Thicker Than Water - DK5

by Melissa Good

  Dar curled her fingers around Kerry’s and accompanied her to the door. “Listen, Ker, about last night—”

  “Doesn’t that sound like a bad romance novel?” Kerry’s lips quirked into a smile. “It’s not over, Dar.” She looked up at her partner. “I’m going to have a look myself. Maybe I have a little insight into where he might have put that stuff. He was my father.”

  Dar placed a kiss on the top of her head and just smiled.

  MICHAEL HID A smile behind an English muffin as they entered the breakfast room, still holding hands. “Morning, sis.”

  “Hi,” Kerry replied, releasing Dar to walk to a seat. “Morning.”

  “Oh, Kerrison…” Cynthia looked up from her plate and stopped in mid speech, blinking at her eldest daughter. “Goodness.” She hesitated. “That’s very colorful, dear.”

  “Thanks.” Kerry snapped a suspender at her and sat down.

  Dar continued around the table and approached the serving board with pointed determination. She evaded the uniformed server and captured two plates, then proceeded to dump what she considered proper amounts of edible items on them appropriate to both her taste and Kerry’s.

  “Ma’am,” the server murmured at her anxiously, “I’ll do that for you. In this household, the family prefers service.”

  “In my family’s household,” Dar answered in a normal voice,

  “they tossed the food down on the floor in bins, and we had to fight for it. Old habits die hard. Excuse me.” She ducked around 168 Melissa Good the woman and headed back towards the table.

  Kerry covered her face with one hand, her shoulders shaking.

  Cynthia rose to the challenge. “Why, Dar, I didn’t know you had siblings.”

  “I don’t.” Dar set Kerry’s plate down, then took the chair next to her. “But we had a dog.”

  “Ah.” Cynthia’s brow wrinkled, then she gave a little shake of her head. “At any rate, I’m very glad you chose to join us for breakfast. Did you have additional plans for today, Kerrison?”

  “I was going to treat Dar to a walk in the snow.” Kerry finished buttering her muffin and took a bite. “And show her around the property. Then we figured we’d head back to the hotel and pick up M…Dar’s folks.” There was really no sense, she conceded, in stinging her mother with her usual form of address for Andy and Ceci. Not now that things seemed to be improving as far as familial acceptance went, though Kerry admitted that she was probably pushing things a little today. Just to make sure she wasn’t backsliding, she picked up a piece of bacon and bit it in half, then offered the other half to Dar.

  “Ah, saved the crispy part for me.” Dar accepted the treat with a snap of white teeth. She crunched the bacon with a slight wink in Kerry’s direction. “Thanks.”

  Kerry grinned back, then turned her head and met the bemused looks of her family. Take it or leave it, guys, she projected at them. This is who I am.

  “You guys must be fun to watch in restaurants,” Mike commented with a snort. “Do you slurp spaghetti together, too?”

  “No,” Dar said blandly. “It gets too messy. We save that for home.”

  Angie nearly snorted a piece of melon out of her nose.

  “Hey, I bet Richard never did that with you, did he?” Mike asked his younger sister pointedly.

  Angie cleared her throat and swallowed. “Definitely not. It took me three dates just to get him to loosen his tie.” She took a sip of juice. “He’s not a romantic like Dar is.”

  Round blue eyes pinned her from across the table in outraged shock.

  ”Yeah, she gets that from her father,” Kerry said blithely.

  Cynthia had assumed a noble, serene air, apparently content to let the conversation flow over her unimpeded. “Commander Roberts is a terribly nice man. He has quite a lovely sense of humor.” She had finished her breakfast and she stood, folded her napkin, and left it neatly in place. “I must attend to some business matters. If you wish, Kerrison, after your plans are completed, perhaps you might stay for lunch.”

  Thicker Than Water 169

  Kerry considered the somewhat late time of the morning and nodded. “Sure. Our flight’s not until three.” The funeral service was scheduled for four that afternoon, and the focal point would be at the cemetery, not there at the house. They would be left in peace, at least for a little while.

  Her mother nodded, then left the room.

  Angie propped her head up on her fist and just looked at Kerry. “You are such a brat.”

  “Me?” Kerry asked innocently. “Why? I’m not acting out, I’m just acting normal.” She crunched another strip of bacon. “I’m not going to sit here dressed in lace and pretend that’s how I live. I don’t.”

  “I think you look really cute,” Mike said. “Angie’s just jealous

  ’cause she’d never be able to pull off that outfit.”

  “Neither would you,” Angie gave him a withering look,

  “hippo butt.”

  “Look who’s talking,” Mike retorted. “You’re the one who gets her clothing at—”

  “Michael,” Kerry said.

  He stuck his tongue out at her.

  “Remind me again why I wanted siblings,” Dar said to Kerry, with a look of wry amusement. “You know I—” She fell silent by necessity as Kerry stuffed a piece of muffin into her mouth.

  “Hush.” Kerry put a fingertip on her nose. “You don’t have siblings because you’re one of a kind.” She smiled at Dar’s charmed expression. “Now, chew, so we can go explore.”

  Dar obliged, chewing and swallowing the bit of muffin while she watched her lover and her family trade banter. At least, she sighed, as long as we are here dealing with this disaster, we aren’t back home having to deal with the Naval one waiting for me on my desk.

  Dar thoughtfully nibbled another piece of bacon . My ex-desk.

  Oh well. She’d figure out something. They had savings in the bank, after all.

  THEY WALKED THROUGH the grounds surrounding the house, with Kerry pointing out favored spots from her childhood.

  Then they turned out of the gates and walked along the road, its surface sloping up towards the crest of a nearby hill.

  “It’s such a different environment,” Dar commented, crunching a bit of snow under her boots. “It’s like you have two worlds in the North, a winter one and a summer one.”

  Kerry tucked her gloved hands inside her pockets and watched her breath plume as she exhaled. “That’s true. You’re more aware of the passage of time up here, I think. I always liked 170 Melissa Good spring and summer better. We were out of school in the summer, and at least for a while, that was fun, because I got to go to summer camp.”

  “Mm.”

  “Winter was always full of social stuff,” Kerry went on.

  “Dress ups, and press events, dinners…For a while I tried to get interested in current events so I’d have something intelligent to say when they pointed the camera at me, but after a few instances of that, I got told to just shut up and look good.”

  Dar looked at her.

  Kerry shrugged. “What can I tell you, Dar? They didn’t want to hear what I had to say, or maybe they were afraid I’d develop an embarrassing view on something.” She chuckled softly. “If they’d only known.”

  “Did you?” Dar asked. “Develop a view different from your father’s?”

  Kerry considered the question. “I liked some of his positions on things. I thought his view on keeping families together was good, though now after knowing what was going on with that other woman, the hypocrisy kind of stinks. He knew a lot more about international politics than I did, and I didn’t have the matu-rity to understand the machinations he was going through here locally to control funding and maintain a conservative majority.”

  Dar grunted thoughtfully.

  “I didn’t really start disagreeing with him until I was in college,” Kerry went on. “When I got exposed to the wider world and the many kinds of people in it.”


  “Ever talk to him about that?”

  “No.” Kerry shook her head and leaned forward a little as they started up a steeper part of the hill. “I tried once, but he told me if that’s what college was doing to me, he’d put a stop to it.”

  Dar simply stopped walking. Kerry moved on a few steps, then turned and regarded her. “I want to know something. How in the hell did you become the woman that told me to go to hell in Miami?”

  Ah. Good question. Kerry walked back to Dar, took her hand, and led her upward toward the crest of the hill. “It wasn’t something that happened overnight. It was something that was building a little at a time, until I got home after I graduated college with my degree, and was told I was being put to work as a spokes-woman/receptionist in one of my father’s crony’s companies.”

  They got to the top of the hill and Kerry paused, regarding the view. “I knew I had a choice. Either put my money where my mouth was and get the hell out of here, or stay here and accept the inevitable.” She walked to a tall, almost bare tree and patted its Thicker Than Water 171

  bark. “So I came up here that night and spent hours looking up at the stars, and finally made my decision.”

  Dar joined her. “Not a popular one.”

  “No.” Kerry exhaled. “After I’d accepted Associated’s job offer that next morning, I called Brian and told him, then I just packed, told my parents I was taking the job and left.” She leaned on the tree. “But they didn’t make it easy. He kept after me con-stantly. They hoped they’d wear me down and I’d just give up and come home.”

  Dar gazed at her. “And I almost made that happen.”

  Kerry turned and looked at her. “Almost. But you also were what made me choose my life over their plans for it, and that more than makes up for what might have been, Dar.” She decided to lighten up the conversation. “So, here we have my very first decision tree.”

  Dar studied Kerry’s face for a few moments, then relaxed into a smile. “Nice view up here.” She indicated the opposite slope.

  The hill was fairly steep, and featured a long stretch of even whiteness, ending in a clear area at the bottom with only a few trees that might provide a dangerous impediment. “That where you used to slide down?”

  “Yep.” Kerry sighed. “Wish we had a sled; I’d love to take you for a ride.”

  “Well,” Dar removed her small penknife from her pocket,

  “first things first.”

  Kerry walked to Dar and eyed the knife. “Honey, I love you, but you can’t cut down the tree with that to make a sleigh for me.

  I just won’t let you,” she warned with a serious look. “I’d rather get the car and drive to Wal-Mart.”

  Dar laughed.

  “No, really, sweetie.” Kerry took the knife from her fingers.

  “Give me that.” Dar swiped the tool back. “I wasn’t going to cut the damn tree down.” She circled the trunk and found a good spot. “Just do a little carving.” She set to work with Kerry peering over her shoulder.

  “Oh.” Kerry smiled. “Okay.” She turned away and explored the hilltop, kicking bits of half buried wood around with the toe of her hiking boot. The wind was stiffer up there and it blew her hair back, stinging her eyes with its chill as she gazed down the slope.

  “That night seems so long ago,” she said to the air. “I was so scared. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, or where I might end up.” The branches overhead chuckled together. “But I looked up at those stars, and they told me to follow my heart.”

  She turned and watched Dar. Dar’s brow was creased in concentration as she carved careful letters. “And that’s what I ended up 172 Melissa Good doing, isn’t it?”

  “You say something to me?” Dar poked her head around the tree trunk. “Almost done.”

  Kerry strolled to Dar and kissed her on the nose. “Take your time, Geppetto.” She admired the neat heart shaped cut and the curved letters taking form under Dar’s skilled hands. “I bet you could carve wood, if you wanted to.”

  “Isn’t that what I’m doing?” Dar finished a K and started on the S. “Or do you mean like sitting on the porch in a rocking chair whittling kind of thing.” She flicked a piece of bark out of her way. “I think I’ll wait for retirement for that, when I’m too old and creaky to do anything else.”

  Kerry rested her chin on Dar’s shoulder and exhaled. “We can be old and creaky together. Can you imagine what great memories we’ll have by then?” She had a touch of wonder in her voice.

  “What an amazing thought.”

  Dar finished her work and turned her head. “You like?”

  A simple heart, with four initials and a plus sign. Kerry sighed in deep satisfaction. “I love.” She kissed Dar on the lips.

  “Thank you.”

  Holding hands, they walked back down the hill. Kerry knew they were watched from behind kitchen curtains, knew the whispers, knew the scandalized looks they were garnering, and the only thing that knowledge evoked in her was an intense desire to laugh.

  There were cars in the driveway when they got back to the house. One, Kerry realized, was Andy and Ceci’s rental car, and she nudged Dar and pointed to it. “Hey!” The other was Richard and Angie’s, and she guessed her brother-in-law had come over.

  The third she didn’t recognize.

  “Huh. Thought they were going to wait at the hotel for us,”

  Dar commented as they strolled up the walk. “Hope everything’s okay.”

  The front door opened as they approached, and the major domo gave them a brief smile as they entered the house.

  It was quiet, but they could hear voices from the solarium, and one of those voices was easily identifiable from its low, drawling tones. Kerry led the way into the garden and waved at the group seated near the end of the glassed-in area. “Hey, folks.”

  “Goodness!” a clear voice erupted, and a small, silver haired form popped up from the bench like an albino meerkat. “Kerrison!

  There you are.”

  Kerry stopped and blinked, then smiled. “Aunt Penny!”

  Her aunt hurried around the bench, rushed over to her, and gave her an enthusiastic hug. “Hello, my dear. You look wonder-Thicker Than Water 173

  ful,” Aunt Penny said with enthusiasm. “Hello to you, too, Dar.

  It’s good to see you again.”

  “Same here,” Dar responded cordially, having developed a liking for Kerry’s perky elderly relative.

  Aunt Penny clasped both of their arms and led them to the benches, where Dar’s parents and Cynthia Stuart were seated.

  “And I’ve just met your lovely parents, Dar. Wonderful!”

  Dar felt her face reacting, saw her father’s do likewise, and heard her mother snicker; she realized they both probably wore the same expression. She walked over, took a seat next to her father and exhaled, extended her leather covered legs out a little and regarded her boots as she listened to Kerry and Aunt Penny exchange pleasantries with Cynthia.

  “Oh, listen.” Kerry broke the flow of conversation. “I have to get something from our room—I’ll be right back.” She exchanged a glance just slightly too long with Dar as she passed, and touched her partner’s shoulder as Dar patted her calf in understanding.

  “Right. Ah…” Cynthia frowned. “Well, Penny, tell us what you’ve been up to? It’s been so long.”

  “Well, dear, since I was banned from your house while your husband was alive, that’s not so very surprising, now is it?”

  Penny rebuked mildly. “But I’ve been doing some interesting things, so I’m glad you asked.”

  Cynthia had the grace to look embarrassed. “I’m so sorry, Penny.” She sighed, glancing furtively at Ceci and Andrew.

  Ceci rallied to the occasion. “Don’t worry. Andrew and I are banned from so many households for so many reasons, we don’t even bother with Christmas cards anymore.”

  Andy chuckled. “Ain’t that the truth.”

  Penny patted his knee, giving Cynthia a rea
ssuring look at the same time. “As I was saying, dear…”

  DAR SAT BACK to listen, half an ear listening for Kerry moving around the house behind her, and most of her thoughts fastened on what her partner was up to.

  “You ready to go home?” Andrew asked in a low voice.

  Dar glanced at him. “Does it show?”

  Her father patted her knee, then poked it. “Whacha got here, Dardar? Alligator pants?”

  “Leather.” Dar chuckled, smoothing the hide. “Stuck in the back of my closet.”

  Andrew studied the garment. “Ah do believe I remember when you got them there pants.” He glanced around and lowered his voice again. “D’jya hear what happened last night?”

  174 Melissa Good

  “No.” Dar leaned on the arm of her chair. “What?”

  “That there lady fired all them hangers-on,” Andrew said.

  “Just went in and told them to git.”

  Dar’s eyes brightened. “Yeah?” She was pleasantly surprised.

  “All of them?”

  Andrew nodded solemnly. “Yep. Even that feller we all did not like.”

  Kyle? It had to be. Dar muffled a grin, giving Cynthia mental points she hadn’t expected to tender. “Good for her,” she whispered. “About damn time. Wait ’til Kerry hears.”

  Andrew sat back with a satisfied grunt, folding his arms across his chest. He was dressed in his usual jeans, but this time with a heavy sweatshirt against the cold weather and a pair of sturdy military boots. “I do believe she’ll be happier for it.”

  “Sure,” Dar said. “She’s hated that bastard most of her life.

  Just wish she’d have been there to see it.”

  Her father’s lips quirked a little. “Wall, just so happens your momma was there with that little camera thing of hers. So we can have us a picture watching session later on.”

  Dar looked at him in surprise. “You were there?”

  “Yeap.”

  “Huh.”

  “Didn’t think we’d let you kids have all the fun, didja?”

  Dar covered her face with one hand and shook her head.

  After a moment of watching her, Andrew leaned over again.

  “Hey, Dardar?”