Page 129 of Rescued by the Single Dad

“Daddy, what’s going to happen?” Talia asked.

“To who?”

“To Brooke.”

“I don’t know,” he whispered as he pulled onto the main road and headed in the direction of Grayson’s clinic. “I don’t know.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Brooke returned to the house with a heavy heart.

Bennett and Rocco met her with grim expressions.

“My being here is already getting people hurt. I need to go.” Her throat ached as a tight knot lodged itself right at the top, and tears stung the backs of her eyes.

“It was an accident,” Bennett said, though his tone wasn’t convincing.

“An accident that never would have happened if I wasn’t here,” she pointed out, meeting her brother’s gaze. “Nobody else can get hurt. And the press is just going to keep coming.”

“We’ll figure out a way to keep them from coming up here. Install a gate if we have to,” Bennett offered. “But I agree with Clint that you are safe here.”

“I might be, but the rest of you aren’t. At least not from having your peaceful lives disrupted. This isn’t what you signed on for.”

Bennett didn’t say anything, but she could tell from his eyes that he didn’t disagree with her. It was one thing for Clint to bring her to their little haven when the world thought she was dead, but now that the world knew otherwise, they were all caught up in the mess that was her life.

“Let’s just wait to hear how Talia is and what Clint has to say when he gets back,” Rocco offered, tossing a comforting arm around her shoulders. “We won’t make any hasty decisions just yet.”

Brooke buried her top teeth in her bottom lip to keep it from trembling and tried to swallow.

She loved Talia. And the idea of that little girl being hurt ripped Brooke’s heart clear from her chest. She never wanted anything to happen to Clint’s daughter. Nothing besides joy and wonder, miracles and all the luck in the world. She deserved that. All the children did.

“We’ll obviously be filing a lawsuit against the driver,” Bennett said, all business. “You didn’t happen to recognize him, did you?”

Brooke shook her head. “No, I’m sorry.”

Bennett dismissed her with a shrug. “Doesn’t really matter. We have cameras all over the parking lot and road. His speed and everything will be caught on camera.”

“A lot was caught on camera. There were at least thirty phones pointed at me when I went down there. I’m sure my face and location have now been plastered all over the internet—again.”

“PR team will clean that up,” Rocco tried to reassure.

“I’m just going to go lay down for a bit,” she said, suddenly feeling absolutely exhausted. “Please let me know when they get home.”

Rocco and Bennett nodded.

“All the kids are at my place. I’m going to go check on them,” Bennett said, heading to the front door.

Brooke climbed the stairs and paused in front of the open guest bedroom door, staring at the bed. At the moment, and based on how Clint looked at her when he left with Talia, she wasn’t so sure he’d welcome her into his bed right now. She didn’t want to be presumptuous and climb on to it, only to have him ask her what the hell she was doing there when he got home.

The guest room didn’t feel as safe or comforting as Clint’s bedroom did, though. Neither did the bed.

She pulled a blanket over her jeans and white T-shirt, because despite how warm the mid-May day was, a chill took hold of her bones and refused to let go.

Maybe Inez was right. Maybe she would just be better off back in her house in Monterey. With her front gate, security guards, bodyguards and electric fence.

But the idea of returning there, after being somewhere so warm and inviting, so homey and filled with love, just made that chill sink even deeper until she shivered.

If she never returned to that home again, she wouldn’t shed a tear.

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