Bonnie kneeled beside the turtle, which had gone scarily still. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.” She plucked at the kelp and plastic debris until she could see the shell glistening in the sun.
“There you are. Aren’t you a beauty.”
The turtle jerked, flippers flapping as if it suddenly realized it wasn’t in the water.
“David , she’s getting restless. You’d better hurry!”
“Get those knees up! Work it. Work it!”
“Hush, Duchess,” Bonnie snapped.
“Got a few different ones. Here.” David dropped down on the other side of the animal. “Cut near the shell if you can.”
“Right.” She shoved her wet hair out of her face, lifted a section of the line and pried it free just enough to slip the sharp blade under it. When she broke through, other sections of the line slackened. “Shouldn’t take too much longer,” she said.
They worked as one, moving quickly to cut the turtle free. She unwound the last bit of line from around the flipper. The turtle waved it around as if testing that it still worked. “Should we put her back right away?”
“I don’t think she’s going to give us a choice,” David said. The turtle was already scrambling toward the ledge. “She’s not very old. Doesn’t weigh more than fifty pounds.” He got to his feet and bent over to pick up the turtle.
“I hope she finds her family,” Bonnie said softly when he lowered it back into the water. “Can you get your phone?”
“She’s going to be gone in-” But he went.
Bonnie sat on the edge of the boat, watching the turtle relearn how to move, its one flipper not working quite in tandem with the other yet.
“Is she still here?”
“Yes.” Bonnie stretched out her arm and pointed. “Just there. Oh.”
The turtle stopped and turned, hovered still in the water for a second before paddling over. Tears burned Bonnie’s throat as their rescue skimmed by, blinked its dark eyes up at them before diving into the depths and out of sight.
“I’d say that was a thank-you,” David said.
“And I got it on film.” He touched his hand to Bonnie’s shoulder. “You’re pretty good in a crisis.”
“You do what you have to do, especially when someone’s suffering.”
David nodded when she looked up at him, then ducked down into the cabin and returned with some towels.
“You know what I would love for dinner?” she asked when he dropped one next to her.
He stopped drying his hair long enough to glare at her. “If you say kale I’m afraid I’m going to have to throw you back into the water.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to cry uncle.” She couldn’t stop the grin from forming. “I would kill for a pizza.”
Instantly, he looked as if he might drop to his knees in gratitude. “Unfortunately, I can’t think of a place that delivers this far.”
“We could stop. How far out are we from someplace?”
“About another hour. We could stop for the night if I can grab a last-minute slip.”
“Grab one. If that’s okay with you?”
“That is more than okay. And I even know the best pizza place to go to.” He held out his hand and she took it, letting him pull her to her feet. She grasped the towel between them, but could still feel the heat of his body radiating toward her. His thumb brushed against hers for the barest of moments, and for an instant, she thought maybe he’d kiss her again.
But he didn’t. Instead, he cleared his throat and stepped away, heading up to the wheel-house to start up the boat again.
—————
“Squawk! Squeeze your glutes!”
Bonnie glared at Duchess, who seemed to take her next snack as a given as she soared through the kitchen. “You have the worst timing on the…hey! What are you doing? Stop that!” Bonnie ducked as Duchess chucked a measuring cup from an open drawer at her.
“Duchess, those aren’t toys.” She picked up the cup, then almost caught another in mid flight. Apparently entertained, Duchess stuck her beak into the junk drawer next to the sink and dug in.
She stopped only long enough to demand “guaca-mooleee” and then resumed her pillaging.
“All right! All right.” Leaving things where they landed, Bonnie grabbed the tub of fruit she had in the fridge and fished out some blueberries and strawberries. For kicks, she tossed in a couple of almonds.
“Yum! Kiss. Kiss.” Duchess made a smooching sound and hopped across to the kitchen table to eat.
“Not on your life, Guacamole Breath,” Bonnie muttered, picking up the paper clips, rubber bands and pencils Duchess had tossed out of the drawer. “We need to bird-proof the place or find you new toys.” She scribbled a reminder note to herself, then went into her room to change for dinner to understand what she was doing.
—————–
“Hey, everything okay?” Bonnie asked David, her expectant eyes shining and happy. She was so excited about the extra-large, double-cheese, extra-mushroom-and-sausage pizza that would be landing on their table any second. She held up a hand when she spotted their server on her way over.
David stared at her, and now he couldn’t believe that he had actually thought that bringing her onto his boat was a good idea. He needed her gone, he thought. He needed to end this thing with her father so he could stop thinking about what it would be like to kiss her again. Hold her again. Chase her around his boat in the ocean again. He needed her out of his life before he fell in love with her. He needed to assure Robert Rimmer that his daughter was fine and didn’t need him anymore.
“Yeah I’m good.. Just have something to tell you” he mumbled around a mouthful of food. “But before that, I have been thinking about pizza since that salad you made yesterday. And for the record, no more kale. I don’t care if it’s buried in eggs or bacon.”
She chuckled, thinking the kale-and-tomato frittata she’d made for breakfast was delish, but maybe there was a limit to healthy eating. She had, after all, hidden most of his junk food; not to save him from a sugar coma, but to stop herself from self-pity bingeing.
The pizza, she soon discovered, was worth the detour and lost time, not to mention a burned mouth. She loved how David seemed to know about all these little hidden gems of restaurants and mentally added this place to her must-return-to list.