Back at the shore, Kate could hear a few eighth graders shouting Lockie’s name. “Come on, Lock,” Kate said, scratching behind his ears. “Your girls want to play with you…”

His eyes slipped open and locked on her, and Kate’s heart dropped at the fatigue swimming in sorrowful brown. Kate looked back at Tilly. Watching in concern, her hand was raised to her forehead to block out the sun. Lockie moaned again, and a flashback of losing her childhood dog hit Kate.

Christ. If only she had given in to the girls’ request to drive to the beach, if only she hadn’t insisted they all walk. She now needed the van—she could manage to carry Lockie back to the beach, but not all the way back to the school. What were her options? She glanced back to the shore. Tilly couldn’t drive a manual, but Emma…Emma could. Months ago, when Emma first got her learner’s permit, Kate had taken her for driving lessons around the island in the van. She wasn’t licensed, but with Tilly’s supervision… Kate waved Emma over.

Emma waded through the water, breathing heavily when she finally reached the point of the sandbar. “Yeah?”

Kate pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head. “Em,” she said gently, “he can’t get up.”

Emma’s expression crumpled. “He collapsed?”

“I think so,” Kate said.

“Well maybe he’s just tired…”

Kate swiped a hand over her mouth. “He’s whimpering, hon. Something’s wrong.”

Emma’s eyes welled. She slipped to her knees and buried her face in the fur at Lockie’s neck.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Kate assured her, crouching low again. “Don’t panic,” she whispered. “He’s okay for now. He is. Em?” Kate gripped her shoulder. “Em, look at me for a sec.”

Emma pulled back. Their eyes met.

“Don’t tell the other girls, but I need you to go and tell Tilly to walk them back. You need to go with them. When you get there, I need you to get the van and drive it down here with Tilly—I don’t want you driving alone. I’m going to stay with him—”

“—No, I can stay with him—”

“No. I will.” If something happened to Lockie, the last thing she wanted was for Emma to be alone when it happened. “When you get back down here, we’ll take him across to the vet in Portarlington.”

“I can come with you across the causeway?” Emma asked. Hastily, she swiped at the wetness on her cheeks.

Kate nodded. “Of course you can.”

Emma nodded. With one last kiss to Lockie’s ear, she stood. “I’ll be real quick.”

Despair clutched Kate as she watched Emma and Tilly take the steep shortcut through the spindly grass of the dune to where she and Lockie sat back on the dry sand of the beach. Oh God… They had taken such a long time. Too long. Swallowing, Kate shook her head.

Tilly slowed in step, hand pressed to her breastbone as she hesitated. Emma quickened her pace.