“’Fraid so.” Dar caught her breath, her mind still spinning with the shock of being reunited with a long-lost part of her past. “I didn’t know they’d put you in charge of this place.”
74 Melissa Good
“Lord God, yeah. Three months back,” Jeff Ainsbright said. “Look at you. Damned if you didn’t grow up gorgeous!” He cupped her cheek with an easy familiarity. “I can’t believe it.”
The door behind them opened, and Dar was aware of Kerry and the lieutenant entering, her peripheral vision catching the shift in body language as Kerry absorbed the stranger in the room with his hands all over Dar. She gave her lover a reassuring smile and caught her eye, then met the tall commander’s gaze. “Feels like it’s been forever since I saw you. Wish I’d known you were in charge here; we could have avoided a lot of yelling.”
Jeff pulled her into a hug again. “Tadpole, if I’d known you were behind this, I’d have just handed the keys off to you and gone fishing.”
Dar watched Kerry bite the inside of her lip to prevent a smirk from appearing. “Well, that’s not what I was hired for,” she told the tall man.
“We’re just here to give our best advice.”
“Damn straight,” the base commander agreed, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Albert, you give this lady whatever she wants, whenever she wants it, however she decides she needs it sliced and diced, you got me?”
“S-sir?”
“What part of that was in something other than English?” Jeff growled, turning his head to glare at the younger man. “Or are you developing a hearing problem?”
“No, sir.” Albert braced. “But I’d like to remind the commander of the discussion we had—”
“Forget it,” the answer came back. “I’ve got a whole different picture now. So you tell your staff to cooperate, or I’ll have every last one of you scrubbing the heads with a box of Navy issue Kleenex, understand?”
“Yes, sir.” Commander Albert got the words out from between clenched teeth.
“Good.” Jeff turned and slung a long arm around Dar’s shoulders.
“C’mon, lemme give you the top brass tour. Well, hello there, young lady.” The commander found a slim blonde woman planted firmly in his path.
Dar cleared her throat gently. “This is my associate, Kerry Stuart.
Kerry, this is Jeff Ainsbright. He’s an old friend of the family.”
Kerry stuck a hand out. “Sir, it’s good to meet you.”
“Same here, Ms. Stuart.” Jeff cordially enveloped her hand in his much larger one and shook it. “Let me take you both to lunch. I think we’ve got meatloaf today. You still like meatloaf, Tadpole?” He gave Dar a grin. “C’mon.”
“Sounds good to me,” Dar agreed, allowing herself to be hauled through the door while guiding Kerry before her, leaving a glowering silence behind them.
Commander Albert waited until the footsteps had receded down Red Sky At Morning 75
the hall, then he looked at his data center manager. “Son of a bitch.”
Lieutenant Perkins grunted. “This could be trouble.”
“Yeah.” The muscular blond man tapped a pencil on his desk. “Get me a report on Roberts. Find out who the fuck she is, will you? I never figured her for military.”
“She’s a brat.” Perkins picked up a pad and scribbled on it. “She’s from here. Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who she is. Her dad was Navy.”
“Find out.” Albert nodded. “Find out everything you can. This could fuck up the whole project.”
“Big time,” the woman agreed. “She ain’t stupid. Neither is the other one, what’s her name? Stuart.”
“Hmm.” Her boss pursed his lips. “See what you can get on her, too.” He exhaled in consternation. “We could be in trouble. I need to call Scrooge.”
“Give him my regards.” Perkins took her pad and left, closing the office door behind her.
KERRY FOUND HERSELF seated at a comfortable, if Spartan, table in the noisy cafeteria, listening to her partner and the commander catch up on old times. She cut neat squares of meatloaf and nibbled them, surprised at the agreeable taste. A rakish smile spread across Dar’s face as the commander talked, and Kerry smiled too, charmed at the uncharacteristic, almost adolescent expression it gave her lover.
“So, what’s old Gerry’s beef, Dar?” Jeff asked around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “He got a surplus he needs to spend somewhere?”
“Nah,” Dar replied. “From what he told me, it’s more a matter of the Joint Chiefs getting crap about making sure the military keeps ahead of the private sector in technology.” She took a swallow from her glass of milk. “They told him to make sure it happened, he figured he’d hire me to do it and save himself some time and heartache.”
“And me.” Jeff grinned, poking his fork in her direction. “I was fixing to toss your civilian butt off my base, y’know, ’til I walked in that office and found out who it was that was putting a mine in old Albert’s pants.”
Dar sighed. “I should have just come to see you first.” She gave Kerry a rueful look. “It would have saved both of us some time and half a bottle of aspirin.”
They ate in silence for a few moments, then Jeff leaned forward, fiddling with his knife a bit. “How’s your daddy doing?” he asked in a curiously gentle voice. “I tried to track him down after I heard they’d found him over there, but I never could put a finger on him.”
“He’s fine,” Dar reassured him. “He and Mom are living on a boat nearby my place, if you can believe it.”
“Aw.” Jeff smiled. “He got back with your mamma? Damn, I am so 76 Melissa Good glad to hear that, Dar. It about killed him to leave that last time with her so mad.” He stopped awkwardly and glanced at Kerry. “Pardon me, Dar. I didn’t mean to bring all that up here.”
“It’s okay.” Dar’s blue eyes twinkled gently. “Kerry knows my parents very well.”
“That’s right.” Kerry spoke up for the first time. “We have their phone number if you’d like it. I bet D—Mr. Roberts would love to hear from you.”
“I bet he’d kick your butt for calling him mister.” The commander laughed. “I’d love it. Hey, Dar, listen, Chuckie’s coming in this weekend. Why don’t we all get together and have a night out? I know he’d love to see you, and me and Sue would give up a month’s pay to see Andrew and Cec.”
Ah. Dar’s memory pricked her suddenly as she recalled Charles Ainsbright, Jeff’s son who was her age and growing up was one of her closer friends. Tall, cute Chuckie, with his blond crew cut and snub nose, who had wanted nothing more than to captain a Navy ship. “He finally get his command?”
“You bet your ass.” Jeff beamed. “Wait ’til I tell him you’re here.
He’s gonna float home. He still talks about you.”
Oh boy. “It’ll be good to see him,” Dar allowed. “I’ll see what I can arrange for Friday, how’s that? I think Mom and Dad’ll be glad to come down.”
“Great.” Jeff placed his utensils precisely onto the plate he’d scraped clean. “Tadpole, you let me know if the pinheads down in ops give you any trouble, all right? I’ve got a staff meeting I have to go kick some asses at. You about done here for today?”
“I think so,” Dar nodded. “I was just going to show Kerry around the place.”
“Good deal.” The commander gave Kerry a friendly nod, then walked past and clapped Dar on the shoulder. “See you later, Dar. Drive safe, y’hear?”
“Thanks, Uncle Jeff,” Dar replied, turning her head to watch him make his way through the tables, threading through a forest of salutes and stiffening bodies as he headed out the door. Then she turned her head to see curious green eyes watching her. “Hmm. That was a surprise.”