by Melissa Good
Kerry felt her nostrils flare, but she smiled anyway. "Thanks Elana. Nice to see you again." She watched the woman leave, and turned to her sister. "Hi."
"Hi," Angie responded agreeably, stepping back and looking her over head to toe. "You look great,and it's really good to see you," she said grinning. "Feels like it's been way too long."
Kerry grinned. "Right back at you. Got a cup of something hot around? It's been a long day."
"Absolutely, c'mon." Angie led the way back into the large kitchen. She was dressed in a pair of slacks and a red pullover, casually elegant and a definite contrast to Kerry's worn jeans and sweatshirt. "Did you have a decent flight at least?"
"Eh." Kerry took one of the seats around the kitchen table, everything around her clean and spotless, but in some disarray due to the impending move. "No AC on the way up."
"Ugh." Angie brought an already prepared tray over. It had two cups on it, and a plate of chocolate cookies. She set it down and sat down across from her sister. "How's Dar?" She watched Kerry's face, seeing her expression shift into a grin as warmth erupted into her eyes at the question.
"Great," Kerry responded. "We both had flights out today. She's on her way to England." She picked up her cup and sipped from it. "Mm."
"Did I get it right?" Angie's eyes twinkled. "You haven't stopped being a chocolate addict, have you?"
"Nope." Kerry relaxed, leaning back in the chair and resting her elbows on the arms as she cradled the cup in her hands. "Dar and I both are. It's hopeless," she admitted. "I've given up worrying about it I figure if I'm going go to hell, might as well enjoy it."
Angie laughed. "Kerry, you're not going to hell. You look fantastic. Last time I saw you it was such a stress fest I was worried about you, but looks like you bounced back just fine."
Stress fest. Mild way of putting it. "Yeah." Kerry remembered how she'd felt coming back from Michigan the last time, and how long it had taken her to throw off the effects. "I felt like crap when I got home. They almost had to put me in the hospital for my blood pressure."
Angie's eyes opened wide. "What?" She leaned forward. "Are you kidding me?"
Her sister shook her head.
"Ker, that's awful. Are you taking anything for that?" Angie looked concerned. "That's not anything to joke about, you know?"
"I know," Kerry said. "But no, I've got it under control. I cut down on my salt, and we went out on the boat for a week to chill out. Did wonders." She sidestepped the issue. "We went down to the Caribbean and got involved with pirates. It was crazy."
"Pirates!"
"Well, we can't have normal vacations, you know? Dar and I could walk to the grocery store and we'd end up causing a riot without meaning to." Kerry chuckled. "We have the damnedest stuff happen to us. Anyway, so what's up with you?" She regarded her sister. "Glad you're moving?"
Angie gazed shrewdly at her for a moment, and then allowed herself to be sidetracked. "I am," she admitted. "I don't really feel bad about what happened with Richard, you know? It was my choice and I knew what could happen. At least we ended up with split custody of Sally."
"Mm." Kerry selected a cookie from the plate and nibbled on it.
"That's a lot of why I decided to move in with Mom." Angie studied her cup. "It's just easier."
Kerry understood that. She remembered being both elated and scared when she'd moved out after so many years of having everything in her life taken care of for her and provided without question. "Yeah, I know what you mean," she agreed.
"No you don't." Angie burst into laughter. "You never did anything the easy way the entire time I've known you."
Kerry had to grin at that and raise her cup in her sister's direction in acknowledgement of the truth. "Touche." The only easy thing I've ever really done was fall in love with Dar. That was fast and painless. Everything else--eh." She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think I'd change anything though."
"I bet you wouldn't," Angie agreed. "Anyway, thanks for coming up to give me a hand packing up all this stuff. I really need help deciding what to get rid of. I didn't think I was a packrat until I started looking in the closets here."
Kerry finished her hot chocolate and dusted the cookie crumbs off her fingers. "I got off sort of lucky. When I moved in with Dar, it was over a couple months, so I moved stuff a little at a time. I still think I've got like three times the junk she does though."
"Not a keeper?"
The green eyes twinkled. "She's definitely a keeper, she doesn't collect frivolously."
"Ahh." Angie stood up. "C'mon, let's get you settled in." She waited for Kerry to join her and they walked through the hall, their footsteps echoing against the marble as they got to the wide, wood tread stairs and climbed upward. "I won't miss these stairs."
Kerry felt the slight strain as she climbed. "They're steeper than Mom's." She noted. "I think you've got higher ceilings."
"Yes. Richard's point of pride." Angie's voice took on a sharper note. "He made a point of mentioning that whenever he could."
Kerry rolled her eyes. "Sorry Ang, he's an ass. The only thing he had going for him was our father liked him, and that should have told you something right there." She looked around as they got to the second floor, trying to remember if she'd ever really paid attention to the inside of her sister's house before.
"Well," Angie sighed, "I was glad to get past that whole approval thing. I'm not a renegade like you."
Renegade. Kerry pondered that title as Angie led her over to an open door, and they entered a nicely proportioned, robin's egg blue room with a canopied bed and a bay window. "I don't think I ever thought of myself like that."
"We did." Angie went over to a rocking chair in the room and sat down on its padded surface. "Mike and me, anyway. Especially when we got older."
Kerry went to her bag that was resting on a low bench near the window. She unzipped the top of the leather case and removed her sundry kit and a long T-shirt, setting it down on the bench before she pulled her sweatshirt off and folded it. "I don't think I felt like a renegade until I told our father about Dar." She turned and faced Angie. "That night is when I crossed the line between being a passive aggressive milquetoast and being my own person."
Angie slowly nodded.
"Until then, I was trying to have it both ways." Kerry put her hands on her hips. "You can't, you know?"
"I know." Her sister sighed. "But that's why you're different than we are, Ker. I was just grateful he was already dead before Richard filed for divorce. I can't take that. I can't handle being that strong."
Kerry came over to sit on the edge of the bed. "How's Brian doing?"
Angie's expression grew wry. "Scared spitless to see you," she confessed. "Ker, he's just not ready to settle down. I'm not sure I'm even mad at him, or," her lips pursed, "that I even want to be in a relationship right now."
It was Kerry's turn to shrewdly study her sister's face. She half suspected Angie really wanted to keep the peace over the days she was there, but after all, it was her relationship wasn't it? Maybe Angie really wasn't ready to rush into anything, much less force Brian to.
Kerry could respect that. Even if it was a farce for her benefit. "Whatever makes you happy, sis. I'm the last person on earth to preach conformity, remember?" She straightened and reached down to grab the hem of her T-shirt and pull it up and over her head. "Speaking of which, let me get this out of the way."
"What are you...oh my god!" Angie bolted upright in her chair. "Are you kidding me? Is that really a tattoo?"
Kerry let the shirt rest on her denim covered knees and glanced at her chest. She drew her bra strap aside a little to give a better view of her artwork. "Yep."
"How could you do that?" Her sister got up and came closer to look. "Oh my god, Kerry."
Kerry studied her face with some interest, not expecting her sister to be as shocked as she obviously was. "Are you freaked out?"
Angie looked up from examining the design on Kerry's chest, the colors standing o
ut in muted brilliance against her tan. "I can't believe you did this. Kerry, what were you thinking?"
What was I thinking? Kerry looked at the tattoo, then back up at her sister. "I was thinking that I wanted something I felt so strongly about to be visible on the outside of me like it was on the inside," she said. "Talk's cheap. Tattoos are expensive and painful."
Angie sat down next to her on the bed, still studying Kerry's skin. "Wow," she finally murmured. "Well, it's beautiful, at any rate. What did Dar say?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?" Angie's brows shot up.
Kerry shook her head. "She just started crying. She didn't have to say anything." She rested her elbows on her thighs. "It was worth the pain."
Her sister sighed. "Wow," she repeated. "I really didn't think you'd do something like that."
Kerry felt obscurely satisfied at shocking her sister. Angie seemed to take anything and everything she did in stride, so it was oddly nice to provide her with a truly radical change she hadn't anticipated. "Well, I love it. A couple of days after I got it I wore a strapless gown to Radio City in New York and it felt great!"
Angie covered her eyes. "Oh my god."
"Maybe I can talk you into one. "
Angie got up and retreated to the door. "Go to sleep," she suggested, as she escaped from her surprisingly dangerous sibling. "You obviously need the rest if you think I'd get anywhere near some guy with a bunch of needles."
"Night." Kerry chuckled, as she disappeared, leaving her in splendid isolation in her pretty room with her colorful tattoo. She got up and took her jeans off, tossing them over her bag as she put her sleep shirt on. "I knew I should have brought that damn bustier."
"DAR!"
Hearing her name, Dar turned from signing her registration card and spotted a familiar figure moving toward her. "Morning, Alastair." She turned and met his outstretched hand with her own. "Good flight?"
"Not bad." Alastair, the CEO of ILS, Dar's boss, was dressed in what was for him an astonishingly casual pair of corduroys and a chain knit pullover sweater. "Yours?"
"Decent." Dar put her corporate credit card back in her wallet and returned that to her jeans pocket. "A little rough leaving, but I got some sleep." She looked around at the stately confines of the hotel, its tall ceilings and antique furniture giving an air of a well kept castle that she was sure was quite intentional. "This is fun."
"Have you had breakfast?" Alastair asked. "They've got a nice joint in here for that, or so I'm told by the locals."
Dar handed over her bag to a quietly waiting bellman. "Lead on," she told Alastair. "Last thing I had was cookies on the plane." She followed her boss through the lobby and into a mahogany trimmed dining room, giving the host a brief smile as he picked up two menus and motioned for them to move on.
It was 9:00 a.m., and the room was reasonably full of well dressed men and women enjoying their breakfasts amidst the soft tinkle of china and the hum of quite conversation.
"If it's any consolation, the trip from Houston wasn't any better, just a couple hours longer." Alastair commiserated with her. "I gotta tell you, even in first class these days it's like being back in the school cafeteria sometimes. What in the hell are we paying all that damn money for?"
"Leg room," Dar answered succinctly. "For me it's worth it even if it was on my dime."
Her boss turned and regarded her length, Dar's head topping his by a few inches, and lifted one hand in concession. "Point taken." He smiled. "And even if you were two feet shorter it'd be worth it to lose the aggravation. We get enough of that as it is."
The host led them to their table, and gestured for them to sit, giving them both a smile as they eased past. "Enjoy your breakfast."
Dar settled into a comfortable chair at a table for four across from Alastair, and leaned on one arm of it as she studied the menu. "Funny how this all worked out, huh?"
"Funny?" Alastair glanced around, and lowered his voice. "Lady, I've seen a lot of pulling furry woodland animals out of one's ass before, but this has to be the best one ever." He removed his reading glasses as a waiter came by and stood next to the table diffidently. "Could I get a couple of poached eggs and toast with some coffee, please?"
"Sir, of course," the man said, turning to Dar. "Madame?"
Alastair winced in reflex as Dar looked up, but his often tempestuous employee merely folded her menu shut and put it down on the table.
"Eggs over easy, sausage, and potatoes," Dar said, "and coffee."
The waiter nodded and left.
Dar turned her attention back to her boss. "Anyone else joining us for this?"
"David and Francois," Alastair responded. "They're due in tonight, said they'd join us for dinner. Meeting is at ten tomorrow morning?"
"Ten," Dar confirmed as the waiter returned with a pair of cups, a sugar caddy, and a silver pot of coffee. She waited for the man to pour out the beverage and leave before she continued. "Hans said he'd join us tonight too, so we can touch base."
"Lucky meeting the two of you, eh?" Alastair sipped his coffee. "Sometimes I think the gods of commerce have a crush on you, Dar. Things happen around you that are damned unpredictable." He smiled at Dar. "And always to our advantage."
Dar shrugged. "This was a tough one," she admitted. "To be honest, I didn't think we were going to get a damn thing other than a black eye out of it. It really was just dumb luck this time."
"I'll take it." Alastair leaned back and folded his hands on the table. "But it wasn't dumb luck for you to come up with a pitch and an end around using that new contact, Dar. That was good thinking, no matter how it worked out."
"Seat of my pants," she disagreed. "I couldn't let it go. Couldn't let them win after all that crap. Bastards. They're lucky I wasn't here when those ships got in or I'd have found that jackass and smacked him."
Alastair regarded his companion with a look of healthy respect. Dar had a sharp intellect, a lot of business sense, and an iron will, but behind it all he knew there was a potent temper. Though she was a woman and a nerd, and not crazy there was a danger about her he recognized.
Not entirely safe. But he knew it was a price he'd decided to pay when he chose to take advantage of that intelligence and take the risk on the rest. So far, it had paid off in spades. "Hell, Dar. If I'd have seen the little creep I'd have probably kicked him. Gave me indigestion for weeks."
They made small talk until the waiter returned with two steaming plates that he put down in front of them. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"
"Nothing for me." Dar picked up her fork. "Thanks."
"More coffee here," Alastair said. "Hey, Dar, did I hear right that you were going to hire that gal from Synergenics? What's her name, Graver?"
"Thinking about it." Dar neatly cut her sausage patty into squares and ate them.
Alastair fiddled with his eggs for a moment. "Isn't she the one who sent me those pictures?"
"Uh huh."
Alastair paused to study his dining companion. Dar was munching on a mouthful of sausage, gazing back at him with those big blue eyes so full of completely fake innocence. Though Dar had a mercurial temperament, he'd discovered she also had an unexpected puckish side that had arisen in the last year or so. "Ah huh."
"Can't beat em, buy em?" Dar finished her sausage and started on her potatoes. "Nah, Michelle's pretty sharp, and we banged heads enough over the ship disaster to get her viewpoint changed." She chased her mouthful down with a sip of coffee. "We'll see if she bites."
Alastair wisely decided to simply nod in response and change the subject. "That's a nice ring," he commented, stifling a smile as Dar's hand stopped in mid motion, and her already sun darkened skin darkened just a shade further. "Don't think I noticed it before."
"I've had it for a while." Dar recovered her composure from the unexpected question. "Remember that damn disaster up in Charlotte? When we lost the network?"
Her boss made a whining, groaning sound.
"Yeah, well, we
took a few days off after that up in the mountains and got engaged." Dar paused and thought about that, and then she chuckled and shook her head. "Ever been in London before, Alastair?"
Bemused, he cleared his throat before answering. "Sure, once or twice. We had a few international board meetings here. Just a day up and back. You know." He dipped his toast into his eggs and took a bite of it. "Why?"
"Want to go do one of those double decker bus tours?" Dar asked. "I've never been here but I don't feel like walking around all day."
Alastair blinked at her. "Wh--ah, you mean us? You and I?"
Dar looked around. "Was there someone else here you think I was talking to? How often do I get to hang out with you?"
Her boss stared at her for a long moment. "Well, absolutely, Dar," he finally said. "I'd love to. The missus always dings me for not seeing a damn thing when I travel. Last thing I brought her back was a bottle of jalapeno jelly from Tijuana and let me tell you she didn't much appreciate it."
"Great." Dar returned her concentration to her eggs. "Keep me from falling asleep and screwing up my body clock too."
"Isn't that the truth, "Alastair agreed. "Isn't that just the absolute truth."
KERRY BRUSHED HER teeth, leaning on the marble sink as she regarded her reflection in the mirror. It was early. The sun was rising outside, and she was glad that she hadn't overslept since they had a lot to do and she really had no desire to get kidded about sleeping in.
She finished up in the bathroom and walked back into the bedroom, rolling up the sleeves on her T-shirt as she crossed to the window and looked outside. The slope Angie lived on gave her a view of Lake Michigan in the distance and it brought back memories of her childhood.
Not altogether bad ones, really Kerry had to admit, as she watched a flock of birds fly toward the huge body of water. She decided to take time out for a walk down to the lake before she left, wanting to recover a few of those better times from the place she'd spent most of her life.
