Seal With a Kiss Read Online Free

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