”It looks great.”
Alastair chuckled. ”Oh yeah, they called up here for copy and a photo. I think they gave them the one from that company picnic last year.” He cleared his throat. ”So, what about it, Dar? I’ll concede I should have asked you, but I really didn’t think you'd mind.”
Dar sighed, and studied her hands. ”I need a few days to think about it, Alastair,” she told the CEO, her eyes meeting Kerry’s. ”I’ll let you know.”
”Dar, I hate waiting,” the CEO complained. ”Besides, what am I supposed to tell the board?”
A soft chuckle, almost unheard. ”Tell them I said to kiss my ass,”
Dar drawled in reply. ”I’ll let you know in a few days, Alastair.” She paused. ”Goodnight.” She hit the release, then took a sip of her coffee, regarding her computer screen in pensive silence. ”I wonder how much my raise was?”
Kerry flicked her fingers through the dark hair, then glanced at the phone when it rang. She picked it up. ”Hello?”
A low, raspy voice responded, causing her to smile. ”Oh, hi…
...yeah… ...yeah, that’s your kid in the paper, all right.” She watched Dar’s whole demeanor perk up when her words registered. ”Here, say hello.” She handed the phone to her lover and kissed her head. ”I’m going to put my stuff away,” she whispered, then eased out of the room.
Chino trotted over to her, licking her chops from the snack Kerry had provided the puppy and attempted to catch her feet. ”Hey, cut that out.” She laughed, reaching down and picking the animal up, then carrying her upstairs. ”You leave your mom alone for a few minutes, okay? She’s talking to her daddy.”
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”Woo?” Chino yawned at her. ”Yeep.”
”Yeah, I know.” Kerry entered her room, and put the puppy down on the bed, then sat down herself, laying back onto the soft surface and regarding the ceiling. Chino curled up by her side, and she stroked the puppy gently as she thought.
”Chino, I’m twenty seven years old,” she told the animal. ”I’m not ready to be a vice president of anything more vital than the condo association here.”
”Yeep.” Chino licked her chops again.
”I mean, it’s ridiculous. I can’t do her job,” Kerry argued, waving a hand. ”I can’t even begin to do it. Look what happened in only one day without her there?” She shook her head. ”I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing by even suggesting it. She’s just being nice, Chino. She can’t be seriously thinking I can do that.”
She played with the puppy's ears. ”I can’t do it. I’m not good enough, Chino.” She felt a little sad. ”I’m no match for her capabilities.
Even though she says she put me in here because she thought I was, I’m not.””That’s not true,” the low, vibrant voice came from the doorway.
Kerry sighed. ”Dar...”
”It’s not true, Kerry.” Dar crossed the room and settled onto the bed. ”I know you believe that, because you’ve had assholes telling you you’re not capable half your life, but it’s not goddamned true.” Her voice deepened with anger. ”And you do me a disservice by thinking I’d put someone into a job unless I believed in their ability.” A pause.
”Unless I believed in them.”
“Dar—”
“I have to live with my decisions, Kerry. Do you really think I’d open myself, not to mention you, to the embarrassment of that kind of failure?”
Kerry had no answer for that, so she simply closed her eyes. They sat in silence for a moment, then she opened them. ”I can’t do it Dar.
Please don’t ask that of me.” She put out a hand and captured one of her lover’s. ”All my life I’ve had to fight to make people believe I earned what I got. I’d never be able to fight hard enough on this one.”
”But—”
”Dar.” Kerry gazed up at her, heartsick. ”You know it’s true. No matter what I did, nine out of ten people in that company would believe I got that job because we’re lovers.”
Dar's shoulders slumped, as she exhaled in resignation. ”But it’s not true. I swear it, Kerry, I swear it. If I didn’t even know your first name, but I’d worked with you as much as I have, I swear you’re the best choice.” She got up and paced to the French doors, opening them and going outside onto the breeze licked balcony, leaning on it and gazing out over the water.
The soft sound of the waves breaking came to her ears, as Kerry just Hurricane Watch
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lay there, unable to come up with even a ghost of a possible plan, one that would get both of them what they wanted. Or didn’t want, as it happened.
”Okay.” Dar had returned, and was standing in the doorway, arms crossed, jaw shifting lightly as she thought. ”What about this—”
”Dar—”
”Just listen to me, will you?” Dar insisted. ”Just listen a minute.
How about, I don’t fill the position.” She moved forward, holding a hand up. ”I just leave it empty because you’re right, you’ve only been with us for a few months, and frankly, there isn’t anyone in the immediate chain I’d be able to put in there anyway.”
Kerry regarded her warily. ”Yeah?”
”Okay, and you...you can take on a little bit at a time. No, wait...wait…just listen—” Another hand. ”Just try things out, see if you think you can handle things.” She paused, and waited, aware of the cautious, green eyes regarding her now in silence. ”No pressure, you just fill in for me here and there, just to see how you like it.”
”What if I don’t?” Kerry asked, hesitantly.
”Then you stop, and after six or eight months, you’ll know if you can do the job or not. If you can, great. You get it, and by that time you’ll have proven yourself so thoroughly, everyone will be slamming my ass for not promoting you earlier. If you decide you can’t then you can help me pick someone who can.” Dar stopped again, and raised a brow at her. ”What do you think?”
Kerry got up and paced around the area near the bed, her hands behind her in a classic pose, while a sleepy Chino watched curiously from the bed. Finally she stopped, and regarded her lover dourly. ”I think you’re too smart for your own good, Paladar.”
A cautious twinkle appeared. ”So, is that a yes?” Funny how nice that name sounded, coming off those lips.
Kerry ran the idea through her head again a few times, looking for pitfalls. It did make sense, and it gave her an excellent, fairly low pressure way to really find out if she had what it took, without putting herself, or Dar, or their relationship at risk. ”I can just back off at any time?” she questioned closely. ”If I get in over my head?”
”Anytime.” Dar reassured her. ”You just come and say, ‘I can’t do this.’”
Hmm. And by waiting, Dar would defuse the sure charges of nepotism that would start flying. In fact, by not acting immediately, she would put everyone else off balance. ”All right,” she finally said, putting her hands on her hips and exhaling. ”I think I can cope with that.”
Dar’s head cocked gently to one side. ”You sure?”
Kerry’s brows lifted. ”Now you’re asking me that?” she demanded.
”And don’t give me those puppy dog eyes.”
Dar’s gaze dropped guiltily. ”I... Kerry, I don’t want you to think you’re being forced into this. If you really don’t want to do it, just tell 276
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me,” she replied, in a steady voice. ”I mean that.”
The smaller woman let out a breath, then she walked over to where Dar was standing. She felt the soft carpet under her feet, and the cool breeze coming in the open doors. She stopped right next to Dar and looked up. She could see the tension in her lover’s body, and the effort it was taking for Dar to keep a cool, calm facade.