The toast popped up, and Kerry reluctantly let go of her companion and removed it, spreading some butter on each piece and pouring Dar a cup of coffee. “He wasn’t?” she finally asked, hesitantly.
Dar took a bite, and chewed. “No, it was almost…what he told me was…” She cleared her throat. “Let me see if I can imitate him. ‘Lookee here, Dardar, just because the generals yap about that don’t ask don’t tell crap, don’t mean there ain’t lots of boys that don’t like to share a foxhole, if you know what I mean?’ ”
Kerry took a sip of her coffee and muffled a chuckle. “Oh, I always wondered about that. I saw a special about aircraft carriers once, where they have all those tiny bunks all on top of each other.”
“Eyah. Well, we had a long talk about it, then we went over to Sawgrass Mills and spent the afternoon comparing our tastes in women.” Dar shook her head ruefully. “That was really strange.” She studied Kerry’s bowed head seriously. “Kerry?”
“Hmm?” The blonde woman glanced up. “You’re so lucky. I can’t imagine sitting down and…Jesus, he’d kill me.” She gave her head a little shake, then glanced at the window. “Um, it’s getting late, I guess we’d better get going. I know I have to…” Dar had set her coffee down and put a hand on either side of Kerry’s face, gazing down at her. “What?”
“If you need to talk, you can,” the dark-haired woman said quietly. “I’ll listen.”
Kerry felt her breath become short, and she sucked in air nervously, hunting through Dar’s expression and searching the blue eyes intently. “I don’t…I don’t know what you mean, Dar.”
A quiet hurt filled the blue eyes. “All right.” Dar dropped her hands.
“Anyway, the offer’s out there.” She picked up her cup and took a swallow, half turning away. “Guess I’d better get going.” A feather touch on her arm made her glance over her shoulder to see pained and confused green eyes peering at her.
“We don’t have time right now,” Kerry got out, as though the words were dragged from her. “But…I’ll take you up on that offer later.”
Dar put an arm around her neck and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head. “That’s a deal.” She felt the blonde woman snuggle closer, almost huddling against her. Who hurt Kerry? It was obvious to Dar that someone had, and a dark, bubbling anger erupted in her at the thought. “Lemme go get poked and prodded. Meet you back at the office, okay? On the way back, I’m going to stop by my place to change.”
Kerry plucked at the cutoff sweatshirt and faded jeans. “I think you look just fine.” She broke out of her funk and gave Dar a smile. “Guess the office would be scandalized, huh?”
“Oh yeah.” Dar snorted. “I’d never hear the end of that.” She caught Kerry’s lips again, and this time took her time, feeling the smaller woman collapse against her. She let her hands run down Kerry’s back, touching and rubbing gently, until she felt the blonde woman’s ribs expand sharply as her Tropical Storm 293
breathing roughened, and her touch started sliding across Dar’s belly, searching for a path to her skin. They both broke off, breathing hard, hands still exploring, until Kerry let her forehead rest against Dar’s collarbone.
“Gonna be a long day.” Dar sighed wryly.
“Oh yeah,” Kerry agreed. “Did you have to do that?”
A soft chuckle. “Don’t forget to set up that staff meeting for Friday. If I don’t go over all this fourth quarter stuff with everyone, Mariana’s going to have a cow.” She glanced around, then touched her belt. “Did I…oh, damn.”
Kerry also looked around in some alarm. “What?”
“Forgot my cell phone.” Dar tapped the side of her head. “I’m losing it. I don’t know where my brains been the past few days. Even Maria said something about it.” She gave Kerry one last hug. “Oh well. See you in the office.”
“See you.” Kerry reluctantly let her go and watched her leave in pensive silence. Then she looked down and plucked at her shirt, realizing she had it on inside out. And backwards. “Jesus.” She softly tapped the side of her own head. “That makes two of us.”
DAR WAITED QUIETLY as an efficient and far too cheerful nurse poked her arm with a needle roughly the size of an Olympic javelin.
“Just a moment, dearie. It won’t hurt a bit.”
“You shouldn’t lie to patients,” Dar growled, feeling the lancing pain as the needle found its mark. “It’s not nice.”
“Now, now.” The nurse patted her arm. “We don’t want our patients worrying unless they need to. It’s nothing but a prick.”
“I’ve been saying that about guys for years,” Dar remarked, trying not to look at the vial filling with the rich, red blood coming out of her arm.
“What?” the nurse queried.
Dar rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
The door pushed open, and Dr. Steve poked his head in. “Hey, sweetpea.”
Dar glared daggers at him, receiving a charming smile in return. The nurse finished, removing the tube, covering the seeping needle hole quickly with a cotton ball and tightly stretching a Band-Aid over it all. “There you go, all done.” She bustled out, leaving Dar with her doctor.
“C’mon, c’mon, stop with the sour look, Dar.” Dr. Steve came in and leaned on the examination table where she was sitting. “I hear you had a moment of terror at the Heart Institute.”
Blue eyes regarded him dourly. “I got over it.”
“Ooo, aren’t we tough.” Dr. Steve laughed and patted her knee. “You can play that corporate killing machine with other people, Dar, but I’ve known you since you weren’t tall enough to lick my knees, so don’t try it with me.”
Dar scowled. “Did she leave any blood in there? She must have taken six quarts.”
He waved her off. “Psh. Two vials, you big baby. How’re you feeling?”
“Better,” his reluctant patient admitted. “Took a few days off, went up to Orlando and just played tourist for a couple days.” She paused. “Haven’t had 294 Melissa Good a headache since the day after I was here last time.”
“Really?” Dr. Steve gave her a skeptical look. “You’re not just saying that are you, tricky girl? I remember you saying that broken arm didn’t hurt much either.”
Dar had to smile at the memory, bittersweet though it was. “I’m not,” she replied. “I’ve really been trying to be good.”
He nodded. “All-rightie, then.” Gentle hands lifted and turned her face to the light as he peered at her intently. “Hmm, interesting.”
“What?” Dar queried, a touch nervously.
“Nothing, I just love looking at those baby blues,” Dr. Steve answered mischievously as his patient rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Dar, you do look more relaxed.” He patted her shoulder. “Glad to hear about the headaches.
We’ll just check your blood, see how you’re doing. I want to look at your white cell count. That was very low last time.”
Something else occurred to her. “While you’re there…I’ve been running into some…I don’t know, I guess I’ve been forgetting things lately,” Dar muttered. “And I’ve been having trouble concentrating. It’s starting to bug me a little.”
“Mmm?” Now her doctor’s face was serious. “All right, I’ll check to see if there’s anything strange in your blood work, but it probably won’t show up there. You having dizzy spells, or problems with your vision?” He put on his stethoscope and listened to her chest. “Ticker sounds all right.”
“No, well, not dizzy, exactly.” Dar struggled to explain. “Just, I’ll be doing something, and I’ll just go blank, like my attention gets distracted,” she said. “I walked out last night and left my cell phone in the condo. Last time I did that… Hell, I don’t remember the last time I did that.”