Carson watched Brian as he leaned back in the booth. He was a caring, honest man who didn’t deserve what she’d done to him.
“So, what’s next?” she asked.
“About stealing or drinking?” he said in a soft voice, not sarcastic.
“Both.”
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you everything is going to be okay, because it’s not,” he said. “Believe it or not, you’re not the first person to steal from here. I’ve seen it all. Stuffing things, booze and food, into plastic bags. Then pretending to take out the garbage. Hell, I had one cook put twenty steaks in a plastic bag in the garbage, and his friend came by and picked them up. Clever, but desperate. I wasn’t so nice to them. A restaurant is one of the toughest businesses to keep afloat. Each nickel and dime counts.”
Truth was, she hadn’t given much thought to any of the restaurant’s profits or losses. What employee really does? she thought. She hung her head. She hadn’t known it was possible to feel worse about stealing than she already did.
“I don’t envy you having to face this problem,” Brian said. “But I don’t need to tell you, I can’t have you working here anymore.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m grateful, Brian. For the job and for your kindness.”
He offered some in return. “You’re not a little girl, Carson. This is your decision. But if you think you might have a problem with alcohol, I hope—I pray, you’ll look into AA. I think you’re strong enough to fight it. I’d be glad to take you to a meeting. But if you’d rather go alone, there are a lot of meetings around the area. But go. At least once.”
“I’ll look into it, Brian, I promise. I appreciate your kindness. About the stealing and for caring enough to suggest some help.”
Brian reached over and shook her hand. “I appreciate you had the courage to come speak to me first. I knew you took the bottle.”
Carson paled at the admission as she shook his hand.
Brian smiled. “You’re welcome here anytime. And bring Mamaw. I haven’t seen that renegade in ages.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
A few days later, Carson peeked through the window and was surprised to see Blake at the front door. She’d spent the night with him and they’d said good-bye after coffee that morning. Blake had headed off to work at Fort Johnson and Carson had returned to Sea Breeze. She wondered what Blake might have forgotten that brought him back to see her.
“Hey,” she said with a welcoming smile, opening the door.
Blake’s smile was tight and his dark eyes troubled. “Hi,” he said.
“Come on in,” Carson said, her face clouding as she stepped back. “What’s the matter?”
“Do you have a minute to talk?”
Now Carson’s thoughts roiled. “Uh, sure. How about right here?” she asked, indicating the living room.
She followed him into the room and they each took one of the wing chairs. Blake sat stiffly, his pale blue denim shirt frayed at the cuffs, exposing tanned hands that lay flat on his thighs. Carson raked her hair from her face.
“It’s so humid today,” she said, initiating conversation. “Mamaw won’t boost the air-conditioning. She claims she likes it.”
He laughed but his heart wasn’t in it. He clasped his palms together and stared at them.
She crossed her legs, holding her lips tight, feeling her stomach clench.
“Carson, I’ve got something I need to tell you.”
“Okay,” she said warily.
“It’s about Delphine.”
“What about her?”
“These past few days I’ve been going through all my photo files on the dolphins we’ve recorded in our area for the past five years, trying to find a match with the photos you sent me. Carson, I’ve searched till my eyes were blurry. Eric did, too. There’s no record of Delphine in our data files.”
Carson’s brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”
“It means that she isn’t classified as resident to the Charleston estuary system. She’s not one of ours.”
“How can that be? She was here, wasn’t she?”
“There are several possibilities. She could have just been migrating along the coast when she got mixed up with that shark and was injured. That might’ve brought her into safer waters for a while. Then she found you and a free meal and decided to stay.”
“Do they do that? Do coastal dolphins roam into the rivers?”
He nodded. “Yes. Most have a preference for one area or the other, but a few go both ways. There are always those that follow a shrimp boat from the coast into the harbor, too, and you said there was a shrimp boat around that morning. My guess is that she wandered into the cove for whatever reason and just stayed.”
“So, she’s alone out there?” Carson said, feeling a pang for Delphine. “It’s no wonder she befriended me.”
“Or she stayed because you befriended her. There’s a difference.”
“You are always so damned quick to remind me of my mistake.”
“I don’t mean to be harsh. I just don’t want you to slip into that sentimental thinking again. For both your sakes.”
“So, what do we do now? When she’s returned, will she eventually become a member of the local dolphin community?”
He rubbed his hands together, as though upset that he wasn’t handling the situation well. “That, Carson, is the problem.”
Carson sensed the change in tone and felt the tension radiating from Blake’s body. She quieted her emotions and listened attentively. “What problem?”
“Carson,” he began on solid footing. “If Delphine is not part of the resident population in this area, the Mote Marine Laboratory’s hospital will not release her back into our estuaries.”
“What? They can’t do that. This is where she belongs. We brought her to them to heal her. They can’t keep her!”
“They won’t keep her,” he said, trying to calm her.
“They can’t release her in Florida! That’s ridiculous. She is not a local resident there, either. What’s the point? At least here she has me. She knows me.”
“Carson, listen to me. It’s more complicated than that. First of all, the fact that she isn’t a resident in our estuarine system means she won’t have a support system. That’s the first problem. The second is what you just said: that you’d take care of her. That can’t happen. We’ve discussed that. Frankly, Carson, Delphine’s extreme friendliness made us concerned that she has already learned to depend on humans. She’s a possible candidate to be another beggar, and that’s bad for her. Third, and most importantly, her wounds were intense, and add to that her already mangled tail fluke and you have a compromised dolphin.”