Seal With a Kiss (13 page)

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.

"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.