and typed out a quick message to Rocco, reassuring him of her existence. She was about to hit send when Clint’s abrupt voice made her jump. “Stop!”

She and Talia both glanced at him.

“Who else has access to your email?”

“My assistant. But I’ve ruled out Inez. It couldn’t be her. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She also wasn’t on the boat.”

He cocked his head to the side. “She wasn’t?”

“No.” Brooke shook her head. “She was supposed to be, but came down with terrible food poisoning at the last minute so she had to stay in the hotel. But even if she was on that boat, I know it wasn’t her. Inez is the one person in the world—besides Rocco—that knows everything about me. We’ve known each other since we were kids. I trust her implicitly. She would never hurt me.”

“Don’t send it. At least not from your regular email address. Open up a new one and send it to your brother from there.”

“But what if it goes into his spam?”

“Let’s hope he checks his spam.”

Brooke nodded and deleted her composed but unsent message. Then she did what Clint instructed and created a new email address. She sent the same message to Rocco, and after Clint checked it over, she hit send.

“I suppose I should have asked before you sent the email, but there’s definitely no way it was your brother who tried to kill you?” Clint asked.

Brooke shot him a look. “Never.”

All he did was nod, then headed back to the kitchen.

Talia had retreated to the kitchen, but joined Brooke back on the couch. “Can you quiz me on my spelling words, please?”

Brooke took the binder from Talia and scanned the pages. Nostalgia hit her hard, accompanied by a lump in her throat. She remembered fondly her mother quizzing her every night for her Friday spelling quiz. Brooke had always been a champion speller. And her mother, always the optimist, would make sure to remind Brooke to look at the glass half full. “Don’t look at it like you got two wrong, sweetie. Think of it as you got eight right. You studied really hard, and those words are extra tough.”

Her mother had always been Brooke’s biggest champion. She cheered Brooke on from the sidelines of every spelling bee and every swim meet, clapping and hollering louder than any other parent in the stands, all while tears of pride rolled down her cheeks.

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