The Best Of Me. Tina Wainscott

her another mackerel.

      “Why don’t you just free him now?” she asked.

      “Because he’s not used to fending for himself.” He threw another fish to the far side of the pool. “He’s been humanized. Everything a dolphin is comes from his hierarchy within the pod.”

      “You mentioned a pod before. What exactly is it?”

      “The school or any group of dolphins. Together, they can protect each other and hunt for food. Liberty here is a nobody. He probably doesn’t even know he’s a dolphin anymore.”

      She watched Liberty with such compassion, he was actually touched for a moment. Then he remembered who she was, what she represented.

      “I have to teach him to become a dolphin, to catch live fish, and to swim in a straight line again. It’s not only Liberty’s health I want to restore, it’s his spirit.”

      She looked at him with those deep brown eyes. “I think that’s…wonderful.”

      He looked away, uncomfortable with that gaze. “It’s just what I do.”

      “Do you get paid for doing this?”

      He laughed, because that sounded more like the advertising princess. “Untraining dolphins is not on the list of professions a woman looks for in a future husband. In other words,” he said before she could get too huffy, “no, I don’t get paid. Someone usually contacts me about a dolphin in trouble, and I ask them to get someone to sponsor me to come out and investigate. I get proof and go to the authorities for permission to free the dolphin. People send in donations, and when I’m home, I work odd jobs to get by.”

      Liberty swam by, brushing against his legs. Contact, trust. It was a start. He put his hand into the water, but Liberty hesitated, keeping his distance.

      “So you travel all over doing this?” she asked.

      “Yep.”

      “Why?”

      He stood, less comfortable with her questions than with her gaze. “Like I said, it’s what I do.”

      She stood too, planting her hands on her hips. “You should hire an agency to get the word out about your organization and bring in financial support.”

      He laughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, right. I can’t afford any kind of agency, and I don’t want what I do played out to tug at the heartstrings of America. I do the occasional radio or television appearance because it’s good for publicity, and that’s it.”

      “Fine, whatever,” she said in clipped tones.

      She’d changed into clothing more befitting to the atmosphere, but he wasn’t about to comment on that or her nice legs in those blue shorts. Or the way the red hibiscus flowers on her shirt molded to her full breasts in the breeze. He didn’t want the advertising princess to get the wrong idea. She was definitely not his speed. He was in the no-wake zone, she was freeway.

      “So, Miz Lucy, what are you going to do with this place anyway?”

      She looked around, as if the answer might be found somewhere nearby. Bailey waved, his smile overly bright.

      “Do you really care, now that you have your dolphin?”

      He shrugged. “I’m wondering more for all of the other marine animals. If you sell it to someone like your father, what will happen to everything in here?”

      She looked at him, her brows furrowed. “You don’t think my father mistreated Liberty because he was…wicked, do you?”

      “No,” he said with some amount of certainty. She obviously wanted to believe her father wasn’t such a bad guy; he could grant her that. “He was looking at the bottom line. And he probably just didn’t know any better. Mostly, people think animals are put here for our amusement or use. He was one of those people.” He turned back to the pool, more comfortable with working with the dolphin than talking to Lucy. “Well, Miz Lucy, if you don’t mind, I have work to do.” He tipped his head at her and slid into the water.

      He waited a few minutes before looking back to see her walking to the long building that housed the aquariums. She didn’t know her father, wasn’t aware that he even owned this place if he remembered correctly. But she’d done all right anyway, at least by the world’s standards. And she definitely belonged in that world. He’d be glad when she returned to it. She was fast becoming a temptation he didn’t need.