Seal With a Kiss

by Jessica Andersen

  "Got it." He pulled up to a pump, figuring he'd top off the gas while they were at it. There was no telling how much longer they'd be on the bypass.

  Violet had been a surprisingly good sport about the detour, but there was no way she'd let him live it down if they ran out of gas. Not to mention the fact that Jasper couldn't stand the delay. If anything happened to the borrowed sea lion, Smitty wouldn't be worried about Violet letting him live it down. He'd be worried about Brody letting him live. Period.

  When the gas tank was full, Smitty followed Violet into the little store.

  "What do you mean you don't have any ice?" he heard her ask the grandmotherly woman behind the counter. Loudly.

  Smitty's stomach sank. "Uh-oh. No ice?"

  The woman behind the counter-whose name tag proclaimed that she was Flo-shook her head. "Sorry kids. The ice maker broke a week ago and we're still waiting on a part. You need it for a party or something?"

  Violet muttered, "Or something," and stalked over to the freezer cases at the back of the store.

  Smitty tried his best grin. "Is there another store between here and 1-95 that might have a hundred pounds or so of ice available?"

  Even before he finished the question, Flo was shaking her head. "No other store on this road for another hour at least. There's a place a half hour back the way you came that might have some, though."

  "Can't do that." Violet had come up behind him when he wasn't looking. It made him jumpy when she did that. Like he wasn't jumpy enough at the thought of Jasper getting sick under his and Violet's care. She glanced pointedly at her watch and continued, "We'd miss the opening ceremonies. This 'bypass' has made us late enough already."

  She was right, but he didn't have to like it. She walked back toward the freezer cases and he followed, snapping, "Well then, what do you suggest? We're not going to gain any points by showing up on time with a sick performing sea lion, are we?"

  "We won't." She grinned smugly and held up a package of frozen peas. "We'll ice his cage down with frozen food. It should do the trick."

  He stared at her.

  Violet squirmed and tried to hide the peas behind her back. "It's the dumbest idea you've ever heard, right?"

  Smitty shook his head. "No. It's brilliant. I just forget sometimes how smart you are."

  "Thanks a lot." She made a face, but he could tell she was pleased.

  Thinking of the limit on the Dolphin Friendly credit card, he nodded. "It should work, as long as we keep him from eating the food."

  She'd already thought of that. "Double wrap the stuff in garbage bags before we lay them on the top and sides of the crate. He won't get the bonus of cold water dripping on him like he did with the ice bags, but it's better than letting him cook for another hour, right?"

  He nodded. "Right." He grabbed a shopping cartone of only two in the store-and loaded it up with the contents of the double freezers at the end of the little room. Pizzas, ice cream, frozen corn, pop-up biscuits, Popsicles, and frozen French fries all went into the cart. Flo's eyes had nearly popped out of their sockets by the time both shopping carts were loaded with every frozen item in the store.

  And three boxes of garbage bags.

  The shopkeeper rang it all up without comment, only faltering a little when Violet added a big bag of cheez puffs, a six-pack of cola, and a women's magazine to the tab.

  Smitty paid with the card and borrowed the carts to tote their purchases out to the truck. On the way out the door, he called over his shoulder, "And Flo? Can we borrow that garden hose outside for a few minutes?"

  The woman nodded, and as the door shut behind him, Smitty thought he heard her say, "Must be some strange sort of party they're planning."

  He snorted. Violet snickered. He darted a glance at her, saw her eyes swimming with merriment, then looked at the mound of frozen food they'd bought, crowned by a six-pack of soda and a magazine with the headline Honesty in Your Relationship? Take Our Quiz!

  He snorted again. She giggled. They looked at each other and broke down completely, howling with laughter and gasping out little bits of information that sent them back into gales of mirth.

  "Did you see the look on-" She giggled.

  "Her face! She thought we were having some sort of-" Smitty couldn't finish. He was laughing too hard.

  "Party!" they howled in unison, and had to hold each other up.

  He leaned on one of the carts and tried to catch a breath, but the cart rolled away, starting a small avalanche of "pizza for one" and microwave mac and cheese boxes that set them off laughing again.

  "Hey babe, wanna party?" Smitty grabbed Violet by the waist and swung her around in a big circle while they both laughed. "I'll bring the frozen corn and the cheez puffs-"

  "And I'll bring a hundred fifty black garbage bags," she finished, giggling. She wrapped her arms around his neck and probably intended to give him a friendly kiss on the cheek. But the devil inside him made Smitty turn his face just in time, making their lips touch for the first time in ten years.

  They froze. Lip to lip. Eye to eye. Nose to nose.

  And Smitty heard something go click in his head. In his heart.

  Their laughter died. Something else was born, something soft and needy, warm and greedy. Violet took her hands from around his neck, put them on his chest-

  And shoved.

  He stumbled back a pace, bumped into the other shopping cart and sent it rolling down the gentle slope to the road. By the time he'd snagged the cart, Violet was pushing the other load towards the refrigerator truck.

  "Come on, Smits," she called over her shoulder in a perfectly normal voice, as though the world hadn't just tilted on its axis. "Let's get this stuff packed around Jasper and be on our way."

  He caught up to her as she was opening the back doors of the truck. He touched her arm. "Vi?"

  She moved away from him. "Jasper still looks okay. You want to get Flo's hose and wet him down while I start packing garbage bags with the frozen stuff?"

  "Vi, about what just happened-"

  She interrupted him. "Don't worry about it. My lips slipped. It happens. Doesn't mean a thing." She ripped open one of the boxes and started pulling out black plastic bags. "It never happened, okay?"

  No, it's not okay. I want it to have happened. I want it to happen again. Smitty felt like yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he realized that what he really felt like yelling was, How can you possibly think about leaving Dolphin Friendly? Leaving me?

  "Smitty? The hose?" She couldn't quite meet his eyes, but he knew from experience that pushing her now would get him exactly nowhere. He gritted his teeth.

  "Sure. Fine." He stomped off to get the hose because she was right, they didn't have time to hash this out now. But as he passed the little pile of snacks and soda she'd left on the hood of the truck, the magazine headline caught his eye, and he had an idea. He only hoped it was a good one, because he was starting to feel like he was running out of time.

  Or, more precisely, like he and Violet were running out of time.

  Violet waited until he'd gone before she let out a shaky breath and pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart was still rocketing along on the beat it had chosen when she and Smitty had kissed.

  Honestly, it hadn't been much of a kiss. More like a handshake, only with lips. A lipshake. It hadn't been passionate. Hadn't involved more than fleeting contact.

  So why were her hands trembling?

  "Hork?"

  She shook her head. "I don't know, Jasper. Everything's so complicated all of a sudden. He doesn't want me. I don't want him to want me. That would ruin everything we've both worked so hard for." The sea lion bobbed his head in commiseration and she noticed that the skin around his throat seemed looser. She pinched a little bit between her thumb and forefinger and it snapped back quickly enough that she wasn't too worried. But she thought he was getting a little dehydrated. "We'd better get you on the road, huh?"

  "Hork, hork."

  She doubled up o
n the bags and started filling them with frozen food. "We'll get back to the main highway and it should only take us another eighteen hours or so to get to Smugglers Cove. Then you can do your stuff at the opening ceremonies. . . ." She trailed off.

  Then what?

  "Flo's watching us through the window with a cordless phone jammed to her ear," Smitty announced when he returned with the hose. "Wonder what she's telling the neighbors?" He grinned and she wondered whether she'd imagined that he'd been affected by their kiss. He seemed normal enough now-well, as normal as Smitty ever got.

  Maybe it was all one-sided.

  She scowled. "We're late and getting later. I'm almost done with our freezer bags, so turn the hose on him and let's get out of here."

  He snapped a smart salute. "Aye-aye, Captain Oliver. Hose ahoy."

  "Don't be an idiot," she said, but she found her lips stretching into a grin.

  Somehow, even when things seemed at their worst, he made her smile.

  They got back on the road quickly after that, and with Violet driving, they reached 1-95 in under an hour. Smitty's shortcut had added two hours onto their journey and he was profoundly grateful she hadn't mentioned it. Yet.

  Jasper seemed okay when they stopped near the North Carolina line as darkness began to fall. They added some ice to the surprisingly effective garbagebag cold packs and dined on soggy truck-stop cheeseburgers to go. The jar on the dashboard remained empty. They hadn't fought.

  Then again, they hadn't spoken much either.

  When the night had closed in around them, and with it had come that numb sort of lethargy that overtakes the human body when it realizes that it's not going to bed that night, Smitty clicked on his flashlight and pulled out the women's magazine.

  "What are you doing?" Her voice sounded strange in the cab, maybe because they'd been silent so long.

  "Looking for something to keep us awake. The radio stations around here seem to be our choice between a rerun of yesterday's minor league baseball game and an infomercial on hair plugs. It's a little too dark for a game of `I Spy,' unless you count `I spy a dark shadow over there next to that big black thing,' which I don't. We're pretty much alone on the road, which makes the `license plate game' a little irrelevant. And I don't get the impression you're in the mood for small talk. So I thought we could try this relationship quiz in the magazine you bought. Just for fun."

  He held his breath, waiting for her answer. He'd skimmed the quiz earlier when she'd been checking on Jasper, and he thought his plan might work.

  "We're not in a relationship," she pointed out unnecessarily.

  "Sure we are," he replied. "Not necessarily in the way the magazine probably means, but we see each other every day. Our rooms at the inn are down the hall from each other, for goodness' sake. That's closer than a lot of people in real relationships, right?"

  "I still can't believe you ended up with the private bathroom in your room," Violet grumped irrelevantly.

  "Don't change the subject. Do you want to try it or not?"

  They drove in silence for a moment, passing a town line that quickly receded in the distance. Then she shrugged. "Sure, why not."

  Grinning in the darkness, he aimed his flashlight at the magazine and read the introduction to the quiz, adapting it only slightly for his own purposes. "It says here that first off we both have to agree to tell only the truth when answering the questions, even if we're afraid it might hurt the other person's feelings."

  She snickered. "Since when have I been afraid of hurting your feelings?"

  That brought a few comments to mind, but Smitty let it slide. He continued. "And there's no such thing as a pass, or pleading the Fifth, or anything. We each have to come up with an answer to every question."

  The truck labored to climb a gentle hill, and she downshifted before answering. "Fine. Anything else?" She was starting to sound intrigued.

  "Nope, that's it. Question one." He read by flashlight beam, hoping the jiggling light and the small print wouldn't make him carsick. "Name one thing you don't like about the other person."

  "Ooh, I'm having fun already." Violet paused. "Do I have to pick just one?"

  "That's what it says."

  "Okay, well then ..." They drove in silence while she thought, and Smitty shifted nervously, wondering what horrible list of crimes was parading through her head. But when she spoke again, her voice was surprised. "Actually, that's a tough question. The stuff that annoys me is part of what makes you Smitty, you know? How about you go first while I think? What one thing don't you like about me?"

  Because he'd skimmed the questions earlier, he had an answer ready. "I don't like that you run away when things get tough."

  She drew in a breath, stung. "That's not fair. I do not run away! I stuck with Dolphin Friendly through the lean years, and you can say that so quickly? Thanks a lot!" She pressed her lips together, clearly insulted that he'd answered so fast. She sniffed. "I don't think I want to play anymore."

  "See? You're ready to quit already. But I don't mean that you run away from tough stuff at work. It's the emotional stuff. When things start getting heavy, you take off, or change the subject, or start a fight, or take a nap. That's what I'm talking about."

  "I'm not running now," she pointed out.

  "Only because you're driving a truck that's doing sixty miles an hour and we can't stop because we're late. Yes?"

  She didn't dignify that with a response. Then she said, "Fine. I don't like how you're always on the edge of things, always second in command. I think you should try putting your own butt on the line sometime instead of hiding behind Brody."

  Ouch. Somehow when he'd hatched his plan, Smitty hadn't thought about the fact that they'd be lobbing live ammunition at each other. He'd intended to use the quiz to get them talking to each other and maybe ease her into thinking about taking another shot at a relationship with him. The plan hadn't been for them to spend the rest of the drive trying to score points off each other.

  "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," he muttered as he flipped a couple of pages and glanced at the rest of the questions.

  "Now who's running? Hit me with the next question."

  "Okay, you asked for it. It's the reverse of the last one. Name one thing you like about the other person, and you have to go first this time because I went first before."

  They passed into Virginia and Violet glanced at a bright yellow sign. "There's a Travelers' Aid truck stop twenty miles up the road. Want to stop and change Jasper's ice when we get there?"

  "Fine, but no stalling. Name one thing you like about me."

  She blew out a frustrated breath and made a face like she'd just eaten a sour olive. "Though I hate to admit it, I like almost everything about you, Smits, one way or another. That's why-"

  "Why what?"

  "Never mind."

  Though he wanted to push, Smitty settled back in the uncomfortable passenger's seat. " `Everything' doesn't count as an answer. You've got to name one thing."

  "Urg. Fine," she snapped. "I like that you don't get really angry, even when things are going completely wrong around you. You're like an island of calmness sometimes. I like that."

  "Hmm," he said, enjoying the image. "An island of calmness...."

  "Don't let it go to your head," she cautioned. "I'll deny I said that if you ever repeat it. Now, your turn. Tell me what you like about me, and make it good."

  He grinned. "I like that you've been helping Maddy with her hair and you don't want anyone to know about it. I think it's really sweet."

  She groaned. "Sweet? Ick. And the only reason I'm doing it is because I got tired of seeing frizzy curls across the breakfast table. Besides, how do you know about it anyway?"

  "A little fish told me." Smitty chuckled and skipped a couple of questions he didn't think applied to the two of them like the one about backseats of cars and the one about whipped cream. Geez, the things these magazines came up with. Finally, he said, "Next question. What's the bes
t day of your life?"

  "You're first," she reminded him.

  He hadn't been able to think of a good answer for this one, but he'd been curious to see what she would say. He thought a moment. "I guess most people would say the day they graduated, or the day they got married." Violet stiffened when he said the `m' word. "But I guess I'd have to say the first day we met the dolphins off Smugglers Point. Remember it? Brody had taken the Zodiac back to the inn because he was so gaga over Maddy he couldn't be away from her, and we stayed out with the interns because the humpbacks were singing."

  Violet smiled, remembering. "You and I dove down to hear the whales sing. There was a mother and a calf."

  "Yeah, and the song was all around us and the dolphins were playing nearby, and then we saw that little pod of right whales." Smitty remembered the wonder of it all. Ten years after he'd started his career in the water, and he could still be humbled by the beauty of the Great Whales. "There are what? Three hundred right whales in the Atlantic? And we saw five of 'em that day."

  "I'd never seen an Atlantic right whale before," Violet said, remembering, and to Smitty it seemed as though the cab of the truck was briefly filled with the gurgle of air being expelled from his regulator and the sound of the singing humpbacks.

  "It was a good day," he said.

  "The best."

  They fell silent, each remembering the moment. Remembering that they'd been together. He broke the quiet. "So what's your best day?"

  "I guess I'll have to go for next best, because otherwise I'd have to second your vote, which is probably cheating." She took a breath, "I'd say the day we saved that group of pilot whales."

  "Ah yes," Smitty agreed with a happy sigh. "That was an excellent day."

  Brody had been on a brief lecture tour when Violet and Smitty had gotten the call. Six pilot whales ranging in length from eight to twenty feet had chased a school of mackerel into a shallow harbor. The tide had turned and a sandbar loomed between the whales and open ocean. They would be stranded in one hour. Dead in six.