Trade Deadline - Avon Gale Page 0,28

ex-wife, and their kids to show up for their tour. He was nervous, even though it seemed silly, and curious about meeting Daniel’s former wife. He’d asked a few questions about their divorce, and from what he understood, it’d been more of a mutual decision to co-parent as friends and stop forcing romantic feelings that simply weren’t there anymore. Micah wasn’t convinced things could really be that easy and mature, but what did he know? His experience with his own parents was dismal at best, and most of his friends were either happily partnered or single.

If anyone would still be friends with an ex, he thought wryly, it would be Daniel.

He recognized Daniel immediately, of course—it was hard not to, given how tall he was—and the woman by his side was as lovely as he would have figured. She was all smiles, as were the two kids by her side. They were an attractive family.

Daniel spotted him, too, of course—and the smile that lit up his handsome face made Micah’s stomach feel like Silver doing a backflip. He waved, like a huge dork, and Micah had to laugh.

“Hey!” Daniel beamed, and as he approached, Micah noticed he was holding the little girl’s hand. She was about six or so, with Daniel’s brown hair and her mother’s dark eyes. “So, guys, this is Micah Kelly. Micah, these are my kids, Gretchen and Nathaniel—but we call him Nate. And this is Tabby.”

“Hi, Micah!” Tabby smiled at him, and in lieu of a handshake, gave him a hug. He liked her immediately.

“Hi! Nate, Gretchen, it’s sure nice to meet you. Did your dad tell you I was his best friend when we were little?”

“Yes! And he told us you had dolphins!” Gretchen said, her eyes huge.

Micah laughed. “Well, we have a very special dolphin here and I can’t wait to introduce you guys!”

Tabby clapped her hands. “I’m as excited as the kids, I have to say. Daniel and I went and did this on our honeymoon, but we were, ah.” She mimicked tossing back a drink and gave him a significant look.

Micah laughed. Like Daniel, she was hard not to like. “Well, about the only thing I can offer is one of those Freestyle soda machines downstairs in the staff lounge.”

“Mr. Micah, do you really have sea turtles, too?” Gretchen asked, peering up at him.

“We do! And later you can see one that we’re getting ready to send back to the sea. He had a booboo, but he’s gonna be all better just in time for the Fourth of July.” It was later than they’d wanted to release him, but a surprise infection had slowed Dudley’s healing quite a bit over the last few days. No reason to tell the kids that, though—Dudley was a trooper, and would be just fine by summer.

“Do you have snakes?” Nathaniel asked, moving closer. He was probably eight or nine, and had his dad’s blue eyes and wild curls.

“We have an electric eel,” Micah said, charmed by how into this the kids were. He glanced at Daniel. “And what do you want to see, Danny?”

Gretchen giggled. “He called Daddy Danny.”

“That’s what I called him when we were kids,” Micah said, bopping her on the nose.

“Did Daddy call you Mikey?” Gretchen asked, with Daniel’s impish smile.

“Nope, but if he does, he’ll have to wait in the car.”

Gretchen giggled, and Micah got their tour underway.

They went first to the touch tank, where Micah told them about the manta ray who’d been hooked by a commercial fishing vessel and brought in by the concerned fisherman. The ray was huge, and the kids seemed a little afraid of him until Micah showed them how to feed the ray with food held between their fingers. It was a little intimidating at first—Georgie was a pretty big specimen—and Daniel had to do it first, but then the kids were cool with letting the ray ripple and glide over their hands and nab the food.

Next, Micah took them down to see the turtles. “This is one of our major initiatives,” he explained. The kids seemed excited by going through the Staff Only door, and were suitably impressed by the tanks and marine vets clustered around the turtles.

In addition to Dudley, they had four turtles in various stages of rehab at the moment. Micah explained what was wrong with them, and how they came to be in the hospital.

“Oh, that’s so sad,” Tabby said, peering at Dudley. “I’m glad they’ll be okay.”

One of the vets,