“Really? From what Dad was saying, I’d have thought she was tough to work for,” her sister commented. “I’m glad you like her, though.” She leaned closer and dropped her voice. “So, you found someone, didn’t you?”
Kerry glanced at her. “What makes you say that?” she countered warily.
“Mmm, let’s just say, I’m your sister, okay?” Angela smiled. “C’mon, spill it. Did you bring pictures?”
Kerry folded her hands together and studied them. Of all her family, her sister was the only one she was at least willing to try to tell. Paradoxically, Angela was the one ally she had, and chances were, this would ruin that. No good choices. “Ang, you don’t want to hear this.”
Her sister was silent. “What do you mean?” she asked in a puzzled tone.
“Of course I do. I could hardly wait for you to get here.”
“It’s…not what you think,” Kerry started, very carefully. “It’s not what Tropical Storm 385
you expect.”
Angela glanced towards the door again, then reached out and folded her hands over her older sister’s. “Ker, whatever it is, you can tell me. I’m your sister, remember?” She paused and waited, watching Kerry’s face remain closed and silent. “Did you finally figure out you liked girls and not guys?”
Green eyes widened in utter shock as Kerry turned to look at her. She couldn’t speak for a moment. “You knew?”
“Duh.” Angela had to laugh at her expression. “Close your mouth, sis, you’ll attract gnats.” She squeezed Kerry’s hands. “Listen, I should have talked to you about it before. I was just…I don’t know, maybe it’s all that indoctrination we got growing up.”
Kerry lifted a hand and rubbed her temple, feeling a mixture of relief and shock. “I…”
“Hey, take it easy.” Angela put an arm around her shoulders. “Just because I live a stereotype, doesn’t mean I don’t have a brain, sis.”
“I know, I…” Kerry laughed weakly. “I was just expecting a different reaction.”
Angela sighed. “I know, but Richard got this computer last year. And you know he’s never home? Well, I took it upon myself to wander out onto the Web. It’s really changed a lot of the things I used to think.”
Her sister smiled wryly. “The wonders of modern technology.”
“So, did you bring pictures?” Angela’s dark eyebrow lifted up.
Kerry studied her for a moment, then she got up and went to her laptop bag, unzipping the document pocket and removing a folder. She handed it to her sister and gave her a tense smile. “That’s her.”
Angela willingly took the folder and flipped it open, peering at the pictures inside. After a moment, she looked up at her sister. “Jesus, she’s gorgeous.”
Kerry felt a big grin stretching her lips. She resumed her seat on the bed and peered over Angela’s shoulder. “Yeah, she is, isn’t she? I like that one.” It was a nice shot of Dar on the boat, leaning against the cabin front on the bow, one knee raised, the sunlight glittering off the droplets of seawater that beaded on her skin. The bathing suit left very little to the imagination. And once you stopped looking at that, you looked up at her face and were caught by those startlingly pale blue eyes.
“Oh wow.” Angela turned it over and caught the next one, a picture of the view from the condo. “Where is this?”
Kerry cleared her throat. “Her place. The boat’s her’s, too.” She gave her sister a very wry look. “It’s a private island off the tip of South Beach.”
Angela blew a soft whistle. “Wow! Where’d you meet her?”
There was an awkward pause. “Um…she’s my boss.”
Angela looked up in utter shock. “That’s Dar?”
Kerry nodded. “Yeah, I know it seems weird, but we just hit it off from almost the first. I mean, it was a great opportunity and all, becoming her assistant, and at first I…I thought it was just me. You know, just a silly crush.”
Angela shook her head. “You know, sis, corporate VP, boat, pricey condo…
Except for one small detail, Dad would cream his shorts to get you involved with someone like that.” She peered at her sister. “How serious is this?”
386 Melissa Good Kerry picked up the picture she was looking at, one where she’d actually gotten Dar to smile at the camera. She smiled back in reflex. “It’s serious.”
“You know Dad’s going to flip out,” Angela stated quietly. “I don’t know if you should say anything—maybe just put them off for a while, and get the heck out of here.”
Before Kerry could answer, they heard their mother’s voice. “Girls! Come on now, dinner’s being served.”
The two sisters glanced at each other. “Thanks for understanding,” Kerry told the younger woman softly. “You don’t know how much it means to me.”
She stood up. “C’mon, let’s go and get this over with.”
Angela stood and hugged her. “Ker, whatever you do, I’m with you.
Okay?”
Kerry hugged her back. “Likewise. I hear I’m going to be an aunt again.”
Her sister sucked in a breath and gazed at her. “Yes, but the baby isn’t Richard’s.”
Kerry’s jaw dropped. “Oh boy,” she muttered.
“Girls!” Their mother’s voice had a hint of impatience in it.
Angela smiled tightly. “We’ll talk later.”
They stepped into the dining room side by side, Kerry pushing up the sleeves on her sweatshirt, and Angela running her fingers through her curly brown hair. Richard was already there, sitting next to her father, and Kerry had a chance to look at them before they saw her. Her father was a stocky man of middling height, with silver hair and a neatly trimmed beard and moustache—he gave the impression of sophisticated power. Seated next to him was her brother-in-law Richard, who was half his age, but taller, with thinning brown hair and a rugged, but slightly off-centered face. His nose had been broken several times during his football-playing days, and they’d never really gotten it just right. Her father looked up and saw them, fixing his eyes on her as he leaned back.
Kerry called up the image she held in her mind of Dar entering that hostile room in Orlando, and she lifted her chin a little as she crossed the parquet floor and took one of the remaining seats at the table. “Hello, Richard,” she said quietly as her sister took the chair next to her. “Dad.”
“Good to see you, Ker.” Richard gave her a friendly smile. “Nice shirt.”
“Didn’t know they had a base down there,” her father commented.
“You’re looking…healthy…Kerrison.”
Kerry smiled precisely at him. “Thanks, and no, there’s no base. A friend of mine gave it to me.” She took the napkin at her place setting and opened it, settling it on her lap neatly. “How are things going for you?”
“Pretty good, you know how it is in stocks.” Richard laughed a bit.
“You’re up, you’re down. Right now, we’re trying to hang on while the international stuff dies down.” He peered at her. “We all don’t get to sit out in the sun all day like you guys down in Miami.”
Kerry pushed her hair behind her ear and accepted the jibe. “It definitely has its advantages,” she cheerfully agreed. “This past Sunday I was swimming in the ocean—it was beautiful weather.”
“Thought that job would be keeping you too busy.” Her father snorted.
“It does,” his daughter replied. “I’m at the office before eight AM, and I Tropical Storm 387