He glanced over at the dock and saw about a hundred amused-looking faces-well, at least twenty-peering down at them."HORK!" Jasper swam right up and bayed in Smitty's ear, making his head ring with sea lion enthusiasm."You guys want a hand, or are you enjoying it in there?" came Chaz's voice, and Violet must have realized that she was snuggled up against her least favorite person, because she pushed herself away from Smitty with such force that he went under again. When he bobbed back up, he tried to be a gentleman and help her up onto the float, but when he grabbed her ankle to boost her up, his hand slipped on her wet leg and he accidentally grabbed her khakiclad rump.Violet squeaked and seemed to leap up the rest of the way onto the float. "Well, I never-"Smitty was pretty sure she had, on at least a few other occasions, but he didn't think now was a good time to mention it. Instead he said, "Now Violet, I didn't mean-""We had an agreement!" she yelled, "A truce!" And she dumped the bucket of fish on his head."Hork!" The sea lion's delighted bark drowned out Smitty's less-than-delighted response, and Jasper darted around collecting bits of mackerel as Violet stomped squishily out of the pen.There was a moment of stunned, amused silence.Chaz finally stepped forward and offered Smitty a hand.
