THEY TROOPED UP to the attic together. Mike opened an unobtrusive door set in a small alcove, and they walked up the heavy wooden stairs.

Dar listened to the door close behind her, and she exhaled, shifting her shoulders nervously before she followed Kerry. The stairwell was very narrow, and her shoulders only just fit in the space. The closeness made her uncomfortable, and she suspected Kerry realized that, because halfway up, a hand reached back and she took it and felt the comfort of Kerry’s fingers curling around her own.

That was good, because the ceiling came down rather close to her head, and by the time they climbed up and out into the vaulted attic space, Dar was twitching. It was far more open, though, and she relaxed a little. It was warm—the heat from the house clustered up there despite the chill outdoors, and the eclec-tic nature of the place quickly drew her interest.

There were steamer trunks pushed against three of the four walls, and stacks of neatly bagged bedding and clothing. Two old rocking chairs sat peacefully in the corner, and there were con-tainers of unknown items scattered around here and there. Dar had no idea why Kerry had wanted to go up there, especially after their footsteps stirred up a mild cloud of dust and they all sneezed, but she was willing to go along with it for a while.

“We stuck them here.” Mike dragged one of the larger trunks out into the middle of the floor and knelt in front of it. He dialed the combination lock and threw the top open. “All of Kerry’s stuff that Angie and I could find around the house before the thought police came through.”

Ah. Dar’s ears perked up and she slipped around Kerry to investigate the trunk. “What have we here?”

“Hm. Good question.” Kerry scuttled to the trunk and knelt beside it. “Think I can just have this whole trunk shipped?”

Dar pulled out a pair of very old, yellow, obviously well worn footy pajamas that featured a threadbare cotton tail on the back. She grinned at Kerry, who was making a face at them, and pulled out her cell phone, flipped it open, and keyed in the memory. “FedEx? I’d like to schedule a pick-up.”

“Oh, my God.” Kerry covered her eyes. “Of all the things for 114 Melissa Good you to save.”

Angie snickered. “You know something? It was worth it, just to see your face right now.”

“Dar, give me that.” Kerry reached for the rags, but Dar lifted them up beyond her reach. “Dar!”

“Shh.” Dar finished giving the address to the operator, then folded her phone shut. “These are…um,” she lowered the pajamas to eye level, “cute.” She examined the fluffy tail in the back.

“Wanna model them?”

“Augh.” Kerry lunged across the trunk and snatched the old things out of Dar’s hands. “I haven’t worn those since I was six, thanks.” She tucked the fabric under her arm for safekeeping, then warily explored the top layer of the trunk. “Oh, God, Angie…”

She lifted out a photo album. “I was wondering if you snagged this.”

Dar settled at Kerry’s side and peered at the book with interest. It was leather bound and age creased. Kerry opened the cover.

Angie and Mike also inched closer, and sat cross legged on the floor at her side.

“Oo.” Dar laid a long finger on the page. “I like that one.”

“Dar.” Kerry had to smother a chuckle. “That hoary, old baby-on-the-bearskin picture?” She eyed her naked infant self, sprawled over some fuzzy fabric and staring up at the camera with a look best described as astonished. “Can you believe that’s me?”

Dar examined the picture. “Sure. Parts of you haven’t change a bfwh.” Kerry covered Dar’s mouth with her hand as Angie and Michael started cackling.

“You are so dead,” Kerry said. “You just wait, Paladar. I’m going to…to…to…yow!” Kerry pulled her hand away from the nibbling teeth and exploring tongue. “Stop that!” She grabbed Dar’s tongue and pulled.

Angie almost hurt herself as she rolled onto the floor, narrowly missing the edge of the trunk. “Oh, my God,” she gasped.

“You guys are too much.”

Dar retrieved her appendage and returned it to its normal location. Then she grinned, looking into Kerry’s eyes, getting the hoped for tiny crinkle above the bridge of her nose and the faint smirk that meant her lover really wasn’t as annoyed as she sounded.

What’s gotten into her today? Kerry wondered silently. Being so demonstrative in the company of others was definitely not normal for her usually far more reserved partner. Dar would, on occasion, put a hand on her back or ruffle her hair, but never did she indulge in the kind of extremely personal horseplay she was dis-Thicker Than Water 115

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 eyes met again. “Do you know what the most wonderful part of today was?”