Seal With a Kiss

by Jessica Andersen

  She smiled and nodded, hoping he wouldn't pick that moment to read her mind. "Sure. Fine."

  How would it feel if she didn't see him every day? She glanced at Chaz, who'd engaged Candi in a spot of in-house gossip about one of the vet techs, who was apparently having a red-hot affair with the balding forty-something head administrator. She could work with these people. It wouldn't be hard to fit in.

  Glancing down at the table to where Candi's chipped pink nails rested lightly on Smitty's forearm, Violet grimaced. It would be easier not to see him at all than it would be to see him fall in love with another woman. Again.

  So, very deliberately, Violet touched Chaz's hand and regained his attention. She gave him her best smile and said, "So tell me more about your plans for the new team."

  He'd been right. It had been an endlessly long night, Smitty thought, as he slumped in the corner of the elevator, blissfully alone. After Chaz and Violet had elected to stay at the restaurant and listen to the live jazz quartet-and Smitty knew for a fact that Violet wasn't partial to horns-he and Candi had taken a cab back to the hotel.

  He hadn't been able to think of a good reason to refuse her invitation to share a last drink at the bar, but an hour later he was wishing passionately that he'd managed to find a reason. Any reason. Because his head was killing him, and he was pretty sure that the next time she giggled, he was going postal.

  Then lady luck had smiled on him in the form of two Seaquarium employees who'd waved to Candi and asked her to join them.

  They must've seen the desperation in her date's eyes, Smitty thought as he dragged himself down the hall towards his room, fumbling for the key card. He wanted nothing more than to sleep through the night so it would be morning and he and Violet could load up their passenger and head for Smugglers Cove. Because if they stayed here another day, Smitty was sure he would go crazy and do something he'd regret for the rest of his life.

  Like get down on his knees and beg Violet not to leave Dolphin Friendly.

  He glared at the door to her room-next to hisas he swiped the key card for the third time. The darned things never worked right for him. Ever. He would've banged on her door to see if she'd let him in through the locked door that connected their rooms, but why bother? She wasn't back yet. She was still out with Chaz.

  He swiped the card again. Cursed. He drew back his foot to kick the door.

  "Here, let me." Violet deftly slipped the key card from his suddenly nerveless fingers, swiped it through the lock, and pushed open the door when the light flickered green and the mechanism clicked open. "You never did figure key cards out, did you?"

  Smitty didn't answer. He was too busy gaping. She was holding a bucket full of ice packed around a can of soda. Her feet were bare. Her hair was down around her shoulders like he rarely ever saw it-she almost always wore it up for convenience. And she was wearing an oversized T-shirt covered with pictures of big, mean sharks surrounding a single worried-looking goldfish.

  Still holding his door open, she cocked her head. "You okay, Smits?"

  He felt an odd stirring in his chest. Possibly the extra spicy calamari.

  Or else it was something else.

  "Don't go," he blurted out.

  She raised an eyebrow. "Where? To my room? In case you hadn't noticed, it's almost midnight. You and ... Candi must've lost track of time."

  Which made him wonder how long she'd been back at the hotel. She and Chaz the Magnificent must not have stayed at the restaurant long. He smiled at the thought, but felt his nerves sizzle when he said, "No, don't leave Dolphin Friendly. Don't take the job here."

  She froze and his stomach sank. "Oh. That." She stepped away from his door and he stuck a foot in it so he wouldn't have to wrestle with the key again. "Well, it's a good position, a good group of people, and the manatees...."

  He knew she loved manatees. And since they weren't found in Smugglers Cove-or anywhere north of Florida for that matter-that was the one thing Dolphin Friendly couldn't offer her.

  "Still," he said, looking for the words to make her stay. "Dolphin Friendly is expanding. There'll be those new boats soon, assuming we get the grants, and then who knows what? New people, new projects-just think of it!" When she shook her head and turned towards her own door, he called after her, "Will you think about it? Please?"

  She turned back. "Things are changing at Dolphin Friendly, Smitty. You know it and I know it. It's time for us to recognize that and move on. It's time to grow up. Let's be realistic, pretty soon there'll be nothing really keeping me in the group."

  Looking at her, seeing her with both the eyes of a lonely young grad student and the eyes of a grown man who'd only just begun to realize that he was still lonely, he thought she'd never looked more lovely as she did standing barefoot, holding a plastic bucket of melting ice.

  "I'm in the group," he said quietly. "And if things are changing, we need to make sure they're changing for the better. Besides, Brody would miss you." Smitty figured that had to be worth something. He wanted to make some sort of sweeping declaration of his feelings-even though he wasn't even sure what they were anymore-but she hadn't wanted to hear them ten years ago, and he was sure she didn't want to hear them now. So he grinned and said, "Come on, Vi. We've been pals for a lot longer than we were girlfriend and boyfriend. Can't we keep it that way?"

  He thought he saw a flash of pain in her eyes. Her lips turned up wryly at the corners and she shook her head. "That's exactly the point. We're pals. Let's keep it that way."

  With that, she let herself into her room and closed the door.

  Smitty stood in the hallway for a long time, wondering exactly what he had missed.

  ccCareful, careful! Don't bang the crate around. This isn't a case full of frozen fish, you know!" Chaz waved his arms wildly as the crane operator goosed the winch too quickly.

  Jasper emitted a startled "Hork!" as the compact car-sized crate he was in swung ponderously through the air and bounced off the side of the refrigerator truck.

  "Hey, watch it!" Violet-who had been standing near the open doors at the back of the truck-dove for cover as the crate whistled overhead. If Jasper weighed about twelve-hundred pounds, and the crate another thousand ... she didn't want to think about the damage the two could do together. The poor guy was probably frightened out of his head!

  "Put it down!" Smitty waved furiously at the crane operator, who finally played out enough line to set the crate gently on the ground.

  "Is he okay?" Chaz asked worriedly, and Violet glanced into the crate.

  Jasper's eyes were bright and he was bobbing his head enthusiastically. When he saw Violet, he greeted her with a happy "Hork, hork, hoooork!"

  She laughed. "He thinks he's on a carnival ride. I'm pretty sure he just said higher, faster!"

  Smitty shuddered. He hopped down from one giant caterpillar crane tread and walked over to inspect the side of the truck. "Not much damage, but can we try to keep it that way? Brody'll have my head if we end up owning a dented fifteen-year-old refrigerator truck."

  The concept was simple-load Jasper into his traveling crate and use the crane to place the crate on the hydraulic lift at the back of the truck. Because of the high moats surrounding the sea lion arena, and the fact that the fork truck that usually moved the crates around was out of commission, this had seemed the best plan. Now Violet wasn't so sure.

  "Okay, one more try." Smitty hopped back up to confer with the crane operator. The big engine mo tored up, the cable grew tight once again, and the crate was lifted-gently-into the air.

  Violet engaged the hydraulic tailgate and waited near the back deck of the truck. The lift was enough to stabilize the ton-plus load and slide it into the truck, but not enough to bring the load up by itself. They were trying to coordinate the crane and the lift together. In theory, it would work.

  But in theory, it should've worked the last six tries too.

  "I should've been a horse trainer," she muttered to herself as the crate descended towar
ds the lift.

  "Why's that?" asked perky Candi.

  "Because horses know how to load themselves on trucks," Violet answered shortly. She might not have liked the other woman when she'd been hanging on Smitty's arm the night before, and she certainly hadn't liked her when Smitty had reeled back to his room near midnight, smelling like chocolate perfume, but Violet had to admit that Candi was doing her job now. The blond was in charge of keeping Jasper cool and happy while he was being loaded. She had a hose with a spray nozzle, and was wetting the sea lion down regularly as well as feeding him small pieces of fish now and again to keep him thinking this was all fun and games.

  Sea lions, like most marine mammals, overheated easily-with disastrous consequences.

  "Okay, bring it down now," Violet called and waved her arm for the crane operator to start lowering Jasper's crate.

  Besides, she thought, Candi wasn't the problem. Smitty was the problem. If he didn't see her as anything more than a "pal"-and he'd made that pretty clear the night before-then there really wasn't any hope for them, was there?

  Violet wasn't sure when she started thinking that there might be hope for the two of them. It was probably when she'd played with that little boy at the water park and thought how much she'd wanted children, once upon a time. That was right about the time she realized that if she and Smitty tried another relationship and it failed, then one of them would have to leave Dolphin Friendly.

  Then when Chaz had made his offer, she began to wonder whether it might just be better to avoid the inevitable heartbreak all together and switch jobs now.

  Cowardice, maybe. But it was the safe, painless option. She glanced at Smitty and her heart turned over in her chest. Okay, she amended. Maybe just the less painful option.

  "Are we still on target?" The shout returned her attention to the descent of the heavy crate, and through a combination of fair winds, clear skies, and general dumb luck they managed to drop Jasper squarely on the hydraulic lift this time.

  There was a ragged chorus of cheers from the Seaquarium staff, and a general sigh of relief when the crate slid into the refrigerator truck without further incident. A few of the trainers waved or shed a quiet tear as Violet shut the doors on Jasper's last sight of sunny Florida.

  "He'll be okay in Boston, won't he?" Candi's lower lip trembled as she looked to Violet for reassurance.

  "Er-" Violet backed away a step. "Sure, he'll be fine. The trainers at the Boston Aquarium are topnotch. Good people."

  "Thanks," Candi whispered. Her big blue eyes filled with tears. "I'll just miss him so much. He's such a good boy." She launched herself against Violet and clung, crying hiccuppy sobs.

  Violet struggled to free herself without being too obvious. She patted the blond's heaving shoulder with one hand while waving frantically for help with the other. She glanced up for rescue, and saw Smitty standing nearby, grinning. She mouthed Get her off me! and he shook his head. He knew full well that emotions-particularly female ones-worried her to no end.

  "Come on darling, it'll be okay," Chaz came to the rescue, peeling Candi off Violet and handing the sobbing blond over to another staffer. "Jasper will make lots of new friends in Boston."

  He shook his head and grinned as Candi was led away, sniffling. To Violet, he said, "I promise if you come work with me that I won't let her hug you more than once a month." He grinned at her shudder. "And I won't assign her to your team, okay?" He passed her a card, which was almost blown away when Smitty started the truck's engine and revved it until it belched a black cloud all over Chaz.

  Violet suppressed a smile when her one-time partner in crime leaned his head out of the cab and called a completely false, "Sorry!"

  Chaz pulled her away from the vehicle and tapped the card. "Here are the numbers where you can reach me. I'm serious about the offer."

  She nodded and didn't glance over when Smitty revved the truck again. "I'm seriously thinking about it. You said housing was included?" She thought about the years she'd spent with Dolphin Friendly, either sleeping onboard in a hammock because they couldn't afford a hotel, or staying in those crummy apartments they rented by the week. Then she thought of her pretty room at Smugglers Cove, and the view of the ocean she had out her window. About the curtains and bedspread she and Maddy were going to shop for when she got home.

  Except it might not be home for long.

  "Yes," Chaz replied. "Housing is included."

  "Would I get my own closet?"

  He laughed. "You'd get your own condo." He put his hand on her back and steered her to the front of the truck, opened her door for her, and handed her up. "Think about it and get back to me after the opening ceremony. I want to flesh out the new team by the end of the month."

  Smitty slammed the transmission into reverse before Chaz even got the door shut, forcing him to jump out of the way as the truck lurched backwards, spun around, and accelerated away from Seaquarium Florida.

  Violet couldn't help laughing. "That was rude. Wouldn't you have felt bad if you'd run his toes over?"

  Smitty shook his head and grinned. "Not really. Besides, we need to get old Jasper up to Smugglers Cove by noon tomorrow, so there's no time to stand around chitchatting, is there?" When she drew in a breath to reply, he glanced at the now-empty specimen jar. "Should we put our money in now or later?"

  She let the breath back out on a wistful sigh. "Let's not. We've declared a truce, right? I'd like to drive home without fighting, if we can manage it." It came to her that this could very well be the last time she and Smitty were really alone together. If Chaz was serious about putting the team together inside of a month, she'd have to leave Dolphin Friendly sooner rather than later.

  "Well, if you don't want to fight, what do you want to do? Talk? Play a game?"

  She glanced over at his profile and had to stop herself from touching the line of his jaw where the stubble showed a burnished red. She took the easy way out. "I think I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when it's my turn to drive."

  He woke her up sooner than that, shaking her gently as he eased the truck onto the shoulder of the road. "Vi. Come on, wake up. We've got a problem."

  Nervous twinges flickered through him as he glanced yet again at the gauge on the dash. The little orange arrow should've pointed towards one of the cool blue numbers. It had all the way out of Florida.

  Now it was reading in the orange. He shook Violet again and set the parking brake.

  "Huh? Wha-?" She woke up slowly at first, then snapped to attention when she realized they were stopped on the side of the highway. "What's wrong? We get a flat?"

  "Nope. Worse. The refrigerator quit and Jasper's area is heating up fast."

  "Oh, no!" She beat him to the back of the truck. They opened the doors together and immediately felt that the air inside the lit refrigerator compartment wasn't much colder than outside.

  "Hork?" Jasper didn't seem uncomfortable yet, but Smitty knew that the border between a happy sea lion and a broiled sea lion was a fine line.

  "Grab the water jugs and let's wet him down." Matching action to words, Violet hopped into the truck and uncapped one of the blue water jugs they'd loaded in for just such an emergency. Smitty did the same, then he examined the interior of the cargo area, hoping for a miracle.

  "No windows we can open to give him a breeze. Guess the designers didn't have live transport in mind when they put this truck together." He glanced outside at the midday southern sunlight. "It's only going to get hotter in here, but we can't wait around for a repair. Not if we want to be back in Smugglers Cove in time for the ceremony."

  Violet nodded. "Let's get back on the road. You can make some calls and line up a repairman to meet us along the way. We can ice him down if necessary, but we've got to keep his body temp down."

  They closed the doors on a slightly warm-looking sea lion. "Think he'll be okay?" Smitty asked dubiously as Violet pulled herself into the driver's seat.

  She nodded. "He'd better be, or we'll be in worse
trouble with Brody than we were when we left Smugglers Cove. What do you think is wrong with the refrigerator?"

  "Dunno." Smitty shrugged. "There's a reason we've always kept a dedicated mechanic on staff. I'm hopeless with this sort of thing, and you're even worse. At least I've never filled the pickup's radiator with oil."

  He grinned when she spluttered. Score one for him. Now, if he could just figure out how to keep Jasper cool, he'd be ahead of the game. He flipped the cell phone open, took a card of emergency numbers out of his wallet, and started making calls as the truck pulled back onto the highway.

  It was going to be a long evening.

  "When did we stop last?" Smitty asked, glancing back down at the temp gauge, which was staying stubbornly in the orange.

  Violet glanced at her watch. "Two hours ago. We should stop again soon and buy more ice. The hundred pounds we bought at the last place is probably almost gone by now."

  Smitty grunted and nodded. He'd been worried when his calls had proven that there was no such thing as roadside refrigerator repair-at least not on 1-95 north. But Jasper seemed to be holding his own, and it was dusk now, so the outside temperature should drop soon.

  Brody had taken the news remarkably well, only threatening to fire them both if anything happened to Jasper. Then he'd told them to be careful, wished them luck, and threatened to fire them again if they didn't get to Smugglers Cove by noon the next day.

  Smitty thought philosophically that being fired might not be such a bad thing. He'd been thinking that if Violet decided to leave Dolphin Friendly, he might go as well. Things just wouldn't be the same without her.

  "There! Pull over there." Violet pointed across the road.

  There was a small building with two tired-looking gas pumps out front and a faded cola sign above the door. It wasn't impressive, but it was the first convenience store they'd seen in a half hour. This would've been surprising if they were still on the main road, but Smitty had elected to take one of the bypasses listed in the map to avoid the last big city. Unfortunately, they hadn't actually made it back to 1-95 yet, which limited their ice choices.