Twenty minutes later she appeared in the kitchen, her hair still damp and cascading down her back. Her eyes were bright, and she still had the last traces of a pillow crease in her cheek. Drew wondered if it was possible to kiss a pillow crease away and decided to view it only as evidence that she’d slept well.
Breakfast in company was different from the way he remembered it. Not the bandying of jokes and the hurried gulping down of coffee and bacon sandwiches, but Caro’s warm eyes and a succession of questions and ideas, some of them completely crazy and a few that...if you just let go of your preconceptions they made every kind of sense. He forgot all about the insistent push to get out of the house and wanted to spend all day just talking to Caro, bathing in her unique and creative view of the world.
‘Why not?’ She shot him a laughing smile. Why not was the thing that marked Caro out from everyone else he’d ever known. She had a completely different set of boundaries from most people.
‘Because... I don’t know. I can’t imagine sea life sending distress signals to us when something bad happens.’
‘But what if they could? What if the dolphins are out there calling us right now? What if we just can’t hear them? Or we can hear and we simply don’t understand.’ She took a bite from the slice of toast she’d been waving in the air to illustrate her point.
‘What if that toast just shouted, Don’t eat me!’ He grinned at her.
She held the slice to her ear. ‘Too late. I didn’t hear it. But seriously, warning systems, Drew, triggered by the very organisms at risk. I’m sure that there are loads of surveillance systems in place for endangered species, but what if we could make them better?’
That was always Caro’s refrain as well. Refusing to accept that some things were too hard or couldn’t be made any better. She extended those principles to him, and her belief that he would heal had made him believe it too.
‘I’m just a working vet...’ Who didn’t have the vision or the ability to turn far-fetched ideas into reality.
‘Rubbish! You’re the one who gave me the ideas in the first place.’
The thought that something he’d done had nudged Caro’s creative process into gear and focussed her capricious mind was endlessly gratifying. Drew was still trying to get his head around it when his phone beeped, and he opened the text his father had sent.
‘Dad says he’s getting ready to go now. Is forty minutes too soon to meet him down at the harbour?’
Caro shook her head. ‘I’m fine with that, if you are. Or sooner...’
There was still a lot more left to do. And Caro’s drive and energy added a new facet to the task ahead of them. He nodded, texting his father that they’d be there as soon as they’d finished their coffee.
* * *
More birds. Not as many as yesterday, but a greater proportion of them were dead or dying. But every time they pulled a living bird from the water, and Drew laid it carefully in a makeshift nest in one of the boxes, he saw Caro give a littl
e nod of pleasure.
There were more boats, too. As the day wore on, resources from various environmental agencies arrived, and Drew made his decision.
‘I think we should go back in now. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day at the clinic, we’ll be starting to clean the birds that are strong enough. There’s not a lot more we can add here.’
They made their way back to the veterinary centre to drop off the boxes of birds, and then returned to the harbour at Dolphin Cove. He and Jake shook hands, wordlessly acknowledging the efforts of the last two days, and Gramps came aboard, shooing Drew away when he offered to help tidy up on the boat.
‘I’ll take you home, then.’ Drew loaded his and Caro’s gear into the back of his car. She was beginning to look like a proper seafarer, clad in a thick sweater and oilskins and climbing off the boat without waiting for a helping hand. Gramps clearly considered this was all his doing and had exchanged a couple of jokes with her before he took up his usual stance, leaning against the helm and watching her go.
‘Thank you. I guess I should go now while the tide’s out.’ She quirked her lips down, and it occurred to Drew that she didn’t want to leave him, any more than he did her.
They had plenty of time, and he drove as slowly as he could to Smugglers’ Top, without collecting a queue of other impatient drivers behind him. He parked on the rough ground that led down to the beach and opened the boot of the car.
‘I’ll give you a hand with your gear.’
‘That’s okay, I can manage. Although...’ She hesitated. Drew could wait. ‘Would you like to come up and have some lunch? You can catch the low tide again this afternoon.’
‘Thanks, that would be great. Mum’s reckoning on keeping Phoenix for a few days, so I don’t have to get back for her.’ Drew tried to sound casual about his reply.
‘Right, then.’ Caro gave him a delicious smile, picking up the larger and more cumbersome of the two bags and leaving the one that Drew could sling easily over his shoulder. ‘You take that one.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE MORE THAT Drew did, the better he seemed. Caro had been reluctant to let him carry anything up the stone steps to Smugglers’ Top, but she knew that Drew was just beginning to grasp at the reality of being able to do the things he wanted to. It would hurt him more to take nothing than it would to take the lighter bag.
All the same, he was limping a little when they got to the top. Caro unlaced her shoes, leaving them in the hallway, and made tea. Then she plumped herself firmly down on one of the sofas in the living area, propping her legs up on the cushions. Drew took the hint and did the same.