It’s #BookQW and our H & H are running ‘ragged’ to save a whale!
More from Chapter 26:
Coral lolled her head sideways and peered at him through half-open eyelids. “Mmmm…holding hands…kissing’s oh-so-right with you.”
Couldn’t argue with that. Ty dipped his lips to hers.
Squeak!
He froze, and so did she. “Yes,” he murmured. “It’s perfect.” He kissed her again.
Squeak!
“’Tis,” Coral whispered, “’cept that weird squeak your energy keeps giving. Like it’s signaling…” She bolted upright, pushing him into the sand as she sprang to her feet.
“What the…” Ty stared after her as she ran into the surf.
Her skirt dragged with the waves, wrapping tight to her legs. Wrenching it loose, she waded farther out, hopping with each roll of water, propelling herself waist-deep into the breaking whitecaps and shadows.
He stumbled to his feet and trotted down onto the hard, wet sand. “Coral!”
Squeak! The previously distant call sounded clearly, despite the water crashing over his feet. Shadows rose and lowered, independent of the waves.
Dolphins!
More squeaks rang out. One animal rose near her, and Coral patted the sleek back. It dropped with a splash. Drenched, she spun with the roll of the next wave, and another nuzzled her shoulder.
Ty walked ankle-deep into the chilly water. Ugh, but if she could handle the cold, so could he. Hopefully, the dolphins would allow him to approach. Coral had stopped petting them and was searching frantically toward the south where the next cove was just visible. She swayed with the waves and the pushing of the dolphins. Faltering, she took a few steps, stumbled and balanced with a hand on a dolphin’s back. Ty was almost to her when another dolphin came up behind and shoved so hard, she went face-forward into the sea.
Ty dove and grabbed her. They came up sputtering, clinging together. “Coral! This is crazy. Let’s go back to the beach. They can play with you in the daytime.”
Shivering and fighting the shove of the waves, she squeezed his arm. “I canna c-communicate properly, but th-they say a whale is b-b-beaching. I need to st-stop it.”
***
Coral stumbled through the waves. Only Ty’s arm kept her upright. “You go b-back.” She yanked the drenched skirt, got it off her legs and hitched the heavy fabric over one arm. “Tell M-M-Manta to get Salm. That it’s Annie.” Likely, that made no sense to Ty, but Salm would understand. She had to run to the next cove, had to find the baby whale they’d nursed back—
Ty caught her around her waist. “I can’t let you catch your death.” He fumbled beneath his shirt, and she saw the glass bobber only when the pereport began.
They landed in the bakery’s kitchen. Manta shrieked, nearly dropping a tray of cookies. “Coral! What have you been doing?”
Coral followed her sister’s gaze down. Her clothes were plastered skintight, while a puddle of sandy water grew on the tiles. Her ragged breaths left her stammering as Manta bore down on her.
Ty’s arm tightened in support. “A whale is beaching itself,” he said. “The dolphins told her. I made her come back, but it’s urgent.”
“It’s Annie,” Coral managed. “Taylor’s baby.” After they’d nursed her back from a propeller scrape last year, she couldn’t die!
***
Read the first three chapters of Lost Whisperer of the Seas or jump aboard and buy it! The novel is available in ebook, paperback and Large Print editions.
On a personal note:
We’re still walking at sunrise, and decided we’d like some company. No, we’re not inviting the neighbors–we’ve decided to adopt a dog. As part of our rescue adoption process, we set up a crate our friends gave us–never expecting our cat Shuri to like it.
We’re now hunting down a second crate!
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