I pulled it out and saw Sarah was calling. I silenced the call and sighed as Brooke pulled away from the kids. They were clinging to her, begging her to stay. I could see the hurt in her eyes as she turned to leave.
“Daddy, make her stay,” Daniel said.
“Tell her to come with us,” Sydney said.
“I can’t do that you guys,” I said. “Miss Brooke has to go home and rest.”
“She can rest with us!” Sydney exclaimed.
I gathered my angry kids in my arms and my heart broke. With everything they had been through, the one thing they wanted was something I couldn’t grant them. No amount of money could buy Brooke back for us. That much I knew. I knew her integrity, her passions, and that, at least for now, this was all for the best. I watched Brooke look back at us one last time before she ducked into the car as my phone started vibrating in my pocket again.
I gritted my teeth to keep from lashing out as her car drove away.
I felt myself breaking, helpless to fix anything as I picked my crying kids up off the ground. My chauffeur grabbed our bags and tossed them into the trunk as I settled all of us into the back of the car. My phone vibrated again on my hip and I set my kids off to the side.
Then I took my phone out and shut it off.
“I want Miss Brooke,” Daniel said.
“Me too,” Sydney repeated.
“I know kiddos. I do too, but Miss Brooke has a home too and she needs to go and rest so she can feel better.”
The sounds of Sydney’s sniffling broke my heart. The driver pulled away from the airport, leaving the horrors of Nassau Island behind us. But as I sat there in the car and listened to my children cry, I knew I was making a mistake.
I just wasn’t sure how to fix it.
CHAPTER 30
BROOKE
I was sitting on my couch in my shoebox apartment, gazing out the window. I was seventy-five percent done with my book. I was slowly plugging away at some freelancing jobs that had come my way since I’d been back, but it wasn’t much. Every time I opened my wallet, I stared right into the face of the credit card I’d forgotten to give back to Kevin.
Which would remind me of the check he’d forgotten to write me.
I’d deposited all the cash he gave me from my first day of watching the kids. All three thousand dollars of it. That would easily get me by for a couple of months, but I had no idea how to approach the subject of paying me for the rest of my time. I mean, I couldn’t just call him up and demand money while we were all still just trying to heal from what had happened to all of us. It didn’t seem right to be focused on money at a time like this.
Morgan thought I was being idiotic, but I knew I wasn’t.
What I was really doing was avoiding Kevin.
Avoiding thinking about how much I missed him and the kids.
My phone rang, and I picked it up. I was ready to shut down whatever idiotic piece of advice Morgan had for me now. I braced myself for the argument that would eventually ensue, but when I heard his voice on the line I felt shivers slide up my spine.
“Hello, Brooke.”
I swallowed down the sigh as goosebumps rose along the surface of my skin.
“Kevin,” I said. “How are you doing?”
“I’m good. We’re good. The kids are good. How are you? How are your, um—?”
I could feel his struggle through the phone and I wasn’t going to make him say it. The man had been through enough.
“They’re good. Fading,” I said. “My head doesn’t hurt nearly as much anymore.”
“Good. That’s really good to hear, Brooke.”