Page 59 of Spotted at Lighthouse Bay
“What? That’s insane.”
She shrugged. “That’s what they have to do. She weighs eight thousand pounds.”
Within minutes, the barge with Lottie arrived. Rick couldn’t see her – she was surrounded by people dumping ice and clipping straps. A few were inside the tank with her.
The barge maneuvered as close to the crane as possible, and the long arm dropped. Two people leapt into action, securing hooks. Then the crane started moving.
Lottie emerged from the little container, her tail hanging limp from the sling, two wetsuit-clad women on either side. Her black skin was dull.
“Why does she look like that? Is she sick?”
“No, they put ointment on her skin,” Addy said. “To keep her from drying out.”
Whale problems.
They rose twenty feet up and everyone stood, silent, watching.
Whistles and clicks rang through the air.
“Is that her?” Rick asked.
Addy nodded, grinning. “Yeah, she’s a talker.”
He wondered what she was saying. Probably something like “Put me down!”
The crane slowly lowered Lottie into the pen. Another team swarmed the sling, blocking it from view and working as efficiently as an F1 pit stop team.
It took half an hour to remove the sling, but as soon as it was done, all the helpers parted and scattered. Lottie lifted her head from the water, let out a blow, and disappeared beneath the surface.
Everyone stood on the edge of the shore, watching breathlessly. Twenty feet away, Lottie emerged, blowing a great breath. They cheered.
She popped her body above the water, splashing down onto her side.
Rick felt a pair of arms around him. It was Sheila, tears streaming down her face. “She made it!”
He squeezed her back. “It’s amazing.”
A guy he didn’t know grabbed him next. Rick laughed, returning the hug and patting him on the back. “Great work, whoever you are.”
He stepped back. Addy stood in front of him. She put her arms up. Her eyes were red with tears, and her face was wide with a grin.
Until now, he’d held it together, but looking at her, a ball tightened in his throat. He bit his lip and leaned in, wrapping his arms around her body.
Addy tightened her grip. Her hair smelled of flowers. He closed his eyes.
“I’ll admit it. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Rick said in her ear.
“Softie,” she muttered.
Twenty-two
Had that hug lingered? Or was Addy imagining things?
It couldn’t be. Rick was herbodyguard. He was contractually obligated to care about her physical safety. He wasn’t hugging her because he liked her. It was polite. He’d even hugged that weird guy who had vodka spewing from his pores.
The fact that Rick had pretty eyes and a gruff smile and that he looked handsome in a simple black t-shirt was beside the point. She wasn’t supposed to notice these things! She was forty-eight years old. She wasn’t supposed to be developing a crush.
She hadn’t had a crush in decades. Had she even found another man attractive in any recent memory?
