Free Seal With a Kiss by Jessica Andersen Page B

when he'd been fast asleep in the
truck. Then at least she could glance at him from
time to time and indulge in bittersweet memories of
the good times they'd had together. Now that he was
awake-and looking as devastatingly rumpled and
unshaven as she'd ever seen him-he was bothering
her again on a very deep, very primitive level.
    She'd thought that once they talked about their
grad school breakup and put it in the past, her characteristic twitchiness around him would be gone.
She'd always blamed it on leftover anger from the
way he'd married Ellen right after she'd turned him
down. But if anything, it seemed worse. She was
aware of his every motion. His every mood.

    That's why she'd been so glad to see Chaz. Like
Brody, he could provide a badly needed buffer.
    "Hork! Hork!" Jasper applauded himself for the
kiss and Violet grabbed a corner of Smitty's shirt and
used it to wipe her face off.
    "Hey!"
    She shrugged. "Like anyone will notice another
smear on your ensemble."
    She had a fleeting thought that maybe she'd borrowed his shirt to warn the circling vultures away.
The women who worked at the Seaquarium were already giving Smitty the once-over ... and his filthy
shirt was the last thing they were looking at. Violet
bared her teeth at a particularly interested-looking
blond whose logo polo shirt was a wee bit tight.
    "That's Candi with an `i'," Chaz murmured in her
ear, noticing the direction of Violet's gaze. Then he
raised his voice. "And I've got a great idea. Candi,
why don't you join us for dinner tonight as well?
You can be Smitty's guest and I'll be Violet's. Four
is a much more comfortable number than three, don't
you think?"
    Violet winced at the idea, but her protest was
drowned out by Candi's squeal of glee. Smitty just
glowered, which seemed to be his fallback expression of the morning, and the arrangements were
made.

    "Can we please," Violet said through clenched
teeth, "get on with this? We're going to load Jasper
first thing tomorrow morning and drive him round
the clock until we get him to Smugglers Cove right
before the opening ceremonies. That's the way Brody
has it planned. So we're going to need to know how
to work the commands you've taught him for the
ceremony. Chaz, I'd like you to run us through his
routine, please."
    "Of course, Vi." One of the other women produced
an enormous pair of fake scissors, a dog whistle, and
a bucket of fish. Chaz hopped into Jasper's holding
pen and gave three short peeps on the whistle, which
brought the enormous creature out of the water and
up onto a floating dock.
    At sixteen years old, Jasper was a full-grown California sea lion, and looked much like the wild ones
off the Monterey coast. She might have been saddened that the twelve-hundred-pound animal lived in
captivity, even though his accommodations were
large and well designed, but she could also see the
gnarled white scar running down his flank, and could
tell that one of his hind flippers-which sea lions use
for steering-was damaged.
    The Seaquarium was primarily a stranding rescue
center. Its seal, dolphin, and manatee educational
programs were populated with animals that had been rescued and were too badly hurt for rehabilitation. Its
sea lion show was made up of animals who'd been
rescued from their native waters off California and
shipped to Florida for placement.

    She watched Chaz run Jasper through a warm-up
routine of spins, jumps, and ball balancing, and she
felt herself relax. The sea lion was obviously enjoying his work. As the behaviors grew more complex,
Chaz provided a running commentary on the cognitive research that was also taking place at the Seaquarium, using the sea lions and a few rescued
dolphins. Violet soon found herself nodding and asking questions.
    It wasn't quite the open seas that she loved, but
she decided it wasn't bad either. The research done
at the Seaquarium provided information that would
help Dolphin Friendly with