Seal With a Kiss Read Online Free PDF

sleep."
    She soon contradicted herself by nodding off before they'd passed over the Cape Cod Canal.
    Violet dreamed of water. Ever since she was a
little girl, she'd dreamed of water-of being in water,
flying over it, or walking next to it while the sun set
and the sky turned pink and an auburn-haired grad
student held her hand.

    "What did you think of Prof. Murphy's questions
on oceanic convection cells, Vi?" He let go of her
hand, crouched down, and pulled a pink spiral shell
from the sand. "Here, it's as pretty as you are."
    Violet, fresh from the Midwest and unused to boys
other than her brothers and cousins, blushed and took
the shell. "I thought the questions were fair enough,
but they were probably easier for people like you
who grew up near the water. Until I came out here
for school, I'd never even seen the ocean."
    Except in my dreams.
    Smitty shrugged, took her hand again, and
squeezed it. She felt the contact all the way up her
arm. "Yeah, but you're better at the theoretical stuff
than I am. I bet it comes from having to argue your
way through a large family."
    He left her, picked up a few rocks, and tossed them
in the water. His mother had died just that summer,
leaving him alone in the world. He'd told her about
it once, but it wasn't a subject he liked discussing.
    She knew he envied her the big, sprawling Oliver
clan she'd come from. In a way, she hadn't appreciated her extended family until she left for the marine sciences program at U.C. Santa Cruz. She didn't
miss them so much anymore, but the little bit that
Smitty had told her of his own childhood made her
realize that a large extended family might not be the
burden she'd always thought.

    So she dared to step in close to him and slide an
arm around his waist like she'd wanted to do since
they'd started hanging out together on the first day
of orientation. She gave him a little squeeze and relished the warm muscles beneath her hand. "I think
what's important is what you learn from how you
grow up. I didn't realize it before, but having so
many relatives around was a good thing. I won't go
back home to live-it's too far from the sea-but I
like knowing they're there if I need them."
    He tipped his head toward her. "Sounds nice. You
going to have a big family of your own so your kids
will grow up with what you had?"
    Violet shrugged. She was twenty-two and hardly
ready to consider that sort of thing. She'd think about
children later, once she had her career firmly established. She wanted to work with marine mammals.
Maybe manatees. Then perhaps she and her husband
would talk about starting a family. "I guess. Someday."
    She felt Smitty's arm slide around her shoulders
and loved the warmth of it, and the huskiness in his
voice when he whispered, "Me too, Vi. Me too."
    And the world shook convulsively.
    "What the-?" Violet swore as the truck jolted
again and her head smacked against the window. She grabbed for the door handle and hauled herself upright as the truck bucked like a frantic porpoise.
"What's wrong?"

    Smitty hung on to the steering wheel with one
hand and downshifted with the other, muttering about
air brakes, bald tires, and grooved pavement. "Sorry
to interrupt your nap, but Interstate 95 seems to be
under spontaneous construction."
    Violet glanced out the window that still bore the
imprint of her face. Great, she'd been drooling in her
sleep. How attractive.
    Jersey barriers and orange barrels zipped past the
window, slowing now that the truck was coming
back under Smitty's control. The road in front of
them was grooved and torn up. No wonder she'd
been beaten back to consciousness. They were lucky
they hadn't blown a tire, coming on such road conditions without warning.
    Life was simply easier on the ocean. No roads. No
construction.
    No detours.
    She glanced over at Smitty again. His face had
relaxed back into its familiar lines now that the immediate crisis had passed, and she couldn't