Shore to Please

by Annette Mardis

  The Maltese wriggled away and bounded over to Tara, planting his front paws on her legs. She pulled the snowy white ball of silky fur onto her lap and began to pet him, grateful for something to keep her hands busy besides wringing them. Kelsey didn’t interrupt as her friend recounted her argument with Flipper.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Tara concluded. Kirby licked her pant leg as if showing support.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Pretend it never happened, marry the man I love, and live happily ever after.”

  “Then do it.”

  “It’s more complicated than that.”

  “It doesn’t have to be.”

  “Look, I know this is about the pilot whales and it’s serious enough to cost people their jobs.”

  Surprise flashed across Kelsey’s features. “I can’t believe Flipper told you that.”

  “He didn’t. I figured it out.” And you just confirmed it. “But I don’t know the details.”

  “Tara, I can’t discuss it. I’m not even sure I’ll tell Jo right now, although I’ve never been successful at hiding my emotions from her.”

  “You’re afraid I’ll use the information against the aquarium, aren’t you?”

  “Honestly?”

  Tara nodded.

  “I hate to say it, but yes. And I’m still holding out hope this will blow over.”

  “Answer one question for me. Are those whales releasable?”

  The vet’s expression told Tara what she needed to know. “I thought so.”

  Worry clouded Kelsey’s buckeye-brown eyes. “You didn’t hear that from me. You understand that, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “You promise?”

  Tara laid a hand across her heart. “I swear it on the life of my future children.”

  Kelsey’s lips quirked. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

  “No, and after my argument with Flipper tonight, perhaps there never will be.”

  “If you two really love each other, you’ll work it out. But it doesn’t hurt to make him sweat.”

  * * * *

  Tara stayed at Kelsey’s for a few hours, sipping homemade fruit smoothies, sharing the turkey-and-Swiss sandwich, and chatting about house hunting, careers, and relationships. Kelsey let slip that she and Jo intended to get married and then swore Tara to silence.

  She ignored a half-dozen calls from Flipper until the increasing urgency of his voice mails finally prompted her to send him a terse text assuring him she was safe and with a friend. Kelsey delivered the same message when her phone rang moments later.

  Feeling lighter than she did when she left the cottage, Tara returned to find Flipper sitting in an easy chair in the dark, the room lit only by the outside security lights he’d installed at his own expense. Her heart turned over when she saw his forlorn expression, and she curled up in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. They sat like that until she needed to stretch out the kinks in her back, and then finally he spoke.

  “I missed you.”

  “I wasn’t gone that long.”

  “I was afraid you weren’t coming back, so it seemed like days, years.”

  She lifted her head and studied him. “Really?”

  He shrugged. “I know trust is a big issue with us. I thought this might be a deal breaker.”

  “Do you understand why it upsets me to think Wesley won’t free those whales?”

  “Absolutely, because I feel the same way.”

  Her heard began to mend in that moment. “Thank you. It means a lot that you respect my opinion.”

  “Of course I do. But do you appreciate the position I’m in?”

  “Yes. I shouldn’t have asked you to choose between me and your integrity. And I’m counting on you not to expect that I’ll abandon mine. I temporarily lost sight of the fact that what we have together is more important than my knowing what’s happening at the aquarium.”

  “Nothing matters to me as much as you do. Don’t you know that?”

  When they came together, the kiss was as tender as any they’d ever shared, though it quickly grew urgent. By the time they paused to catch their breath, she was ready to take him right then and there. For someone who’d always prided herself on rigid self-control, the intensity of her feelings unsettled her at times.

  “Still mad?” he wheedled.

  She affected a pout. “Yes.”

  “Really? Could’ve fooled me.”

  He eased his hand higher up her thigh and drew teasing circles with his thumb. She caught his fingers and moved them to where she needed to be touched the most.

  “I most definitely am mad. Mad about you, Flipper O’Riley. Now, stop jabbering and kiss me.”

  Chapter 36

  Flipper caused a minor stir a few days later when he sauntered into the fish prep kitchen at Dolphin Inlet and relieved the two college interns of their scrub brushes.

  “I’ve got this,” the head trainer told them. “Take a break. In fact”—he pulled out a twenty and handed it to one of the young women—“go get yourselves a nice hot lunch.”

  After much giggling and a few worshipful glances, they finally left him alone with his thoughts and a mountain of stainless steel canisters reeking of fish. Eager to lose himself in mindless physical labor, he flipped on the radio and sang along with a Dierks Bentley tune while the sink filled with hot water.

  A half-hour later, he’d just finished disinfecting the countertops and started attacking the quarry tile floors with a long-handled scrub brush when he heard laughter and a camera motor drive behind him. Flipper knew who it was before he turned around.

  “Is this what happens when you let a woman move in with you?” Evan needled. “You get domestic all of a sudden?”

  “You act like I’ve never cleaned this fish kitchen before.”

  “I’ve never known you to send interns off to eat and then do it by yourself.” Evan started shooting with his video camera.

  “There’s a first time for everything. Now, unless you’re here to help me, puss boy, shut up and go away.”

  “Is that any way to talk to your best friend?”

  “What are you doing here anyway? Don’t you have anything better to do, like shoot underwater footage of the alligators?”

  Evan grinned. “I need some fresh photos for our social media posts and thought your fans would get a kick out of seeing how glamorous your life is. And how darling you look doing grunt work.”

  “Go take a flying fu—” Flipper stopped and narrowed his eyes. “You’d better not be recording this.”

  “What’s the matter? Afraid your fiancée will wash out your mouth with Lava soap?”

  “None of your business.” Flipper paused to think and then frowned. “Well, crap. ‘Go perform a sex act on a Life Savers candy’ just doesn’t have the same impact as what I started to say.”

  “A Life Saver my ass. I’d need at least a monster truck tire.”

  Flipper barked out a laugh. “Keep dreaming, pal.”

  “And keep telling yourself Tara doesn’t have you whipped.”

  “Like you should talk. Dani told me your Chihuahua sleeps in bed between the two of you. And that when you stretch out on the couch to watch TV, Taco whines until you pick her up and lay her on your belly.”

  “Crap! She needs to quit blabbing my business all over the aquarium.”

  “Put your foot down, why don’t you? Just be careful it doesn’t land in dog crap.”

  “You’ve got to admit, she is pretty cute.”

  “Who?” Flipper asked. “The dog or Dani?”

  “Both, but I’m talking about Taco. So when are you getting that Jack Russell terrier you’ve wanted for years? Now that you and Tara are engaged, it’s time to start thinking about a pet, a white picket fence, and a house full of cracker grabbers.”

  “Cracker grabbers?”

  “Think about nearly every restaurant you’ve been in. There’s always at leas
t one kid sitting in a high chair and clutching a fistful of broken, soggy crackers.”

  “Before I even consider having kids, I need to figure out how to hold on to my job.”

  “Huh? What am I missing here?”

  Flipper moved closer so he could lower his voice and still be heard. As he filled in his buddy about the pilot whales and Kelsey’s assessment, Evan grew visibly more agitated.

  “Why am I only hearing about this now?” he demanded. “And how will we fix this mess?”

  “We aren’t doing anything because you’re staying out of it.”

  “Like hell I am. I’ll go tell Wesley right now that if he doesn’t back off, he’ll have my resignation on his desk in the morning.”

  “No offense, but do you really think that’ll sway him? I mean, he’s apparently willing to lose his head dolphin trainer, his chief marine mammal vet, and maybe even his rehab supervisor. What’s one more employee to him?”

  “If I quit over this, so will Dani. And I’d be willing to bet more than a few others will stand with us, too. Wouldn’t it be a shame if Helen Holt found out what’s happening?”

  “You’d tip off the newspaper?”

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I will if I have to. This isn’t just a difference of opinion between top management and staff, Flipper. It’s attempted fraud. I can’t imagine Wesley Senior would find it acceptable.”

  “I don’t expect both you and Dani to risk your livelihoods.”

  “I can take stills and videos anywhere.”

  “Yes, but isn’t this her dream job?”

  “You and Kelsey are family. That trumps everything else.”

  Flipper dropped his brush on purpose so he could bend down and, on the sly, swipe away the moisture in his eyes. When he straightened, he cleared his throat.

  “That means the world to me, and I feel the same way about you guys.”

  “You’re not going to hug me, are you? Because I’d have to break both your arms.”

  The two men grinned at each other until Flipper waved his hand as if shooing a fly.

  “Go soak your head in the shark tank and get out of my hair, will you? Some of us have real work to do.”

  “Speaking of which, I can’t wait to post these visuals of you on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. See you later.”

  *

  As predicted, Sitara nearly ricocheted off the ceiling when she returned from Atlanta and heard what Wesley had been up to in her absence. She marched straight to his office, past his sputtering receptionist, and issued a very clear ultimatum. An hour later, a delegation led by Evan, Dani, and Monica trooped in to deliver a similar message.

  When they left, grim-faced, the director summoned Kenshin to huddle with him behind closed doors. Within a half hour, Wesley had fired off an e-mail to all personnel. Flipper was in the middle of a trainers’ meeting when his cell phone chimed to signal an incoming message. After reading it, he broke into a grin worthy of a toothpaste ad.

  “Listen up, people. Let me read this note from Wesley:

  “I’m pleased to announce that thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our dedicated team, the three pilot whales under twenty-four-hour care here since their stranding will be going back where they belong. Dr. Kelsey Kramer and others have deemed them ready for release, and NOAA Fisheries is sure to agree. I’ll let you know the details once we’ve drawn up their release plan and the appropriate agencies sign off on it. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve accomplished. Thank you all for your hard work.”

  Applause broke out along with plenty of catcalls. While details were lacking, word had leaked that a core group of employees had threatened to quit in a show of solidarity.

  “Pleased to announce?” Tyler repeated. “Unbelievable! That man spins a situation to his advantage faster than the Zipper ride at the state fair. Does he really think he’s fooling us?”

  “Doesn’t matter as long as Flipper, Kelsey, and the others are staying,” Trisha Day pointed out.

  “Feel vindicated, Flipper?” someone asked.

  “Gloating in victory in front of witnesses is something I try to avoid. So I’ll wait until I get home to dance and whoop it up.”

  “Speaking of celebrating,” Tyler said, “how about we hit Barb’s tonight? Anybody game? Flipper, you owe me a game of pool.”

  “You’re as persistent as a Timex watch, you know that?”

  “Huh?”

  “You take a licking and keep on ticking.” At Tyler’s blank look, Flipper added, “You’ve never seen one of those old ‘torture test’ commercials with John Cameron Swayze?”

  “Who?”

  “Cripes, never mind. Damn kids. No respect for their elders, I tell you.”

  “Now you sound like Rodney Dangerfield, boss.”

  “I feel like Rodney Dangerfield sometimes. Especially lately.”

  “Then you won’t be surprised when I clean the table with you tonight.”

  “I think the expression is ‘mop the floor.’”

  “You already did that in the fish prep kitchen.”

  Tyler’s statement prompted a new round of affectionate insults.

  “All right, all right. Let’s get back to the business at hand,” Flipper instructed. He smiled at the chorus of good-natured groans. “What time are we meeting at Barb’s?”

  Chapter 37

  Nearly everyone Flipper knew well, or at least had a passing acquaintance with, showed up at the bar that night, it seemed. A steady stream of well-wishers trooped by the table where he and Kelsey held court. One person noticeably but not surprisingly absent was Kenshin. Tara wished she knew how to mend the rift between him and Flipper and hated being the cause of it.

  When Evan and Flipper went to join the group at the pool tables, Dani dropped into the empty chair beside Tara.

  “Having a good time?”

  Tara gave Dani a wan smile. “Sure. Don’t I look as though I am?”

  “You look like you’re expecting the mood to shift against you at any moment.”

  “Oh. Well, perhaps I am.”

  “Why? You already know how those closest to Flipper feel about you, and I’m sure you’d make even more friends if you gave some of these other folks a chance to get to know you.”

  “I want to, Dani. Really, I do.”

  “Then what’s holding you back?”

  The silence stretched on while Tara searched for the most diplomatic way to describe her feelings. She took a deep breath.

  “I’m worried about all this goodwill disappearing the next time I speak out against the aquarium.”

  “Oh, geez. Is that all?”

  “Isn’t that enough?”

  “Look, everyone’s entitled to their views. It’s how they express them that matters.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me picketing again, but I can’t see myself accepting everything Wesley says at face value.”

  “Isn’t it obvious based on how we stood united against him that we’re not lemmings who follow our leaders over the cliff without question?”

  “Weren’t you concerned about getting fired?”

  “We chose to take a calculated risk. But sometimes there’s safety in numbers.”

  “There could be a black mark beside your names now.”

  “If there is, so be it.”

  “I don’t know if I’d have been that brave.”

  “As much as I love my job, Tara, sometimes doing the right thing is more important.”

  “I admire all of you for that. And I know it really touched Flipper’s heart. I’ve never had friends who risked losing something they valued to support me.”

  “Never?”

  “Not once.”

  “Wow.” Dani frowned. “That’s sad.”

  “I didn’t tell you that so you’d feel sorry for me.”

  “I know. But there’s nothing wrong with empathy, is there? You strike me as someone who hasn’t completely overcome her loneliness.”

  Tara regar
ded the other woman with surprise. “That’s…very insightful.”

  Dani gave her a look of tolerant amusement. “Every once in a while I get lucky and see things with surprising clarity.”

  “I didn’t mean to imply—”

  “I’m teasing you. Don’t take everything so seriously.”

  “Flipper tells me that frequently. It’s just that I thought I’d done a better job of masking my emotions. I’m not someone who wears my heart on the proverbial sleeve.”

  “It really is difficult for you, isn’t it? Being yourself.”

  “Yes. It’s a byproduct of a lifetime of pursuing perfection and failing repeatedly.”

  “So what would happen if you just said to hell with it and lived to make yourself happy?”

  “I tried that. It didn’t work.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t you. Maybe you just weren’t in the right place or with the right people.”

  “That’s entirely possible. And that’s why I’m so afraid of mucking this up. I’ve already put Flipper, and myself, through so much. What if he decides later that I’m not worth the trouble?”

  “If he was looking for easy and drama-free, he would’ve chosen someone else. Don’t you get that?”

  Tara glanced over to the pool tables, where Flipper was talking and laughing with his buddies.

  “I do. I’m very grateful he’s so persistent. I easily could’ve missed out on the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  Dani caught Evan’s attention and blew him a kiss. “I know the feeling. So do a few other people here with us tonight. Sometimes it takes a while for our head to catch up with our heart. But the struggle makes the end result that much sweeter.”

  “Speaking of that, how are your wedding plans coming along?”

  The two women chatted about that for a few minutes until Tara realized that everyone else at their table had stopped talking. She heard Dani suck in a breath and turned to see Kenshin standing there. For an instant Tara thought about leaping up and running to the bathroom so she wouldn’t have to face him. But then she bolstered her resolve and met his unwavering gaze.