I am home, a tiny voice insisted as Kerry forced herself to sit up straight, very reluctantly leaving Dar’s warmth. “Yeah, falling asleep on the beach sounds nice in stories, but they forget to mention all the sand that gets everywhere,” she joked as she pushed herself to her feet and held a hand out to the still-seated Dar.
Sand crunching lightly under their shoes, their hands clasped together, they walked back up the boardwalk.
Chapter Nineteen
“MA’AM?” THE VOICE sounded impatient.
Dar’s head jerked up and she blinked at the ferry deckhand, who was not-so-patiently waiting for her to drive off the ferry. “Sorry.” Dar gave him an apologetic wave and exited the boat, driving to her condo and parking the Lexus without really thinking about what she was doing. She got out and locked the doors, then climbed the steps to the condo and opened the door, closing it behind her and flicking the lights on with an automatic motion.
Her steps wandered into the kitchen, where she glanced at the terminal, glad to see there wasn’t any mail waiting, since she had no desire to read any right now. She mixed herself a large glass of chocolate milk and went into her bedroom, where she set the glass down while she got out of her jeans and Tshirt and put on her favorite baseball jersey and flannel shorts.
It felt a little strange, and she glanced down, realizing she’d put them on backwards. With a soft curse, she pulled them off and pulled them back on the right way. “Oh boy.” She picked up her glass and wandered back into the living room, turning on the television and sinking down into the couch, looking at the screen without really seeing it as she pondered the evening’s unexpected ending.
Jesus Christ, what in the world just happened to me? It wasn’t supposed to escalate like this. I was just...she was just…we were… Dar took a long swallow of milk, comforted by the soothing, familiar taste.
Okay. Okay, okay. Let’s take stock of the situation. We are attracted to each other. That’s not a surprise. I knew that before. Okay? Okay, she’s attractive, she thinks I’m attractive, we have similar tastes…she’s smart. It’s really not that surprising, Dar, so get a grip.
She felt better. A little. But all that rationalization didn’t explain just how good it had felt to hold Kerry in her arms and how much her body was craving more of that, so much so that if Kerry had been there, Dar knew she couldn’t have kept her hands from touching that soft skin, or playing with her hair or…
Dar slowly lowered her head onto the back of the couch, feeling the cool surface of the leather become warm against her skin. This was a new feeling for her. Intense, and somewhat out of control, but warm and sweet and very, very distracting. She knew she had to get a handle on that, but right now, she was content to sit and sip her milk, and indulge herself in this emotional whirlpool.
She was surprised when the phone rang, and she stared at it for a 234 Melissa Good moment before she hoisted herself to her feet and went to the table, glancing at the clock as she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Ms. Roberts, this is Mids Ops,” the vaguely nervous voice said. “Um, you’re on my notify list if we lose anything.”
“Oh yeah? What’d we lose?” Dar asked, curiously.
“Um. Netops,” the voice answered. “They had a fire in the building, and they had to evac. The fire department won’t let them switch to UPS, so…”
“We’re down,” Dar supplied.
“Um, yes.”
“Completely down,” Dar added. “Everything—the network and the mainframes.”
“Yes.”
“Guess you can go home then, huh?” the executive commented casually.
“Uh…”
“No sense in your being there if there aren’t any mainframes to administer. The internal network is on an automatic backup schedule,” Dar reasoned, “so…go on home.”
“Uh…okay, Ms. Roberts, if you say so.”
“Sure,” Dar reassured him. “Bye.” The line went dead, and she put the phone down, padding back over to the couch and sitting down, taking a sip of her milk, letting her mind wander again, daydreaming about sea green eyes and lightly sun-tinged skin, her imagination hearing the roar of the waves and the sound of seashells tinkling in their wake.
Then her eyes popped open and she spat milk out over half the table.
“Holy shit!” she barked, jumping back up and grabbing for the phone again.
“Sonofabitch!” She dialed frantically, then waited. “Yeah, on second thought stick around there. … No, no, it’s my fault. … No. Who else have you notified? Keep going.” She hung up, then slapped herself on the side of the head a few times. “Jesus!”
She dove into her briefcase for her contact book and opened it, bringing it and the phone back to the couch. She dialed a number. “Who is this? Okay, this is Dar Roberts. … Yes, I know. Who won’t let you cut over to backup?
What’s his name? … Okay, what division is he with? … County or city?
Thanks. What damage did the building take?” She listened for a long moment.
“Did the extinguishers go off?” Another long pause. “Christ! Do we have backup 3270s?”
As she listened, she booted her laptop and plugged in the network cord that would connect the machine to the dedicated line dropped into the condo.
“Well, someone better get on the line to Infrastructure in Houston and see if they have a couple mothballed somewhere.” She hung up, then studied her screen. System indicators showed red blinking lights everywhere on the top-level view of the network. “Hell, everything’s down.” People would be calling; she was surprised they hadn’t already.
How long has this been going on? Did the system forget to page me? Dar scrabbled for her pager, then realized she wasn’t wearing it. “What in th—”
She paused, eyes unfocused, then cursed softly. “Son of a stupid bitch.” With her free hand, she dialed the phone, listening for a familiar voice. “Hey.”
“Hey, what’s up?” Kerry sounded a little surprised, but not disappointed Tropical Storm 235
to hear her voice.
“We’re not. Netops had a fire, and the entire network is down,” Dar told her with a sigh. “Some idiot in the fire department won’t let them go on backup.”
“Yikes! You need some help there?”
Dar hesitated. “I’m just going to be yelling at people,” she temporized.
“I can make you hot tea,” Kerry responded readily. “Besides, I don’t think I can sleep.”
Dar drummed her fingers against her leg. “Um. You know, we’re going to have to reroute a lot of stuff if I can’t get the fire department to cooperate. I could use some help in research and identifying available assets.”
Kerry’s voice perked up. “Really?”
Dar gave in and gave up. “Yeah, you can dump into the second ISDN line here. If you want to, that is.”
“I’ll be right there,” came the immediate assurance.
A smile edged Dar’s lips against her will. “See you soon, then. Bye.” She took a moment out to call security, then she went back to her searching. She found the name she was looking for, then glanced up at the TV screen, which was tuned to, of all things, the Disney channel. “Oh… Beauty and the Beast. I love those candlesticks.” She pointed cheerfully at it as she dialed the phone.