Henry and the other seniors all brought their hands into prayer-like positions and shifted their gazes downward. Max had to hand it to Violet. As bizarre as these pose names were, they were spot-on.
“I’m here, okay? And I’m not going anywhere,” Max said quietly. It wasn’t as if he had a choice. He’d tendered his resignation. Someone else was already sitting behind his desk at the National Aquarium—and more to the point, there was a new name etched on the aquarium director’s door, and it wasn’t Max’s. That ship had sailed. Where else would he go? “You may as well tell me the rest. Is there anything else I should know?”
Violet called out another pose—downward facing Dalmatian. Henry shifted forward and shot Max an upside-down glance.
“There might be one little thing,” he said.
Max pressed his hands into his mat, lifted his hips, and took a deep breath.Whatever it is, you can handle it. It can’t be that bad.“And what might that be?”
“It’s the aquarium,” Henry said.
Max’s heart pounded hard in his chest.
Not the aquarium.Anythingbut the aquarium.
“Henry, I love overpriced coffee and donuts as much as the next person, but the false promises of big city conveniences like Starbucks and Krispy Kreme aren’t what convinced me to leave my life in Baltimore and start over here. You founded the Turtle Beach Aquarium nearly a decade ago and have served as the director since its inception. When you told me you were ready to step down, youinsistedI was the only person who could step into your shoes.”
Max had been reeling from being passed over for the promotion at the National Aquarium, and his uncle’s offer had felt like fate stepping in to set everything right.
Why not take over Uncle Henry’s job? There was something poetic about coming back to the island, back to the beach where he’d learned to love everything about marine life. Like a loggerhead finding its way home.Caretta caretta.
But Max wasn’t a turtle, and as a scientist he knew better than to anthropomorphize. He should have, anyway.
“So, what about the aquarium?” Max craned his neck and studied his uncle’s upside-down face.
Henry didn’t even pretend to look Max in the eye. Something was wrong. Something big.
“The aquarium is about to go broke.”
Chapter 3
“Is it true?” Caroline Martin, owner of Turtle Books, slid a Milky Way frozen latte across the counter toward Molly and raised her eyebrows. “Did you really save a man from drowning at the dog beach yesterday?”
Molly took a big, cold sip through her lime-green jumbo-sized reusable straw.Ahh.Caffeine, chocolate, and caramel. Was there a better way to start the day? No, definitely not.
She eyed Molly over the top of her latte while she dropped onto a barstool with Ursula in her lap. “How on earth do you know about that?”
Caroline laughed. “Are you forgetting where you live? There are no secrets in Turtle Beach. I know you know this.”
How could she not? Both Molly and Caroline had grown up on the island and had been best friends since their days at Turtle Beach Elementary School. They knew how intimate their small coastal town could be as much as any of the other longtime locals did.
“Griff told me, actually. He was out checking the fire hydrants at the senior center yesterday, and the Charlie’s Angels told him all about it.” Caroline arched a brow. “In detail. You know nothing significant happens in Turtle Beach without Opal, Mavis, and Ethel somehow being involved.”
Fabulous. There probably wasn’t a soul on the island who hadn’t heard all about it by now.
“I don’t know why you’re looking at me like something scandalous happened,” Molly said. Caroline’s brother Griff was pretty level-headed. He wasn’t the type to embellish. The Charlie’s Angels…not so much, bless their meddlesome hearts. “I saw a guy who seemed like he was in trouble, and I dragged him out of the water. It was no big deal, really.”
Ursula craned her skinny puppy neck and tried to lick the condensation off the outside of Molly’s latte, but Molly nudged it out of reach.
“No big deal?” Caroline smirked. “So he wasn’t as insanely hot as the Charlie’s Angels say he was? And you didn’t scream out ‘Wilson’ like you’d been trapped on a desert island for years and he was the only thing keeping your will to live intact?”
Molly’s cheeks went warm. She slurped another gulp of her Milky Way frozen latte, ice cream headache be damned.
“Aha! So itistrue!” Caroline’s entire face lit up. “Tell me everything.”
“There’s honestly nothing to tell,” Molly said.
So she’d dragged a man ashore…a man with the bone structure of a Greek god, who also had a shockingly proficient working knowledge of sea turtles, which happened to be Molly’s second-favorite animal—her first favorite being Cavalier King Charles spaniels. Obviously. And yes, maybe she’d gotten just a little caught up in the moment and pulled a Tom Hanks.