“I wish I were. God, seeing you lying there, alone in bed…” He paused. “Not fair. Shouldn’t be allowed by international law.”

“Should I get up?” she teased. “Move to the kitchen?”

“No. I’ve got the bed in my mind. Don’t ruin it.”

“I hope you’re not going to suggest we get naughty,” she said.

“I wasn’t going to… but if you insist.”

“No!” she said, then laughed and reached again for her cup of tea. “Besides, I’d need something much stronger than this glass of herbal tea.”

“No, it’s not a good idea,” Gordon agreed. “One reason being it’s bloody freezing here. The wet seems to go right to the skin. The seals…” He laughed. “They’ve got that blubber to keep them warm. If I could invent a self-generating heating system like they have, I’d be rich.”

“What’s the station you’re staying at like? Warm, I hope.”

“It’s primitive. There’s this ancient heater and a wood-burning stove that seems to be letting cold air in more than warming anything. I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere—and it’s rained every day. I can’t keep my sodding socks dry,” he added before taking another swallow of his drink. “It was warmer on the boat. And let me tell you, the wind was brutal.”

“Poor baby.”

He snorted and shook his head. “I really do miss you, Lin. Miss being in bed with you. Brings back memories. Lots of memories.”

She looked at her tea and smiled, remembering too.

He asked, “So, if we’re not going to be talking dirty to one another, what do you want to talk about?”

“Your work. I’m always fascinated. What are you learning?”

He smiled at her answer. She knew that their shared passion for marine life was one of the bonds that united them.

“Well,” he began, collecting his thoughts. “We’re trying to follow up on last year’s study.…”

She listened closely. The previous summer, Gordon had come to Charleston to continue research on the landmark study he’d participated in along the Cornish coast. They had examined fifty animals, from ten species of dolphins, seals, and whales and found microplastics in them all.

“We need to know how the fish are getting the microplastics,” he said. “Is it directly from the water or from their prey? This would mean that the plastics are transferred through the food chain.”

“If the fish eat the plastic and we eat the fish…”

“That’s right,” he confirmed. “We’ve documented that even the deepest-dwelling marine organisms have plastic in their stomachs.” He sighed. “It’s a concern.”

She hid her smile. Gordon, like most scientists she’d met, was a master of understatement. Linnea thrilled to his intellect and his hands-on knowledge of what was really happening in the environmental world they both cared so much about. She leaned forward a bit, absorbed by what he was telling her.

“Anyway,” Gordon said in a tone that implied he didn’t want to talk about work anymore, “that’s what’s happening here on our coast. Tell me what’s going on in your life on the beautiful Isle of Palms. I want to hear that the sun is shining and it’s warm.”