by Melissa Good
“Hey, Kerry, whatcha up to?” Colleen wrinkled her snub nose and looked around. “Whoa. Hold on. Don’t tell me you are eating pizza? No, no. Must be a pod. I’m calling the FBI.”
Kerry laughed a little sheepishly. “I had no choice. I’m doing this project, and I didn’t have time to cook. I was starving.” She closed the door and 38 Melissa Good walked back over to her desk. “You want some?”
Colleen peered at the box. “Ohmigod. You actually ate half of it. I’m going to pass out,” she teased her friend. “It’s not even a veggie pizza.”
Kerry sat down, letting her arms rest on her thighs. “I’m not a vegetarian, Col. You know that,” she objected. “I just like to eat healthy. Is that a crime?”
The redhead took a slice and chewed it. “What is a crime is that you hardly eat enough to sustain a rabbit, much less a human being.” She plucked at Kerry’s shirt, which hung on her. “Now that is not healthy.”
Kerry shrugged a little. “I’m fine, I just…” She hesitated. “I get a lot of grief at home if I put on weight. It’s just easier not to.” She shrugged. “You know how it is.”
Grief was a mild way of putting it. The first year she’d been down here, things had been hectic, work was very involving, and she really didn’t have time to do much other than go to the office, come home, try to get the apartment settled, and study for her networking certifications. It led to a lot of late nights and take-out food, and an extra twenty pounds that had gotten her nothing but nagging and complaints when she’d gone home for Christmas.
Which was a lousy time for that and had caused her to end up spending most of the holiday avoiding people, her father especially. She’d vowed she’d never have to go through that again. So she stuck to carrots, and lots of walking and bike riding, which got things pretty much under control. In fact, Colleen was her walking and Rollerblading buddy, since the short redhead was constantly battling her own tendency to roundness.
Kerry sighed, because she was an admitted chowhound. She loved to eat, and it was so hard to constantly say no to that. But she did, because hearing her father’s censorious voice was even worse, and her mother never failed to ask her about it on their weekly phone calls.
Then of course, there was Brian. Her nominal fiancé. His daddy had done a big favor for her daddy, so when he asked to marry her…Daddy had said yes. Kerry didn’t dislike Brian. He was a tall, very good-looking young man with impeccable manners, intelligence, and good work ethics, who was just about to graduate law school. By all accounts, a great match, and he was crazy about her. And to be fair, she liked him. They’d been friends for years, and she’d had a lot of fun doing things together.
In fact, they seemed like a natural pair. He’d taken her to their senior prom, and one of her mother’s favorite pictures was the two of them posing in front of her parents’ house, dressed in formal wear and very serious expressions for that very occasion.
Natural. Hmm… Yeah. Kerry exhaled, then put a smile on. “So, like I said, it’s just easier. My folks give me such a hard time; you know how that is.”
Colleen rolled her eyes. “Do I ever.” She put her hands on her hips.
“Colleen Katherine McPherson, if you don’t start doing something with yourself, you’ll be big as the Queen Mary one of these fine days.” Her voice went high and singsong, to imitate her irrepressible Irish mother.
Kerry laughed. “Oh god, that’s so like her.” Colleen’s family lived nearby, and Kerry had been invited over several times for dinner. She liked the feisty redhead and was glad to have someone to just hang out with sometimes. Colleen worked for Barnett Bank as their chief teller and was a few Tropical Storm 39
years older than Kerry. She was funny and very outgoing, the legacy of growing up in a large, boisterous family.
“So, what’s the project?” Colleen looked around her apartment. “Jesus Mary, Ker, did a paper fairy poop all over here or what?”
The blonde woman leaned back in her desk chair and took another slice of pizza. “No.” She sighed. “We got bought out.”
“Ew. I heard.” The shorter girl made a face. “Are you guys in trouble?”
“Yeah,” Kerry admitted. “They’d really like to just get rid of us all and keep the customers, but I’m trying to pitch them a plan where at least some of us keep our jobs.” Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t think they’re going to buy it, though.” She spared her computer a glance as her mail indicator lit. “Here’s the confirmation, probably.” She reached over and clicked on the envelope, bringing the new message to the foreground. “Yep,” she confirmed, seeing the name of the sender.
Sent by: Dar Roberts
Subject: re: Clarification
Time: 10:45 PM
Ms. Stuart,
You bring interesting points to the table. While I have the utmost confidence in the ability of our support teams to assume responsibility for your product line, your personnel do bring a certain level of knowledge that it might be costly for us to duplicate. Please continue with your proposal.
“Oh. Wow.” Kerry breathed, as her eyes dropped below to the somewhat longer paragraph underneath.
I know that this is a very difficult process you are attempting, and I appreciate the effort you are putting into it. I think you are talented and intelligent, and I really don’t want this to be such an adversarial
situation. I realize our initial meeting got started off in the wrong direction, and that I should have assured that our project team had briefed your upper management on what to expect before we began the process. For that, I apologize.
DR
Oddly, Kerry felt lighter all of a sudden. A tiny smile edged her lips, and she sat back with a heartfelt sigh. “What do you know? She bought it. Sort of.”
Colleen had been unashamedly reading over her shoulder. “Hey.” She poked Kerry in the shoulder. “That’s not the Dar Roberts, is it?” She whistled under her breath. “They do our ACHTAPE processing. There was a foul-up one day and a whole tape spool got screwed. Our managers were raising hell all over the place, blaming them to high heaven, then this Roberts woman shows up, spends ten minutes in the vault, and finds the problem on our end.”
She rolled her eyes. “God, we didn’t hear the end of that for weeks.”
40 Melissa Good
“Well,” Kerry shook her head, “I can’t imagine there being more than one of her at that company, so I guess it is. Tall, tanned, dark hair?” She paused.
“Really blue eyes?”
Colleen gave her a rakish grin. “That’d be her. Rumor says she’s a real bitch on wheels.” She peered at the e-mail. “Hmm. Looks like she likes you, though.” She looked at Kerry, impressed. “Wow, she thinks you’re talented and intelligent. I guess she has a few brain cells after all.”
Kerry blushed. “Stop it.” She re-read the mail, and try as she would to remind herself of just how angry she’d been at Dar, the typed words made her feel pretty good anyway. Maybe because it was so unexpected. Yeah, that was it. She hadn’t figured on getting a positive response from the woman, or even a response at all, so getting this was just…so surprising. “She’s probably just patting me on the head.” Kerry finally said offhandedly. “You know—don’t get the natives restless until you steal all their diamonds, that kind of thing.”
“Probably,” Colleen agreed cheerfully. “Hey, take a break, and let’s go for a walk down to the bakery.”
Kerry hesitated. “Um…okay, sure. I could use a break. Listen, why don’t you get your bike, and I’ll meet you out on the street?” She smiled as Colleen quickly agreed, and watched as the redhead trotted out, closing the door behind her. Then she turned her attention to the screen and tapped her fingers on her keyboard, trying to decide what to reply. Be nice, be snippy, be formal?
What the hell. The worst old Cruella could do is fire her.
Sent by: Kerry Stuart
Subject: re: Clarification
Hello….
Thank you for saying wh
at you did. You’re right—this is a tough situation, and I wish I wasn’t in it. But I am, and I have to make the best of it, so I’m going to keep on trying.
I know we’re just one small piece of a cog in your giant machine, and that you really don’t care one way or the other about any of us—and I understand that I’m one more in a series of problems you have to deal with. I guess it must get monotonous for you after a while, but for me, this is a situation I never wanted or dreamed I’d be in. I don’t like having my world, and that of everyone around me, torn apart. But I guess you’re used to that.
I know you’re just doing your job, and I’m glad it’s yours and not mine. We did get started off pretty badly, and I think that’s partly my fault too, because I took my frustration at what was happening out on you, and maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to do that. I realized afterward you could have just fired me right there, so it probably wasn’t the smartest thing I ever did.
She stared at the screen for a long moment before she continued, debating with herself. Finally she completed the message, then hit Send. “So much for that.” She nodded briskly, then dusted her hands off and went to the closet, Tropical Storm 41
retrieving her dark purple mountain bike and checking the tires. She glanced at her helmet, on the high shelf above, and decided the short ride down Kendall Drive didn’t need it.
Chapter
Four
DAR STOOD QUIETLY, her hands behind her back, gazing out the window. She was doing her best to ignore the frustrated ranting and raving of the man behind her, who was pacing up and down and throwing his hands around.
“Look, Peter, just shut up,” the tall woman finally said, turning around.
“Let me go in there and do my job. We’ll argue about it afterward, okay?” She gave the man a look. “I didn’t ask to get sent here, I didn’t ask to have to break up your little party, and I certainly didn’t ask to have you blowing hot air at me for forty-five minutes.”
“Everything is under control,” the man stated, through clenched teeth.
“I’ll be damned if you’re going to walk in there and take the credit for something I’ve broken my ass for.”
Dar walked over and looked him right in the eye. “You don’t have a choice.”
“Like hell I don’t!” Peter shouted. “I’ll call Alastair!”
A brilliant smile slapped him in the face. “Who do you think sent me?”
His breathing was suddenly loud in the silence. “You’re lying, you frozen ass bitch.”
Ignoring the insult, Dar picked up the nearest phone receiver and held it out to him, her eyebrows raised and a mocking smile on her face. “Come on, call him.”
The tall man’s nostrils flared, and his lips writhed into a snarl, but he made no move to take the phone.
The receiver dropped back into the cradle with a click. “Now get out of my way and just keep your mouth shut.” Dar brushed by him as the door opened; two tall military men stepped into the room. “Hello, General.” Her voice dropped a pitch and took on a seductive tone as she stepped up next to the older of the two.
The man’s eyes focused on her, and his eyes lit up. “Ms. Roberts. It’s always, always a pleasure.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it with a courtly bow, then spread his arm towards the door. “Come on in, let’s talk.”
His eyes drifted to Weyhousen. “Thanks. We’ll see you later.”
Dar, her face hidden by her position, bit her lip to keep a laugh in, then cleared her throat as the door shut behind them. “That wasn’t nice, Gerald.”
The elderly general chuckled. “He’s an ass, Dar.”
She shrugged a little, then took the proffered seat in front of his desk and leaned back, as the military man settled in his thickly stuffed chair. “He’s not Tropical Storm 43
that bad. He just hasn’t been around the big stuff like I have,” she explained wryly. “You soldier boys freak him out.”
Gerald Easton smiled at her. “Dar, you look good,” he mused, studying the tall woman across from him.
She inclined her head. “So do you. How’s the Pentagon treating you?”
“Eh.” He made a hand gesture. “Biggest pile of horse droppings east of the Potomac. And now they want us to repaint everything. Did you hear that?
Some idiot kid came in and did a study, told some damn politician that the camouflage we’ve been using since nineteen aught eight doesn’t work. We gotta paint everything shades of pink and beige.”
Dar made a face. “Ugh.”
“Yeah, ugh is right.” The general turned to his aide, who had been standing quietly watching them. “Eileen, can you get Ms. Roberts and me a pitcher of something cold, please?” The aide nodded briskly and disappeared.
They looked at each other in comfortable silence for a moment. “Dar, you look more and more like your daddy every time I see you.” The older man sighed, a gentler expression in his eyes. “Same nose, same chin… Damn, girl.”
He paused. “I miss him.”
Dar’s eyes dropped to his desk, and she exhaled softly. “So do I.”
“He’d be proud of you, that’s for sure.” A gentle twinkle entered the general’s eyes. “Imagine him seeing you practically running that joint. I can just imagine his face.”
Blue eyes drifted. “I don’t know about that, Gerry.” Dar shook her head.
“I don’t think he’d see it as very honorable. You know what we are.” She paused. “He was always looking out for the little guy. We make a corporate policy of eating them alive.” She gave him a wry look. “But here I am…so what’s the score?”
Old eyes studied her for a long moment, then the general pulled a file folder out from his desk drawer and tossed it over to her. “All yours, rugrat.”
He chuckled fondly at the look on her face. “Naw, it’s not charity. You were pretty close in the bidding, and…let’s just say I just felt more comfortable awarding a defense contract this large to someone I trust.”
Dar drew the folder over and looked through the contents. Her brows rose.
“Yeah, I threw in a couple others, and that damn IRS website support contract. Please, Dar, get them off my back, will ya? They can’t keep that thing running to save their lives.”
“I’ll do my best,” Dar replied, with a shake of her head. Peter was going to go completely insane when he saw this. She hid a smirk. Arrogant ass. “I’ll make sure you get taken care of.”
“I know it,” the general said, then hesitated. “Hear from your mother?”
A faint flinch tugged at Dar’s face. “No,” she replied quietly, with a faint shrug. “Not since the funeral. I don’t think I ever will.”
“Bitch,” Gerry muttered under his breath. “Like it was your fault he decided to put his hand in the field one last time.”
Dar stared at the carpet, a sturdy maroon tweed. “They were inseparable, Gerry. I remind her of him too much, I guess.” Her voice was quiet and even.
“He was her whole world.” And all Dar had left, really, was pictures—eight or 44 Melissa Good ten treasured photos of her tall, dark-haired father, mostly in fatigues, one with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, the two of them looking more like brother and sister than father and daughter.
She remembered the solidness of him, the sturdy, powerful body whose shoulder she’d dampened with tears on more than one occasion. She tried not to remember that last goodbye, not often. Not unless she was alone with the stars, or the endless stretch of the water.
The general exhaled, then he got up and moved around the desk, holding his hand out to her. “Come here, rugrat.” He tugged on the hand she extended to him and pulled her up into a hug. “Your daddy was one of my best friends.
You know that, right?”
Dar allowed herself the luxury of accepting the embrace, feeling the scratchy wool of his uniform against her cheek. The smell, a mixture of dry cleaning and leather, brass and starch, was very familiar. “I know that.” She gave him a pat on
the back as he released her. “He was a good man.”
The general leaned back against the desk, studying her. “He was a very good soldier,” he acknowledged. “I always half expected you to follow in his footsteps.” His hand patted her arm. “You’ve got his strength, you know.”
Dar let a tiny smile shape her lips. “I save my battles for the boardroom, Gerry.” She held up the folder. “It can be just as dangerous, but lacks the bullets.”
The aide returned, and handed them each a glass of frosty ice tea, already sweetened. Then at a hand signal from the general, she discreetly left. They silently toasted each other, and Dar felt herself relaxing a little as the cold beverage slid down her throat. It was always hard, seeing Gerald Easton, but it was getting easier with time, and she knew one day she’d see the old general and not think of her father first. “Well, I’d better get going. I need to be on the noon flight back into Miami.”
Easton set his glass down and folded his arms across his chest. “Why not spend the night over, Dar? Mary would love to see you, and Jack’s in town.”
His eyes twinkled again. “You know he’s madly in love with you.”
Dar gave him a rueful grin. Gerald’s husky, blond son certainly did flatter her with gentle, almost hesitant attentions when they were together, and she really didn’t mind doing things with him. They’d spent a great time last year touring the Civil War battlefields in the area, and the thought of just relaxing in Jack’s peaceful presence was tempting. “Gerry, I have to admit to you, if I was going to marry anyone, it’d be Jack. He’s the sweetest guy I know.”
Easton beamed. “Welcoming you into my family would be one of the bright points in my life, Dar. You know that.” He shook a finger at her. “Don’t be so fast to wave off marriage. I know you’re tied up with your career, but you should give it a chance sometime.” He put a hand on her arm. “Give yourself a chance. C’mon, stay over.”