"You did." Dar agreed. "You pulled your shirt off in the conference room and your mom was right there. I was counting your ribs."
"Jesus." Kerry laughed softly. "Oh well. Worse ways for her to see it I guess. All in all, she really wasn't that bad for all this, even before it happened. I think I was more of a jerk to her than the other way around."
"She's had her moments." Dar demurred.
"No, I know." Kerry worked on cleaning her plate. "Nothing's going to change what happened between us, it happened. I know that, and I think she knows that. But I really was a bastard those first few days, Dar. I'm kind of ashamed of that."
"But you're such a cute bastard, Ker." Dar didn't seem fazed. "Anyway, it all ended up pretty much okay, didn't it? I thought she reacted pretty well to the tattoo. She didn't freak out. Dad said she told him she was happy she'd been invited down here."
Kerry munched a fry. "Yeah," she said, after a moment's thought."She came through for us at the Exchange. She had no idea what was going on, but she just went with what I was asking." Kerry remembered the moment. "Maybe there's hope for us."
"I'm thinking we'll find out at your sister's wedding." Dar said, dryly. "I hope you get to pick your own dress, and you don't have to wear one of those creepy bow front things."
"I'll pick my own dress. They know better." Kerry smiled. "I'm glad for Angie."
"Me too," Dar said. "I was hoping they'd get together. I know your mother had them move in, but two kids to take care of can be tough. I know my mother had a rough time with just me."
"Just you?" Kerry looked affectionately at her partner. "Honey you're equal to triplets in anyone's book." She finished the last of her fries and sat back. "Whoof. I'm stuffed." She rested her chin on her fist, her elbow propped on the chair arm.
"Too stuffed for key lime pie?" Dar eyed her.
"Hm."
"That's what I thought."
KERRY IDLY WATCHED a seagull wheel over the dock, peering hopefully down at the tall figure wandering back up the beach. She was ensconced comfortably in the big hammock on the porch of their cabin, her bare feet dusted with sand and her skin slightly tight with sun and salt air.
It was Friday. She was several shades bronzer, a few pounds heavier, and her ribs had subsided to an ache she could manage with Advil. They had spent most of the week just lazing around the cabin, swimming in the surf and taking walks down the beach together since the weight of their dive gear was too much for Kerry's injured side to handle.
They had spent time shell hunting instead. Kerry now had quite a collection of them, and she was pondering what to do with them as she swung in the languid air. Maybe some jewelry? She'd found several tiny olives she imagined would make pretty earrings, at any rate.
She wondered if Dar would like them. She knew some of her work colleagues would. Maybe she'd make a few for Mayte and Maria before they went back. There was a place down the road that she knew would have the settings for them, and a goldsmith's shop she could get chains at a little further south.
"Hey." Dar arrived on the porch, tweaking one of Kerry's toes as she dropped into a chair nearby. Chino trotted up after her shaking herself free of salt and sand, before she went over to a large bowl near the door and lapped thirstily.
"Hey." Kerry amiably replied.
"You decided yet?" Dar leaned back and laced her fingers behind her head.
Kerry studied her partner. Dressed in a tattered pair of shorts and a tank top, her dark hair windblown all to hell, it was very hard to imagine her willingly going back to their maroon offices in Miami encased in a business suit.
Or, was that just rationalization for what she wanted to do anyway? Eh. Kerry smiled. Who cared? "I want to stay here. We can do a little work from our offices back there."
"Great decision." Dar complimented her. "Especially since we're getting a couple of visitors next week. Alastair's dropping by for his scuba lesson."
"Really?" Kerry rested her hands on her stomach and twiddled her thumbs."That should be fun. Is he bringing his wife?"
"Yes. They're going to stay in one of the resorts down the road," Dar said. "We're going to have a board meeting while he's here. Get some stuff resolved. Talk about the market. The whole world is in a tailspin."
"Okay." Kerry wriggled into a slightly more comfortable position."Sounds good to me. I still don't have to look at email until Monday, right?"
Dar gazed at her, a faint grin on her face. "Nope."
Kerry closed her eyes. "Good." She wiggled her toes. "I've almost got my brain to the fully flushed point, where I maybe could start thinking of dealing with all the crap again by Monday."
Dar got up and circled the hammock taking hold of the edge and lowering herself into it next to Kerry. She snuggled up next to her partner and sighed happily. "I vote we move the company down here. What do you think?"
"Mm." Kerry pondered that. "We'd have a hell of a time in hurricane season, honey." She mused. "But yeah, I would love to leave the traffic and the chaos behind for a while."
"Well." Dar rested her head against Kerry's. "It'll depend which way the company wants to go. If we pull out of the government contracts like Alastair was talking about, that's one thing. But I got an email from Gerry. "
"Uh oh."
"Apparently," Dar cleared her throat, "that little bit of weenie waggling Alastair did had the reverse effect than he was looking for. He got some major mojo points for telling those bastards to kiss his ass."
"Oh for Pete's sake." Kerry rolled her eyes. "Why in the hell would we want to get involved with them after what they did, Dar? They tried to screw us to the wall!"
"Huge amounts of money," Dar replied. "Unlimited budget. Unlimited resources. Gerry's happy as a clam. He apparently thinks I should be too."
"Are you?" Kerry turned her head to study Dar's profile.
Dar looked up at the porch overhang for a little while as they swung together. "I'm a moderately patriotic person," she said, finally."My father's a retired career military officer. I grew up on a military base. I came very, very close to joining the service."
"I remember when you got that medal," Kerry said. "You couldn't have stood up any straighter if you'd been a soldier. "
Dar nodded. "I've always been very proud of the fact that our company handled--no, protected so many resources of our country. I felt it was--it was always sort of a way I could be a part of that world even though I decided against it way back when."
"And?" Kerry asked, after a period of silence.
"And now, after what we just went through with the people representing our government I feel ashamed to admit to anyone we have anything to do with them." Dar's voice was gentle, and reflective. "I feel betrayed."
"When I was down by the battery, I gave one of those firemen working there some ice tea," Kerry said. "He said the same thing. He felt betrayed." She curled her fingers around Dar's. "See and I always came at it from the opposite direction, Dar. I always felt betrayed by our government because I lived with it. I saw it from the inside."
"Mm." Dar grunted. "I never thought of you like that."
Kerry chuckled. "I know. I think you see me as a lot more innocent than I really am," she said. "I don't show you my bastard side."
"You never did. Even when I was going to fire you."
"No." Kerry admitted. "You never gave me a chance. I fell in love with you the minute I saw you and the worst I could be was indignant.God, how confusing that was for me. I wanted to be so nasty to you and I think the worst thing I ever said was--"
"That you hoped I was going straight to hell because that was where I belonged." Dar interjected.
Kerry was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. Right before you saved my ass from being robbed, and maybe raped, and probably killed. So much for my ability to judge people, huh?"