Hurricane Watch - DK2 (50 page)

”Oh no, no. I’m not...um...” Kerry held up a hand. ”No Dar, I’ve only been here for a few months. No, I— No, Dar, no. Stop looking at me like that.”

A dark brow lifted in question.

”Dar, don’t be silly. I can’t do your job,” Kerry wailed softly.

”No.” Now Dar’s gaze was sharp, and appraising, and reminded Kerry very much of the cool judging she’d received on that very first day. ”You can’t do what I did the way I did it, but I bet you could find a way to do it your way.”

”I can’t.”

”Then I can’t accept this,” Dar stated quietly. ”Because you’re the only one I trust to replace me.”

Kerry felt breathless. ”Dar, that’s not fair.”

”No, it’s not.” Her lover replied. ”Life sometimes isn’t.”

They looked at each other in silence. Dar sighed. ”At least think about it,” she asked quietly. ”Please?”

Kerry glanced down at her boots, kicking the carpet a little, then she looked up.” All right, I’ll think about it.” She nibbled her lower lip.

”Give me a day or so, huh?”

Dar looked like she wanted to argue, but she nodded. ”Sure, take your time.” She settled back in her chair and shook her head. ”I’m gonna kill him.”

Kerry poked her lip out. ”So am I,” she muttered.

Slowly, they turned, and regarded each other seriously. Then Dar started to laugh, and after a moment, Kerry joined her. They wound down, then started up again, until Kerry just buried her face in Dar’s shoulder, and curled a hand around her arm, helpless with giggles.

”I got an idea.” Dar pulled her sneakered feet up and tucked an arm around her knees. ”Why don’t we change our tickets, and go to Houston, and show up at his house with rubber hatchets?”

Kerry peered up at her. ”You really are a brat, aren't you?” She laughed.

A wicked, sexy smile answered her. ”You bring that out in me,”

Dar told her, shaking a long finger at her. She looked up as the boarding agent was clearing her throat, and picking up her microphone. ”Ah, looks like it’s time to go.”

Kerry finished off her coffee and stood, flexing her arms and wincing as her shoulder popped into place. ”Ow.” She reached down for her laptop, but found it taken from her fingers, and a warm hand touching her back. ”Dar, I can carry my own bag.”

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”Yes, I know,” Dar told her, lowering her voice. ”But it’s my privilege to do it for you.”

”Ah. I see,” Kerry mused, allowing herself to be gently steered towards the airplane ramp. ”Privilege,” she murmured very softly, almost under her breath, as she handed over her boarding pass to the smiling agent. ”Thank you.”

She took back her stub, and entered the long boarding tunnel, along with a straggling of the few other passengers on the evening flight. She slid in to the window seat in the first row of the airplane, and watched as Dar put their bags in the overhead bin, then sat down next to her, letting her hands rest on her thighs.

”Be glad to get home,” Dar sighed.

”How’s your knee doing?” Kerry asked, as she leaned on the console between them. ”I noticed you weren’t limping anymore.”

Dar nodded a little. ”Fine, it doesn’t hurt. It was a little bit stiff this morning, but it feels great now.” She gazed at the joint, hidden under stonewashed fabric. ”Find out tomorrow when I run on it, I guess.”

A blonde brow lifted at her. ”And if it hurts?” She knew better than to argue about the running.

Dar took a breath to answer, then found intense green eyes watching her. ”I can worry about myself, you know.”

A smile. ”I know.” Kerry wrinkled her nose. ”But it’s my privilege to do it, too,” she told her lover. ”It works both ways, Dar. We’re responsible for each other, okay?”

”Okay.” Dar snuggled back in the leather seat, and accepted a glass of wine from the steward, passing it to Kerry then taking one for herself.

She took a sip and rolled it around her mouth a few times before she swallowed it.

Someone else being responsible for her. What a weird thought. It’d
been a very, very long time since anyone had wanted to do that.

But you know,
Dar considered it seriously.
I think I like that idea.

KERRY KEYED THE door open, and entered, smiling as she heard the raucous yipping from Chino’s room as she flipped the light on.

”Okay, honey, hang on.” She pushed the door back and let Dar move past her, then closed the door and plopped her laptop case down on the couch as Dar set the suitcases on the floor. ”I’ll go let her out, and I sure could use some coffee. You?”

”Uh huh,” Dar agreed, straightening. ”Damn weather, we must have circled over Tampa for an hour,” she complained, rubbing her neck. ”Thank god we had seats in the front.” She shouldered her laptop and moved into her office, turning on the light as she dropped the case on the desk. She moved around the other side, flipping her pc on and sitting down in the comfortable leather chair with a sigh. ”Let’s see, it’s nine o’clock, it’s Sunday, he’s home.” She cracked her knuckles, then 272

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wiggled her fingers before she punched a phone number on her speaker phone.

It rang once.

Twice.

A voice picked up. ”Hello?”

Dar smiled, and steepled her fingers. ”Hi.”

Momentary silence. ”Oh, oh, hello, Dar!” A pause. ”Heh heh, so how was your little vacation?”

Dar let him wait a beat. ”It was great until I picked up a goddamned newspaper at the airport a few hours ago,” she growled intimidatingly. “And read my freaking name in it.”

”Now, Dar,” Alastair's voice turned soothing. ”Let me explain.”

”Explain?” Dar barked. ”No no. It was perfectly clear to me, in black and white, in fact with a goddamned picture the size of a watermelon on top of it!”

”Dar...Dar...now listen.” Alastair cleared his throat. ”I tried to call you. I tried to page you several times, but you never answered me.”

”I was on vacation,” Dar reminded him. ”You knew that.” She looked up as Kerry entered, carrying a steaming cup, and dressed in a soft, brief cotton t-shirt which just barely covered her thighs. She grinned at her lover, almost forgetting the man on the phone.

”All right, well...but I tried to get you, Dar. I had to make a decision, and you know, when I’ve got to do it, I’ve got to do it. I can’t just wait around for things to happen.” He cleared his throat. ”It was the right time. I needed something to boost things, and it worked!”

”What worked?” Dar asked, taking the cup with one hand, and tracing the soft curve of Kerry’s leg muscles with her other.

”Stock went up five damned dollars!” Alastair chortled. ”Now c’mon, you can’t be that mad at me,” he chided her. ”Good grief, Dar, you’d think I’d asked you to go off and become a missionary. It was a promotion, in case you hadn’t gotten that part down.”

”What if I don’t want it?” Dar asked, mildly. ”I’m not moving my ass to Houston, Alastair, so forget it. Find some other dog out there to wag their tail for you.”

Silence.

”Alastair?”

”Hmm?? Oh, sorry, Dar. I was just contemplating the image of you wagging your tail at me,” the CEO remarked cheerfully. ”Hell, I’d move to Miami for that, never mind bringing you out here.”

Dar sighed. ”Alastair...”

”I know, I know, EEOC, but listen, Dar I never considered you coming out here. I’ve got a nice, peaceful office. I don’t need Hurricane Dar coming in and blowing everyone through the windows out here.

No, that’s not why I did it.” He paused. ”I just thought it would make things easier there. Some of the problem seems to be from the committee mentality. I just made you a committee of one.”

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”That’s a lot of added responsibility.” Dar slid her hand up a bit, twitching the edge of the t-shirt, and getting her hand slapped. She looked up at Kerry with a wicked grin.

”Well I gave you a raise with it.” Alastair sounded insulted. ”I mean, Jesus, Dar, give me a break, willya? I made the package with the works, even keys to the executive bathrooms.”

”In Houston,” Dar remarked dryly. ”Nifty, just what I needed Alastair. I don’t need more crap, all right? The money’s not the issue.”

He sighed. ”I thought you’d be flattered.”

”Don’t whine,” Dar told him, testily. ”Maybe I just like to be asked first, before I have to read about it in the goddamned daily news!” She glanced up as Kerry unfolded the business section of the paper she’d picked up outside the condo. ”Oh shit.” She covered her eyes.

”It’s a nice picture of you,” Kerry remarked, diplomatically. ”I like your hair.”

”Is that Kerry?” Alastair asked, brightly. ”Hello there.”

”Hi, Mr. M... Alastair,” Kerry responded. ”There’s a big story on the front page of Business Monday in the Herald about Dar.” She patted her lover, who had covered her eyes, and was moaning on her shoulder.

”It looks great.”

Alastair chuckled. ”Oh yeah, they called up here for copy and a photo. I think they gave them the one from that company picnic last year.” He cleared his throat. ”So, what about it, Dar? I’ll concede I should have asked you, but I really didn’t think you'd mind.”

Dar sighed, and studied her hands. ”I need a few days to think about it, Alastair,” she told the CEO, her eyes meeting Kerry’s. ”I’ll let you know.”

”Dar, I hate waiting,” the CEO complained. ”Besides, what am I supposed to tell the board?”

A soft chuckle, almost unheard. ”Tell them I said to kiss my ass,”

Dar drawled in reply. ”I’ll let you know in a few days, Alastair.” She paused. ”Goodnight.” She hit the release, then took a sip of her coffee, regarding her computer screen in pensive silence. ”I wonder how much my raise was?”

Kerry flicked her fingers through the dark hair, then glanced at the phone when it rang. She picked it up. ”Hello?”

A low, raspy voice responded, causing her to smile. ”Oh, hi…

...yeah… ...yeah, that’s your kid in the paper, all right.” She watched Dar’s whole demeanor perk up when her words registered. ”Here, say hello.” She handed the phone to her lover and kissed her head. ”I’m going to put my stuff away,” she whispered, then eased out of the room.

Chino trotted over to her, licking her chops from the snack Kerry had provided the puppy and attempted to catch her feet. ”Hey, cut that out.” She laughed, reaching down and picking the animal up, then carrying her upstairs. ”You leave your mom alone for a few minutes, okay? She’s talking to her daddy.”

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”Woo?” Chino yawned at her. ”Yeep.”

”Yeah, I know.” Kerry entered her room, and put the puppy down on the bed, then sat down herself, laying back onto the soft surface and regarding the ceiling. Chino curled up by her side, and she stroked the puppy gently as she thought.

”Chino, I’m twenty seven years old,” she told the animal. ”I’m not ready to be a vice president of anything more vital than the condo association here.”

”Yeep.” Chino licked her chops again.

”I mean, it’s ridiculous. I can’t do her job,” Kerry argued, waving a hand. ”I can’t even begin to do it. Look what happened in only one day without her there?” She shook her head. ”I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing by even suggesting it. She’s just being nice, Chino. She can’t be seriously thinking I can do that.”

She played with the puppy's ears. ”I can’t do it. I’m not good enough, Chino.” She felt a little sad. ”I’m no match for her capabilities.

Even though she says she put me in here because she thought I was, I’m not.””That’s not true,” the low, vibrant voice came from the doorway.

Kerry sighed. ”Dar...”

”It’s not true, Kerry.” Dar crossed the room and settled onto the bed. ”I know you believe that, because you’ve had assholes telling you you’re not capable half your life, but it’s not goddamned true.” Her voice deepened with anger. ”And you do me a disservice by thinking I’d put someone into a job unless I believed in their ability.” A pause.

”Unless I believed in them.”

“Dar—”

“I have to live with my decisions, Kerry. Do you really think I’d open myself, not to mention you, to the embarrassment of that kind of failure?”

Kerry had no answer for that, so she simply closed her eyes. They sat in silence for a moment, then she opened them. ”I can’t do it Dar.

Please don’t ask that of me.” She put out a hand and captured one of her lover’s. ”All my life I’ve had to fight to make people believe I earned what I got. I’d never be able to fight hard enough on this one.”

”But—”

”Dar.” Kerry gazed up at her, heartsick. ”You know it’s true. No matter what I did, nine out of ten people in that company would believe I got that job because we’re lovers.”

Dar's shoulders slumped, as she exhaled in resignation. ”But it’s not true. I swear it, Kerry, I swear it. If I didn’t even know your first name, but I’d worked with you as much as I have, I swear you’re the best choice.” She got up and paced to the French doors, opening them and going outside onto the breeze licked balcony, leaning on it and gazing out over the water.

The soft sound of the waves breaking came to her ears, as Kerry just
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lay there, unable to come up with even a ghost of a possible plan, one that would get both of them what they wanted. Or didn’t want, as it happened.

”Okay.” Dar had returned, and was standing in the doorway, arms crossed, jaw shifting lightly as she thought. ”What about this—”

”Dar—”

”Just listen to me, will you?” Dar insisted. ”Just listen a minute.

How about, I don’t fill the position.” She moved forward, holding a hand up. ”I just leave it empty because you’re right, you’ve only been with us for a few months, and frankly, there isn’t anyone in the immediate chain I’d be able to put in there anyway.”

Kerry regarded her warily. ”Yeah?”

”Okay, and you...you can take on a little bit at a time. No, wait...wait…just listen—” Another hand. ”Just try things out, see if you think you can handle things.” She paused, and waited, aware of the cautious, green eyes regarding her now in silence. ”No pressure, you just fill in for me here and there, just to see how you like it.”