“Great.” She smiled gently. “Thanks for trying to keep me amused, Dar.
You know you don’t have to. I don’t blame you for getting me stuck here.”
Blue eyes regarded her enigmatically. “I know, but we’ve got nothing better to do, so…” She waved, and started off down the dock, leaving Kerry to make her way carefully onto the gently rolling deck of the boat.
“STOCKED, SHE SAYS.” Kerry muffled a giggle as she explored the neatly made cabin of the cruiser. It had a small bathroom complete with an equally small shower and a tiny bedroom with a bed just large enough, maybe, for two people. So long as they really liked each other. She suspected Dar would have trouble with the length, though. The interior was warm polished wood, with blues and greens in the curtains that covered the portholes and the bedding on the bed. It felt warm and cozy, and welcoming.
She brushed her fingers against the fabric.
She liked it. It felt comfortable here, and she moved with the boat’s motion from long experience. “Well, onto the next area: the kitchen.” She put her bag down and ducked into the small galley, which had a compact refrigerator. She opened it, surprised to feel a residual coolness, then realized the boat must have been hooked up to dock power. She put the lunch fixings inside and closed the door, confident it would keep them cool enough until Dar started the engines up.
To one side was a microwave, range, and a sink with taps for both salt water and a limited tank of fresh water. A cupboard held nesting pots and two pans and unbreakable cups which were clipped in place and dangled softly as the boat moved. “This is pretty darn cool,” she commented to herself, turning around and surveying the area.
Outside the galley was a compact sitting space, with a wooden table surrounded by two built-in benches catty-corner to each other. A soft, comfortable-looking chair was bolted along the open end of the table, and both a television and a stereo were in closed, watertight cabinets overhead.
Kerry grinned, then ducked into the bedroom and changed into her new suit, checking her reflection in the mirror and scowling at it a little. She threw her shorts and tank top over it and tucked her borrowed T-shirt and shorts into a drawer, then she trotted up the stairs and onto the deck.
It was in two levels, one which held the bridge and controls, and the lower level which had thick cushioned seats on the long sides and across the back of the stern. Kerry lifted up the cushions, and in a storage compartment under the first one, she found safety gear, floatation devices, flares, and safety rings. Under the other were two full sets of scuba gear, including two tanks nestled into clips on the bottom. “And you never use this,” she chastised her Tropical Storm 141
absent boss. “Dar, what are we going to do with you?” She sat down for a moment and just shook her head. “Boy, if I had a place like this, and a boat, I’d be…” She imagined her friends over, and what great parties they could have.
Then she stopped and considered Dar’s words the previous evening. “You shouldn’t do this alone, and I…don’t have time, anymore.”
Don’t have time? Or was it that all these nice things were pretty useless if you didn’t have anyone to share them with? “C’mon, Dar, with your looks?
Don’t tell me you can’t get and keep a boyfriend,” she muttered. “They’d have to be out of their cotton-picking minds not to want to spend time with you.”
She swung her feet a little, thumping her heels against the fiberglass, thinking.
The soft whine of the cart approaching broke her reverie, and she turned to see Dar parking the vehicle in the small spot that seemed to be designed for it near the bow of the boat. She was carrying a pair of bags and hopped onto the deck with negligent grace, dropping down into the lower area with a chuckle. “They’re doing one hell of a brisk business.” She set the bags down.
“Everything all right?”
“Looks great.” Kerry noted that her companion had stopped back at the apartment to change into a bathing suit, which she was wearing under a long T-shirt. “This is like a regular floating hotel room.”
Dar snorted softly. “Yeah, Aunt May had rich tastes. Took me a while to get used to it. I was more inclined to a fifteen-foot dive boat with a single back deck and one chair as an amenity.”
Kerry grinned. “But you did get used to it, eventually.”
The taller woman chuckled self-deprecatingly. “Eyah, as I got older, I developed a disgusting craving for creature comforts.” She walked around the perimeter of the boat, casting off the lines. “Hang on, now.”
Chuckling, Kerry said, “I learned how to hang on crewing a racing yacht going thirty knots, thanks.” She leaned back on her hands and soaked in the sun. “You get tossed from one of those, you remember it.”
Dar seated herself at the controls and started the engines, adjusting the throttles until she heard an even tone. Then, she skillfully backed the boat out, swinging around and nudging the motors into a speed just past idling to get them out of the marina. As soon as they cleared the outer buoy, the breeze picked up, and Dar swung the bow towards the southeast, arcing smoothly over the still choppy waves towards a hazy horizon. Kerry perched next to her, enjoying the salt air and the sunshine, and the cool spray that jutted up from the boat when they hit the waves.
“Wow, it’s nice out here,” she murmured.
Dar closed her eyes briefly and took in a lungful of the air, letting memories wash over her for a long, aching moment. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she finally said quietly, “Yeah, it is.”
They anchored off one of the small islands that dotted the coastline and felt the boat settle down into a quiet bobbing. With the engines shut off, the rhythmic wash of the waves became audible, along with the gentle clank of the boat’s rigging. The sun was fully out, and only high, wispy clouds disturbed the perfect blue of the sky.
“I’m going in for a swim.” Dar stood and stripped off her T-shirt and tucked it neatly on the console. “You interested?”
142 Melissa Good Kerry strolled to the railing and peered over. The water was a rich blue-green and smelled of salt and mystery. “Depends, are there sharks down there?” She peered over her shoulder at the taller woman, who was leaning casually against the curve of the cabin door. Dar, she decided, looks really good in a bathing suit. She had one of those long, swimmer’s builds, with just enough softness covering her muscles so that she didn’t look like a body builder or anything. Just…strong and solid. “The lake we raced on didn’t have sharks,” she explained apologetically.
Dar chuckled. “Well, there might be a few, but I’ve been in these waters since I was four years old, and I haven’t been nibbled yet.” She walked to the rail and hopped up onto it, then dove into the water cleanly, surfacing several yards away from the boat.
Kerry watched her for a moment as she dove down again, then popped up and began to stroke lazily around the boat. “I suppose it’s a little early for shark lunch, so…” She shrugged, then tugged off her shirt and shorts and left them folded on the cushion, moving to a more prudent spot in the stern before stepping up onto the fiberglass railing and jumping in.
She surfaced with a splutter. “Oh. It’s warm.” She ducked her head under water and opened her eyes, blinking against the painful salt. The sun penetrated the green for quite a ways down, outlining waves of golden particles that disappeared into the depths. She could only do it for a moment, though, before it stung her eyes too badly, and she surfaced. “Whoa.”