by Melissa Good
“No,” Dar replied calmly. “I couldn’t handle mine and needed your help.” She laid a finger on the tip of Kerry’s nose.
“Don’t think I didn’t hear you at my grandmother’s funeral, making sure they all knew how their poor ragamuffin relative from down South had made good.”
Kerry smiled faintly at the memory. “That’s true.” She relaxed a bit. “C’mon, we’d better get dressed for this thing. People are starting to show up.”
Dar circled Kerry’s shoulders with one long arm as they went back to the green room. “You were the main reason my father decided to ask me to help him recontact Mom; you know that, right? And if I recall, a certain drawing exhibition…”
“Okay.” Kerry held up a hand. “I get the point, Dar.” She gave her a quiet look. “I guess I’m quite the little meddler, aren’t I?”
“Yep.” Dar pushed the door open and stood aside for Kerry to enter. “So don’t you dare give me a hard time for doing the same thing.” She followed Kerry inside and closed the door. “Speaking of which, let’s talk strategy.”
Kerry paused with her hand on her bag and turned. “Strategy?” She unzipped the bag and removed her dark suit. “For what?”
The room was darkened by the weather outside; only two lamps shed butter colored light across the room, and it splashed over Dar as she walked to Kerry. “What’s your goal here, Kerry?
What outcome do you want this evening to have, when it’s all over? Is this where you tell your family to kiss your ass, or do you want to try to mend fences?”
Kerry blinked at her in total bewilderment. “Dar, what are you talking about?”
“Think,” Dar replied, as she laid a hand on Kerry’s cheek.
“Everyone has their opinion of who you are. Do you want to change that?” There was only silence as Dar watched thoughts chase themselves across Kerry’s expressive face. “Are you proud of who you are?”
Blonde lashes flickered. “I don’t know.” Kerry inhaled. “I should be, shouldn’t I?”
Dar gazed intently into her eyes, allowing her own powerful personality to surge to the surface. “You have to believe in yourself before you can get anyone else to buy into that. And yes, you should be very proud of who you are.” A faint smile curved her lips. “I know I am.”
Kerry’s eyes filled with tears and they spilled down her cheeks as she blinked. For a moment, she felt very alone, as Thicker Than Water 131
though she were standing on a bridge high out over chill waters.
There was no safe place around her, only harsh, buffeting winds, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost feel the swaying. It was frightening. She knew Dar was waiting for her on the other side of the bridge, but this was something she could only do by herself, a decision she had to make alone.
But there really isn’t a choice, is there? Kerry realized. She considered her accomplishments, both personal and professional over the previous year, and felt a sense of wondering satisfaction settle over her. With steady confidence, she traversed the bridge and crossed over it, leaving her childhood behind her to enter a newly burnished realization of her own reality.
Dar watched intently as Kerry’s eyes opened, a misty green still watery with tears that nevertheless met hers with startling clarity.
“What I want is for my family to understand that my life is exactly how I want it to be.” Kerry took Dar’s hand and ran her fingers over the strong bones and tensing muscles within it. “And I am very proud of who we are.”
Dar kissed her, but remained silent, savoring the sweetness of the moment.
Chapter
Nine
SHE COULD HEAR the murmur of voices, a low wash of sound that mixed soft clinks and footsteps. It sent a wave of familiarity over her, bringing up memories of growing up in this house and hearing those sounds so very often. Kerry soberly regarded her reflection in the mirror. Her charcoal gray, wool suit jacket fitted precisely across her shoulders and draped over the slightly lighter silk dress. She wore her hair clipped back into a knot, and had on only a sober dusting of makeup. “You doing okay?” Her eyes lifted to the mirror, and watched Dar’s reflection in it as she walked to her.
“I’m fine.” Dar eased her collarless black silk jacket over a simple yet elegant dark bronze sheath. The jacket covered the ugly bruising and provided a somber draping to Dar’s tall form.
“Got plenty of drugs in me.” She glanced at Kerry’s profile. “You doing all right?”
Kerry nodded. “I’m fine.” She removed two jade studs from her small kit and inserted one into her right earlobe. “Sounds like a crowd’s finally arrived downstairs.”
“So I hear.” Dar put her own jewelry case on the dresser.
“When you have a chance, it’s tough for me to reach up—could you...?”
Kerry smiled a little. “Sure.” She finished putting in her earrings, opened Dar’s case, and took out the beautiful blue dia-monds that were her favorites. “Sit.” She indicated the low, padded bench. “Make my life easier.”
Dar did as she was asked, stifling a small yawn with her good hand as Kerry moved her hair aside and tilted her head a little.
She felt the warm touch of fingers against her earlobe, then the faint pressure as the posts went through her skin. “I like that dress on you.” She touched the soft fabric that covered Kerry’s hip.
“Thanks,” Kerry murmured, attending to the other ear. “I got it to wear to that executive convention next month in New York.”
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She straightened and observed her work. “Those are so pretty.”
“Should be, for what they cost,” Dar said, jokingly. “Mind getting that necklace, too?”
Kerry fished in the bag and drew out the glittering crystal on its golden chain, then opened the catch and fastened it around Dar’s neck. It matched the one already around her own neck and, with a tiny grin, she settled it into its spot above the hollow in Dar’s throat. “Are we ready?”
Dar tilted her head and peered up. Kerry’s face was grave but composed, and there was a peace about her that had been sorely missing for several days. “I think we are.” She stood up and twitched her jacket straight. “Let’s go.”
They met Angie and Richard on the stairs, and walked down together. Richard had on a dark suit, and Angie had chosen a simple, dark gray dress. Dar was the last on the stairs and had the best view of what waited below. There was a small crowd in the foyer, men mostly, with a few women, and a local television reporter. As they descended they were spotted, and Dar watched the reactions.
Interesting. Eyes fastened on her, and she coolly returned the stares. The television reporter broke off his speech with an older man and turned and hurried in their direction. “Here we go,” Dar murmured, giving Kerry’s back a tiny scratch.
Kerry’s shoulder blades shifted and she stiffened as they reached the foot of the stairs and were met by both the reporter and the stares of the gathered crowd. As she expected, the reporter made a beeline for her, and she met his eyes steadily as he advanced.
“Ms. Stuart?” The man seemed a little more excited than the situation warranted. “Can I get a word with you?”
Kerry sighed inwardly. “Sure.” She stepped to one side and allowed the others to move on. Dar, naturally, didn’t. Angie gave her a sympathetic look as she edged past. “What can I help you with?”
The man glanced at a piece of paper, then obviously organized his thoughts. He lifted his eyes and started to speak, then paused, his gaze drifting up and a little to the left. He blinked, then cleared his throat. “Ah…I know this is a very sad occasion, Ms. Stuart, but there are many people who are surprised to see you here.”
“Really?” Kerry asked. “Why? My father died yesterday. Did you really think politics could interfere with my being here for my mother and my family?”
The camerawoman edged around, getting a better shot. It gave the reporter a moment to regroup. “Ms. Stuart, we’re aware 134 Melissa
Good that there have been some strained relations with your family, and—”
“And?” Kerry cut him off again with genteel politeness.
Another shift of his gaze up and to the left. “And…ah…I’m…I mean, it’s good to see the family giving each other support during this horrible tragedy.”
“Thank you.” Kerry rewarded him with a warm smile. “It’s been a very difficult few days. Now, if you’ll excuse us?”
“Uh…sure.” The reporter backed off, with a nervous glance behind Kerry. “Thanks for speaking with us.”
Kerry smiled and ducked around the camera. She waited until they were halfway across the foyer and almost to the large reception room before she paused and lowered her voice as Dar drew even with her. “What were you doing to him?”
“Me?” Dar’s low, musical voice asked. “Nothing. Why?”
Kerry just gave her a look. “I can’t wait to see this on the eleven o clock news.” She glanced ahead and saw several of her extended family near the door to the reception room, and the coldness of their stares was almost a physical blow. She squared her shoulders. “C’mon.”
Angie spotted them as they cleared the door and she hurried to them. “Hey, that didn’t take long.” She latched on to Kerry’s arm and steered her away from the hostile crowd. “Mom’s over there.” She pointed to their mother, flanked by two aides, with a short, stocky older man opposite her. “Chatting with the governor. I think she could use some support.”
“Sure,” Kerry replied. “Aunt Mary looks like she wants to spit nails at me anyway.” She gave her aunt, a chubby woman dressed in unflattering black crepe, a smile, which wasn’t returned. “You’d think she hadn’t spent the last twenty years telling everyone what a bastard our father was.”
“Mm.” Angie snorted softly. “Or that she’d been a flower child who burned her bra and voted Democratic just to spite the family.”
“Hm,” Kerry said. “I wonder if that look’s for my lifestyle or the company I work for, then. Maybe I’ve got her staring daggers all wrong. She’s been fighting big business since the Stone Age.”
Dar chuckled softly.
“Don’t laugh,” Kerry murmured. “She thinks the high techs are the worst things that ever happened to the Earth.” They arrived at Cynthia’s side before Dar could answer, and they met the glares of the aides.
“Ah, Kerrison.” Cynthia welcomed her warmly, ignoring the frosty expressions of the two men on either side of her. “Splendid.
I was just discussing you with the governor.” She turned. “James, Thicker Than Water 135
this is Kerrison, my eldest daughter.” Then she paused, almost infinitesimally. “And her…partner, Dar Roberts.”
“Kerrison.” The governor extended a hand to her with surprising good nature. They shook, then he turned and met Dar’s eyes, a tiny smile crinkling the corners of his own. “Ms. Roberts.”
There was, Dar realized, something faintly familiar about the man. She returned his strong grip and tried to figure out where she’d met him before. “Governor.”
“And you know Angela,” Cynthia continued. “The governor and I were just discussing—”
“Mrs. Stuart, a word with you.” One of the aides tugged at her sleeve. “There’s a phone call.”
Cynthia looked very annoyed, but she gave the governor a graceful nod. “Excuse me a moment.” She allowed herself to be drawn off to one side, where two other aides were standing, one holding a wireless phone.
“Kerrison,” a male voice chimed in from behind them.
“Hadn’t expected to see you here.”
Kerry turned to see one of her younger uncles on her mother’s side standing there. “Hello, Brad.” She exchanged wry looks with him. “I didn’t expect to see you, either. Guess I took your place as the black sheep, hm?” Brad still had his earrings, though he’d taken out the one he usually sported in his nose for the occasion.
Kerry was glad to see him, though they’d never been close.
“Made my life a little easier, yeah.” Brad laughed. “’Specially after my band got busted for possession last year.”
Dar watched the interchange, satisfied that Kerry wasn’t going to get bushwhacked, then turned her attention to the governor, who was standing quietly, watching everything. Their eyes met. “Political minefield, eh?”
He shrugged lightly. “Aren’t they all?” He cocked his head.
“Roger was a bastard, but he knew his job and he was damn good at it. Lots worse could have been in that seat, though I’m betting you’d disagree.”
Dar glanced around, surprised at the governor’s candor with a relative stranger. “He wasn’t my favorite human being, no. People who wish me, and those I love, dead and in Hell rarely are.”
She met his eyes evenly. “It’s a fairly common attitude, though.”
The faint smile returned. “That’s damn true, Ms. Roberts.
Damn true. Some of my closest friends feel that very way, matter of fact, and I’m not known as a liberal in many circles. Makes an already dicey decision even tougher now that Cyndi’s publicly stated her support for young Kerrison, there.”
“I bet.” Dar smiled humorlessly. “Does she even want the job?”
136 Melissa Good
“Not particularly.” The governor shrugged. “S’why she’s probably going to get it.” He rocked back and forth on his heels a bit. “Hasn’t got much time left on this term anyway, and anyone else I choose would just cause me other problems.”
Dar’s eyebrows rose. “Despite the,” she paused deliberately and put a sting in the word, “complications?”
The governor chuckled for no apparent reason and looked at his laced leather shoes. “Y’know, Ms. Roberts, I gotta tell you something.” He looked up at her. “I made the mistake of assuming things about gay people once, and I got my ass dragged into a tor-pedo locker and the bs kicked right out of me for it.” He grinned at her visibly startled reaction. “I surely don’t intend to make the same mistake twice, and have Andy Roberts coming after my ass again. I’m too old for that now.”
Dar blinked, then chuckled a little in pure surprise. “You know, I thought I knew you from somewhere. You captained that hunter sub he went out on for two tours.”
“That I did,” the governor said. “Besides, I’d be a half-brained old sea salt to piss off someone who might prospectively bring more private sector jobs into my state, now wouldn’t I?” He gave her a rakish grin. “Got any plans for expanding in Troy?”
Cynthia Stuart returned at that moment, having shed the two aides. “My apologies, Governor, but I see you were well accompanied.” She gave Dar a nod. “Is Kerrison…? Ah, there she is. Kerrison, perhaps we can speak with your uncles now. Are you free?”
Kerry and Dar exchanged glances. “Sure. I don’t honestly know what good it’ll do, but I’m willing to try.” Maybe, she considered, in this very public venue, they’ll at least be civil. She put a hand on Dar’s arm. “You’d better—”
“Stay here?” Dar completed the statement with a faint smile.
“All right, but if voices start to get louder, I won’t be responsible for my reactions.” She watched Kerry walk to a knot of her family, relaxing a little when Michael slid in and put an arm around Kerry’s shoulders.
The governor gently cleared his throat. “Chip off the old block, aren’t you?”
Dar kept her eyes on her lover, but smiled with pride. “That’s what they tell me.”
“THAT THERE MAN is not worth this here suit.” Andrew folded his arms over his broad chest and reviewed the passing countryside. “Ah will tell you that.”
Ceci glanced at him, then returned her attention to the icy road ahead of her. “No, he’s not worth a potato sack. But Kerry’s Thicker Than Water 137
worth that suit, and besides, I like you in it.” She caught a pair of pale blue eyes reflected against the windshield and smiled. “Not as much as the white one, but still…”
Andrew merely grunt
ed, shifting his shoulders inside his dark blue uniform jacket. “Spent enough time decorating it, now didn’t you?” he rasped, giving her a wry look.
Ceci chuckled smugly. “Wasn’t it a coincidence that box of medals from the Navy showed up yesterday? Amazing, I tell you, just amazing.” She turned carefully onto a smaller road, grimac-ing as she felt the wheels slide under her touch. “Lovely.”
“You want me to drive?” Andy asked.
“Honey,” Ceci struggled with the wheel a moment more, then got the car straight, “I’m sure Kerry and Dar would like to see us in one piece sometime this evening.” She accelerated cautiously.
“Ah. That’s better.” It really was hard to believe they were actually there. Certainly it was only marginally their business, and their presence would not, she suspected strongly, be a welcome one.
That one shot of Dar and Kerry coming out of the hospital the night before, both faces strained to an almost scary extent, made their decision for them, for better or worse. Ceci exhaled and nodded to herself. They had the means, they had the method, and by the goddess, here they were about to turn into the driveway of the Stuart family manse.
“Think we should have warned them?” she asked, waiting in line behind a maroon Jaguar.
An unexpected smile crossed Andy’s scarred face. “Nope.
Better to just do it and fill in the paperwork later.”
“Mm.” Cecilia pulled up to the guard and opened the window. The man leaned over and peered inside as she marshaled several well thought out arguments to gain admittance, prepared to bombard the man with inescapable logic and plain intimidation if she had to.
“Go right ahead, sir,” he murmured courteously. “Ma’am.”
The gate opened. Ceci glanced at her husband who looked back at her, equally puzzled. “Well.” She pulled the car through the opening gates. “I’m not looking that gift donkey in the ass.”
“Musta been taken by your pretty face,” Andy said.
“More likely by the glare off your chest, sailor boy.” Ceci patted the front of his uniform, which was liberally bedecked with medals and ribbons. “He probably figured you run the Navy.