Seal With a Kiss (14 page)

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 on 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 best 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.

"I still can't believe you talked the city council
into okaying that trench," Smitty said, still amazed
by the memory.

She grinned. "I merely pointed out that six decaying pilot whales weren't going to add to their upcoming
Harbor Arts Festival, nor would banners explaining
how they sentenced helpless marine mammals to
death because they didn't want their sandbar messed
with."

"And besides," Smitty remembered, "after the
teenage chain gang you assembled dug out the trench
and we herded the whales to safety, we filled it in
good as new."

"More or less. I wasn't really that worried about
the sandbar." Violet smiled. "I just wanted to save
the whales. Anyway, it was a good day."

"The best." He repeated her earlier words, and a
sense of contentment stole over the cab.

"Here's the truck stop," she said as they passed
another sign. "Want to read the next question before
we pull in, so we can be thinking about our answers?" She downshifted and signaled before easing
the truck onto the off-ramp.

When he didn't answer right away, she glanced
over. "What?"

"Haven't you guessed the next question? They
come in pairs."

"Oh." She pulled into the truck lot and killed the
engine, set the parking brake, and asked the question
for both of them.

"What was your worst day?"

GGHow many bags of ice?"