by Lori Wilde
What surprised her most was that the boat pilot had to make small steering changes in order to keep a sailboat going straight. Whenever the wind changed in velocity or the boat shifted its angle of heel—she’d learned that heel was the term used for when a sailboat leaned or tipped to one side—the amount of weather helm changed, forcing the pilot to alter the rudder slightly to stay the course, but by the end of the day, she was already getting the feel of it.
They kept their conversations neutral, steering off hot-button topics like sex. Instead, they discussed books that they loved and they were delighted to discover they had the same taste in literature; both of them enjoyed hard-boiled detective stories, spine-tingling thrillers and biographies. They talked about St. Michael’s and what they loved most about the island. They veered into other topics—childhood pets, vacations they’d taken, how to make perfect homemade ice cream.
The day passed pleasantly punctuated by salty sea air and a bracing wind that sent them soaring toward Florida. They stayed up late, lingering over the pasta dinner Jeb cooked and a nice bottle of Chianti, then they went to their separate sleeping quarters, neither one of them brave enough to act on the sexual feelings sparking between them.
By Friday morning, Haley found her entire perception of Jeb had shifted. Whereas before she’d really gotten to know him she’d thought he was frivolous and a bit full of himself, now she’d learned that he simply didn’t like to dwell on the darker side of life and he had a talent for turning work into play. Who could fault him for that? It was a skill she sorely needed to learn.
He had a gifted way of making ordinary tasks enjoyable. No wonder everyone wanted to hang around him. And he made her feel entertained, dazzled and inspired. His unwavering self-confidence had a way of filling up the gaps inside her.
“I’m jealous of your self-discipline,” he told her as they hoisted the sail at dawn.
“I’m envious of your ability to turn everything into a game.” She pushed a strand of windblown hair back off her face. She hadn’t once pulled her hair into a ponytail or bun since she’d come on board his boat. Having her hair down made her feel freer, easygoing. “And I thought you found me stickin-the-muddish.”
“I’m serious,” he said. “You make me feel inadequate in that regard.”
“Jeb, I don’t mean to make you feel that way.”
“You also make me feel like I have a higher calling and I don’t want to let you down.”
She thumped him lightly on the chest. “Just live up to your full potential.”
“Is that all I have to do to win your respect?”
“You already have my respect.”
His eyes twinkled with amusement. “When did I earn that?”
“It started the day you rescued the seagull, but it hit home when you told me how much you wanted to change in order to win Jackie back. I respect people who try to improve.”
“You’re a fair and honest woman, Haley French.”
They stood looking at each other, the wind whipping around them. It was the most perfect moment, the two of them sharing a smile, a sail and their appreciation for each other.
“You know, I’ve had a really good time this week,” she said. “In spite of the unconventional beginning.”
“Me, too.”
“I’m almost sorry it’ll be over tomorrow.”
“Almost?” he asked.
“Well, you know me. I can only live in a fantasy for so long. Sooner or later I have to roll up my sleeves and get back to work. Too much time in paradise makes me antsy.”
He flashed her a row of his perfect teeth, gave that jaunty wink of his as the wind caught the mainsail and they were off. They’d been sailing for a little less than an hour when land came into view for the first time since they’d left St. Michael’s.
“What’s that?” Haley pointed.
“Pelican Island. It’s a ghost island.”
“What’s a ghost island?”
“You know, like a ghost town. Once upon a time the island was inhabited, but a hurricane in the early 1900s wiped out everything but the lighthouse.”
“I love lighthouses.”
“I’ve always wanted to go ashore. The lighthouse is a popular rendezvous spot for people sailing from the Bahamas to Florida. Too bad we don’t have time to stop and investigate.”
“Too bad,” Haley echoed.
“But we’ll be sailing right by it. You’ll get a close view of the lighthouse.”
She left the sailing to Jeb and went to the bow of the boat as the Second Chance glided toward the island. The past few days had been an eye-opener. When she’d first found herself accidentally stowed away upon Jeb’s boat, she had not expected to come out of this experience feeling…cleansed.
Her time at sea had been restorative, a mental vacation she hadn’t even known she’d needed. Being out here on the open sea surrounded by nature reminded her of her own buried wildness. She loved the feel of sunshine on her face and the waves rocking beneath her feet. She was alert to life, fully awake to new experiences in a way she’d never quite been before, and it was all due to Jeb.
She darted a glance over her shoulder at him. He looked so commandingly masculine as his hands skillfully guided the boat. In the deepest, darkest, most intimate, most honest part of her, her muscles clenched in an ache so sweet and sharp, she had to close her eyes, moisten her lips.
He held the keys to a universe of sensations and delight. The man knew how to play. He was a sensualist. A gastronome. No doubt about it. Emotions flooded her. Feelings she’d kept carefully in check since she’d made a youthful mistake and fallen for the wrong man.
Was she doing it again?
Yes. Not because Jeb wasn’t a good guy, but rather because his heart belonged to someone else. Haley could not, would not fall for him, but as strong-minded as she was, she could not seem to control her body’s internal response. No amount of chiding could stop her smiling every time he looked deeply into her eyes.
Resolutely, she directed her attention back to the sea, and within an hour, they were upon Pelican Island.
The lighthouse jutted on a rock pier. Images of a lonely lighthouse keeper swept into her mind. She could see him manning the light that kept boats from crashing into the island. Lighthouses were the stuff of romantic legends and lore—mermaids and sirens and hapless sailors dashed to death on rocky shoals.
The island was shaped like a crescent roll, a small inlet sheltering lighter blue water. She spied some kind of creature moving in the bay.
Was it a dolphin?
Haley squinted. No, the creature was too large for that and too slow, as well. It bobbled on the water, bigger than a cow, gray and lumpish. Elephant. It looked like an underwater elephant without the trunk.
A manatee!
It was one of Florida’s famous manatees.
The thrill sent a shiver over her and she ran to Jeb.
“What’s got you grinning?”
She put out her hand. “Binoculars.”
“What is it?”
“I think there’s a manatee over by the lighthouse.”
“You sure it’s not a ghost?” he teased, digging around in the box where he stowed his sailing gear and coming up with a pair of high-powered binoculars in a black waterproof case.
“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” she scoffed and hurriedly returned to the bow. She opened the case, took out the binoculars, brought them to her eyes and fine-tuned the focus. It took her a minute to find the creature.
Yes! It was a manatee, big and docile.
The manatee swam above water with lumbering movements, propelling itself forward a few feet and then disappearing from sight as it sank below the water. It came up for air a few seconds later in the exact spot that it had been before. It thrashed. Vanished again. The manatee surfaced once more, swam, submerged, repeating the process again and again.
Something was wrong.
She frowned. Tried to enhance the view by fiddling with the
lenses, took another look. Was that a thin black wire wrapped around the manatee? Or was she seeing things?
“Jeb!” She waved him over.
He engaged the autohelm feature and came strolling toward her. Her pulse jumped and she swallowed past the lump filling her throat.
“What is it?”
“Look there and see if I’m imagining things.” She passed him the binoculars. “I think the manatee has gotten something wrapped around him and he’s trapped.”
Jeb raised the binoculars to his eyes and studied the creature for a long moment. The wind whipped his cargo shorts around his tanned legs. He looked like summer. Clean and hot and lazy. Haley’s mouth watered.
“I believe you might be right.”
“What is it? Can you tell?”
“Not from this distance.”
“What are we going to do?”
Jeb lowered the binoculars. “We’re not going to do anything. Nothing we can do. Manatees are really big.”
“But I heard they’re very gentle.”
“Haley, it’s just not feasible. Logistically, it will be a nightmare trying to land the sailboat on those rocky shoals.”
“Couldn’t we anchor out here and swim to shore?”
“That sounds a lot easier than it is. The current is swift and unless you’re a strong swimmer—”
“I am.”
“We don’t know that we can rescue him. We’re not equipped for manatee rescue.”
“We have to try. We just can’t go off and leave him like this.”
“I’ll get on the radio and let the Coast Guard know. They’ll send someone out.”
“That could take hours. The poor thing could die by then. It’s already exhausted itself.”
“Haley,” he said softly, “you can’t save the entire world.”
She snapped her mouth shut, crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
“You’re giving me the stink eye?” he said.
“You deserve it.”
“For what?”
“Oh, I get it.”
He looked puzzled. “Get what?”
“You think it would take up too much time to help the manatee.”
“Well, it would, with absolutely no guarantee of success. Plus, we’ll be putting our own lives in danger. Much safer for both us and the manatee to let the Coast Guard handle it.”
“You mean much easier for you. If we stopped it might keep you from preventing Jackie from getting married.”
“Yes, there is that. It is the reason we’re out here in the first place.”
She couldn’t believe he was being so rational. This was the same impulsive guy who’d rescued the seagull with the plastic beer ring around its feet? “You’re deluding yourself, you know,” she muttered.
“In what way?”
“Jackie.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight?”
Was she? “You think that just because you come sailing up, all Benjamin Braddock from The Graduate, begging her to run away from her wedding with you that she’s going to do it.”
The expression on his face told her she’d nailed it.
“News flash, if she wanted to marry you, she would never have broken up with you.”
“She might not have wanted to marry the old me, but when she hears what I’ve done, she’ll change her mind,” he said stubbornly.
“That’s magical thinking, Jeb. Can’t you just accept the fact that she’s in love with this other guy?”
His chin hardened and all the smile went out of his eyes. Haley had never seen him looking so bleak. “She just thinks she’s in love with him.”
Her stomach hurt. She put a palm over her belly. “How do you know that?”
“Because she’s supposed to be with me.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because she promised she’d give me a year and she didn’t give me a full year. That’s not like Jackie to go back on her word.”
“My point exactly. Doesn’t it strike you that this guy must be awfully special for her not to even tell you she’s getting married, just sends you a text invitation, which, FYI, probably means she didn’t really expect you to come?” Okay, so she felt as if she was ruining Christmas, but come on, it had to be said.
“Then why did she tell me at all? She could have just gotten married and let me find out about it after the fact. I think she was secretly wanting me to swoop in and sail her away.”
“You’ve got some very romantic notions about women,” Haley said. “Jackie probably told you about the wedding because you’re a childhood friend that she cares about. She wants you there to celebrate her joy, not to break it up.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “You don’t even know her.”
Haley held up her palms. “You’re right, but I also know that for all your devil-may-care attitude, you’re not the kind of guy to leave a helpless animal behind when you could help it out. You did come to St. Michael’s after all and almost single-handedly saved that island. Your motives might not have been the most altruistic, but what you did was admirable.”
“Dammit.” He snorted and stalked away.
“Where are you going?” she called after him.
“To drop anchor. Go put on that pink bikini, angel. We’re going to save a manatee.”
*
HALF AN HOUR LATER, with the Second Chance bobbing and anchored forty yards offshore, Jeb and Haley swam for the small bay where the manatee floundered. They’d swam rather than take the Second Chance’s inflatable dinghy because they were afraid the sharp rocks might puncture the raft, and since they were both strong swimmers, they figured it was faster and easier to just swim.
Up close it was easy to tell the panicked creature was in serious trouble. Carefully, they approached it.
The manatee’s big sloe eyes were frantic. It floundered, splashed and made a high-pitched, weary squeaking noise like the sound of wiper blades rubbing against a dry windshield. The closer they got the more frantic the mammal’s splashing became and the louder and longer its cries grew.
“Easy,” Jeb cooed. “Nice and easy, big girl.”
“How do you know it’s a girl?” Haley asked.
“I don’t.”
“And here I thought you knew everything there was to know about the sea.”
“The sea,” he said sagely, “is unknowable.”
They had to dog-paddle to reach the stranded mammal. She—Haley was just going to go with the manatee’s femininity—stared at them. Her eyes seemed to beg, “Save me.”
“We’ve gotta help her. We can’t let this magnificent creature die here.”
“Let me see if I can find out what’s going on.” Jeb dived out of sight and swam underneath the manatee.
“It’s okay,” Haley soothed. “He knows what he’s doing.” I think.
The manatee looked skeptical.
“I trust him with my life.” It was true. She did trust Jeb. More than she’d ever trusted any man besides her father and brother.
Jeb came up, water rolling off his body. He scrubbed a palm down his face, spat out ocean. “Not good.”
“What is it?”
“She’s got what looks to be bailing wire wrapped all around her. And whenever she moves forward the wire constricts around her. When she relaxes, the wire loosens and she thinks she’s free and she surges forward, pulling the wire tight again. No telling how long she’s been here. She’s pretty exhausted, aren’t you, old girl?” A softness lit Jeb’s eyes and he tenderly stroked the manatee’s back.
Haley’s chest tightened. She had given him a hard time, but Jeb had come through with flying colors. He was truly worried about the manatee. “If we could get her to stay relaxed, could we uncoil the wire from around her?”
“Maybe. It would be more efficient to get wire cutters and cut her out, but we need to keep her calm. She could injure herself so easily.”
“Where are we going to get wire cutters?”
“I’ve got some
on the yacht.”
“I’ll stay here with her, see if I can keep her soothed,” Haley said. “You go get the wire cutters.”
“Are you sure? While manatees are gentle creatures, they’re still creatures. She’s in pain and distress. No telling what she might do.”
“I’ll be fine. Go on.”
He looked reluctant to leave her. “The water is over your head.”
“I can handle myself, Jeb. I know how to float and dog-paddle.”
“Okay, but you’ll be out here all alone.”
“Worry about yourself. You’ll be swimming back and forth the entire time.”
“Good thing I’m in excellent shape.” He grinned, flexed.
“Good thing. Now go.”
Chuckling, he swam toward the Second Chance. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Haley’s heart crawled into her throat. What a guy. Why had she ever thought him superficial? He was magnificent. Unexpected tears filled her eyes. What was this? She blinked, focused her attention on the manatee.
She treaded water beside the mammal and began humming softly. She patted the manatee’s thick gray hide and she was surprised to discover she felt just like a wet elephant.
Haley’s attention did seem to calm her. The manatee ceased thrashing so hard and just floated. Haley rolled onto her back, floated beside her.
“That’s it, sweetie. Just take it easy and Jeb will have you fixed up in no time and you’ll be hanging out with other manatees before you know it. That’ll be nice, won’t it? Just think about that.”
Her nursing skills helped her soothe the creature. She thought of Jeb and the effort he was putting forth swimming to the boat and back. She was so proud of him. How she wished she’d gotten to know him better before now. He’d enriched her life in ways she couldn’t have imagined. The strains of Phish’s “Velvet Sea” pushed through her head and she started humming that song for the manatee, crooning, singing, petting and living in the moment.