Seal With a Kiss

by Jessica Andersen

  Brody shook his head in disgust, calmer than Smitty had expected him to be. Maddy must have soothed him a bit. She had a knack for that.

  "I don't know what's gotten into you two," Brody began. "You've been at each other night and day for months now and it has to stop. You're affecting mo rale on the boat and it's impacting your abilities to do your jobs."

  While he might argue the morale point, since Ishmael and Maddy were the only other scientists on Streaker and they didn't seem to care about the continued tension, Smitty couldn't very well defend his own actions. He'd known he was pushing Violet too hard, but something about the way she'd jumped when he'd walked up behind her had just plain rubbed him wrong and he'd reacted.

  Nothing had changed in the decade or so since she'd walked away from what they'd had together. But since Brody's marriage, he'd been thinking more and more about the way he and Violet had ended things. He'd been wishing things were different, and maybe he'd been picking on her because they weren't different. Because he was frustrated. And because the happy couple's relationship showed him what he didn't have.

  But now, five spectacular minutes of badly needed footage had paid the price. The camera dripped on the chart table, a long crack in the waterproof casing giving mute testimony to its demise.

  "We'll pay for the camera and we'll get another good scene for your video," he offered lamely, aware of Violet standing stiffly nearby.

  Brody sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up and on end. "How? The opening ceremony is less than a week away. The politicians will be coming to see how we've used the first half of the funding and decide whether to give us the rest. Need I remind you how badly we need that money for the second boat and additional manpower? The Smugglers Cove Stranding Research Center isn't going to get all the way off the ground without it."

  "I'm sorry, Brody." They were the first words Violet had spoken since she'd yelled for him not to use his snorkel.

  Smitty had to admit that the hot sauce, while surprising and not at all pleasant, had been an excellent practical joke. It was almost as good as the time he had safety pinned her into her hammock and sounded the fire alarm.

  Over the years, the practical jokes they'd played on each other had been one of the few links they'd been able to maintain.

  Unfortunately, the timing of this particular joke had been just plain bad, and the opening ceremony video had paid the price. But, thought Smitty, everything was fixable.

  He sent Violet an encouraging smile, but she didn't notice. Her attention was focused on Brody.

  Always Brody. Smitty sighed. Some things, it seemed, weren't fixable, no matter how hard he wished for it.

  "What am I going to do with you two?" Brody asked.

  Although he figured it was probably a rhetorical question, Smitty answered, "Keelhaul us? No, seriously, boss. We're very sorry about the videotape and we'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you."

  Violet nodded earnestly. "Sure, Brody. Anything."

  "Maddy tells me. . ." Brody paused, then continued in a voice that reflected genuine puzzlement, "that you two don't want to work together anymore."

  Smitty was surprised at the depth of his own disappointment. He hadn't realized Violet was feeling the same way. The idea brought a vague ache to his chest. Sure, he'd figured some time apart might smooth out the tension between them, but suddenly the notion of not seeing her every day seemed worse than fighting all the time.

  "Now, boss," he began, "let's not make any hasty decisions-"

  But Brody rolled right over him, saying, "However, even if we get the funding, it'll be a while until the second boat puts out to sea. Also, I've been thinking that one of us should stay on land to coordinate the stranding rescue volunteers, organize the new educational programs we're going to run from the center, and help with the databases."

  Ahab, another of Dolphin Friendly's intern-turnedresearchers, had been working on a computer model of dolphin and whale strandings on the eastern seaboard. He didn't seem to mind spending long hours indoors clicking away at his computer, but Smitty would rather eat chum than be stuck on land, working inside the stranding center day after day after day....

  Stuck on land. Brody's planned punishment suddenly became crystal clear.

  Violet was just as quick to put two and two together. "Now Brody, don't be hasty. You wouldn't want to pull one of your senior researchers out of the field. You need us."

  "Exactly. I need both of you. But not when your minds are elsewhere. I need you with me-body and soul-and the dolphins do too." Brody reached across the chart table and plucked a key ring from the hook next to the ship-to-shore radio. "Take these."

  Smitty did so, feeling a quiver of unease. As always, he hid it with a joke. "What are they? Keys to the convertible I always wanted?"

  Brody snorted. "Not hardly. They belong to a twenty-foot refrigerator truck that you two," he glared at his friends, "are driving to Florida."

  Seeing where this was going, Smitty tried to stop it before it happened. "But boss-"

  "Nope." Brody shook his head. "My mind is made up. Take the keys or you're both on shore duty starting now."

  "Brody-" Violet began.

  "Nope. Neither one of you is going to talk me out of this." Their boss grinned and stretched before lacing his fingers together behind his head. "If you want to complain, talk to Maddy. This was her idea."

  "No kidding," Smitty muttered, "Miss `why can't we all get along' just had to get involved, didn't she?" But he wasn't really mad. Brody was right.

  He and Violet had to make peace or stay away from each other for good. This half-friendship, halfenmity wasn't working for either of them, and it wasn't helping Dolphin Friendly.

  "I don't get it. What are you talking about?" Violet demanded.

  "We're talking about a road trip," Brody told her. "You and Mr. Smith here are taking a big, ugly refrigerated truck down to Florida to pick up a California sea lion named Jasper."

  "A sea lion? In Florida?" Violet repeated, and Smitty felt almost sorry for her. "With Smitty?" The flush that climbed her cheeks was downright lovely, and her perfect nails clenched the edge of the chart table as if it were a lifeline. She looked utterly horrified.

  He felt a thump of disappointment. Was the idea of spending a few days stuck in a vehicle with him really so awful? If so, friendship, or even a truce between them seemed unlikely.

  "It was your idea, wasn't it, Violet?" Brody looked to Smitty for confirmation. "You suggested that we use a trained sea lion to cut the grand opening ribbon with oversized scissors, right?"

  She nodded, then shook her head. "Yes, but I was kidding. I didn't think you'd actually go for it."

  "Well, I thought it was a good idea. The politicians will love it. I asked a few people, and it turns out that Jasper the sea lion was already scheduled to be transferred from the Florida Stranding Rescue Seaquarium up to Boston. I got them to agree that if we drove him, Jasper could make a quick detour to the Cape on the way to his new home. The trainers have worked with him and a pair of foam rubber scissors, and now he's ready for transport."

  "T-transport?" she stammered.

  Smitty patted her shoulder, wishing she didn't look so upset by the idea of a road trip with him. "It won't be so bad, Vi."

  She shrugged him off as though she couldn't stand his touch. Backing away from the chart table, she held up both hands. "No way. I'm not going."

  Brody shook his head. "Sorry. Not an option. I need my senior people in charge of this move and you two are it."

  Smitty didn't bother to ask whether Ahab and Ishmael had been scheduled for the trip until the darned video camera landed in the drink. He'd bet on it.

  "And if I refuse?" Violet asked.

  "Then you're both on land duty as of tomorrow, and I'll tell Ahab to make you guide all the preschool field trips scheduled to tour the rescue center. When you're done with that, you'll be on data entry." Brody grimaced when they both shuddered in horro
r. "I'm not kidding. Do it. This may sound stupid, but Maddy thinks you two have some stuff to work out. I'm giving you three and a half days. Take a day or two to drive down, and then drive Jasper straight back for the ceremony. By the time you get home, I want you to have worked things out so you can at least be civil to each other."

  Violet stuck out her chin, though her eyes were wary. "Or?"

  Brody looked from the broken camera to her and back again. "Or you're no use to me as field researchers, either of you. As Maddy's parents learned, a boat is no place to make mistakes. I won't run the risk of you getting hurt because your minds aren't on your work. Figure it out, or you're on desk duty."

  Brody stood, walked to the door, opened it, then closed it softly behind him, probably figuring they'd like to get a head start on making up.

  Brody always had been an optimist. Smitty would like nothing better than to make things right with Violet, but he wasn't even sure when it had gone wrong. He didn't have a clue how to start fixing their friendship.

  So he went with sarcasm, dangling the keys off his index finger and grinning. "What do you say, Vi? Ready for a little fun in the sun?"

  She glared at him. "I'll go on this trip. Under duress. But I won't make nice to you, no matter what he says." She stomped off, slamming the door for effect, but not before Smitty thought he glimpsed a sheen of moisture in her eyes.

  It brought him up short. Violet never cried. If the thought of three days alone with him was enough to reduce her to tears, then things between them were worse than he thought.

  Maybe Maddy had a point, after all. Maybe he and Violet did have some things to work out.

  He just wished he knew where to start.

  "Son of a lamprey thinks he's going to get one over on me, he's sadly mistaken," Violet muttered the next morning as she chucked a second pair of shorts into her overnight bag. "I'll go on Brody's stupid road trip, but I won't make nice to Smitty no matter how cute he thinks he is."

  She pulled a couple of blouses from their hangers and tossed them on the ruffled bedspread. Then she rolled her eyes at the bed. She kept meaning to replace the ruffles with something less girly. Some days she barely noticed the frou-frou. Other days, like today, it grated on her nerves.

  The room was decorated with lace, doilies, and other fluffy things she couldn't even name. When Maddy had closed the Smugglers Cove Inn and turned her grandparents' old B and B into the temporary headquarters of the Stranding Center, Violet had fully intended to strip her room of lace and frills and hang up a few of her favorite vintage movie posters.

  She hadn't gotten around to it yet. There was always something more interesting to do, like head into the Cove's so-called downtown and shoot a game of pool at the diner, or take one of the Zodiacs out, kill the engine, and just drift for a while and watch the stars while she listened to the humpback whales sing.

  The ocean. God, she loved the ocean.

  "I can't believe he's threatening to ground me." She felt an itchy, prickling sensation behind her eyes and was shocked by the thought that she was close to tears. She hadn't really cried since grad school, and it wasn't an experience she was hoping to repeat anytime soon.

  A noise at the door had her turning quickly away and scrubbing at her eyes with the blouse she held in her hands. It wouldn't do for one of the crew to see her red-eyed. She had an image to maintain.

  But it wasn't one of the crew. Or at least Violet didn't see her that way. Not yet.

  "Maddy." Violet kept her tone polite. Though her romance with Brody had died an uninteresting death long before Dolphin Friendly arrived in Smuggler's Cove, Violet couldn't help feeling hurt that Brody had found someone else. And married her.

  It was a sad fact that men didn't marry Violet. They married the next girl they dated after Violet.

  "Violet." Maddy's return greeting also bordered on cool, but she continued, "I came to see whether you need any help packing for your trip."

  "Came to gloat, did you? Wanted to see how Brody's ex-girlfriend was taking her punishment?" Violet folded the blouses willy-nilly and pushed them into the bag. She knew she was being unkind, but Maddy's marriage into the group had changed dynamics that had been stable for nearly a decade, and Violet wasn't quite ready to forgive her for that.

  Surprisingly, instead of denying the accusation, Maddy looked at her feet and twisted her fingers to gether. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me that you and Brody once had a relationship, but I'd like to think I'm a better person than that."

  The words unlike you hung between the women and Violet had to work to stop a quick grin.

  Perhaps Maddy was ready to join the pecking order of Dolphin Friendly after all. She began to work up a reply that was snippy enough to keep the conversation going but not so nasty that she'd have to apologize, but then Maddy took the wind completely out of her sails, saying, "And this trip wasn't intended as punishment by any of us. More like enforced togetherness for you and Smitty. I care about both of you-"

  Violet snickered, but she had to force it past a sudden lump in her throat.

  Maddy shook her head. "No, it's true. Smitty has been wonderful to me all along. He's kind and funny and sensitive-"

  "A real prince," Violet murmured, earning a warning look that made her feel mean.

  "He is, though, and you know it. You just don't want to admit it. And then there's you."

  Violet waited, curious what positive thing Maddy would find to say about her. There couldn't be much. She hadn't been at her best lately. The changes within Dolphin Friendly had unsettled her. Brody's marriage had removed him from the triangle of friends and put her in closer contact with Smitty.

  Contact that made her yearn for things that could never work.

  "You've been a member of Dolphin Friendly since the beginning. Sure, you're prickly," Maddy said, and Violet grinned at the description. She'd worked long and hard to earn it, because it made the men take her seriously. She might be five-foot-nothing, but she held her own. Maddy continued, "But you're also the best underwater photographer I've seen in a long while, your sonar and acoustic skills are second to none, and you're the only person on the boat who can beat Ishmael at taxonomy." Maddy paused and touched her hair, which was less of a frizzy mess now that she was using the right conditioner. "And you helped me with my hair, even if you don't want anyone to know about it."

  "Why do I get the feeling there's a `but' coming up next?" Violet abandoned her packing and ran a piece of clothing between her fingers while she stared at Maddy. She'd never been entirely comfortable with `girl talk,' but she couldn't quite bring herself to end the conversation. It was starting to get interesting.

  "Not so much a `but.' More like an observation." Maddy twisted her fingers again as if unsure how Violet would react. "I don't think you're happy."

  Violet snorted even as her shoulders did that tense, tightening thing they'd been doing more often lately. "What's not to be happy about? I love my work; you said yourself I'm good at it. We've gotten half our grant, the stranding center opens in a week, and we should get the other half of the money. In the time we've stayed in Smugglers Cove I've dived with more marine mammals than I've seen since we left Monterey Bay." She looked around the room, trying to think of another reason she was happy. "And I've finally got my own closet," she finished, waving at the room.

  Oddly enough, she realized it was true. She loved her closet. And part of her was happy, for all the reasons she'd mentioned, including the closet.

  Personal space had been in short supply on Streaker, and until they had taken up residence in the Smugglers Cove Inn, the crew had lived out of suitcases and rented rooms. Violet enjoyed knowing she was coming back to the same bed after each trip and it didn't even bother her anymore that she had Maddy to thank for it.

  It shouldn't matter that Smitty slept just down the hall. It wouldn't matter, she assured herself, because there was nothing more than friendship between them, and sometimes not even that.

  Maddy flash
ed a smile. The inn had belonged to her grandparents and she was justifiably proud of it. "I'm glad you like the closet. However, Brody and I feel that neither you nor Smitty are happy right now with the current state of affairs."

  Was it Violet's imagination, or had Maddy stressed the last word?

  "Have you-" Violet paused and swallowed, hating herself for needing to know. "Have you asked Smitty about it?"

  Maddy wrinkled her nose. "Yes. He just told a joke and changed the subject."

  "Typical," Violet muttered, hastening to add, "not that there's anything he should have told you, of course. We just get on each other's nerves. That's all."

  "Of course," Maddy replied, reaching to take a blouse out of the carryall and refold it more neatly. "That's all. Which is why you've packed the shirt he complimented you on a few days ago and the bikini that nearly made his eyes cross when you wore it last week."

  "Not intentionally." Violet made a grab for the offending items but Maddy held on. The women indulged in a brief tug-of-war over the miniscule bikini top, which was nothing more than a pair of BandAid sized scraps of fabric held together with electric blue string, until Maddy gave up and sat down on the bed, laughing.

  "Oh never mind. You don't have to tell me. But really Violet, just between us girls, don't you think he's even a little handsome?"

  The phrase just between us girls took Violet aback. She didn't remember it ever being "us girls" before. A tomboy raised by three brothers, she considered herself eminently qualified to deal with men, but was at a loss when confronted by women-particularly friendly, emotionally open ones. So she deliberately misunderstood the question, hoping to fend off Maddy's good intentions. "Who, Brody?"

  The other woman winced and held up a hand, "Please. Let's not talk about your past with my husband while I'm feeling a brief moment of bonhomie here. You know very well who I'm talking about."

  Zipping her bag shut, Violet shrugged. "Sure, Smitty's cute enough. When he's not being annoying, which is almost never." She lifted the bag, glanced at Maddy, and ignored the urge to beg, please don't make me go on this trip. "Guess I'm all packed."