Trade Deadline - Avon Gale Page 0,30
as good as I remembered.”
“It was gross back in the day, Danny.” Micah was standing close to Daniel as they watched the kids devouring their snack at the little break table. Daniel smelled great, and Micah chastised himself to keep it together.
“You used to mix your Junior Mints with your popcorn, Mikey. And then add extra butter.”
“Call me Mikey again and we’ll be swimming with the sharks,” Micah said, pointing at him.
“Nooo,” Gretchen piped up. “Sharks might eat us. Unless they’re baby sharks.”
“Nope, none of those, no reason to sing that song,” Tabby said, her voice firm. “Right, Micah?”
“Uh.” Micah nodded, as serious as he could. He might not have kids, but he was around them enough at the aquarium to know what that baby shark song was. “That’s right! We don’t want to freak out the, ah. Dolphins. And besides,” he added, compelled to point this out in the name of Science, “Sharks don’t actually want to eat humans. But I bet I know some humans who might like to eat some gummy sharks, yeah?”
“Yeah!” the kids chorused, and Micah beamed, glad he’d picked up a package of those fruit snack things for the office at Costco.
After the snack, they headed up to Silver’s enclosure. Micah made himself not think about how great Daniel looked shirtless and in his trunks, even with the bright orange life vest, and went over the rules. As excited as both kids were, he wasn’t surprised that they got a little freaked out when it came time to get in the water. Dolphins, up close, were bigger than people thought they were.
Gretchen clung to her mom as they walked out onto the little landing that ran around the edge of the enclosure. Her little face screwed up immediately and she started shaking her head.
“It’s okay, honey,” Tabby soothed. “It’s a dolphin, see?” She pointed to the blur of Silver in the water.
“But what if a shark got in,” Gretchen sobbed, beginning to cry. “And not a baby one, a big one!”
“There’s no sharks,” Micah said, smiling. “I promise. Watch.” He got a fish out of the bucket and whistled.
Silver swam over and balanced on his tail, chirping. He always looked like he was smiling, and he was a large dolphin but more than used to people. “Just try petting him first, it’s okay!” Micah said. “I know it’s a lot of water, too, and that can be scary. But Silver is a good listener, and if you’re a little nervous, I’ll make sure he doesn’t swim too close. But you should pet him, he’s soft like the stingrays, see?”
Gretchen just stared at him, but she took a little cautious step.
Micah held his hand out. “Want to come pet him with me?”
She nodded, and made her way carefully over to him. Her hand was small in his, and it only took a few seconds before she was grinning ear to ear. “Mommy! Daddy! I’m petting the dolphin!”
“This is so cute.” Tabby beamed at him, snapping pictures.
“Sure is,” Daniel said, but Micah could have sworn he was looking at him when he said it—and wait, no, what was Micah thinking? He was talking about his kid, not Micah. Micah knew he had a crush on Daniel, had always had a crush on Daniel, but this was ridiculous.
Nate came over with his dad, and in a few minutes both kids were feeding the dolphin fish and sitting with their feet over the edge and splashing, clapping their hands as Micah made Silver leap and twirl.
Tabby was the first one in the water, while Daniel sat with the kids and Micah swam in the enclosure. She was fearless and delighted, and pretty soon he had the whole Bellamy family in the water with their show-off dolphin. Silver loved the attention, and Micah felt comfortable enough to grab Tabby’s phone and snap a few photographs for them.
“I wanna ride on dolphins all the time!” Nate said, when they all got out of the water. He’d loved the part where he could hold on to Silver’s dorsal fin. “How come the other dolphins weren’t here too, Mr. Micah?”
“Well, Silver’s a ham and likes people,” Micah explained. “Bonnie is going back out into the wild when she’s all better. Silver can swim with people because this is his forever home, and he’s good with the dolphins that come in and out. But we don’t want Bonnie to get used to people because sometimes that makes it so they can’t be happy