318 Melissa Good
“He…Kyle said they didn’t really think this guy was right for me, but he said he knew how stubborn I was, so he had to make sure I did…the right thing.” Kerry’s voice went flat and remote. “So he took me into the back laundry room and, um…” She went silent, then shook her head. “And he told me he’d tell John all about it if I ever saw him again.”
Dar exhaled very slowly, feeling the rage start to build again.
“I was stupid. I went to my father and told him what happened, and you know what he did, Dar?” The blond woman smiled bitterly. “He talked to Kyle and decided I was lying. He brought him in, and made me apologize to him. And all the while, Kyle just smiled at me.” She laughed humorlessly.
“And then, of course, my mother got to me, chewing me out for ‘upsetting my father’ with my ‘shameful tales.’ ” Kerry paused. “I think…that night was the most alone I’d ever felt.” She spent a moment in quiet memory. “Saying goodbye to John was hard; he didn’t understand.” Kerry looked up at the pale, quiet face above her. “I can imagine what you’re thinking.”
“No,” Dar managed to get out. “And you most certainly can not imagine what I am thinking, which is a damn good thing, too.”
Where had that image of drawing and quartering come from? Kerry just looked at her, prickles running down her neck at the fierce tone in Dar’s voice.
“I guess it sounds so incredible. I just learned to live with it,” she concluded softly. “I didn’t even realize life could be different until I came down here.
Being on my own was…” She stopped. “Oh god, I can’t describe it…to make friends with whoever I wanted, do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it…”
She reached out a hand and touched Dar’s face. “And now you. I’m so scared, Dar. Whenever I’ve really wanted something, I’ve had to watch it be taken away, and I…” An awkward pause. “I really want this,” she whispered.
“You.” Another, longer pause. “Us,” she concluded very softly.
“Do you?” Dar whispered back.
“With all my heart,” Kerry replied, resting her head against Dar’s shoulder. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Dar, but, my god, I don’t want to lose you either.”
I don’t want to lose you. Dar felt herself calm as she processed the words and understood her greatest fear was unfounded this time. Kerry wasn’t walking away from her, and though there was trouble on the horizon, it wasn’t that kind of trouble. This kind of trouble, she could handle. Her questions had been answered, and a problem put forth. She set aside both the rage and the shy joy, and considered the problem first. “Does your father have any hold on you other than paternal?”
Kerry looked at her, puzzled. “I don’t understand the question.”
“Do you owe him money, does he have legal strings holding you?” Dar asked, her brows contracting slightly. “Anything like that?”
“No.” Kerry shook her head. “I support myself here, if that’s what you’re asking. You’ve made that more than comfortably possible, you realize.”
“I just pay people what they’re worth.” A tiny, tiny smile lit Dar’s face.
“So he couldn’t actually force you to come back.”
There was a long period of silence as a succession of emotions crossed Kerry’s expressive face, the idea something she apparently hadn’t considered before. At last, she half shrugged. “He’d find some way of getting me fired,”
Tropical Storm 319
Kerry replied darkly. “Find some friend of his high enough up.”
Dar chuckled softly. “Not in this company. It’s up to your supervising manager, and that’s me. There is nobody that’s going to go head to head with me over this,” she said, with absolute confidence. “And even if he did, it wouldn’t matter.”
“Then he’ll go after you,” Kerry stated seriously. “He’ll find someone to dig and dig…until they uncover something he can use against you. And, Dar, the most obvious thing that pops to mind is us,” Kerry reminded her. “I know we said we’d keep it low-profile, but you know people talk. I’m sure at least a few of them are already.”
Dar didn’t look dismayed. On the contrary, she looked intrigued. “Then I’ll have to go after him first.” she replied.
“What do you mean?” Kerry asked hesitantly.
“You said he digs things up?” Dar asked.
She nodded. “He has investigators, that kind of thing.”
A slow nod of Dar’s head. “So do I. Only they’re not the kind that wear twelve-dollar fedoras and smell of cigar smoke, and I don’t have to pay them overtime.” She gazed at Kerry. “This is the Information Age, Kerry…and the truth is out there. You just gotta go find it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dar said. “Trust me, Kerry. I’ve faced down a lot bigger fish than your father.”
Kerry studied her, with a troubled expression. “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into?” she asked. “If something happens to you, Dar, I’ll…” She fell silent.
Dar smiled and took her hand, running her fingers over the skin lightly.
“Just leave it to me,” she told the blonde woman. “And, Kerry?”
“Hmm?” The reddened eyes blinked. “I’m sorry I got like this. I don’t usually,” she apologized.
“Don’t be sorry. I’m glad you said it so we could talk about it,” Dar replied quietly. “Rather than you just…” She shrugged. “…walking out or whatever.”
Kerry closed her fingers around Dar’s. “Is that what happened to you before?”
“Something like that, yeah.” Dar stared off into the darkness beyond the patio doors.
Kerry sighed. “I won’t ever do that to you, Dar, I swear.”
Dar slowly focused her attention on Kerry’s face, searching it for a long moment. “And I’ll always be there for you, Kerry. No matter what.”
It was a strange moment, Kerry thought. She could feel a faint shiver go down her back, and as she looked at Dar, some pale, almost translucent barrier between them seemed to drop. “That’s what friends do, they stand by each other, right?”
“Right.” Dar smiled. “Friend.”
Kerry slid gladly into the waiting arms and let the warmth wash over her.
We’ll find a way through it. Together.
320 Melissa Good DAR LEANED BACK against the couch, content to simply sit and hang on to Kerry, who was peacefully resting in her arms. They’d been sitting like that for a while, in relative silence, only the soft hiss of the waves audible through the half open balcony door. “Hey,” Dar finally murmured. “You like strawberries?”
Kerry seemed to come back from very far away. “What human being doesn’t like strawberries, Dar?” she inquired reasonably, smoothing her fingers over the soft cotton of her friend’s shirt. She could feel the gentle motion of Dar’s breathing, which seemed almost hypnotic to her. “Why?”
Dar felt Kerry’s touch idly roaming her body, and she had to swallow before she answered, “You want some?”
“Means I have to move,” Kerry complained, finding interesting things to trace with her fingers. “And I really like where I am,” she concluded softly.
“That’s true,” Dar acknowledged with a smile. “But they’re nice, big, juicy ones, and I have melted chocolate to dip them in,” she coaxed teasingly.
“Mmm.” Kerry smiled. “Do you always make it a habit of spoiling people you like rotten?” She peeked up at Dar’s face, which had creased into a smirk.
The expression faded after a moment, though.
“I don’t know, haven’t had much practice,” Dar admitted quietly with a faint shrug. “I just do what comes naturally.”