“Really?” He walked toward her, and she was tempted to back away. But just a foot away from her, he stopped, not touching her, studying her eyes as he spoke. “I always cared for you. You knew that.”
“You dated Mandy. I dated Brad—”
“Right. Until the day at the rock pit. It was over between Mandy and me before the tragedy. I think it was over between you and Brad as well.”
“We would have gone on to different colleges—”
“You cared about me.”
“Maybe I did. It was a long time ago.”
“And your parents told you not to speak with me—I was a no-good kid from the wrong side of the tracks no matter whether I’d killed Mandy or not.”
“That’s very bitter,” she said.
“Damned right. I get bitter now and then.”
“Then, why come back to me?” she asked softly.
“Because, unless I’m missing something, you’re a free agent. An adult free agent. As I am myself. There’s no Brad, no Mandy. You’ve been widowed more than a decade.”
“So you think we should date?” she asked.
He smiled suddenly. “Yeah, I think we should date. It’s what people do, you know.” She was dismayed to find that she was shaking; her eyes slipped from his.
“Lori, I care about you. To be honest, I always cared about you, even when I hated caring about you. You’re here, I’m here… I don’t see anything in the way.”
“Because you don’t know where to look!” she murmured in a soft panic.
“What?”
“Sean, I just don’t think that you really know me, that’s all—”
“People never really change.”
“Yes, they do.”
“I don’t agree. Not in the soul.”
“You didn’t really know me, Sean. I’m not so great a person. I’ve done some really horrible things—”
“Like what?”
She stared at him, thinking yes, now was the time to tell him just how horrible she had been.
But she didn’t. She stared at him dumbly.
He smiled again, and she remembered the old Sean, the way he had been just gorgeous from the first time she had ever seen him, the way his slow, sexy smile had sent her heart catapulting…
“Why don’t we avoid confessions for the moment,” he said. “And if things do evolve…?”
“From what to what?” she whispered. “Sean, I don’t think it’s such a good idea. Dating. I mean—”
He was suddenly behind her, arms slipped around her waist. He drew her back against him, and his words were husky and hot against her earlobe.
“Ah! I believe you are thinking about sex. Heat, sand, water, a few margaritas… a tall, dark stranger out of the past.”
“Sean, the kids—”
“I didn’t exactly mean here and now!” he teased softly.
She struggled against his arms, turning, finding herself face-to-face with him, and unable to avoid a smile. “Right! Not here and now, Sean—”
“Fine. When?”
Her smile faded. “You know, I actually did try to call you—”
“When?” he demanded, his amusement fading and his eyes guarded.
“Your father said that you left, and that you didn’t want to hear from anyone. He said he’d tell you, but either you just didn’t care, or he didn’t bother to tell you. So you always talked about my parents being prejudiced, but he apparently decided against me—”
“No, he didn’t.”
“He must have because—”
“He died. He didn’t tell me anything after I left, because he never had a chance. He died. I left and went to California, and sent for him and Michael. They were both eager to come west. They wanted to start over. Michael did. My father had a seizure on the plane, slipped into a coma, and died in California.”
“Oh!” She stared at him, her mouth formed into a circle, wishing that the sand would swallow her up. She hadn’t known; no one had told her. Maybe no one had known. Mr. Black, who had lived and worked hard, providing a simple life for his sons, had been a quiet, unassuming man. Death and scandal had rocked his family, and he had died. He hadn’t made any headlines, and there had been no one left to whom Sean might send the news. His father had died as quietly, as sadly, as he had lived.
God, I’m sorry.
She wanted to say the words, but couldn’t. They’d sound hollow anyway, even if she was sincere.
I would have loved your father; just as I always loved you. You never knew what an awful, painful, crush I had on you, you never knew, you never knew…
So much.
He released her, stepping away. He turned toward the parking lot.
Lori needn’t have worried about Brendan and Tina watching them—the two were far too involved with one another, laughing as they drank sodas from cans.
“Sean!” she whispered.
But he didn’t hear her. He was already walking away, and nearly at the car.
“Sean!” she repeated, coming after him.
This time he heard her. But so did the kids.
“What’s up, Mom?” Brendan asked her.
“Um… nothing,” she said, smiling. “Is Michael expecting us?”
Sean nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
“I can’t wait to see this place!” Brendan said, opening the rear door of the car.
“Will your brother really let us work with the animals?” Tina asked excitedly.
“Sure,” Sean told her.
She flushed happily, getting into the car. Both rear passenger doors closed.
Lori looked at Sean over the top of the car. “How can Michael know we’re all coming?” she asked.
He had his sunglasses on. His shrug offered little.
“Sean—”
He smiled, and her awkwardness eased a bit.
“I’m sorry about your father. Really.”
“It was a long time ago now. No one can hurt him anymore. And I try to believe in heaven. If there is such a place, then he’s with Daniel.”
“Yeah.”
“We should get going. The kids are going to wonder.”
“Yeah. Sean…”
“Yes?”
No more confessions! he had said. And how could she possibly talk about the past? Brendan and Tina were in the car.
And yet, maybe, like it or not, this was the moment. The moment she had missed when it might have really mattered.
“Mom! Puh-lease! It’s a hundred degrees in here!” Brendan called out.
Sean grimaced.
“Right!” Lori called back.
She slid into the car. Sean did likewise, revving the motor.
She glanced at him, then looked to the road.
The moment was gone.
The moment she should have taken.
She had missed it again.
10
Michael was pleased to see them.
He’d been shy back in their school days, a strangely quiet bad boy getting into trouble and following around the wrong crowd. Sean, though a little younger, had been the outgoing one, standing up for his brother when he could make a stand, making his own way through life when he couldn’t.
Apparently, working with animals had given Michael the complete turnaround he had needed. He was far more confident now; he hadn’t gotten so much as a traffic fine since he found marine biology and animal psychology, according to Sean.
He met them at the gate where he worked, a private lab funded by a salvage concern with government contracts, people mainly interested in the use of dolphins for search-and-rescue techniques. But, as Michael explained to them while they walked around to the different pools, his company worked with all kinds of marine mammals and fish as well, since they were studying sharks and rays and their immunity to cancer. He introduced them to a few of the people in the main building, mostly dressed in swimsuits, shorts, and lab coats, some of them student assistants from various colleges, and some of them full-time animal behavio
rists and researchers. Then he led them through the whitewashed halls to the outside, an area oceanside.
He brought them first to meet Rebecca, a pregnant manatee who’d been seriously wounded by a propeller in an upstate waterway. “No matter how you post these things, some people just don’t care. They speed through zones where the animals live and breed, and this is what you get,” he said unhappily. He was seated at the side of the natural pool, legs dangling into the water. Lori was instantly smitten; the sea creature, big and bulky, nicknamed the sea cow, was, in truth, not a particularly pretty creature. But her eyes were large and dark and somehow soulful; her whiskered face had an appeal that only a mother should love, yet she somehow reminded Lori of a large, affectionate puppy dog. She came right to Michael, sliding her face onto his lap, looking as if she sighed in luxury while he scratched her head. Lori, at his side, reached out and scratched her, too.
“Can I touch her?” Brendan asked.
“Sure.” Michael eased Rebecca’s head from his lap and rose, allowing the kids room to sit.
“She’s trusting,” Sean commented as Rebecca happily slid up against Brendan, who laughed with pleasure.
“Too trusting. We’ll never be able to release her. She’d be with people again, right smack in the middle of propeller zones. That’s the main reason people have to be so careful with wild animals. Boaters down here, nice people, good people, thinking they’re helping the dolphin and manatees out, feeding them. Especially with the dolphins, they sometimes give them bad fish, tainted food. Bacteria grows quickly. Worse than that, they make them trust people. And we’re the worst creatures in the world to trust.”
“Are we really that bad?” Lori asked.
Michael looked at her, appearing very much like Sean at that moment. “Yes. We’re absolutely awful. Want to meet my girl?”
“You have a girlfriend down here?” Tina asked.
“Not exactly, but… come on. You’ll see.”
Michael led them to another lagoon pool, where they stood by a platform and a set of wooden steps leading down into the water. He explained that the seven pools in the compound—all connected with the ocean— although not natural, had been dug out decades before when Flagler’s railroad— doomed to a later hurricane—was first being built to connect the Florida Keys. The railroad had washed away, but the work on it had become the basis for U.S. 1, connecting the chain of islands to the mainland to this day. Over the years the sea had encroached, allowing Michael’s company to come in about forty years ago, dredge some of the pools deeper, and put in pumps to keep the seawater coming in and out on a daily basis.
“There she is, the love of my life, the only female I know who is totally trustworthy,” Michael said, winking at Lori.
Lori gazed at Sean, who shrugged innocently. “He must have had a few bad dates recently, what can I say?”
She arched a brow at Michael, then looked out to where he pointed. At first she saw nothing. Michael made a swirling movement with his hand, and suddenly, a streak of blue arose from the pool in a jet and spray of motion. A dolphin rose high out of the water, turned, and dove back down.
“Marianne,” Michael said softly.
“A porpoise!” Tina said, clapping her hands.
“An Atlantic bottlenose dolphin,” Sean corrected her. “There’s a difference between dolphins and porpoises.”
Michael smiled. “My little brother is right. He apparently listens to me on occasion, so I’m flattered. There is a difference. They both actually belong to the whale family, but they’re distinct species. Porpoises are much smaller, and they’re fond of deeper, cooler water. You’ll see these Atlantic bottlenose all up and down the coast, and in the Keys. You’ll see them ocean side and bay side. You’ll always recognize them because it does appear that they have a bottle for a nose. It isn’t really a nose—it’s a rostrum, an extension of the upper and lower jaws.”
“Is she as affectionate as Rebecca?” Brendan asked.
“She’s wonderful. And she’s special. I’ll show you. Lori, swim on out there and pretend to be dead.”
“What?” Lori said incredulously.
“Michael—” Sean began to protest.
“No, seriously. Lori, you still swim like a fish, I’m sure, so there’s really no danger.”
Lori looked at Sean. “Your call,” he told her.
“If you’re afraid—” Michael began.
“No!” Lori protested. “I trust you. Both. I think. Even after that comment you made, Michael Black,” she said.
“I’ll go, Mom,” Brendan offered hopefully.
“Let your mom go first,” Michael said, smiling and watching Lori in a challenging way.
“Mrs. Corcoran, they have special programs for swimming with the dolphins just up at Theatre of the Sea,” Tina said. “I’ve always wanted to go—”
“Everyone will get a chance.” Michael said. Lori pulled off the black cover-up she’d been wearing and slipped out of her sandals. She dropped both where she stood and headed straight into the water. “Now what?”
“Go float face down in the middle of the pool as if you were dead!”
Lori swam out, then did as Michael had instructed. She waited, holding her breath, wondering just how long she could do so. Once she had been good in the water. Great. They’d all grown-up surrounded by water, and spent their lives playing in it.
Often at the rock pit.
Now, to herself, she could admit to being a little nervous. She couldn’t see anything around her; the water itself was clear and beautiful, totally temperate and comfortable, but there was a lot of seaweed in the pool, the salt stung, and she didn’t have much vision.
She was about to rise—to breathe, first—then ask Michael just what she was doing when she felt a rush of water around her. She nearly gulped in water, startled, as the dolphin suddenly came upon her.
The creature was huge. She hadn’t appeared quite so large from the shore. But she had to be at least nine feet, with eyes that were strangely human as they met Lori’s.
She gently butted Lori in the midsection and started swimming. Her speed was incredible. Lori felt as if she flew through the water.
Split seconds later she was deposited on the steps leading into the pool, where Sean and the kids were applauding.
“Isn’t she magnificent?” Michael asked, speaking of Marianne as if she were a favored child.
“Absolutely,” Lori agreed, smoothing her wet hair from her face.
“May I try?” Tina begged.
“Sure, she loves people. Some dolphins don’t—they’re really just like people. Some are social, some aren’t. We train them through positive reinforcement—”
“Food?” Brendan asked.
“Sometimes,” Michael agreed. “But Marianne isn’t even really food oriented. She likes to be scratched on the back of her head, she loves a belly rub—and applause! She’s an incredible ham.”
Lori sat on the steps while the kids took turns being rescued by Marianne. Sean went in with the dolphin as well, and she watched as he and Michael worked through a training routine with the animal. But to her surprise, when Michael paused, explaining something to Sean, Marianne swam over to where she sat on the steps. The dolphin stared at her, angled on her side, one eye out of the water.
“Hey. What are you doing? You must think you’re one big puppy dog.”
Michael came up on the steps beside her, dripping. “She likes you.”
“She doesn’t know me.”
“Dolphins are instinctive creatures. She instinctively likes you. Smart girl,” Michael said.
It was a quiet compliment, and Lori smiled. She looked down then, her smile fading.
If he only knew.
“Go swim with her.”
“The kids are both in seventh heaven. I think I should—”
“They’ll have all morning. Take a turn. Then I’ll give you and Sean more of a tour of the place.”
Lori shrugged, then eased back into t
he water. Michael had been right—Marianne liked her. The dolphin swam at her side, dove when she dove, surfaced when she surfaced. She reached out, and Marianne swam away, then came back. The second time the dolphin allowed her to slide her hand along her side. She found herself entranced. The creature was beautiful; powerful, gentle. Playful, and indeed, affectionate.
She left Lori for a few minutes, and Lori looked around the pool to realize that Marianne had decided to join Sean. He suddenly started laughing, calling out to his brother, “Michael, what’s this! She’s pushing me!”
“She wants you to move, obviously.”
“What if I don’t want to move?”
“What are you going to do, spank a dolphin?”
“What do you do?”
“I give her a time-out—like they do with grade-school kids. But why don’t you see what she wants?”
Sean arched a brow, then stared at the dolphin, who lifted her head in front of his and let out a squeal.
“What?” Sean demanded, laughing.
She pressed her rostrum to his chest and began swimming. The next thing Lori knew, Sean was flying through the water, straight toward her.
He crashed into her, and they went down about a foot together. Sean instinctively reached out for her. They surfaced together, water streaming from their hair and faces. His hands were still on her rib cage as they tred the water. Big, powerful, she felt the length of his fingers over her ribs. His slow smile, along with the glittering reflection of the water in his eyes, was devastating. She was alarmed at the simple, sudden hunger for sex that seared through her just as hot as a stray ray of sun. It was wrong, all wrong, there had just been too much emotion in the past.
Even as those thoughts flew through her mind, she was startled by a large patch of seaweed drifting against her ankles. Seaweed, vines… the strength of his hands was immeasurable. And that was surely why the police had believed he’d gone into a fury and tied Mandy Olin down in the fresh water of the rock pit with a vine…
“See? Everyone is a matchmaker,” Sean teased, his voice husky, sensual, bringing a leap of sweet fire into her veins once again and a sense of pure heat to the very center of her sex, unlike anything she had felt in years.
But Sean’s smile faded—it was as if he read the suspicions of the past in her eyes.