Seal With a Kiss Read online

  Maddy paused outside Violet's door. "Before we go in, I just want you to know that if you don't like it, we can return it and pick out something you like better. I just saw it and thought of you." She shrugged, smiled sheepishly, and opened the door.

  Violet stepped over the threshold. Stopped. And stared. "What happened to my room?"

  Twisting her hands together, Maddy asked in a small voice, "You don't like it?"

  The lace curtains were gone. The doilies were gone. The ruffled bedspread and canopy were gone. In their place was shimmering fabric decorated with wild swirls of blue and green. Air bubbles glistened in the weave, and hints of sinuous bodies and laughing dolphin mouths twisted in the patterns.

  Framed posters from famous underwater movies adorned the walls and the grinning teddy bears on the bed-which Violet had always hated but couldn't bring herself to put in the closet-had been replaced by an enormous plush manatee and a smaller white harp seal pup.

  "It's...." Violet looked around, speechless.

  "You hate it," Maddy offered, clearly trying not to be disappointed. "That's okay. We can shop together for something you like better."

  "It's...." She walked over and touched the plush manatee, remembering how the real ones had suckled on her fingers and bumped against her legs. Thinking of living in Florida forever. Never seeing Smitty again. Finally, she looked at Maddy. "It's perfect."

  And to Violet's utter, horrified embarrassment, she burst into tears.

  "So how was it, really?"

  "It was fine," Smitty answered Brody's question with the same three words he'd used every other time he'd been asked about the trip. He waved his hand toward the waiting intern, and Ishmael slowly engaged the winch attached to the sea lion's crate. "I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

  Thanks to the recent grants, Dolphin Friendly had a small mobile crane of its own for rescuing larger marine mammals stranded on land. Now they were pressing it into service for unloading Jasper. Fortunately, the crate slid out of the truck far more easily than it had gone in, and the sea lion was transferred to his temporary home without incident.

  "Does he look funny to you?" Brody asked. "I know it's been a while since I've been this close to a California sea lion, but it seems like his belly is kind of ... big."

  Smitty shook his head, glad that Brody hadn't quizzed him harder about the trip. Though Jasper didn't seem permanently damaged by his frozen pizza orgy, he still looked a little on the funny side. Still, Smitty decided he'd rather talk about a gassy sea lion than Violet any day. "He looks the same as when we picked him up."

  "Are you sure? He's not getting sick or anything is he?" Registering the tension in Brody's voice, Smitty glanced at his friend, noting the pinched skin around Brody's eyes and the nervous tapping of his index finger against his leg.

  Brody was counting on the grand opening going well. He needed it to. Dolphin Friendly needed it to. Not only would it secure the second half of the funding, it would earn Brody's team the publicity they so desperately needed to be effective.

  It was hard to educate the public when nobody had ever heard of you. Therefore, Dolphin Friendly needed some media attention. The gala would hopefully kick off their publicity drive with a bang, not a whimper.

  Smitty reassured his friend. "He's fine. We'll give him an hour to settle in, then run him through the scissor behavior a few times to make sure it'll go smoothly when the time comes." Seeing that Brody was still unconvinced, he added, "Nothing will go wrong at the ceremony. I'll make sure of it myself."

  "Hork, hork!" Having inspected his new surroundings, Jasper chimed in with a few healthy-sounding sea lion barks, and Smitty relaxed a fraction. "See? Even Jasper thinks it'll be a great show."

  "Thanks Smitty. I owe you one." Brody clapped him on the shoulder. "I wasn't so sure it was a good idea to send you and Violet off on this job, but you guys pulled it off. I'm proud of you both." He paused. "Where is she, by the way? You didn't leave her in Florida, did you?"

  As a joke, it hit a little too close to home, and Smitty winced. "No. She slept the last few hours while I drove. When we got here, she was so out of it that I asked Maddy to take her inside while we unloaded Jasper."

  Now it was Brody's turn to wince. "I hope Violet's polite when she sees her room. Maddy spent days fixing it up and she'll be crushed if Violet hates it after all that hard work."

  "Where is he? I'm going to kill him." Maddy's voice was muffled with distance, but the anger was unmistakable. There was an answering murmur, and in short order the two men saw a small, frizzy-haired dynamo stalking along the walkway that connected the inn to the Smugglers Cove Stranding Center.

  "Looks like you're in trouble now, boss," Smitty observed, glad that someone else would soon join him in abject misery. "What did you do this time?"

  "I have no idea," Brody muttered. He stepped towards his wife. "Honey? Is something wrong?"

  She walked right past him and stopped in front of Smitty. "Wrong? Why would anything be wrong? Unless you count the fact that Violet's leaving."

  Brody whispered, "Now who's in trouble?" before Maddy's words registered and he jerked back with shock. "Whaat?" He rounded on Smitty, standing shoulder to shoulder with his wife. "What happened? What did you say to her? Come on, Smitty, I sent you two down there to make up, not drive her away!"

  "Me!" Smitty yelled. "How is this my fault? I tried to make up, I really did. We went to a water park. We talked about old times. We even went out to dinner ... well, sort of. And we did this quiz in a magazine-except for the last question, which I made up-and we agreed that while we'd both been stupid, I'd been more stupid that she had." He took a breath and realized Brody and Maddy looked utterly confused. He let the breath out and said, "We made up. Really. It just wasn't enough."

  "Why?" Brody asked. "Where is she going?"

  "To work for Chaz the Amazing down at Seaquarium Florida. He's promised her a boat, a team, and all the manatees she can stand." Smitty kicked at a clamshell. "You know Violet and manatees. Who can compete with that?"

  Though it had been a rhetorical question, Maddy answered, "You could, if you wanted to."

  Smitty shrugged miserably. "I tried. I asked her not to go, but she really wants to."

  "What exactly did you say to her when you asked her not to leave?" Maddy persisted.

  "Um. I told her not to leave because..." Smitty searched his memory, remembered not being able to say the words he'd really meant, and finished with a mumbled, "Because Brody would miss her."

  Maddy growled and Brody snorted. "Me? Why me? We went out maybe a half dozen times because it seemed to make logical sense that we'd work together. When she finally said we didn't have to bother anymore, I think I was more relieved than she was. Me and Violet were just never meant to be."

  Smitty stared. "Then why the heck has she been such a bear ever since you and Maddy got married?"

  Brody shrugged as if to say, Who knows? but Maddy answered, "Because everything was changing in the group, and she wasn't sure how to handle it. Brody found someone, and she was worried that you might be next."

  "Me? Since when is she worried about me finding someone else?"

  Maddy looked at Smitty as though she wanted to smack him for being so obtuse. "Since you married someone else while you were still in love with her, that's when."

  "But that's ancient history," Smitty protested, not even bothering to protest the love thing, or wonder how Maddy knew.

  "And they say that history has a way of repeating itself," Maddy replied. "But it isn't going to have a chance if she's down in Florida with this Chaz fellow, and you're up here."

  Smitty rubbed a numb-feeling hand over his face and reminded himself to shave before the ceremony. He must look like a disaster.

  A very confused disaster. Did he really have a chance? Or was this just Maddy being ultra-cheerful and believing in happily ever after, even for couples on the brink of disaster?

  "Well, I guess that's enough of a lecture for ri
ght now. You do what you think is best," Maddy finally said. She surprised Smitty by stepping forward and kissing him on his furry cheek. "We're rooting for you, Scotty."

  It felt like someone had kicked him in the chest. Scotty. "Nobody's called me that in years," he managed to say. Some days he barely even remembered he had a first name. He'd been Smitty forever.

  Except that his mother had called him Scotty.

  "I snuck it off your license one day out of curiosity. I hope you don't mind."

  He shook his head, then found his voice, which cracked when he said, "No. I don't mind. I don't mind at all." He hugged his best friend's wife and said, "My family always called me Scotty. I guess that makes us family."

  "Quit manhandling my wife," Brody ordered without heat, then hugged Smitty himself, with lots of manly back-slapping so the intimacy was okay. "Scotty."

  "Not you too." Smitty groaned. "Let's just save that for special occasions, okay? Speaking of which. . . ." He glanced across the Smugglers Cove town commons towards a cluster of little shops, then over towards Jasper's tank as a plan took shape in his mind. "I may need your help with something."

  Brody simply nodded. "Anything." He grinned. "What else is family for?"

  Violet couldn't help herself. She sat next to Smitty at the opening ceremony. It was enough for her to be near him this one last time. It would have to be enough.

  She'd blabbed about her job change to Maddy, amidst other tearful declarations she'd rather forget about, and had tendered her resignation officially to Brody not long after. He hadn't seemed surprised, so Violet assumed that either Smitty or Maddy had beaten her to it. Or both.

  He hadn't asked her to reconsider, which had stung.

  "Glad to know I'll be so sorely missed," she muttered, annoyed.

  "What, Vi?" Smitty turned to her and she scowled harder. He looked amazing in a tux-always had. His studs and cuff links were a matched set of sterling fish she'd bought him three years ago for Christmas when they'd been getting along relatively well.

  She stared at him for a moment, trying to memorize the way his blond-tipped hair waved across his forehead and the way the lines next to his eyes deepened when he smiled. Then she turned away. "Nothing important."

  They fell silent as the lights in the new educational arena dimmed. The seats angled up on two sides from a central pool that would be used for rescued animals when the time came. A stage jutting out from one end of the glowing green pool would double as an exam table. A huge screen descended from the ceiling, and a spotlight hit Brody, who stood at the center of the stage.

  Violet heard a lovesick sigh come from her other side and glanced at Maddy. She smiled. "Brody looks pretty good down there, doesn't he? Almost sexy."

  Brody's wife shot back, "Not even you can ruin this moment for me, Violet." But she grinned as she said it, and Violet felt a pang that their friendship would be over just as it was beginning, because she was leaving as soon as the gala was over. She'd even called Chaz to confirm the job.

  There'd been an oddly resigned note in his voice when he assured her that yes, indeed she was still welcome at Seaquaruim Florida. He even had part of her team assembled already.

  Violet hoped she would like them.

  Brody opened the ceremony by welcoming the various VIPs, particularly the members of the organizations and committees that had already donated to the Smugglers Cove Stranding Center. He then explained the center's mission by way of introducing the video that he and Maddy had put the finishing touches on just that morning.

  The lights dimmed further and a glittering ocean appeared on the screen, which was visible from both sides of the arena.

  "Brody flew in a film specialist from California to save it," Smitty whispered, and Violet didn't understand until she saw that video she'd shot the other day, the video that had set her and Smitty on their road trip.

  Smitty's image smiled on the screen, the dolphins leaped and played at his command, and Violet felt her heart turn over in her chest. She saw the sun set behind him and turn his auburn hair to flames, and she felt tears threaten. It was that beautiful.

  She felt Smitty take her hand. She didn't pull away when he laced their fingers together. She held on tight.

  The screen dimmed for a moment and the audience murmured. Then Brody's voice rose in narration.

  "Have you ever dreamed of the ocean? Of swimming through it fast as a jetski, or flying above it on seagulls' wings?"

  On the screen, a montage of shots flowed past like water. Violet saw Smugglers Cove, saw Streaker forging her way through the Atlantic, saw herself tending a stranded seal pup with Smitty holding the frightened baby still for her.

  Brody's amplified voice continued, "We have dreams like that, and so do the endangered marine mammals we represent." He went on to describe Dolphin Friendly and the goals of the stranding center. All the while, scenes flashed on the screen. There was a shot of the two of them on Streaker. Smitty's head tilted towards her and his teeth flashed as he laughed at a pair of playing humpbacks. Together, they pushed a stranded pilot whale out to sea. They stood shoulder to shoulder and waved as the whale headed for open ocean with a flick of its black flukes.

  She heard a whisper from a few rows back. "That must be the married couple that runs Dolphin Friendly. Aren't they cute together?"

  Maddy quivered, though whether from affront or amusement, Violet wasn't sure.

  Married couple. Once, she had wished for it. Now it seemed impossible.

  Brody continued. "Your generous funding makes possible programs like this. . . ." The screen showed Ishmael leading a group of school children through the animal care center and boosting a little girl up so she could see the baby seals more clearly. "And this. . . ." On the video, Ahab paddled in the water, surrounded by a pod of wild bottlenosed dolphins, a transcendent smile on his face. Brody's tone of voice shifted to one of amusement. "And of course, this." The scene shifted topside on Streaker, where Violet and Smitty could be seen hollering back and forth at each other until she walked over and attempted to push him overboard. Laughing, he fended off her hands until he could grab her by the waist and toss her in the water, following a moment later in a clean dive. They wrestled in the water while the bottlenoses chattered and splashed.

  Violet sighed and felt those darn tears prickle again. What had felt like anger at the time looked an awful lot like love on the big screen. She wondered whether it was a trick of the camera.

  "They are an awfully cute couple, don't you think?" Smitty whispered. He raised their joined hands to his lips.

  The contact bloomed like a rose and she closed her eyes. Then she felt a tear leak from beneath her lids. "Darn it, Smitty."

  "And now," boomed Brody's voice, "I'd like to introduce the members of Dolphin Friendly!"

  The overhead lights came up as the video screen rose, and Smitty pulled her out of her chair. "That's us." They followed Ishmael, Ahab, and Maddy down to the stage, where the lights were so bright Violet had to squint. A stagehand pinned lapel microphones on each of them, in case they had to answer questions later on.

  Brody introduced them and said a few words about their dedication, teamwork, and deep affection for each other. Violet snickered at that and Smitty poked her in the arm when the mike picked up the noise.

  "And now, before we cut the ribbon that will signify the official opening of the Smugglers Cove Stranding Center," Brody proclaimed, "I would like to extend a special thanks to two of my best friends, two of the founding members of Dolphin Friendly, and two people I will sorely miss as I've recently learned they will be leaving Dolphin Friendly to pursue other interests. Violet? Smitty?" Brody waved them forward.

  Smitty went. Violet didn't.

  "What do you mean two?" Her voice rose to the border of hysterical, but she didn't care. "Where's he going?"

  Her question echoed throughout the arena, which was suddenly deathly quiet as the audience sensed impending drama.

  Brody replied, "Smitty gave his not
ice today too. It seems he's taken a job with another team."

  "He can't do that!" she cried, her voice squeaking. She stomped over and stood in front of Smitty. She put her face close to his and didn't care that the lapel microphones were amplifying every word. "You can't do that. Dolphin Friendly is your family. You can't leave the team."

  He smiled gently and tapped a finger under her chin. "I could say the same for you too. You're as much a part of this as I am, but you're leaving. Aren't you?"

  She thought of the brand-new condo in Florida. Then she thought about her room at the inn, all decorated just the way she would have done it herself, and she wavered.

  Then she thought about the baby manatees in the tank at Seaquarium. About the scars on their backs and the very real threat of extinction.

  Then she thought about Smitty finding someone else and leaving her alone.

  "I'm going," she said firmly.

  Smitty nodded. "Fine. Then so am I. Chaz is expecting us first thing Monday morning to inspect the new boat." He gently spun her around to face the audience, and tucked her against his side.

  She didn't stay tucked for long. Just as Brody took a breath to continue his speech, she jumped back out of line and faced Smitty again. "You're coming to Florida!" Shivers of hot and cold raced through her at the thought. "You can't do that! How can I get over you if I still see you every day?"

  She hadn't meant to blurt that out, particularly not over a loudspeaker in front of five hundred or so strangers. She winced at the echoes and the sudden flurry of whispers and giggles.

  Smitty grinned. "I sincerely hope that you won't." He took her hands, holding them loosely. "You said earlier that Dolphin Friendly is my family, right? Well, they are. But even more so, you're my family, Violet. You always have been, even when I was too confused to know it. I love you."

  This time, her lip trembled and a big, fat tear spilled over and slid down her cheek for all the world to see.

  Violet didn't bother to brush it away.