side of the truck. "Not much damage, but can we try
to keep it that way? Brody'll have my head if we
end up owning a dented fifteen-year-old refrigerator
truck."
The concept was simple-load Jasper into his traveling crate and use the crane to place the crate on the
hydraulic lift at the back of the truck. Because of the
high moats surrounding the sea lion arena, and the fact
that the fork truck that usually moved the crates
around was out of commission, this had seemed the
best plan. Now Violet wasn't so sure.
"Okay, one more try." Smitty hopped back up to
confer with the crane operator. The big engine mo tored up, the cable grew tight once again, and the
crate was lifted-gently-into the air.
Violet engaged the hydraulic tailgate and waited
near the back deck of the truck. The lift was enough
to stabilize the ton-plus load and slide it into the
truck, but not enough to bring the load up by itself.
They were trying to coordinate the crane and the lift
together. In theory, it would work.
But in theory, it should've worked the last six tries
too.
"I should've been a horse trainer," she muttered to
herself as the crate descended towards the lift.
"Why's that?" asked perky Candi.
"Because horses know how to load themselves on
trucks," Violet answered shortly. She might not have
liked the other woman when she'd been hanging on
Smitty's arm the night before, and she certainly
hadn't liked her when Smitty had reeled back to his
room near midnight, smelling like chocolate perfume, but Violet had to admit that Candi was doing
her job now. The blond was in charge of keeping
Jasper cool and happy while he was being loaded.
She had a hose with a spray nozzle, and was wetting
the sea lion down regularly as well as feeding him
small pieces of fish now and again to keep him thinking this was all fun and games.
Sea lions, like most marine mammals, overheated
easily-with disastrous consequences.
"Okay, bring it down now," Violet called and
waved her arm for the crane operator to start lowering Jasper's crate.
Besides, she thought, Candi wasn't the problem.
Smitty was the problem. If he didn't see her as anything more than a "pal"-and he'd made that pretty
clear the night before-then there really wasn't any
hope for them, was there?
Violet wasn't sure when she started thinking that
there might be hope for the two of them. It was probably when she'd played with that little boy at the
water park and thought how much she'd wanted children, once upon a time. That was right about the time
she realized that if she and Smitty tried another relationship and it failed, then one of them would have
to leave Dolphin Friendly.
Then when Chaz had made his offer, she began to
wonder whether it might just be better to avoid the
inevitable heartbreak all together and switch jobs
now.
Cowardice, maybe. But it was the safe, painless
option. She glanced at Smitty and her heart turned
over in her chest. Okay, she amended. Maybe just
the less painful option.
"Are we still on target?" The shout returned her
attention to the descent of the heavy crate, and
through a combination of fair winds, clear skies, and general dumb luck they managed to drop Jasper
squarely on the hydraulic lift this time.
There was a ragged chorus of cheers from the Seaquarium staff, and a general sigh of relief when the
crate slid into the refrigerator truck without further
incident. A few of the trainers waved or shed a quiet
tear as Violet shut the doors on Jasper's last sight of
sunny Florida.
"He'll be okay in Boston, won't he?" Candi's
lower lip trembled as she looked to Violet for reassurance.
"Er-" Violet backed away a step. "Sure, he'll be
fine. The trainers at the Boston Aquarium are topnotch. Good people."
"Thanks," Candi whispered. Her big blue eyes
filled with tears. "I'll just miss him so much. He's
such a good boy." She launched herself against Violet and clung, crying hiccuppy sobs.
Violet struggled to
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