A Daring Rescue Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1: Island Girl

  Chapter 2: Welcome Party

  Chapter 3: Old and New Friends

  Chapter 4: Friends or Not?

  Chapter 5: Early Morning Mystery

  Chapter 6: Bella’s Secret

  Chapter 7: Cross My Heart

  Chapter 8: Carlos

  Chapter 9: Dolphin Magic

  Chapter 10: Telling the Truth

  Chapter 11: Rescue Mission

  Chapter 12: New Name, New Friends

  Teaser

  About the Author

  Copyright

  “Look, Abby! Dolphins!”

  “Where?” Abby Feingold raced over to her stepmother, Rachel, who was standing with her bare feet in the surf. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny summer day in the Florida Keys. Abby and Rachel were on the beach looking out across the peaceful lagoon at the sea between their island and Key West.

  Yes, their island. Abby still could hardly believe that her family owned an island now! It had happened a few months ago when Daddy and Rachel got married. Rachel’s great-aunt Susan had given them this island, which was called Barnaby Key, as a wedding gift. Great-Aunt Susan had lived there for many years, and Rachel had loved visiting when she was Abby’s age. But for the past ten years, Great-Aunt Susan had lived with her son in Miami, and nobody had lived on the island.

  “Where are the dolphins?” Abby squinted to see past the sunlight glinting off the waves. Then she gasped. “Oh, I see them now!”

  She held her breath and watched the dolphins. There were four or five of them—it was hard to tell, since they never stayed still. They leaped out of the water one after the other, seeming to play tag.

  “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Rachel said. “I love dolphins.”

  “Me too.” Abby smiled up at her new stepmother. Daddy always said that Rachel was the best thing to happen to him since Abby was born. Abby had to agree. She already couldn’t imagine their family without her. Rachel was kind and smart and always smiling. Her father was from Jamaica, and Rachel had lived there until she was a little older than Abby was now. Rachel’s voice still had a lilting accent that sounded like everything she said was a song.

  Then Abby returned her gaze to the dolphins. She watched them jump and twist and play. One of the dolphins was a little smaller than the others. It leaped right over a bigger dolphin, then popped back up, seeming to laugh.

  “I hope Daddy gets back in time to see the dolphins,” Abby said, pushing aside a strand of wavy brown hair that the sea breeze had blown into her face.

  “That would be nice,” Rachel agreed. “I bet our guests would love seeing dolphins, too. Maybe we can add a dolphin-spotting boat trip to the schedule. What do you think?”

  “That’s a great idea.” Abby took out her phone and made a note of it. She’d received the phone for her eighth birthday, which had happened a few weeks after the wedding. Daddy said she was the most responsible just-turned-eight-year-old he knew, and that she deserved to have her own phone. Besides, living on an island, she might need it.

  Next, Abby took a few photos of the dolphins. But they were pretty far away—when she looked at the photos, the dolphins looked like tiny gray dots.

  “Oh well,” she said. She stuck the phone back in the pocket of her shorts. “Maybe they’ll come closer to the beach sometime.”

  “Maybe,” Rachel agreed. “Anyway, I’m glad we saw them. I’ve always thought they were good luck. Maybe seeing them is a good sign for our brand-new resort!”

  “I bet it is.” Abby smiled. It was hard to believe that their island resort was finally open for business! The three of them had moved in soon after the wedding. Daddy had given up his job as a landscaper, and Rachel had told the school where she taught that she wouldn’t be back in the fall.

  The whole family had spent just about every second since then hard at work. They’d cleaned up and painted the rambling old main house and the six smaller guest bungalows. They’d raked seaweed and other debris off the narrow strip of white sand beach. And they’d cut back the jungle of vines and weeds growing over everything. Rachel and Abby had gone to Key West, a much bigger island that was about three miles away by boat, to pick out bed linens and other stuff to decorate the guest rooms. Daddy had spent hours planting beautiful tropical flowers and shrubs. Most of the plants had come from Key West and other nearby islands. A few had to be shipped in from the mainland, which was more than sixty miles away.

  Now everything looked perfect. Abby knew their first group of guests was sure to love it!

  Abby scanned the horizon, looking for the Kismet. That was the name of the family’s boat. They planned to use it to pick up guests from the Key West airport and to take them out fishing and scuba diving on the coral reefs.

  Then she looked for the dolphins again. They were getting farther away. A second later, they disappeared around the rocky curve of shore at the far end of the beach.

  Abby wished they could have stayed longer. But she reminded herself that she lived on an island now—not in their old apartment on the mainland, miles and miles from the beach. She would have plenty of chances to see dolphins and all kinds of other cool creatures.

  Just then she saw movement out on the water. “There’s the Kismet!” she cried, pointing. “The boat is coming back!”

  Abby waved as the boat came closer. Then she and Rachel hurried over to the dock, which jutted out into the deep water near the house. By the time they got there, Daddy was jumping out to tie up the boat.

  “Welcome to Barnaby Key!” Rachel called out to his passengers.

  “Thank you,” a young, pretty woman called back.

  “Happy to be here!” added a cheerful-looking older man with a shiny bald head.

  There were five other guests in the boat. Abby smiled when she saw that one of them was a girl about her age. The girl had a pointy chin, big brown eyes, and freckles across her nose. Her wavy dark hair was held back by a sparkly headband.

  Daddy helped all the guests out of the boat. The adults were already oohing and aahing over the clear water and flowers and palm trees.

  Abby stepped forward to greet the girl. “Hi, I’m Abby,” she said. “I’m eight. How old are you?”

  “I’m seven, but I turn eight in August.” The other girl smiled shyly. “My name is Bella.”

  “That’s a pretty name,” Abby said. “Where do you live?”

  Bella pointed back the way the boat had come. “On Stock Island. That’s right next to Key West.”

  “Really?” Abby was surprised. She’d expected most of the resort’s guests to come from farther away. “Why’d you decide to come here?”

  “My aunt and uncle are visiting from Virginia.” Bella waved a hand toward the bald man and a petite dark-haired woman. “They wanted to relax somewhere quiet. So this place sounded perfect.”

  “Oh, it is!” Abby pointed toward the beach. “They can sit there all day long if they want to!”

  Bella giggled. “They’ll like that. So you live here on this little island?”

  “Uh-huh.” Abby shrugged. “Only for the past month or so, though. I used to live on the mainland.” She told Bella about Great-Aunt Susan.

  “Wow.” Bella didn’t say anything else, but she smiled again. Abby could tell that Bella was a little shy. But that was okay.

  “Come on,” Abby said. “I’ll help carry your stuff to your bungalow. Then I’ll give you a tour if you want.”

  “Sure, thanks.” Bella picked up her backpack and followed Abby toward the end of the dock. The adults were already heading that way, too.

  “The waves are really gentle on the beach,” Abby told Bella. “So it’s a good place to look for she
lls and sand crabs and stuff. The rest of the shoreline is mostly kind of rocky, except for the far end where there are mangroves. Oh! And guess what! I saw dolphins right out beyond the lagoon just now!”

  “Really?” Bella looked excited. “I love dolphins! I always look for them when I’m at the beach.”

  “I love them, too. They’re probably my favorite animal,” Abby said. “There are tons of other animals here on the island, though, too. So far I’ve seen rabbits, turtles, a raccoon, a couple of iguanas, some other lizards I don’t know the name of, and lots of different birds and fish.” She shrugged. “Daddy says there might even be Key deer here, but we haven’t seen any yet.”

  “Wow. How big is the island?” Bella asked.

  “It’s almost thirty acres. But only about five are cleared so far.” Abby gestured to the forest beyond the dock. “We’re going to clear a little more when we have time so we can plant more fruit trees and maybe a vegetable garden. But Daddy wants to keep most of the island wild. We’ll probably cut some paths for hiking, though.”

  She pointed out the main house, where she and Daddy and Rachel lived on the third floor. The open-air dining pavilion was nearby, with white sand-and-shell paths connecting it to the house and bungalows. Daddy had worked hard on the landscaping, planting colorful flowers and native grasses. Tall palm trees swayed over the beach and gardens.

  Soon Abby and her parents had showed all the guests to their bungalows. Bella and her parents were in the Silver Palm Bungalow, which had two bedrooms. Her aunt and uncle were in the Moonflower Bungalow right next door. The young, pretty woman turned out to be a newlywed named Mrs. Smith-Patel. She and her new husband, Mr. Smith-Patel, were in the Orchid Bungalow at the far end of the beach.

  “I like the names of the cabins,” Bella said as she and Abby left the Silver Palm Bungalow.

  “Thanks. It was my dad’s idea to name them after plants,” Abby told her. “He used to be a landscaper.”

  Bella nodded and looked around. “How many cabins are there?”

  “Six,” Abby said. “Plus three guest suites in the main house.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot,” Bella said. “Are we the only guests? The seven of us from the boat, I mean.”

  “Yes, for now.” For a second, Abby felt worried. She’d been so excited about having guests that she hadn’t thought about the number of guests they had. Only three bungalows were filled. That wasn’t very many.

  “Are those kayaks?” Bella pointed to a rack of colorful boats near the beach.

  “Yes.” Abby forgot about her worry. “It’s really fun to kayak through the mangroves. Want to try it?”

  “Sure! Maybe we’ll see some dolphins, or at least some other cool wildlife.” Bella smiled. “Let’s go!”

  An hour before bedtime that night, Abby knocked on the open office door. The office was a small room tucked under the stairs on the first floor. It was where Daddy and Rachel kept all the important paperwork for the new resort. Daddy was in there sitting at the computer.

  “Hi,” Abby said. “Happy end of the first day of business!”

  Daddy chuckled and ran a hand over his head, making tufts of dark hair stick up. “Thanks, Abs. It was a good day, wasn’t it?”

  “It sure was,” she agreed. “Can I email Layla? I want to tell her all about it.”

  “Of course.” Daddy stood up so Abby could take his place at the computer. “Don’t be long, though. It’s getting late, and we have a big day planned for our guests tomorrow.”

  Abby nodded and clicked over to her email account. She typed in the address for Layla Michaels, her best friend back on the mainland. Leaving Layla and her other friends behind was one of the only bad parts of moving to the island. It was hard to believe she hadn’t talked to Layla in almost two weeks. There was so much to tell her! Abby started to type:

  Hi Layla, it’s me!

  Sorry I haven’t written in a while. We’ve been super busy getting the resort ready to open. And today was our first day with guests. One of them’s a girl our age named Bella Garcia. At dinner tonight, we figured out that we’ll be in the same class at school in the fall. Isn’t that cool? I already have a new friend and school doesn’t start for weeks and weeks! The two of us went kayaking in the mangroves today, which was tons of fun. We saw a bunch of fish and birds, and Bella knew what most of them were. She grew up here in the Florida Keys and knows a lot about all the local wildlife.

  Oh! And speaking of cool animals, guess what else I saw today? Dolphins! A bunch of them were swimming right out beyond the lagoon. Rachel says seeing them means good luck. I think she’s right!

  Abby stopped typing and thought about the dolphins, smiling as she pictured them leaping and playing in the clear blue sea. Then she went back to her email, telling Layla more about the other guests and all the activities that were planned for the week.

  After she sent her email, Abby stepped out of the office into the long, whitewashed hallway. The sounds of music and laughter drifted toward her from the huge kitchen at the back of the house. She guessed that the kitchen staff must still be there cleaning up after dinner or preparing for breakfast the next morning.

  Abby stuck her head in through the doorway and saw that she was right. The head cook, a local woman named Sofia, was humming along to the radio as she chopped fruit. Several other workers were still there, too, scrubbing pots or adding salt and pepper to the shakers that went on each guest table.

  “Abby!” Sofia brushed a strand of curly hair out of her eyes. “Come looking for a bedtime snack, darling?”

  Abby smiled. She liked the way Sofia called everyone “darling.”

  “Actually, I am a little hungry,” she said. “I was so busy talking to our guests tonight that I guess I didn’t eat enough.”

  Sofia laughed and patted the seat of a tall stool nearby. “Sit your behind right down and let me make you something,” she said. “How about a bowl of arroz con leche?” She winked. “Rice pudding with cinnamon and lemon, just like we make in Cuba.”

  “Yum!” Abby said eagerly. She already loved all of Sofia’s specialties!

  Sofia smiled. “My nephew Carlos likes that one, too. He’s right around your age.” She stepped over to the huge stainless-steel refrigerator. “Maybe you two can meet soon—he lives in Key West, and he was asking about coming to visit the new resort sometime, see where I’m working.”

  “That would be great,” Abby said. “I’d love to meet more kids before school starts.”

  The rice pudding was delicious. Abby ate it quickly, listening to Sofia joke around with the staff. She’d just finished the last bite when Sofia glanced out the window. “Look, darling,” she told Abby. “There’s your cute little friend outside.”

  “You mean Bella? Maybe I’ll go say good night.” Abby thanked Sofia for the snack, then hurried outside through the screen door.

  Bella and her parents stood by a flowering shrub near the corner of the dining pavilion. They’d stopped to watch a bird fluttering among the leaves. Bella’s mother looked over and saw Abby coming.

  “Hello, Abby,” she said. “We’re just taking a short nature walk before bed. Would you like to join us?”

  “Sure, thanks!” Abby liked Bella’s parents. They both worked at the hospital on Stock Island and were smart and friendly.

  The four of them wandered on down the path, watching for wildlife. Soon Bella saw a large, spotted frog. “That’s a leopard frog,” she told Abby. “There are lots of them in the Keys.”

  “He’s so cute!” Abby exclaimed, leaning down for a better look. “Maybe I can catch him and keep him as a pet.”

  For a second, she felt excited about her idea. The apartment complex where she and Daddy had lived back on the mainland hadn’t allowed pets.

  Then she noticed Bella shaking her head. “You shouldn’t do that,” she said. “He’s a wild animal, and they don’t usually make good pets. Frogs need lots of space and water. Plus, you’d have to feed him bugs all the time.�
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  “Bugs? Really?” Abby wrinkled her nose. Before she could say anything else, a loud shriek rang out from the forest nearby. The sound made Mr. Garcia jump.

  “Oh my!” he exclaimed. “What on earth was that?”

  Bella’s mother pointed at a flash of blue and gold feathers disappearing through the trees. “I think it was a bird,” she said. “It looked big!”

  “It didn’t look or sound like any native bird I’ve ever seen in the islands around here.” Bella sounded surprised. “You don’t have a pet parrot, do you, Abby?”

  “Nope.” Abby shrugged. “There are no pets at all on the island. Yet.” She glanced at the frog. “If wild animals don’t make good pets, maybe I can talk Daddy into getting me a dog …”

  Bella was still staring into the trees. “That’s weird,” she said. “Maybe someone’s parrot escaped or something.”

  “Maybe.” Just then Abby heard her father calling her name. She glanced toward the house and saw him on the porch waving at her.

  “Layla just emailed back!” he called. “But hurry up if you want to read it tonight—it’s almost bedtime.”

  “Coming!” Abby responded. Then she smiled at Bella and her parents. “Thanks for letting me come on your nature walk. See you at breakfast!”

  The next morning, Abby woke up early. Sunshine poured in through the windows, making the freshly painted yellow walls of her room seem brighter than ever. She quickly pulled on shorts and a T-shirt and headed downstairs.

  She was halfway down the steps to the first floor when she heard voices drifting out of the office just below. Daddy and Rachel were in there, and they both sounded worried.

  “… and the Channing family just canceled for the week after next,” Rachel was saying. “That means we have only eight guests booked for that week.”

  “And seven this week, and only six next week.” Daddy’s voice was solemn. “Do you think we rushed our grand opening? I mean, we haven’t even decided what to name the resort yet.”