Seal With a Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

help seeing the boy she'd been dreaming about in the man
sitting beside her. Couldn't help wishing things had
been different.

    Stupid, she chided herself. Don't be stupid.
    Feeling unaccountably raw, she aimed low.
"There's no such thing as spontaneous construction.
I'm sure you've been passing signs for miles that
warned drivers like you not to speed through the construction zone." Then another thought struck. Her
voice sharpened. "And why are we on 1-95? The
Pike's quicker, or even 1-84."
    "Not on a weekday and not coming from Smugglers Cove." Smitty's fingers tightened on the
steering wheel and she could see a muscle in his jaw
tick. Like most men she'd known, Smitty always
thought he knew the best set of directions, and woe
to the woman-usually Violet-who dared challenge
them.
    "But there's always construction on 95 and it meanders all along the coast. It's going to take forever
to get through New York City, and by then we'll hit
lunchtime traffic."
    Violet enjoyed the way his eyes went dark when
his temper rose. She loved the feeling of blood humming just beneath her skin when their anger started
to crackle. She wondered which one of them would
owe five bucks for the battle she felt brewing. Then
she decided she didn't care. She'd put forty dollars
in the jar. She was fighting on account.
    And arguing with Smitty had become one of her favorite pastimes. At least when they were fighting,
she knew he was paying attention to her.

    "Well if my copilot hadn't snored her way across
Rhode Island and into Connecticut, we wouldn't be
having this conversation, would we?" They were
bumping slowly along the ruined road now, stuck
behind an overloaded truck that was laboring to
climb the hill ahead.
    "I don't snore," Violet said, offended. Okay,
maybe she'd drooled, but she certainly hadn't snored.
    "If you say so, Vi." He sighed and rubbed the back
of his neck. "You ready for a snack and a gas break?"
Clearly tired of the conversation and the traffic,
Smitty took the next off ramp and pulled into the
optimistically named Lovely Truck Stop.
    It was anything but lovely. But then again, anything short of the open ocean left much to be desired
in Violet's opinion.
    "Sure. Whatever." She flipped the visor down to
check how badly her nap had messed with her hair.
Then she frowned. No mirror. What kind of a vehicle
was this, anyway?
    She ignored Smitty's eye roll and hopped out of
the truck as soon as it stopped. "See ya inside."
    If she played her cards right, Violet figured she
could avoid pumping gas the whole way to Florida
and back. She didn't mind fueling up Streaker or any of the other boats, but something about working with
cars bugged her. She was a sea creature through and
through, which was why there was no way she was
letting Brody demote her to land duty. Even if it
meant being nice to Smitty for the next few days.

    And who knew? Maybe they'd even have some
fun on the way.
    She bought sodas and snacks for the two of them,
grabbing Smitty's favorite sticky buns and chips
along with pretzels and peppermints for herself. Figuring the caffeine would be a welcome jolt-they'd
probably drive through till dark and stop somewhere
in Virginia-she ordered a pair of coffees and added
the fake sweetener and low-fat milk she knew he
preferred-though why he used diet products she'd
never understand. His body was perfect.
    Not that she noticed such things, of course.
    They passed each other in the parking lot and she
tried to ignore the fact that he looked extra handsome
with his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows and his
pants wrinkled slightly at the knees and cuffs.
    Maybe there was a touch of sentiment left in her
mind from that dream, or maybe it was seeing him
out of their shared element, but it struck her just how
many years they'd known each other.
    And just how much she'd loved that red-haired
young man who'd walked with her on the beaches
of Monterey.

    "Everything okay?"