“I thought fruit and snacks would be more useful,” Ceci told him amiably. “Where have you been? Making trouble?”

Andrew glanced at her innocently from between two stalks of celery.

“Hardly had time to do that,” he blinked, “much.”

“Oh boy,” Ceci muttered.

“OH MY GOD.” Kerry trudged into the hotel room and over to the bed, fell face first down on top of it, then yelped, and rolled onto her side.

“Oh, that was stupid.”

“Yes, it was.” Dar chuckled and eased down next to her, with an expressive sigh. “Damn, I’m tired,” she remarked. “I’m glad we went, though.”

Kerry smiled slightly. “My sister and brother really like your folks,”

she commented. “And Dad was so cute with the baby. He’s such a mushball.”

Dar rolled over onto her belly and rested her chin on her arm. “Yeah, he was, wasn’t he? I can remember him playing with me when I was really little. I wasn’t sure which one of us had more fun.”

A little silence fell. “Wow.” Kerry sighed. “Long day.”

“Mmm,” Dar agreed. “Oh, we’re booked on the one p.m. flight back to Miami tomorrow. All four of us.” She started to roll over onto her side, then paused as her injured muscles cramped. “Oh, yeowch.”

“Yeah.” Kerry shifted her sling. “Hey, Dar?” Her brows contracted.

“You know, the press is going to go nuts over this thing for a while.

Maybe it’s better if we lie low for a few days.”

“Hmm?” A thoughtful eyebrow lifted. “Yeah, maybe.” Dar reached around and probed her back gently. “You know, come to think of it, sitting in an office chair is gonna be damn uncomfortable for a while.” She considered the problem and the germ of an idea that had occurred to her in Angie’s hospital room suddenly sprouted.

Kerry wiggled her fingers. “So’s typing,” she reminded her boss.

“We could work from home, though.”

“We could,” Dar agreed. “But we’re not going to.”

“We’re not?”

Dar cautiously eased off the bed and trudged over to the laptop on the desk, sat down at it and rattled the keys for approximately five minutes straight while Kerry lay and watched her. “There,” she hit a final key, then sat back, “we’re on vacation.”

Kerry’s ears perked up visibly. “We are?”


422 Melissa Good Dar nodded and allowed a tired smile to cross her face. “I promised you a trip to Key West.”

“Dar, we can’t both just go on vacation like this.” The blonde woman smiled. “Not that I don’t want to.”

“We can,” Dar disagreed. “We are. I just told Alastair and Maríana. If they don’t like it, too damn bad.” She got up, went to the bed, sat down, and reached a hand out. “You, me, and Chino in a bungalow on the beach for a week. It’s a done deal.”

Kerry clasped her fingers with her own. “Sounds wonderful but…you had those meetings this week, Dar…and the new network. I know how important that is to you.”

“It’s not.” Dar’s voice was quiet and soft. “It doesn’t mean a thing to me, not anymore.”

Kerry fell silent. It occurred to her that Dar was being completely truthful at the moment, as she studied the pale blue eyes, shadowed with the strain of the last few days. Maybe some time off wasn’t a bad idea.

“Okay,” she agreed. What was the worst they could do? Fire them? Well, she’d never been fired before. It would be a new experience in that case.

“I’d really like to spend time with you. We haven’t ever really been able to for more than a day or so without work or some other disaster happening.”

Dar looked pleased. “Good.” Her face creased into an unexpected smile. “I’d really like that, too. It’s been a while since I took some time off.”

“Skiing, wasn’t it?” Kerry prodded her memory. “You getting up and personal with nature, if I’m not mistaken.”

“You remembered that?”

“Mmm. I thought it was really interesting. Most people would have lied and said they skied the black diamond slopes,” Kerry replied. “Not you. I remember being impressed at how secure you were with yourself.”

Dar slowly let herself lie down and stretched her legs out on the bed.

“I never thought of it like that,” she admitted. “I was just praying you weren’t going to ask me when, precisely, that skiing trip was.”

Kerry cocked her head. “When was it?” she asked, predictably.

“My senior year in high school.”

The blonde woman’s hand dropped to the bed and she stared. “Are you telling me you haven’t had a vacation since high school?”

Dar nodded sheepishly. “The last time Maríana checked I had enough rolled over time built up to take off an entire year.”

“B—” Kerry rubbed her face. “But what about that place in North Carolina? You spent time there.”

“Weekends.” Dar shrugged.

“Good Lord, Paladar A. Roberts.” Kerry shook her head. “Damn right we’re taking next week off. I may kidnap you and keep you down there for a month.”

Dar grinned happily. “Promise?”

This was a new Dar. Kerry smiled back at her and interlaced their fin-Eye of the Storm 423

gers. “Promise.” It would be nice, actually, and she could take the time to let her arm heal, before she had to come back and deal with the usual stuff…

Yeah.

Kerry slowly rolled over and got up. “Key West, huh?” She exhaled and started unbuttoning her shirt one handed. “I think I’m going to like this.” Fingers took over from hers and she used that hand to explore the soft, warm skin now inches away. Dar had bruises all over her and little scrapes, tiny dark lines against her tan that rubbed rough against Kerry’s fingertips. “You smell nice,” she commented idly, reflecting that being her height wasn’t a bad thing when it got you the view it got her when Dar was naked.

“Thank you,” the taller woman rumbled. “It’s that scrub stuff you got from the Internet. I kinda like it.”

“Mmm.” Kerry got her nose closer, then took an experimental lick.

“Smells different on you than on me.” She nibbled further.

Dar chuckled unexpectedly. “We’re dif…ah…that tickles.”

“Really?” Kerry repeated the experiment, feeling Dar’s ribcage contract sharply under her other hand as she laughed again. “Hmm…”

“Kerry.” Dar unhooked the sling holding up her arm and carefully lowered it. “Easy.” She slid the device off, then removed the blonde woman’s long sleeve cotton shirt. “What have we here?” She plucked something off Kerry’s bra strap and held it up before her eyes. “Two timing on me, hmm?”

Kerry focused her vision on the tiny item. “Just like in the movies.

You find a blond hair on my underthings too short to be mine.” She sighed. “My cover’s blown. I’m having an affair with our dog.”

They started giggling, the long days tension dissolving in absurdity.

“Lemme guess. It’s the tail, right?” Dar replied.

“Nah, that six inch long to—”

“Hey, girls?”

The inner door started to swing open and Kerry’s eyes almost turned the size of baseballs. “Oh shit!”

Dar kicked her brain into gear and quickly wrapped her arms around Kerry, neatly covering both of them as her father poked his head in. “Hi, Dad.”

“Hey list—” Andrew’s face turned an odd shade of coral. “Good Lord, ah beg your pardon.”

“No problem, Dad,” Dar reassured him, bolstered by years of boardroom experience in poker faces. “I was just helping Kerry get undressed.”

Andrew scratched his jaw. “Done a right professional job at it, looks like.”

Kerry laughed, her breath tickling Dar right between the breasts.

“I always try to do things right.” Dar managed to keep a straight face. “Did you need something?”

Andrew found something interesting on the opposite wall to examine. “We were gonna order us up some ice cream. Thought you might be 424 Melissa Good interested.”

“Sure.” Dar smiled. “Great nightcap.”

“With lots of syrup.” Kerry’s muffled voice rose up from the depths.

“All right,” Andrew agreed seriously.

“And cherries.” Another half heard request.

“You can have mine,” Dar remarked dryly. “Make sure there’s nuts, though.”

“Now. Ah’d have thought them would be—oh. You mean the eat’n kind,” her father drawled back. “All right.”

“Dad!” Kerry squealed, turning her head and peeking at him.

Andrew gave her a rakish grin and disappeared.

“I can’t believe he said that,” Kerry spluttered.

“Why?” Dar released her and continued removing her clothing. “He knows the difference between boys and girls, Ker. And despite rumors to the contrary he knows I don’t have anf…ffof.” She peered at her friend over a hand clamped firmly across her mouth.

“Thank you so much for the biology lesson,” Kerry muttered. “I’m just not really used to parents making comments like that. Mine never did.” She paused. “It would have been like the statue of George Washington cracking an X-rated joke.”

Dar nibbled Kerry’s palm, exploring the soft skin, which shifted and was removed. “You know what they always said about George, right?”

she teased, then inclined her head and found Kerry’s lips about to make a protest. Then she circled Kerry with her arms again and drew her closer as they kissed, reveling in the solid reality she’d almost lost the day before. One hand slid up and cupped Kerry’s neck, her fingers tangling in the pale hair as she allowed the intensity to build, blocking out everything but the emotion of the moment.

They paused to breathe and swayed together, moving to inaudible music they both heard, eyes locked, souls bound.

Finally Kerry smiled. “Guess I’d better get my jammies on before the ice cream gets here,” she commented, still almost lost in Dar’s gaze.

“Yeah,” Dar agreed amiably, not moving an inch.

A silence fell again for a while.

“We’re going to really embarrass Dad if he comes back in here.”

“Yeah.” Dar sighed. “I’ll have to start teaching him all the ‘how many lesbians does it take to change a light bulb’ jokes.” But she finally shifted, and unhooked Kerry’s bra, then retrieved both of their sleeping outfits from the suitcase.

Kerry settled on the bed in her Tweety shirt and cradled her arm.

“So,” she watched Dar as she folded everything and put it away, “how many does it take?”

“What?”

“Lesbians. To change a light bulb?”

“Well.” Dar came over to the bed and laying on her side carefully, stretching long, mostly bare legs out. “There’s the two with the wood—”

“Wood?”


Eye of the Storm 425

“They have to build the ladder first.”

“Why?”

“Power tools. Anyway, the two with the wood, then four to plan the strategy—”

“Four?”

“Yeah. A representative sample—one butch, one fem, and two that self identify as androgynous.”

Kerry giggled.

“Then you need six more to research where to buy the bulb—”

“Six?”

“Gotta make sure those dyke dollars go to supportive stores, hon,”

Dar drawled. “And we can’t forget the dozen academics to analyze the process, and determine if changing a bulb could be considered the subject of a ‘Changing Role Relationships in the American Workplace’ seminar.”

Kerry giggled harder. “And that’s how you’d change a bulb?” she asked, skeptically.

“Nah.” Dar shook her head, as she heard sounds in the next room.

“I’d hire someone else to do it.” She leaned over and stole another kiss. “I hate stereotypes.”


Chapter

Forty-six

“YOU ABOUT PACKED?” Kerry came out to find Dar busy at her laptop. “Dar?”

“Mmm?” Dar looked up. “Oh, yeah, almost.” She nodded.

A knock rattled on the door in a familiar rhythm. “That’s Dad.” Dar chuckled, going over and opening the door, and stepping back to allow her parents to enter. “Just about ready to leave?”

Andy carried both their bags and now he ambled over and took possession of Dar and Kerry’s as well.

“Hey!” Dar put her hands on her hips. “I’m capable of carrying a couple of bags.”

“Don’t bother.” Her mother waved her off. “I’ve tried that. He’s just in a feisty mood today or something.”

Dar shook her head and finished packing up her computer. “Fine, fine. Let’s just get the hell out of here. I hear a conch fritter calling my name.”

“Wait.” Kerry smiled, pulling out her camera. “I want a picture.” She waved them together. “C’mon.” She waited for Andrew to shed his burden, then join his wife and daughter in front of the window. Light poured in the other side of the room, and Kerry smiled as she focused her shot, shifting the lens slightly to frame her subjects. Andrew had taken the center and put an arm around the women on either side of him. Ceci, of course, was almost dwarfed by his height, but she leaned against him with a warm sense of familiarity. Dar had amiably wrapped her arm around her father’s back and looked at the camera with her usual air of wry self deprecation. “Perfect.” She snapped the shot, then lowered the camera. “Thanks.” She grinned at Ceci.