Page 57 of The Spotted Cottage By the Sea
“We need him,” Mrs. Smitt said under her breath.
Russell took a seat and pretended not to hear them.
“They’re coming after us,” Harry said, his face red and shiny with sweat. “They’re coming for Lottie.”
“Who’s coming?” asked Russell.
“The crazies. The hippies. Whatever you want to call them.” He clicked around the computer sitting on the desk and a projector kicked on. “We got this threatening email yesterday.”
Russell read the email as quickly as he could while Harry prattled on.
“This anonymous ‘S’ claims that Lottie is an endangered species. Can you believe this? They’ll say anything so they can have her.”
“Our highest earning attraction. Of course they want her,” Mrs. Smitt said.
“Or is she our highest-costattraction…?” Mrs. Smitt muttered.
Harry waved a hand and shook his head. “That has nothing to do with it. I love this whale. I’ve grown up with her. I’d never do anything to harm her.”
“Is it true,” Russell asked slowly, “that she’s one of these endangered whales?”
“Of course not!” Harry bellowed, spit flying from his mouth. “They’re making it up. Ever since Tokitae died, all the whale hippies have lost their minds.”
“Who’s Tokitae?” Russell asked, though the name sounded vaguely familiar.
“She was an orca in Miami. She actuallywasa southern resident whale.” Harry shook his head. “Look, it was sad what happened to her. It was. I wish she could’ve made it back with her family, but Lottie isn’t the same. If they try to put her back into the ocean, they’re going to kill her. She’ll starve to death. The other whales will attack her because she’s different.”
Russell thought Harry was going to tell him one of the roller coasters had broken down, or that people had gotten food poisoning from the funnel cakes. Not this.
“This is where you come in,” Mrs. Smitt said, pointing a long bony finger at him.
“Me?” Russell let out a nervous chuckle. “I’m not sure what I can do.”
“You have to protect her,” Harry said, his eyes wide. “Please, Russell. We can’t lose Lottie. I won’t be able to live with myself if she dies. If they go public with this, we’re going to need you. We’ll need you to be the voice of reason to protect her.”
Russell nodded. He didn’t want the poor thing to die either. “Don’t worry. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
Twenty-five
They didn’t hear from Russell for the rest of the week. Sheila assumed he was avoiding her, but she still wasn’t sure what had happened, and she wasn’t about to talk it out with anyone.
Patty disapproved of his absence and decided to take matters into her own hands. She assumed Russell was avoidingher, and she went to his house to thank (and yell at) him for the work on the cottage.
When he wouldn’t answer her pounding on the door, she called him and found out he was off island for business. He also asked Patty’s advice about hosting a potential Thanksgiving dinner at his new house, which delighted her to no end.
Sheila was mortified. The fact that he’d fled the island was her fault. It had to be.
Maybe he hadn’t been trying to kiss her after all? Maybe he’d just stepped close to her and Sheila had jumped away like the deranged woman she was before running out of the house? She’d probably scared the crap out of him and made it unbearably awkward for them both.
She didn’t know what had happened, or how he felt, or what he thought. But the worst part was not knowing why she’d reacted the way she did.
At first, she told herself it was because she was claustrophobic, but that wasn’t true. She’d never had a problem with small spaces.
Then she tried to convince herself she’d thought he was going to fall on her and she’d just reacted to that. She even practiced bringing it up to him in a half-laughing way, saying something like, “Oh, don’t trip onto me again!”
That, too, was a lie, and would probably only make things more awkward.
It took her two days to admit it to herself. The terrible, ugly, silly truth was Sheila hadn’t kissed anyone since the divorce. It had been longer than that, even, since the passion had long gone out of their marriage before Brian had uttered those fateful words.
