The Summer Girls (40 page)

“It’s okay, Carson,” Blake told her, his voice reassuring. “Delphine’s one feisty dolphin.”

“I’m so happy,” she choked out. “You . . . you don’t know what it’s been like.”

“I have a pretty good idea.”

“Thank you, Blake. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank this incredible team here at Mote. They deserve the credit.”

“I will. I’ll write to them today.”

“It’d be nice if you sent a donation. The cost of caring for Delphine will be very high.”

“Of course,” she agreed. “I’m so grateful.”

“Well, I’d better go. I’ve got a plane to catch. I just wanted you to know.”

“You’re coming home?”

“I’m done here.”

“When will Delphine be coming back?”

“I can’t say. We’ll just have to see how she does. It’s out of my hands now.”

“Blake . . .” She hesitated. “Will you call me when you come back?” she asked. “I’d like to see you.”

He paused.

“Please,” she added.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, though she heard no pleasure in it. “I’ll give you a call when I get settled. I’ve got a lot of work piled on my desk. But I’ll call.”

She heard the click of the phone and hung up. She was worried about Blake’s tone. He’d sounded so distant. She’d rather he’d sounded angry.

But Delphine was going to be all right. Then, for the first time in days, Carson smiled.

Carson knocked on Nate’s door. There was no answer.

“Nate?” she called out.

There was no response.

Carson turned the handle and gently pushed open the door. She didn’t want to startle the boy, nor was she sure how he’d react when he saw her. He might begin screaming again.

His room was dimly lit. Dora had told her that he kept closing the shutters, preferring to watch television or play his games in the dark. She found him as Dora had predicted, sitting in front of the screen, playing a video game.

“Nate?”

Nate swung around, startled. She saw the wariness in his eyes again, the same distrust that she’d seen the first time she met him. It pained her to see it.

“Can I come in?”

“No.” He turned back to his game.

Carson hesitated at the door. “I have some good news.”

“Go away.”

“It’s about Delphine.”

Nate’s fingers stopped manipulating his game. “What?”

Carson took a few steps toward him. “I got a phone call from Blake. He’s the man who came when Delphine got sick and took her to the hospital in Florida.”

No response.

“He said she’s feeling much better. Delphine is going to be all right.”

Nate remained expressionless, but his hand lowered as he set the game controller down on the floor. “What about her cuts?”

“Well,” Carson said, “the doctors had to give her medicine and it’s going to take time for her to heal, but they think she will. It’s just going to take some time.”

Nate said nothing.

“I wanted to tell you that. And that I’m very sorry I got angry and grabbed you. That was wrong of me. Sometimes, people get angry and do things they shouldn’t. Things they regret. I’m sorry,” she repeated.

Nate said nothing.

“Okay then.” Carson ventured a smile, then turned to leave. As Carson walked across the room, she hoped Nate would call her back, that he’d say he was happy that Delphine’s wounds were healing. But he did not. The boy only raised his controller and returned to his game. As Carson closed the door behind her, she realized that Delphine’s wounds weren’t the only ones that needed to heal.

A
week later Carson hurried to the Medley coffee shop on Sullivan’s Island. She’d waited by the phone and Blake had finally called her after he’d returned from Florida. There was a definite shift in his attitude toward her since the accident with Delphine. On the phone he’d sounded formal, even impatient, when she had asked him to meet her.

She stepped inside the coffee shop to see Blake already standing at the counter. He was dressed in the usual khaki shorts, brown T-shirt, and sandals. He looked more scruffy than usual. His dark hair was longer and he’d started one of those trimmed beard/moustache looks that she found very cool for the non-fashion-forward man. Knowing Blake, he was probably just tired of shaving. Seeing him again, it was disturbing to feel the punch of attraction and to realize she liked him more than she wished she did. He was staring up
at the large chalkboard on the wall with the day’s offerings written in white chalk.

“Hey,” she said, drawing near.

Blake looked over his shoulder at her greeting. His immediate reaction was to smile, his dark eyes lighting up. Then it appeared as if he’d suddenly remembered he should be angry and his smile fell.

“Hello,” he said in a cool voice. “Nice to see you again.”

So they were back to being strangers, she thought with a twinge of regret.

“Thanks for meeting me.”

“No problem,” he said in an offhand manner. “It’s part of my job.”

She sucked in her breath. “Do you have to be so nasty?”

“I didn’t think I was being nasty.”

“Never mind,” she said in a huff, turning to go. “I can see this wasn’t a good idea.”

“Wait,” he said quickly.

She turned back, glaring at him with a hurt expression.

“Okay, I’m still angry.”

“And I’m still devastated,” Carson replied, her voice shaky.

Blake’s brow furrowed in reflection. He asked in a conciliatory tone, “Want a coffee?”

Carson regrouped and glanced briefly at the menu written in chalk on the immense blackboard. “Latte, please.”

Blake turned to give the order. Carson pressed her hand against her stomach while she steadied her breath, regaining composure.

Cups in hand, they glanced around the small room.
There weren’t many people in the coffee shop at this midmorning hour on a beautiful beach day. They claimed a small café table by the window.

“Blake,” she began. She dreaded going into this discussion, but knew it couldn’t be avoided. Better to dive right in than to endure painful chitchat. “I asked to talk to you today, because I wanted—needed—to tell you personally how badly I feel about what happened to Delphine.”

She glanced up at him and saw him sitting with his hands around his mug, looking at it.

“I couldn’t breathe until you’d called and told me that Delphine was going to be all right. If she’d died, I don’t know what I’d have done. I feel like I’ve been given a second chance,” she continued. “Yes, it was Nate’s fault to leave the fishing lines out. But the bigger fault was mine for luring Delphine to the dock in the first place. I know that now. I wanted her there for my pleasure. And for whatever reason—believe it or not—she wanted to be there, too. Still, that’s no excuse. I know now that she came where she wasn’t supposed to be.”

“And the dolphin got hurt.”

“Right,” she replied. “I’m so sorry.”

“I understand this kind of thing happens,” he said. “What I don’t understand, is how it happened with you. I thought you understood. I thought you were on my side.”

“I
am
.”

“Are you? Then how, despite all we’d talked about, all we’d seen together, did you never once mention that you had this friendly dolphin coming to your dock? You fed the dolphin. You swam with it. You acted no better than those
guide boats that chum the waters for the tourists. I feel betrayed, Carson. I feel—”

“Hurt,” she said for him.

He tightened his lips and nodded. “And disappointed.”

Carson had no defense. She could handle his anger, but his disappointment and hurt were devastating. “Blake, I am so sorry.”

He looked in her eyes, as though gauging her sincerity. She saw his eyes flicker. “Okay.”

Carson knew that
okay
was something you said to someone when you really had nothing left to say. She’d not yet earned his forgiveness.

“And now?” she asked.

“Did I mention that under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, it’s illegal to feed dolphins, and doing so can be punished by a fine of up to twenty-two thousand dollars in a civil case or up to a year in prison and a twenty-five-thousand-dollar fine in a criminal case?”

Carson paled and stared at him. “Did I mention we’re making a significant donation to the hospital?”

Blake half smiled. “Glad to hear it. They need it.”

“You’re not going to—”

“Not if you don’t continue to—”

“I won’t,” Carson promised.

“So, if Delphine is released to the cove,” he asked her, “you won’t call her back to the dock? Or feed her. Not ever?”

The image of Delphine flashed in her mind and she felt again the power of the bond of their relationship. Just the thought of what it would be like to not continue that association brought a raw pain that was unexpected.

“It will be hard,” she said slowly. “I feel like I’m losing my best friend. But I never want to see her hurt again. What if she comes by on her own? Can’t I at least say hi to her?”

“Of course you can. As along as you don’t start feeding her or swimming with her. Or let anyone else feed her.”

“I’ll just be so happy to see her again. I miss her terribly.” She stopped, realizing she was treading on fragile ground. She didn’t want to start crying again. “You can check on me, if you like.”

He withheld that crooked smile. “I just might do that.” Blake looked at his watch and folded his long legs in. “I have to go,” he said with finality, and picked up his cup to leave.

Carson was caught off guard by his sudden decision to leave. Impulsively she reached out to grab his hand. “Wait.”

Blake paused, then settled back in his chair and waited.

Carson drew back her hand and looked at it on the table. “Look, I know I disappointed you. Where do we go from here?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Carson glanced at him and felt a shiver of fear. In that moment she knew she didn’t want him to walk away. It was a new feeling for her. In the past if there was any discord or trouble, she was the first one to sprint. But now, for the first time, she didn’t want to see this end.

“I made a mistake. I own it. Haven’t you ever made a mistake?”

“Sure I have. It’s not that.” He paused and it felt like eons before he spoke again. “I just don’t know if we want the same things. I thought we did, but now . . .”

Carson felt her spine stiffen as she gathered her tumbling thoughts. “I am the same person today I was yesterday, and the day before that. But I’ve gone through a lot in these few days. Learned a lot. So much.”

Carson began to speak and suddenly it was like she’d opened up the dam and the words came flowing out. She spared no detail as she told him how she’d awakened to the screams of Delphine, her horror at finding the brutal lacerations, the hook in the mouth, how desperate she felt when Delphine had to be flown to Florida. Carson told Blake about her fury at Nate for leaving the rods out, what Dora had said about her mother and Mamaw’s explanation, and how she’d remembered, after all these years, the night of her mother’s death. Finally, she was honest in describing how, desperate, she got drunk on the dock.

“I know I can’t change the past. Not my mistakes or the mistakes of others. But I can begin by changing me. Blake, I feel like I’m at the threshold of a new beginning for myself. It’s a time for second chances. For Delphine and for me both.” She took a deep breath. “I’m asking for that second chance with you.”

Blake rubbed his jaw, clearly giving her confession due diligence. When he spoke, his voice wasn’t condescending. Carson blessed him for that.

“I know I was rough on you that day in the water. It’s not that I would’ve been short with anyone who was down there. I was especially mad to see
you
.”

“I know,” she said, feeling defeated and looking out the window. “Because you felt betrayed.”

“Because I was scared.”

She swung her head to look at him. He was tearing at the edge of his paper cup.

“I was scared you’d get hurt. Dolphins are powerful wild animals that can be very aggressive. They can seriously bite—there are lots of incidents on record. If I sounded angry, it was because I saw you in the water and was worried.”

She felt sure he saw the relief on her face. “The only one who can hurt me is you.”