”We can’t always kill things that have the potential to annoy us,”

Dar stated looking at him steadily. ”Now get outta my way, Eleanor.”

She moved towards the door and the woman screamed, backing away from her and tripping over the broom left in the cabin for sweeping. She tumbled over it, landing on her butt on the floor and scrambling back, looking like a huge, white skinned spider.

Dar removed the snake from the premises, then dusted her hands off and went back inside.

The boys were behind their door. The girls were clustered back against the wall, behind Kerry’s Tweety clad form.

Everyone was looking at her. ”We voted you Snake Hunter,” Kerry informed her, with a faint grin. ”As in, could you check for more?”

Dar put her hands on her hips. ”I didn’t get a vote,” she protested.

”Besides, in this weather it’s easy. Look where it’s warm.”

As one, five sets of eyes turned towards their bunks. ”Oh my god.”

Eleanor slumped to the floor, in a faint.

”Uh, I think we’d better leave the light on,” Mariana stated 58

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nervously as she and Mary Lou struggled to get Eleanor into her bunk.

Dar sighed and shook her head, going over to her bunk and sitting down on it. ”I’m sure it was just an isolated thing,” she reassured them.

”C’mon, we’ve got to get some sleep. God only knows what Mary Sunshine has in store for us tomorrow.” She stretched herself out on her cot on one side, crossing her ankles and propping her head up on one hand.Kerry slowly did the same, crawling into her bed after she peered around it nervously, then lying down so her head was close to Dar’s. ”I hate snakes,” she muttered.

”Hmm? How do you feel about lizards?” Dar inquired seriously.

”Um, I don’t know. Why?” Kerry asked, hesitantly.

”There’s one on your leg.” Dar pointed.

Kerry yelled and jumped, leaping across the space between their two bunks and landing practically in Dar’s arms. ”Shit!” She watched the tiny lizard scamper away, then exhaled raggedly. ”Damn.”

Then she realized where she was and peeked at Dar’s face. ”Uh, sorry.” She eased away from the taller woman, whose eyes twinkled.

”Dar, this isn’t funny. I hate these things.”

Dar almost told her to stay where she was, that she would protect her, but Mariana and Mary Lou were watching them. ”Look, just relax, lizards are good. They eat bugs.”

Wrong thing to say. In a split second everyone was in the middle of the room, staring at the beds.

Dar sighed and pulled the covers up over her face. It was going to be a very long night.


Chapter

Six

THEY’D FINALLY GOTTEN to sleep. Dar had convinced them, by sheer force of will, that if they’d turn the lights off and pull the covers up over their heads no bugs would get to them, even if there were bugs.

So they had and now she was snuggled down in her own bunk, waiting for her body to relax in this strange environment and listening to the soft breathing around her.

A low, rumbling sound came from next door and Dar smirked quietly, then exhaled, hoping none of her sleeping companions were prone to snoring.

Kerry wasn’t, she knew, unless she was flat on her back and exhausted. Dar suspected she’d be guilty of that in the same state as well. Usually Kerry preferred to curl up on her side, or against Dar’s shoulder, her breath gently warming the taller woman’s neck.

It was incredible, Dar mused, just how good that felt. She turned her head and gazed into the darkness, barely able to distinguish the huddled figure in the bed next to her. Hmm. Dar inched forward, getting as close to the head of her bunk as she could, then she slipped a hand between the rough two by fours that lined the beds and closed her fingers over the hand she could just see curled over Kerry’s head.

A soft gasp, then the blonde head lifted and the faint light reflected off her pupils. ”Oh” she barely whispered, ”you scared the bejezus out of me.”

Dar smiled and chafed her hand. ”Cold?” She murmured in response.

”Mm.” Kerry squirmed closer until her face was within inches of her lover’s. ”Even with the extra padding I’m still shivering; pretty embarrassing for a northerner,” she admitted. ”Camp wasn’t like this for my younger WASP self.”

Dar grinned, then looked around carefully. ”Can’t have that.” She slipped out of her bunk and into Kerry’s, the darkness shrouding them in safety.

”Dar,” Kerry mouthed, ”What are you doing?”

”Protecting corporate assets,” the executive purred right into her ear as she curled her body around Kerry’s and tucked the cover around both of them. ”Got a problem with that?”

”I don’t, but everyone else is going to, Dar,” Kerry breathed. ”I 60

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thought we were trying to keep this quiet. I think them waking up with us in bed together is going to be just a tad conspicuous, don’t you?”

”Shh, I’ll get out of here before it’s light. Just relax.” Dar reassured her. ”Unless you don’t want to be warm, that is. I can leave.”

Kerry snuggled closer. ”Mmph,” she grumbled, burying her face into a very welcome, very warm neck. ”Well, at least I’ll be safe from snakes.” A pause. ”Legless ones, anyway.”

Dar chuckled softly and felt her body easing into sleep, comfortably tucked around Kerry’s, her hands moving in slow, gentle circles against the smaller woman’s skin.

Kerry’s breathing evened out and slowed, and she dozed off, her hands flexing gently against Dar’s chest. Somehow that made the aggravations of the day ease and float off, clearing her mind and allowing her to drift off as well.

She was seated on a grassy slope, overlooking a river valley. The open, rolling land stretched out before her, split by the deep blue and gray line of water whose rush and rustle came to her faintly. The wind blew against her face, pushing the hair back and ruffling the soft fabric that covered the body of the blonde woman lying curled up, with a pale head pillowed on her outstretched legs.

A hand she recognized as her own gently stroked the soft hair spilling over her skin and she was lazily aware of the soft buzz of a bee nearby, and a songbird trilling overhead.

Her eyes traveled down her companion’s body and she felt the strange blur of surprise and familiarity as she realized the woman nestled against her was with child, her belly swollen under the soft fabric. Her other hand was interlaced with the woman’s, and both were tucked against the surface. As she sat, caught between her dream and the faint memories resting against her consciousness, she felt the soft flutter of a tiny life against her fingers.

A little smile moved the lips of the blonde woman and her eyes slid half open, meeting the blue ones watching her and taking on a quiet, warm sparkle.

She felt the muscles of her face move and knew she was smiling back.

The blonde woman nestled her head back down and closed her eyes, and she tilted her own head back to rest against a tree’s rough bark as the sweet, cool wind lulled her into a dreamy, wonderful haze.

SHE JUST BARELY beat the dawn. Dar’s eyes fluttered open as the first gray outlines were beginning to be seen beyond the trees, her heart pumping as she tried to reconcile the strange surroundings.

Then memory flared and she let her head briefly drop back onto the pillow as she let her heartbeat slow, safe for at least a few minutes more Hurricane Watch

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in the darkness.

She then remembered her dream and her brows knit as she tried to figure out where in the hell she’d imagined a pregnant Kerry. Could it be a premonition? Kerry hadn’t said anything like that had happened during her visit home, but Dar sucked in a breath, remembering finding her lover in the bathroom the day before, white as a sheet, and she wondered. Surely Kerry would have told her if she’d been assaulted at home, right?

Unless it wasn’t an assault, of course. Unless... Dar mentally slapped herself. “Stop it,” she mouthed silently. Kerry had gone over every minute of her visit home from when she’d left Miami until she’d been rescued by Dar in that hospital and there hadn’t been time enough for her to get a bag of fries at Burger King much less anything else.

Besides, she’d had her period since then and she was regular as clockwork. Dar dismissed the thought and frowned again. Just mental housekeeping? Yeah.

And if it wasn’t? Well... Dar put her chin down on her forearm and thought about that. She’d never wanted children. She knew herself to lack the patience she thought a parent needed, and that complication was something she had never considered adding to her life.

She still didn’t. Her eyes traveled over Kerry’s peaceful face. What did Kerry want, though? Did she want kids? Dar reached out and fingered a bit of her lover’s pale hair, trying to remember if they’d ever talked about it.

She didn’t think so, but what if she did? Dar bit the inside of her lip and wondered if she could adjust to the thought of a family if it turned out Kerry really wanted one. Could she?

She closed her eyes and remembered the look of utter love that had been in the eyes looking up at her, and she knew the answer. For that, she would accept anything. Everything. The sense of panic receded and she relaxed, speculating that her own subconscious had maybe just prodded her into a moment of self-awareness, one that brought a wry, wistful smile to her face.

The outline of the window was becoming clearer and, reluctantly, Dar eased out from under the covers, settling them back around Kerry’s sleeping body before she moved silently back to her own bed.

The mattress was simply laid on a metal base without any telltale springs and she managed to settle down on its marginally comfortable surface without waking anyone up.

It was cold. She rolled onto her stomach and wrapped her arms around the almost flat pillow, resting her chin on the surface and glowering at the rest of the cabin. She wondered what would happen if she went back to where she’d been and let them wake up and find them together.

If Eleanor hadn’t been there she would have. Mariana knew about them and she figured out that Mary Lou wouldn’t give a damn. She 62

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thought about doing it anyway. The constant need to deny their relationship grated on her.

Dar argued with herself for about five minutes, then sighed and decided she’d better get up and go do something before she caused havoc for both of them.

And Kerry had been worried about spilling the beans herself. Dar gave the growing dawn an evil look, then she sat up and grabbed her bag, pulling out a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt and trudging off to the bathroom.

It was a relatively nice morning, she decided. She exited the cabin and stood on the porch, breathing in air thick with the scent of trees around her and with a faint hint of hickory smoke. Fog was rolling across the grounds, rising from the lake and she could barely see the outline of the main hall or of the scattered cabins that peeked out from between the trees.

Dar stepped off the porch, her sneakers crunching gently over the fallen pine needles, and the tiny pine cones. She headed down towards the lake, taking deep breaths to wake her body up and spotted a small path that was well tended that apparently went around the water’s edge. She broke into a light jog as she reached it, then headed on down the path, enjoying the brisk morning air.

The sun was rising over the water and its rays filtered through the trees throwing pale salmon stripes across the path and her as she ran in silence.

She was about three quarters of the way around before she heard steps behind her and she cocked an ear, frowning as she didn’t recognize the sound of them. A glance back made her curse roundly and she took a breath, composing her temper before Steven Fabricini caught up to her. ”Morning.”

He fell into step next to her, running easily in his black and silver running suit. ”I’m surprised, Dar, didn’t think you kept this up.” He peered around in mock cheerfulness. ”I do marathons, so it’s part of every morning for me.”

Dar debated not answering, then she twitched her lips. ”Great way to start a morning,” she commented.

”Oh yeah,” He agreed. ”I do between five and eight miles a day, twice that on weekends. I placed top ten my last three races.”