by Melissa Good
playing that morning.
So, since she was, there was a reason. Kerry knew Dar well enough to know that. Very, very seldom did Dar ever change well ingrained patterns without a solid, logical thought path behind it.
Kerry glanced at her siblings, who were much more relaxed, and joking with Dar about the rest of the pictures on the page, daring her to guess which of them each one represented.
The realization clicked for Kerry. Acceptance. That’s why Dar was acting the way she was, because she knew it would make Kerry feel better if her family liked Dar. So Angie and Mike were getting the cute, mischievous side of her lover that very few people ever saw.
Kerry was touched. She lightly scratched the back of Dar’s neck and smiled into the inquiring pale blue eyes that turned her way. “Thanks,” she mouthed.
Dar winked at her, then went back to studying the photographs. “Hey, there you are on a pony.”
“Oh, yes.” Kerry nodded, leaning over the book. “Tympani.”
She put a fingertip on the picture. “What a little bastard he was.”
“Remember the time he bit Mike?” Angie said. “Nastiest temper I ever did see on a horse.”
“Pony. Maybe he had a short horse complex,” Dar added with a straight face. The others snickered and Kerry poked her in outrage. “Friends of ours down south had some horses when I was younger. It was always the little ones that were hell on four hooves.”
Angie relaxed onto her side. “Did you ride, Dar?”
“Sure.” Dar nodded. “We used to take three or four of them and just go on campouts in the Glades in the winter. Catch our own food, make our own shelter, that kind of thing.”
Mike goggled at her. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Like, hunting, and all that?” Angie asked.
“Yep,” Dar said. “Of course, now that I’ve learned where the supermarket is, you won’t catch me doing that again.”
They all laughed. “Yeah.” Kerry combed her fingers through Dar’s hair. “Dar and I both agree the only camping we’ll do is from the inside of an air-conditioned RV.”
“With a satellite hookup,” Dar amended. “Which reminds me, the sat company called before we left. The system for the cabin’s in stock.”
“Cabin?” Angie asked.
Kerry told them about the cabin. “It’s a little place down in the Keys. Pretty run down, but Dar and I have been doing it all over on the odd weekend. It’s cute. And very peaceful. We can 116 Melissa Good pull the boat right up to a dock nearby, and it’s getting to be pretty cozy.”
“Wow.” Angie sighed. “That sounds nice. Richard was talking about us getting a place up by the lake to take the kids, but…”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“The tough part was getting a dedicated pipe in there,” Dar said. “The phone company was scratching their heads for weeks over that one. But we got it done.” She paused. “You guys’ll have to come down and help us christen it.”
The stairs creaked and they looked at the door as it opened, revealing Cynthia Stuart framed in the doorway. “My goodness, it’s dusty up here. I must have a word with the staff.” She continued on into the attic, walking carefully on the wooden floor.
“What’s going on up here?”
Kerry indicated the album. “I was just showing Dar some of my baby pictures.”
“Gracious, how did they end up here?” Cynthia asked in astonishment.
“I put them up here,” Angie answered. “When father was looking to burn them.”
There was an awkward silence. “I see.” Cynthia sighed. “I had thought he’d gotten to them before I had and they were gone.
We had a horrible fight about that.” She gave her head a slight shake. “At any rate, I came up to find you, Kerrison, because I asked John to bring your and Dar’s things upstairs.” Cynthia paused, then took a breath. “I thought you might like the corner green room, perhaps.”
Kerry opened her mouth to decline the offer, then stopped, as her memory of the house kicked in. She peered up at her mother in honest surprise. “Um…that would be fine; sure. Hang on.”
Kerry slid a hand down Dar’s side and into her front pocket, and pulled out the car keys. “Here. Our bags are in the trunk.”
“Excellent.” Cynthia had regained her composure, and she took the keys. “Well, perhaps you’ll all come down for lunch. The reverend will be here, and several others of the family who asked to come over early.”
“Sure.” Angie nodded. “Sounds great.”
“Okay,” Mike agreed.
Cynthia gave them all a slight nod and left, closing the door behind her.
All three siblings stared at one another. “Son of a bitch.”
Kerry snorted. “Can you believe that?”
“No.” Angie shook her head. “No way, nu uh, not on this earth. What drugs are they giving our mother?”
“Wowza,” Mike breathed. “Did you score, or what?”
Thicker Than Water 117
Dar gently cleared her throat. “I think I’m missing something here. Someone want to fill me in?”
Mike crawled closer. “She put you guys in the green room.”
“I have uncles and aunts who never got in there,” Angie added. “For years.”
Dar looked at Kerry. “And?” Her eyebrows rose.
Kerry actually smirked. “It has only one bed. It’s where they put the honored, very married members of our family when they visit.” She still felt a sense of shock and amazement. “You have no idea what a big deal that is here.”
Dar absorbed this unexpected but gratifying news. “Does that mean we have to go out and get her a toaster?”
Kerry laughed, then got lost in wonder for a moment, her world suddenly becoming a topsy-turvey place where anything could, and apparently might, happen. “Yeah. I think it does.” She pondered the idea again, then shook her head. “Hey, want to go for a quick walk outside before lunch? I could show you the tree I took a header into once.”
“Sure.” Dar was glad of a reason to get out of the dry heat, even if it was to get into damp chill instead. “I’ll kick it for being so rude.”
Kerry closed the album and held out her hand. “You’re on.”
She gave her siblings a look. “You guys, too?”
“We’re in.” Angie and Michael got up.
“Lead on, sis,” Angie added. “We’re right behind you.”
Chapter
Eight
THE WEATHER, HOWEVER, intervened. The snow came down harder, almost a blizzard, and Dar found herself in the infamous “green room” staring out the window at a white fog so strange looking she found it hard to comprehend. Rain she was used to—Miami’s thundershowers were legendary for both their volume of water and speed of descent—but this white facsimile that made no sound was almost…spooky.
Dar turned as Kerry entered and closed the door behind her, then smiled as Kerry joined her at the window. “Hi.”
Kerry didn’t answer. She just wound her arms around Dar’s body and snuggled close, putting her head on Dar’s shoulder with a contented little grunt. “Can we sit down for a minute, because I’d really like to talk to you. I’ve got something I want to say, and I don’t want to wait.”
Dar blinked in mild alarm. “Sure.” She glanced around and pointed at a padded bench. “How about over there?” Kerry led her to it and they sat down. “What’s up?”
Kerry, staring very seriously into Dar’s eyes, cupped Dar’s cheek with her hand. The blue orbs widened slightly in reaction.
“I expected the worst today,” Kerry said very softly.
“I kind of thought so.” Dar stayed still, only the flexing of one hand against the bench betrayed her unease. “I’m glad it turned out better. I know how much your family means to you, Kerry.”
Her eyes dropped a little. “And I know how it feels not to have one.”
Kerry tilted Dar’s chin up with her other hand, so their ey
es met again. “Do you know what the most wonderful part of today was?”
“Me singing the praises of your butt?”
“No.” Kerry did smile, though. “It was watching you lay yourself open to my family because you knew it would make me happy.”
Dar blushed a little. “Ah. You caught on. I thought I was Thicker Than Water 119
being subtle.”
“Mm hm.” Kerry kissed her. “Like your usual freight-train-at-full-speed, bad self.” She exhaled. “God, I love you.”
Dar relaxed, the tension running out of her shoulders and torso, and she tilted her head to return the kiss. Kerry’s hand slipped off her cheek and curled around her neck, pulling her closer for a long, sensual moment. Then they separated slightly and gazed into each other’s eyes.
“I thought maybe you’d be a little upset with me, teasing you like that,” Dar said. “I kind of crossed the line a few times.” She touched noses with Kerry, and watched her struggle to focus on her and not cross her eyes. “Though those pictures were adorable.”
“Thanks.” Kerry gave up and closed one eye, then just closed the other one and decided to kiss Dar instead. That didn’t require vision. “I personally think I was a goofy, chubby little kid, but if you want to think that’s cute,” she explored further with her lips,
“who am I to argue?”
“You were gorgeous then,” Dar brushed a bit of loose hair off Kerry’s forehead and traced an eyebrow, “and you certainly are now.”
Kerry smiled, obviously charmed, then chuckled softly. “I’m sorry, I’m finding this so ironic.”
“What?” Dar traced Kerry’s other eyebrow and outlined her eye.
“Where I am, why I’m here, who I’m with.” Kerry captured Dar’s finger in her teeth and explored the faintly ridged surface with a sensitive tongue. “Hey.” She released the digit and gazed at Dar. “How’s your arm?”
Dar flexed her shoulder very carefully. “Stiff. Aches a little.”
It was actually killing her. Even the drugs weren’t helping much, and Dar was beginning to worry that she’d actually done some serious additional damage to herself.
“From the weather, probably.” Kerry stood and held out a hand. “We’re snowed in right now. C’mon and lie down, and I’ll put some of that analgesic cream the doctor gave you on it.” A faint warning bell went off when Dar acquiesced without argument, and she led her lover to the bed and gently pushed her down onto it.
It was a nice bed, all things considered—a four poster with a stately canopy, fitting the room’s vaulted ceiling and wide expanse of mint green carpet to good proportion. The drapes on the window were also green, a slightly darker shade, and the furniture was whitewashed oak, providing a feeling of pleasant lightness to the room.
Kerry went to the divan where their bags were and rooted 120 Melissa Good around in Dar’s until she found the cream. “That’s pretty heavy snow out there, huh?” she commented, more to break the silence than anything.
“Yeah,” Dar said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before.” She paused. “How long does it go on?”
Ah. Good question. Kerry sat down next to Dar’s reclining form. “Well, I heard the staff saying it should stop before dinner, so that’s good.” She unbuttoned Dar’s shirt, continued down, and tugged its ends out of her corduroys.
“Didn’t think the bruises went down that far,” Dar commented.
“They don’t,” Kerry replied seriously as she peeled back the fabric. “I just like looking at you with your clothes off.” She watched the muscles just under Dar’s skin contract as she laughed in silence. “Hey, I’m not lying.” She jumped a little when Dar’s cell phone went off, but then unclipped it from her waistband and handed it to her. “Here.”
Dar answered it. “Yeah?”
“Ms. Roberts? It’s central ops,” the voice answered.
Uh oh. “Yeah?” Dar repeated, mouthing the word “ops” to Kerry, who winced in reflex, then looked around for her own cell phone.
“I’m sorry to bother you, ma’am, but we have a big problem and we can’t reach Ms. Stuart.”
Dar glanced at Kerry, who had found her cell and opened it, a puzzled look on her face. Then she rolled her eyes, slapped her forehead in eloquent mime, and keyed the switch that turned it on. The device immediately beeped as stored messages sounded alerts.
Dar suppressed a smile, then put a crisp note into her voice.
“She’s taking care of some emergency family business. I told her to turn off her pager. What’s the problem?”
“Oh, sorry,” the operator said. “There’s a huge storm system going over the Midwest.”
Dar peered at the window. “Really?”
“Yes, ma’am. They’re having massive power outages in Chicago.”
“Again?” Dar murmured. “Hm. So how does that affect us?”
A thought occurred to her. “Oh, Jesus, don’t tell me the processing center’s down again.”
A sigh preceded the admission, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Shit,” Dar said. “Get me a contact list.”
Kerry had eased down next to Dar and was gently spreading some of the cream across her shoulder, while listening to the conversation. The Midway Center had been a bone of contention for Thicker Than Water 121
them for some months because, as Dar pointed out, it had no back up facilities and the giant UPS systems in the building had previously failed twice.
This close to Christmas, having a major center that cleared credit card purchases down was a bad, bad thing. “Power’s down again?” she asked softly, smoothing the thick ointment over the point of Dar’s shoulder and massaging the muscles just under the skin.
“Yeah,” Dar said. “Stupid bastards. I’m going to have that damn Dick Stark’s nuts for lunch.”
“Ew.” Kerry made a face, then held it for a different reason.
“Dar, this is really bruised.” She very gently touched the soft skin just above Dar’s left breast.
“I know. It hurts like hell,” Dar said. “Yeah, okay, you got a pen?” She spoke into the phone, focusing her attention away from the very concerned green eyes studying her. “All right. Have you started getting screaming phone calls from the banks yet?”
Kerry pulled Dar’s shirt back over her and covered her injured arm, then she stood and walked to the small desk, picking up her laptop case along the way. She could, she knew, legitimately take the phone from Dar and do what Dar was doing—it was her job, after all, and if she hadn’t been so dumb as to turn off her phone, she’d have gotten the call, not her boss. But she also knew that this one was going to come down to a screamfest, because if the weather in Chicago was half as bad as it was here, getting a repair crew out to fix the UPS wasn’t going to take her kind of finesse. It was going to take raw, brute, sheer bitch, and when it came to that, Kerry would be the first to admit she was a rank amateur compared to her lover. She’d let Dar get things rolling, and spend her time getting hooked up to the system to see what she could do about shifting processing remotely.
“Don’t give me that.” Dar’s voice rose into a familiar bark.
“Get his ass on the phone right now or he’ll be paying penalties on this for the next twenty years!”
Hm. Kerry regarded the figure in the bed. Then she went around the other side of the four poster with her laptop, squirmed into place next to Dar, and let her machine rest on her knees. A soft knock on the door made her look up. “Yes?”
The door opened and Angie poked her head in. “Hey.”
Kerry motioned with her head. “C’mon in.”
Angie walked quietly across the floor and took a seat next to the bed. “What are you guys doing?” she whispered as Dar’s voice lifted again.
“Tell that son of a bitch I’m going to send FedEx to pick up his testicles if he doesn’t get on this phone!”
122 Melissa Good Angie’s eyes widened.
“Easy, DR,” Kerry said in a soothing voi
ce. She achieved her cellular connection and logged into the network. Alerts popped up on her screen like rabid weasels. “All right, all right, I get the picture; shut up already.” She slapped a few keys and looked up at Angie. “We’re running the world.”
Angie’s brow creased. “Right here, from the green bedroom?”
She watched Kerry type, her eyes flicking over the screen with a startling intensity. This was new. She’d never really seen Kerry do whatever it was that she did, and she listened in shocked consternation as Dar said things to people in terms Angie hadn’t even heard in gangster movies. It was sort of interesting, even though she hadn’t any idea what either of them was talking about.
“Look…” Dar shifted in aggravation, sat up, and reached over to move the phone from one ear to the other. It was a bad mistake, and she froze in mid-motion, stifling a yelp and biting her tongue as something that felt like a hot coal pressed against the nerves in her shoulder.
“Dar!” Kerry shoved the laptop off her legs, swiveled, and grabbed Dar and eased her back down onto the pillows. Dar’s face had gone pale, and she watched the blue eyes blink rapidly, faint twitches of pain making their way across her face. “Easy.”
Kerry grabbed the cell phone out of her hand and put it to her ear. “Hello? Who is this?” She waited for an answer. “That’s nice.
Listen to me. My name is Kerrison Stuart. I know more people in Congress than you have brain cells. If you don’t want six government agencies coming down on your doorstep on Monday morning, you’ll do whatever it is Ms. Roberts was asking you to do and not say one word.” She paused. “Do you understand me?” The sound of panic came through clearly. “Good. If you need me to get the snow removal people to clear your path, just say so.” She paused for his reply. “No? Good. We’ll be waiting for that repair-man. Good bye.” She slammed the phone shut and threw it across the room, where it bounced off the wall. “Jesus!”
She turned to see Angie staring at her, both hands covering her mouth. “What?” Then she shifted her eyes to where Dar was lying peacefully, her hands folded over her stomach, regarding her with a look of mixed amusement and pride. “What?” Her frustration surfaced. “You need a doctor!”
