Page 87 of Mail Order Splash

“Shall we go in and see the dolphins?” Victoria saying that brought me out of my thoughts. “Come on, dear, don’t you want to let Josh know?”

I stepped out of the limo looking at the old weather-beaten building. I could feel my family as if they were standing in front of me. I‘d done it; I saved it.

“Kleine, are you alright?” Dalton wiped a tear from my cheek. “I hope those are happy tears.”

“You have no idea what you have done for me. This place is nothing to a family like yours but everything to mine.” The tears flowed. “Why did you do this?”

“For Scrapper, Cassy, Netty,…you!”

“Are you guys coming in? We need proper introductions.” August held the door open.

“We’d better get inside. Josh will be anxiously waiting.” He put his hands out for mine. “It’s gonna be great.”

“Yes, it is. Thank you.”

He scooped me up and ran for the open door.

“May I present Mr. and Mrs. Dalton Hawthorne,” Murphy shouted.

“Thank you to everyone in this wonderful family. I am forever in your debt.” I stood by the pool. “Now, I’d like you to meet Netty. She is Dalton’s first rescue.”

I gave Netty the signal to display her ability to soar into the air. She was a true performer, giving them flips on every jump.

“Next, I’d like you to meet our littlest rescue. He’s only a few months old. We almost lost him but, thanks to a team of people, we saved him. Meet Scrapper.” Doc raised the sling.

“Why is he in that thing?”

“Because he was injured on purpose. Doc had declared he wouldn’t make it through the night, but he slept either in my arms or on Dalton while suspended in the water and, to my complete delight, made it, although still weak.”

“The whole pod is here for their safety.” Dalton took over talking. “The one under the sling is Cassandra, she is Scrapper’s mother. The rest have wounds that are healing but are not named yet.”

“I’ve heard she goes in the water day or night with weapons to do these rescues, but you go too?” Sawyer asked.

“I do, I did, and it was terrifying at night. I’m nowhere near as brave as her.” Dalton laughed along with them.

“My wife and you are going to get along. She may never come home if she comes here.” Sawyer bent down to touch Netty.

“People, can we eat now?” Asher was still complaining about hunger.

There were tables of food and drinks. Clearly, someone had planned ahead for this small party, and I knew who it must have been. I raised my glass toward Victoria then went in search of Josh.

“We did it.” I ran into his open arms, crying. “I’m such a baby right now.”

“You did it. I didn’t marry the merman.” He sat me down. “This is wild, it’s like a dream. What is on your body right now?”

“Chanel. I had it laying around.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

DALTON

Doc took over nursing the dolphins after they decided to release them together once all were healed. Kleine and Josh were able to meet with Sydney and somehow my aunt was able to make the perfect wedding gown magically appear the day before the wedding. Kleine had declined living on the yacht with the argument that she had Charlie, and he was like a doting grandfather to her and the dolphins. I had nothing I could say to refute it and, thus, she stayed with Josh.

“How long are you planning on being married?” Asher asked, sitting next to me by the dolphin pool. “I don’t think you actually needed to marry her, not after what I heard in the room yesterday. Kellan is a beast.”

“I probably don’t but, until the project is completed, I don’t want to desert her. The next people could be as bad.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to do for a year. She’s nice to look at and smart.” He kicked his feet in the water. “Great sense of humor, too. Does she know you have to go back to New York? Has that conversation about how much we travel come up?”

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