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Melissa Good

Kerry counted. It took less than five seconds. It was a game they played sometimes, to see how fast they could find each other. On the count of one thousand four, the blue eyes zeroed in on hers, and Dar’s lips twitched into a grin. She made her way over to where they were seated, gracefully sidestepping a pair of power walkers who were strutting their way across the machine area.

”Hey.” Kerry offered her a sip of her drink. ”How’d it go?” She felt safe in this moderate display of affection, since the crowd was busy and most of the people there who knew them weren’t gossipmongers.

A shrug. ”Same as always.” Dar accepted the glass, and took a swallow of the fruit smoothie. ”Hello, Colleen.”

The redhead smiled. ”Hi Dar. Any chance of going over those punches today?”

”Sure,” Dar replied, handing Kerry back her cup. ”I’m going to go change. Meet you guys over by the mats.” She headed into the locker room, crossing to her locker right next to Kerry’s, and unlocking it. She put her bag inside, and changed quickly, glad to get out of her skirt, hose and pumps, and into a comfortable pair of cotton pants and soft boots.

She hung up her work clothes, and shrugged into the mid length shirt, pulling the long, black belt from her bag and glancing at it before she wrapped it twice around her waist and tied it off.

Putting this on had felt very strange, she remembered. She usually worked out with the trainer on the island in a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt, but when she actually started teaching class, Ken said it would make the students feel less awkward with their own new garb if she wore hers as well.

So she’d rooted around in the three trunks tucked into the condo’s closet that represented her personal possessions, and dug the old thing out. She was a little surprised it still fit. She’d had her doubts about wearing it, but then Kerry had told her she liked it. She’d told Dar she thought she looked really cute in it, and since then Dar hadn’t minded wearing it.

”A little egotistical?” she asked herself wryly. ”Oh. Just a little.”

She locked the locker and headed out towards the class area, chuckling a bit under her breath.

They were all waiting, a group of ten including Kerry and Colleen.

Dar took them through a series of warm up routines, using the time to stretch out her own muscles. She then went over several concepts she’d taught the week before, and linked that into the day’s lesson. As always, Kerry watched her with that little look of utter concentration, her brow furrowed, the tip of her tongue poking out a bit, as she repeated the exercise, uncertain at first, then with more confidence.

”Nice,” Dar complimented her. ”Okay, now you and Colleen go at each other.” The rest of the class watched as the blonde and the redhead squared off, and Kerry edged forward, getting the hold on Colleen’s Hurricane Watch

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arm, and correctly dumping her on her butt. ”Right.”

”Ugh.” Colleen squinted up at her friend. ”I’ll be needing a pillow on my butt, much more of this.”

Kerry grinned, and offered her a hand up.

Dar hadn’t expected to enjoy teaching. She’d volunteered on the spur of the moment, and afterward had almost regretted it, but as the weeks went on she’d found herself looking forward to her little class.

”Okay, good.” She nodded as two of the men squared off against each other, and demonstrated. ”Right, a little higher on the kick. You have to get it just above the knee.” She got in closer, and tapped the man on the thigh. ”That’s it.”

The class finished, and she leaned against the wall, watching as Ken ambled over, an apologetic look on his face. ”Evening, Ken,” She greeted the shorter man. ”How’s the neck?”

”Hurts like heck,” he admitted. ”I think I’m going to have to give it a miss tonight.”

Dar chewed her lip. ”Sorry about that,” she told him sincerely. “I didn’t expect that kick to connect that hard.”

”Don’t worry about it,” he chuckled deprecatingly, then he glanced up at her. ”Say, Dar, you ever give any thought to going back into competition?”

The question surprised her. ”No, I...” She paused. ”No... c’mon Ken, it’s been ten years. I’m way past that.”

Ken shook his head. ”I have to disagree. I mean, I don’t know if you’re interested, but I was at a match this past weekend, and I have to tell you, honestly, Dar, you’d have walked away with the trophy.” He put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. ”I know it was just a little local thing, but if you wanted to, you could go back into it. You’ve still got the moves. It would just take a little work.”

Dar’s first instinct was to say no, absolutely not. She didn’t have time for that. Her life was too complicated as it was, and there was no way she’d have time to do it right, to get into the kind of shape she knew she’d have to in order to really compete.

But... A seductive tendril she’d thought long buried surfaced, reminding her of just how much she’d enjoyed competing, how much she’d enjoyed winning. Maybe seeing Steven shook that loose and brought it to the surface, she mused. Her eyes flicked over Ken’s waiting face. ”Something to think about,” she replied quietly. ”I don’t know. I really hadn’t considered it before.”

He grinned. ”Well, you think about it.” He patted her arm. ”We’ll talk about it in a couple of days.”

Dar walked slowly across the busy gym, her eyes thoughtful.

KERRY RELAXED INTO the soft leather seat and sighed. ”God, I’m starving. I am so glad I stuck that bowl of chicken satay in the 22

Melissa Good

refrigerator before we left this morning.”

”Mm...that sounds good,” Dar agreed as she gazed out at the road.

Kerry glanced at her, studying Dar’s profile. ”You’re quiet tonight,” she said after a moment of silence. ”Everything okay or are you still stewing about Mr. Slimeball?”

Pale blue eyes left the road and gazed at her for a moment. ”He’s not worth stewing over,” she stated, knowing it for a lie. ”I managed to put a corncob up José’s tailpipe. I gave him a copy of that email.” She chuckled softly. ”I haven’t seen him change to that shade of red in a while. I usually cause that.”

Kerry stretched out and leaned on the armrest. ”What does he hope to accomplish, Dar? Fabricini, I mean.”

”Bottom line?” Dar turned into the ferry terminal and drove onto the boat, which had just docked. She put the car into park and rolled the windows down, then turned the engine off. The cool January air blew in ripe with the salt tang of the sea and she settled back, propping one knee up against the steering wheel. ”He wants José’s job, and my head,”

she said. ”If he can prove we lost money because of something I did, he’s got a wedge to work with. Sales aren’t that great, and if he makes it look like he can pull a rabbit out of his ass someone in Houston might listen.”

“You think so? Really? They’d take his word so fast?” Kerry asked in an incredulous voice.

Dar shrugged. “New kid on the block,” she said. “Carries weight sometimes.”

Kerry blinked. ”But, how can he prove something happened because of you? You know nothing like that did, Dar. If there’s one department in the entire company that runs like clockwork it’s ours.”

Dar ducked her head to one side. ”No one’s perfect, Kerry. It’s possible he could dig up something where we could have done our jobs better, and we lost out because of it. We’ve got so many things going on at once, and so much of it involves making decisions based on the best information available. It can happen.”

“Wow.” Kerry frowned. “But nothing— You don’t mean little stuff, like having to reorder circuits or things like that, do you?” she asked.

“Dar, even I know that Sales messes up a heck of a lot more and for bigger dollars than we do.”

“True,” Dar said. “But if you stack up a bunch of little stuff, and put it on letterhead, and show you’ve got a better plan, businessmen listen.”

“Well...”

“I listened to you when you did it,” Dar interrupted mildly. “You pulled together a list of little annoyances in the integration and put a reasonable plan in front of my puss and I caved right away.”

“Dar.”

“I did.” She settled her hands on her knee. ”But I’ve got a pretty Hurricane Watch

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good batting average. He’d have to find something really major, and I’m not really worried about that.” She fell silent and watched the ripple of the water in the ferry’s wake, scattering the moonlight over its surface.

”So, what are you really worried about?” Kerry prodded gently. ”Is it because he’s made it so personal?”

Dar thought about that. ”Maybe,” she acknowledged. ”Or maybe it’s because he’s sniffing after you.” She let a rueful grin cross her face.

“And if he does find out about us, he will most certainly make an issue of it.””Mmph.” Kerry rolled her head to one side, waving at the deckhand as they docked on the island. ”Well, we just have to make sure that doesn’t happen. Right?”

“Right.” Dar drove off the ferry, and through the spray, and turned onto the access road that lead to the condo. She pulled in next to Kerry’s Mustang, and turned the car off.

Kerry regarded the other car. “I might have to start leaving that at my place,” she said. “Apparently one of Eleanor’s goons is hanging out with someone who lives near me and noticed I wasn’t around.”

Dar half turned in her seat, one hand playing with the car keys.

“Ah,” She exhaled. “Guess you haven’t been there a lot, huh?”

“No.” Kerry plucked a bit of lint from the seat. “I guess I could start going back there during the week again.”

A little silence fell between them.

“You want to do that?” Dar finally asked, a quiet note of resignation in her tone.

Kerry looked out the windshield at the wall of the condo. “No,” she said after a pause. “To hell with it. I’ll think of something if she starts asking questions again.” She glanced sideways. “Unless you think I should.”

“Nope. That sounds good to me,” Dar responded immediately.

”C’mon, let’s go get slurped.” She got out and took her bag, then waited for Kerry to join her before she trotted up the stairs and keyed the door open.They ducked inside and turned the lights on. Kerry dropped her bag on the couch and continued on into the kitchen towards the utility room, which was issuing shrill yelps. ”Okay...okay Chino. Take it easy.”

She unlatched the gate, and let the three month old Labrador puppy out. ”Did you miss us?”

The puppy scrambled up her leg, hopping up and down until she picked her up and cuddled her. ”Hey.” Kerry laughed as the pink tongue got her neck. ”Hey...no nibbling!” The sharp little teeth nipped her skin, as she glanced into the puppy’s area. ”You were a good girl, were’ntcha!”

Dar wandered over, and the puppy whined, wiggling towards her.

”Hey, puppy.”


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Melissa Good

”All right, all right, here.” Kerry turned her over. ”Go. I know who your favorite is. Look, Dar, she was a good girl all day.”

Dar suffered a nose nibble, and peered into the room. ”Hey, look at that. Good girl,” she praised Chino. ”Getting resident services to come and let her out twice during the day was a good idea, huh?”

”You bet,” Kerry agreed. ”Want to take her for a walk while I get dinner up?” She watched indulgently as Dar scratched Chino’s chin, the little tag on her collar which bore her name and their address jingled softly as she moved. ”Dar?”

”Hmm?” The executive glanced up. ”Oh, right, sorry.” She kissed the puppy on the head. ”C’mon, Chino, let’s go out, see if you’ll piddle for me, huh?” She slipped out the back door and down the patio steps into the moonlit grassy area.

Kerry had to laugh, as she rinsed her hands off. ”No one at work would believe hearing that.” She shook head wryly. Dar had proven to be an extremely soft touch when it came to their little addition, and Chino had learned all it took to get a puppy biscuit was a pair of soulful brown eyes, and a tiny paw.

She’d find Dar, and sit next to her, raising the paw up and patting Dar’s leg with it, and the well trained human would immediately produce an Iams biscuit which Chino would crunch contentedly.

It was cute in the extreme, and Kerry loved watching her intimidating lover turn into a blue eyed puddle over Chino’s admittedly adorable ways.

She put up the satay and some rice and added some fresh green beans to the steamer. ”That’ll do.” She dusted her hands off and retrieved her bag, glancing around the living room with a sense of quiet satisfaction.