Eye Of The Storm - DK3
Page 67
Slap. “Hello?” Dar growled sleepily.
“Hey there, Dardar.”
The other eye opened, then both blinked. “Daddy. It’s a damn lucky thing this is you.”
Her father chuckled. “Wake yer butt up and c’mon down here to the docks. We just got our new quarters.”
Dar closed both eyes. “Wouldn’t it be better to see them in day-light?” she inquired hopefully, as Kerry stirred, then crawled up and rested her chin on Dar’s breastbone.
“Aw. C’mon now. First time we got something brand spanking new,” Andrew rasped. “Get your butt down here.”
“Can we come as we are or do we have to get dressed?” Kerry warbled.
There was a momentary pause. “’Sperience tells me I should tell you to put yer clothes on,” Andrew finally decided. “’Sides, it’s a little chilly down here.”
“Okay. We’ll be right there.” Dar yawned and rubbed her eyes as the line disconnected. “Wait a minute. How could they have just gotten that at three a.m.?”
Kerry had rolled over and carefully levered herself out of the waterbed and padded naked across the floor towards the bathroom. “Light.”
Dar closed her eyes.
“They had to pick it up in Palm Beach, remember?” Kerry reminded her, as she splashed water over her face. “Probably took their time coming down the coast.”
“Mmm. Wonder if they had a waterbed put in,” Dar joked faintly.
“They loved ours.”
Kerry jerked upright, green eyes popping wide open as she stared at herself in the mirror. Slowly she turned, leaned in the doorway, and glared at the light splashed naked form tangled in the sheets. “What?”
“Well,” Dar crossed her ankles, “it was either down here, or up in your room. That single in the guest room’s a little too short for Daddy.”
Kerry covered her eyes with one hand. “Ohh. Back, back, back.” She groaned, trudging towards the dresser. “I tell you what, honey. I’m going to flush that image right out of my cache. Okay?”
“Okay,” Dar agreed amiably.
“Don’t you dare hit reload.”
“Okay.” The taller woman rolled up out of bed and stretched, producing a satisfying pop as her shoulders seated themselves. She pulled a shirt and a pair of shorts from her drawer and tugged them on as Kerry settled for one of her longer shirts. “C’mon, Chino, let’s go see grandpa’s new toy.”
They walked down the front stairs and, moments later, Dar was steering the golf cart down the completely empty, moonlit road towards the marina. “Pretty night,” she commented.
460 Melissa Good
“Mmm.” Kerry ducked to one side and peered up at the cloudless sky, speckled with stars faded from the city lights nearby. “Yeah, it is.”
The tires crunched on the gravel, sounding loud in the darkness, and she pulled her head back in and settled in her padded seat. Chino sat in the back and had her head resting on the brace between them, sniffing with interest.
They rounded the turn and proceeded into the marina, the sound of the waves merged with the soft clinking of ships’ riggings. “Good grief,”
Kerry murmured. “That thing is huge.”
“Yeah. Don’t all guys love to hear that?” Dar muttered back, as she muffled a chuckle. “Well, it is their house now, so…”
The Bertram was tucked up in a guest slip on the edge of the Marina, shiny fiberglass glistening in the moonlight. All of sixty feet long, it featured a flying bridge like Dar’s and a long foredeck she gauged would be excellent for her mother to set up an easel on. “Nice.”
She parked the cart and they got out, then they walked up to the back of the vessel as her parents came out to meet them. “Morning.” Dar lifted a hand towards them.
“Hello, you two.” Cecilia gave her husband an exasperated look. “I tried to make him wait. Honestly.”
Kerry chuckled as she hopped on board. “That’s okay. Wow. This is nice.” She peeked up at the bridge console, which glowed with green LED’s.
“Mmm. Yeah, it is,” Ceci agreed cheerfully. “Happy birthday, by the way.” She hesitantly offered Kerry a hug, which was accepted with enthusiasm. “Were you surprised at your party?”
“Was she.” Dar laughed, as Kerry received another hug from her father. “She was shocked speechless.”
“Now that, ah would have paid to see,” Andrew drawled. “Ah, ah.
None of that, young lady, or I’ll be grabbing that tongue and keeping it.”
“That cake was gorgeous. Thank you so much.” Kerry turned sea green eyes on Ceci. “I was very, very surprised at everything. Did you know what Dar pulled on me?”
“About your promotion? Yes, we knew,” the silver blonde woman answered. “I wish we could have been there, but Andy was very anxious to take possession of this little boat.”
The ex-sailor in question was bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Y’all want a nickel tour?” he asked, hopefully. “And ah got to tell you, I have spent a good bit more on the gov’ment’s behalf than what this here boat costs, hell, my naval training cost more. But sitting down in that man’s office and writing him out a check for this thing was about the weirdest thing I have ever done.”
“He was impressed,” Ceci commented, “and May would have definitely approved.” She smiled. “C’mon. I put some coffee up to inaugurate the machine.”
They moved into the cabin, which was laid out not too differently from Dar’s. There was a living room area in front, with a comfortable Eye of the Storm 461
looking couch and a table with clamp downs and a set of built-in book-shelves. Across from that was an area with cabinets and a drafting table, custom made for her mother, Dar suspected.
Behind the living area was a compact galley, with a built in micro-wave and stove, and a fair sized refrigerator, and next to it a cozy table and wraparound booth to eat in.
Stairs descended behind that to the bedroom, with its built in drawers and recessed lighting, its bed larger than the one in their boat, and longer by several inches. Next to it was the head, which had a nice sized shower in it. There were storage areas built into all the bulkheads, and the living space was all lined in warm, rich honey toned wood with recessed brass hardware. “This is so nice.” Kerry breathed. The colors were blue and maroon, with the odd exception of the toilet seat, which was an interesting shade of pink.
Dar decided not to ask about that. “Definitely comfortable.” She clapped her father on the back. “Better than an eighteen inch wide bunk, huh?”
“Lord.” Andrew laughed. “I hate to see some of my buddy’s faces when they see this thing. They’re gonna keel right over.” But he looked very pleased with his new home. “I do like this, though. I really do.”
Ceci leaned against him and exhaled. “Me too.” She gave his arm a squeeze, then moved over to the galley and poured cups of steaming, nutty smelling coffee. “Oh, I almost forgot.” She set the tray on the table, and nudged them towards it. “I have something for the two of you. Just a little picture I finished a few days ago.”
“Heh.” Andrew doctored his coffee and sucked down a mouthful from the navy blue mug. Dar and Kerry joined him, while Dar peered past his shoulder curiously as her mother pulled something out of a veneered closet nearby.
“Kerry got a birthday card from her folks,” she informed her parents.
“Yeah?” Andrew was surprised. “Hell, I guess he does have a conscience after all that.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Ceci said quietly, as she brought forward a canvas, then turned it for them to see and propped it up against the table. “I thought your living room could use a little color.”
Dar and Kerry gazed at the painting, then at each other, then back at the painting. “Wow,” Kerry murmured. “It’s gorgeous.”
Dar blinked. “It’s…” She leaned closer. “How did you do that?”
“I’m an artist,” Ceci remarked dryly. “It’s what I do.” But she seemed pleased with the reaction.<
br />
The painting was a jungle scene, deep greens and blues of the grass surrounding its two subjects, a large black panther, reclining regally on the mossy ground, its paws outstretched. Between them sat a russet and gold fox, peering coyly out at the watchers, its fluffy tail neatly tucked around its small feet. A cheerful red apple rested nearby.
It was the eyes that got them. Ceci had somehow captured, in the panther’s clear blue gaze, her daughter’s wild spirit, and the fox’s pale 462 Melissa Good green eyes reflected Kerry’s sweet intelligence.
A chord rang, deep and somewhat wistful in Dar’s memory as she studied the images, a whisper of a past she didn’t remember, the ghost of a gentle clasp on her shoulder that almost made her turn around.
“It’s amazing.” Kerry’s laugh bubbled up. “Thank you so much.”
Dar smiled. “Thanks, Mom.”
“You’re welcome,” Ceci remarked briskly. “Now, since I have the three of you together and where is that dog?”
Chino, curled up near the door where Dar had ordered her to stay, looked up. “Gruff.”
“Excellent. I need a picture of you all.” Ceci shooed them all together. “C’mon now. It’ll take a second.”
“Dressed like this?” Dar questioned, plucking her shirt. “For what?’
“Shh.” Her mother waited for Chino to get into the picture, then snapped it. “You think only you computer people can manipulate images? I can dress you however I want once I paint the picture.”
“Picture?”
“Paint?” Kerry chimed in. “You’re doing one of us?”
“Gruff!”
Andrew chuckled. “You wanna go for a ride? I had them tuck a few extra ponies in this here thing and we got enough chow on board for a sunrise gig.”
Oh boy. Work would be hell after that. “Sure.” Dar grinned. “Let her rip, Dad.”
“Dar.”
“Uh.”
“Heh.”
Another Melissa Good book available from
Red Sky At Morning
Continuing from where Eye of the Storm leaves off, this fourth chronicle in the Tropical Storm series has Dar Roberts and Kerry Stuart’s lives seeming to get more complex rather than moving toward the simpler lifestyle they both dream of.
This story begins with Dar presenting the quarterly earn-ings for the company. Meanwhile, Kerry encounters plane problems on her way to Chicago to solve a problem, and her flight diverts to New York. Sensing Kerry is in trouble, Dar leaves right in the middle of a stockholder cocktail party leading a colleague to question Dar’s commitment to the company.
Dar and Kerry return to Miami to begin a Navy contract and they encounter a cover-up of the worse kind. They end up in Washington to confront the military brass and expose Dar’s old friends and in a sense, leave her childhood completely behind.
**Originally part of the story posted as Tropical High.**
ISBN 1-930928-81-5
(To be released in a Second Edition in 2004,
ISBN 1-932300-21-X)
Coming in 2004 from
Melissa Good and
Thicker Than Water
This sequel to Red Sky at Morning is the fifth entry in the continuing saga of Dar Roberts and Kerry Stuart. It begins with Kerry involved in a church group of girls. A teenager from the group gets jailed because her parents tossed her out onto the streets when they found out she is gay. As she and Dar assist the girl, Kerry is forced to acknowledge her own feelings toward and experience with her folks. While trying to help the teenagers adjust to real world situations, Kerry gets a call concerning her father’s health. She flies to her family’s side as her father dies, putting the family in crisis. Caught up in an international problem, Dar abandons the issue to go to Michigan, determined to support Kerry in the face of grief and hatred.
Dar and Kerry face down Kerry’s extended family with a little help from their own, and return home, where they decide to leave work and the world behind for a while for some time to themselves.
**Originally part of the story posted as Tropical High.**
ISBN 1-932300-24-4
Another Melissa Good title
coming in 2005 from
Terrors of the High Seas
After the stress of a long Navy project and Kerry’s father’s death, Dar and Kerry decide to take their first long vacation together. A cruise in the eastern Caribbean is just the nice, peaceful time they need—until they get involved in a family feud, an old murder, and come face to face with pirates as their vacation turns into a race to find the key to a decades old puzzle.
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