The Best of Me

by Tina Wainscott

  Then she’d heard Chris’s words: What have you done to me? She closed her eyes, feeling more pain than she’d ever felt before. He did care. Maybe she hadn’t misread all those subtle ways he had of letting her know.

  She leaned her cheek against the doorway, feeling the breeze wash over her face. “Oh, Chris, what have you done to me?”

  He pulled the fish cage out of the water, but Liberty was too busy catching fish to notice. Now it was a matter of waiting for the pod.

  He carried the wire cage up to the boathouse and set it on the deck. He tossed her an orange fruit. “Breakfast.”

  She looked at it, turning the smooth-skinned fruit over in her hands. “What is it?”

  “Mango.”

  She started to take a bite when he laughed. “You have to peel it first.” He walked closer and started the peel for her, then handed the fruit back to her.

  Just as the juice dripped over her fingers, she caught Chris watching behind her. His green eyes lit up. “They’re here.”

  She turned to see the visual chorus of fins glide by. One fin made its way to Liberty, who was already waiting by the edge of the net.

  “Oooh,” she breathed out, happy and sad and nervous at the same time. Tightness was spreading over her chest.

  Chris slid into the water and swam over. Maybe Liberty told the other dolphin that Chris wasn’t a threat, because she didn’t take off. Lucy watched as Chris detached the net from the floats, letting the net drop and pushing the floats in a wide arc.

  He swam back, climbing up next to Lucy and watching with every muscle tensed. The two dolphins stayed in their normal positions at first, rising to the surface to take a breath simultaneously. Then Liberty swam tentatively beyond the old barrier. The female dolphin swam in a small circle, waiting for him to gain his bearings.

  Lucy reached down and put her hand over Chris’s wet, cool one. He twined his fingers with hers, but neither took their gaze from the dolphins. She kept holding her breath, waiting. The female dolphin swam a little farther away, and Liberty followed. They paused to touch snouts, and then she pressed up against his side. And off they went toward open water and the waiting pod.

  Then everything went blurry because Lucy’s eyes filled with tears. Her heart was about to burst, and she squeezed Chris’s hand tighter. When she looked at him, his expression was still, but she saw a light in his eyes. He walked into the boathouse and emerged with a pair of binoculars. He watched as Liberty merged with the pod. For a few minutes, she couldn’t tell which dolphin was Liberty, but then she saw the triangle and smiled—he was in the middle of the pod, not an outcast.

  When the pod began to move slowly away, Chris pulled her toward the boat on the other side. He started it up and slowly moved out of the lagoon and through the opening in the reef they’d swam through before.

  The pod started moving faster, probably alarmed at the sound of the engine. But the boat that had been anchored in the distance for the past few days was moving closer, too.

  “Hand me the binoculars,” he said, reaching out as she put them in his palm. “Damn it, I don’t believe this.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I know that boat. I was on it a few times when I helped Aquatic Wonders catch dolphins. It’s called the Captivator. They’re still using it to catch dolphins.” His tone dropped to an ominous low. “And they’re after Liberty.”

  15

  LUCY’S HEART DROPPED as she followed Chris’s eyes to the boat. “How can you tell that? Why would they single out Liberty?”

  He handed her the glasses and turned toward the other boat. “Because our friend Crandall is on board. He must have told Dover I was releasing a trained dolphin. And the article showed a picture of the brand.”

  “Crandall’s on board?” She could barely discern the man’s figure as he leaned near the edge and pointed at them. “Oh, my God. He must have read the article. He said I’d regret messing with him.”

  Chris turned to her. “He threatened you? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t take it as a threat. I figured he was spouting empty words!”

  The pod was making headway, but the Captivator was aiming to cut them off. Their nets were at the ready, and one man was pointing at Liberty. She was trying to take it all in, the bundle of nets by the stern, the small boat revving its engine nearby.

  “What are they going to do?”

  “Well, if they’re still doing it the same way, the guy in the small boat will set the net once the dolphins ride the bow wake, which they love to do. The Captivator will start to circle toward the small boat, which will take the net and make a circle, trapping the dolphins on the right side.”

  “Not if I can help it.” She crawled up to the front bow, holding onto the railing.

  “What are you doing?” he called over the wind.

  “I don’t know, but I have to do something.”

  “Lucy, get back here. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  She climbed farther out, bracing herself on knees that were getting banged up by the choppy water. “This is my fault, and I’m not going to let them take Liberty! Keep going, I’ll be fine.”

  The poor dolphins had no idea what they were in for as they rode the Captivator’s wake, just like Chris said. The dolphins that weren’t riding the wake were split by the boat, and any on the other side would be caught in the net, too. Her heart was pounding louder than the wind that roared in her ears. As Chris came up behind those dolphins, they shot forward and to the left, well out of the net’s range.

  She looked back at Chris, who was searching for the triangle brand among that group. He met her eyes and shook his head. Liberty was on the other side of the boat.

  The men on the larger boat were yelling as Chris took his smaller, faster boat up ahead and circled back around. She wished looks could kill as she shot Crandall a hateful look before focusing again on the dolphins.

  The man in the small boat released the net as the Captivator circled around. There was still a little gap, but the dolphins were swimming in confusion and didn’t see the opening.

  “No!” she screamed out when she saw the six dolphins, including Liberty, doomed to a life of captivity.

  “Hey, you!” a brusque man yelled out. “Get away from here!”

  “Sorry, Dover, but you’re not getting these,” Chris yelled back.

  Lucy saw that the rest of the pod was waiting to see how their friends were faring. She saw the six dolphins in panicked disarray, pushing up against the nets, then returning to the center to huddle with the others.

  “I told you not to mess with me, Lucy Donovan!” Crandall’s voice called out above the melee.

  “All this because I didn’t want to sleep with you? You’re disgusting!”

  And then she jumped into the deep blue water. She heard Chris yell out her name before she hit the water, but she didn’t have time for any more words. She found the edge of the net just as Liberty raised his head out of the water.

  “This is for you, Liberty. For all of you.” She pushed down on the edge of the net, fighting against the buoyancy of the cork until the net collapsed.

  Chris jumped in and swam right into the dolphins, pushing them toward the opening. Some brushed by her on their way to freedom. Her breath came in gasps as she watched them join their friends and race off into the open water.

  “What are you doing, Maddox, sabotaging captures now? I thought you did these release things by the book.”

  Lucy looked up to see the gruff, stocky man with meaty fists on his waist.

  “And what are you doing, Dover, sabotaging releases? Even that’s beneath your low standards. I’m not letting you recapture my dolphin.”

  “You’re not going to get away with this, Maddox.”

  “You draw up the papers, and I’ll see you in court. We’ll see what the judge has to say.”

  Dover made a snorting sound before shifting his gaze to her. “What, now you have a partner in crime?”
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  She couldn’t help smiling at the phrase, no matter how gruffly the question was posed. “Yeah, he’s got a partner. Mess with him, and you mess with me.”

  Chris swam over to her and gave Dover a wink. “She’s tougher than she looks.”

  As they swam back to their boat, she could hear Dover saying, “What’s this about her not sleeping with you, Morton?”

  Chris pulled himself up on the boat and lent her a hand. He started the engine and followed the pod of dolphins moving rapidly away from their thwarted capture. Chris stayed a distance behind them, and she stood beside him at the helm. When they were out of sight altogether, he turned back.

  He pulled her close. “You are incredible, you know that?”

  “I did what I had to do,” she said with a smile. “Partner.”

  His arms embraced her, and he rested his chin atop her head. She felt his mouth against the top of her head, kissing softly. After a moment, he pulled back and looked down at her.

  “Lucy, I…” His eyes searched hers for a moment as she waited breathlessly for his next words. He leaned down and kissed her deeply, and she had no doubt that he loved her in some way.

  He finished the kiss, glancing back at the capture boat to make sure they were still stationary. They were wrestling with their nets.

  “They’re safe for now. If I ever find out Liberty’s been captured again, I’ll do whatever I have to do to free him. Even if it’s not by the books.” He touched her nose. “Maybe I’ll even call you.”

  She grinned. “We were good together, weren’t we?”

  “The best.” His thumbs were grazing those places to the sides of her mouth where those illusive dimples appeared only for him. “Let’s go back and celebrate.”

  “LUCY, PLEASE DON’T CRY.”

  She wiped her eyes, but more tears came as she looked at the empty lagoon. “They’re happy tears.”

  “You don’t look happy.”

  “I didn’t think it would hurt this much to lose him. I mean, I knew all along that he would leave. It feels good to know he’s free, but it’s sad, too.”

  “I know,” he said, holding her close and stroking her hair.

  She turned to him. “How can you do this over and over again? How can you come to care about them—and I know you do care about them—and let them go?”

  He looked into her eyes. “I always tell myself that I won’t get attached to them, because letting them go is what I’m all about. As I work with them, I keep in mind that they’re going to leave someday.”

  “So you don’t feel sad at all?”

  He remained quiet for a moment, and when he spoke his voice was low and quiet. “I do feel sad. Not with all of them, because some I’m glad to see go. But there are a few like Liberty who are special. And when they go free, I’m happy and sad at the same time.” He smiled faintly. “I’ve never admitted that to anyone before. Maybe not even myself.”

  She tightened her hold around his waist. “It is sort of a conflict, isn’t it? Wanting them to go free, but wishing they were still around.”

  “I love being with the dolphins, love the interaction and the trust between us. But I know they belong in their world and I belong in mine, and so for however brief our time is together that our worlds touch, I must always let them go. If there was some way I could keep them without violating the very thing I fight for, I would. They can’t travel with me, and I can’t stay in their world, either. It always has to come down to that, letting go forever.”

  She swallowed hard, because she had lost sight of the fact that he was talking about dolphins and not her. Their worlds were different, too. He would suffocate in her world; she would drown in his.

  She took a deep breath, but it did nothing to relieve the pain that she felt. “Take me to the park,” she said, instead of the thousand other things she wanted to say.

  If he questioned her thought process, he didn’t vocalize it. He simply led the way down the boardwalk to the moped.

  She held on tighter than usual as they sped to the park. He smelled of salt and spice and male. She inhaled it, wanting to capture it somehow and remember it for always. But she couldn’t bottle Chris, or capture him in any way. Like Liberty, he was a free spirit.

  They pulled into the park and found a few families wandering around inside. Bailey had taken down the dolphin banner at Lucy’s request.

  Chris glanced over at the pool Liberty had once been a prisoner in, and she saw the faint gleam in his eyes as his gaze moved on to the open ocean beyond. He followed her to the aquarium house where Bailey was busy telling another high-seas tale of adventure.

  “It was called a parchment worm, about dis long,” he indicated a foot or so with his hands. “It had a mout’ dat came out of its mout’ wit’ little pincers to hold the food, and another mout’ dat came out to eat it. Wicked t’ing, mon. Dat’s probably where dey get ideas for alien movies, you t’ink?”

  “Bailey,” she said, lowering her chin.

  “Miss Lucy!” he said, his eyes wide as he came over to her. “But I swear it’s true! Sonny buy the creature from some fisherman a year before, but it died.”

  “Okay, okay. Can I see you for a moment?”

  “Since the dolphin fish go away, I got to enhance what is here.” He gestured with his hands. “I even got to talk about t’ings we used to have.”

  “Well, you won’t have to do that anymore. We’re going to close the park today. Give whoever’s here refunds and politely escort them out. Use any reason you deem…believable.”

  Bailey looked at Chris for confirmation of this madness. He merely shrugged. “She’s the boss.”

  “We’re freeing all of the creatures in the park. Today, now. According to their files, they’re all indigenous, so they should survive.” She turned to Chris. “I don’t suppose there are any groups who repatriate sharks or stingrays, are there?”

  “Er, I don’t think so,” Chris answered. “But they should be fine.”

  “Miss Lucy,” Bailey said in a low voice. “Did you get into some of the island happy juice?”

  “No! I’ve just come to—” she glanced at Chris “—an understanding about these creatures. They don’t belong in glass tanks where people can gawk at them. In fact, I’m going to make a deal with your friend, David. I’ll finance the park here on two conditions. One is that he offer glass-bottom boat tours so that people can see these creatures undisturbed in their own environment. And two, that he keep a small portion of the inlet over there so that if the Free Dolphin Society ever needs a place to work with a captive dolphin, they can do it here. Forever. Well?” she said to Bailey as he stood there with his mouth open. “What are you waiting for? Shoo! Escort, escort, escort. And then we’ll put you to work. Don’t worry about your severance pay. I’ll pay you and Bill until your friend gets this place reopened.”

  “T’ank you, Miss Lucy. You are so very kind.”

  She turned to Chris, who had the same kind of shell-shocked look on his face.

  “You’ve created a monster,” she said with a grin. “I see that.” He leaned forward and kissed her. “But I like her…so very much.”

  And then they went to work catching, carrying and releasing until every creature was back in its natural home in the ocean. As soon as they hit the water, they crawled, swam or ran off to hide among the reefs, needing no prodding or guidance. The predators were too shocked by the journey from their tanks to go after the prey. Even the lethargic shark came quickly to life when it hit the water.

  It was almost evening by the time they were through, setting the last moray eel free beneath the gilded wavelets. Chris came up behind her as she watched it swim away, slipping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder.

  She took a deep, satisfied breath. “They’re all free.”

  “Yep. Every last one of them.”

  “It didn’t hurt the way letting Liberty go did.”

  “You didn’t get attached to them.”

  “
Some of them would be a little hard to get attached to.”

  Bailey walked up beside them. “Except for dat lobster. I could definitely get attached to him.” He rubbed his belly, but his smile disappeared at Lucy’s chagrined look. “Only kidding.”

  “Come on, Bailey. Let me write you and Bill a check so you can go home to all those lovely children of yours.”

  Once Bill had left, Bailey remained. He dropped his head, looking up at her. “Miss Lucy, I have a confession to make.”

  She tried to look serious. “What could you possibly have to confess?”

  “I don’ have no childrens. I just didn’t want you to send me off when you first got here.”

  “No! Bailey, I can’t believe it. And here all this time I thought….” She couldn’t help the smile. “When the number of children and goats kept changing, I kind of wondered.”

  He gave her a sheepish smile. “I’m jus’ no good at lying, I guess.”

  “I don’t know about that. You put on quite a few shows out there.” She nodded toward the aquariums. “Try to clean up your act, okay?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  They exchanged a smile. “Thanks for all your help.”

  “So, are you leaving for good dis time?”

  She took a deep breath. “Yes, this time I go for good. Back to the real world, as it were.”

  “You seem happy here.” He followed her gaze to Chris, who was watching for dolphin fins, no doubt.

  “I am. But I don’t belong here.”

  Bailey folded his check and put it in his pocket without even looking at it. He touched his hand to his heart. “You belong where your heart is, Miss Lucy. Dat’s all dat matter.”

  16

  THE CARIBE PLANTATION seemed almost like home to her now. Its welcoming lights and foliage greeted her when they returned that evening. She couldn’t imagine having stayed in the mansion itself, where once she would have been much more comfortable. The boathouse with its hammock and sounds of the open sea were part of her now.

  Her gaze went right to the pen, where the floats formed a misshapen half circle. The moon was still bright, shimmering on the water in a dazzling display. The air was clear, unlike the city, holding the aroma of flowers and barbecue smoke.