Seal With a Kiss (4 page)

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 flashed 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."

"I'll go see if Smitty's ready." Maddy headed for
the door, turning when Violet called her back.
"Yes?"

"I, uh-" Violet cleared her throat. "I was thinking
that maybe after the grand opening, you and I could
go out sometime."

"Out?" Maddy's voice almost squeaked on the
word. "You and me?"

Violet shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah. I want
new curtains, maybe a bedspread, and some ... decorations or something. I thought with you running
the inn for so long, you'd know the best places to
go....

Maddy's pleased smile was answer enough, as was
her quick wash of color. "It's a date. We'll do it
when you come back from your trip."

Both women's eyes were drawn to the window at
the sound of a large, off-tune truck pulling into the
clamshell driveway.

The horn beeped obnoxiously and Smitty hollered,
"Truck's here, Vi! Hurry up and let's get going.
We've got a sea lion to chauffeur and a deadline to
meet!"

Violet rolled her eyes and shouldered her overnight bag. "Yeah, we'll do it when I get back. That
is, if I'm not in jail for murder or something."

As she left the room, Violet thought she heard
Maddy murmur, "Or something...."

ccIt's about time, I was getting ready to leave without you." As the truck idled in the driveway of
Maddy's inn, Smitty danced his feet over the gas and
the clutch, winding the refrigerator truck's engine up
to drown out the first part of Violet's response as she
hiked herself into the high passenger seat and
slammed the door.

"-and another thing!" She paused when he just
laughed and tapped on the gas again. "Oh, never
mind."

There was no backseat and the stick shift took up
most of the middle, so she had to tuck her bag next
to her feet. She squirmed around and kicked at the clutter until everything was where she wanted it, and
Smitty had to force himself to look away from her
legs, which seemed to go on for miles. There were
days he could make himself ignore her legs. Then
there were days like today.

The idea of spending the next few days sharing
the tiny truck cab with her was disturbing, and not
because he disliked her. More because he didn't. Not
really.

"Here, this is for you two." Ishmael and Ahabone of them was actually named Peter, but Smitty
could never remember which one-stood next to the
truck with an empty specimen jar.

"My parents always used a pickle jar when we
road tripped as a family. I thought this would do."
Ishmael leaned across Smitty and placed the jar on
the dashboard. The label on it read "Pay to fight,
make up for free. "

Ahab nodded. "The rule is that whichever of you
starts the fight has to put five bucks in the jar. At the
end of the trip you take the money and go out for a
nice dinner, where you make up for every nasty thing
you said on the road."

Smitty looked at the jar and imagined it bursting
with fives, tens, and twenties by the time they passed
the Maryland border headed south. His lips stretched
into a smile.

"Huh. We'll be able to take ourselves off on a
short cruise, never mind dinner," Violet said, paralleling his thoughts like she used to do.

He was relieved to see she was grinning. When
she'd first come out of the house, she'd looked like
she was walking to her own execution. It bothered
him to think she was dreading their trip. Once upon
a time, they would have loved just such a getaway.