“Sure.” Kerry quietly absorbed the information. “Wow. That makes sense.” She shook her head. “It was hard for me to think Dad would have been that embarrassed about someone thinking he was what we are,” she admitted. “But I can understand now.”
“Mm,” Dar agreed. “He told me about it when he came back that time. He said he couldn’t tell Mom, but he wanted to share it with me so I knew what really happened, in case I heard anything on the base.”
“Did you?” Kerry asked in a soft voice. “Hear anything?”
A half smile twitched at Dar’s lips. “Not directly,” she said.
“By that time, I…um…had quite the reputation for a temper, and most of the other kids on the base knew if they ribbed me about my father, it meant a fight.”
Kerry tipped her head back and regarded Dar with a slight grin. “Two of a kind.” She reached up and touched the insignia now threaded through the silver chain around Dar’s neck. It nestled against Dar’s joining ring and collected just the faintest hint of reflection off its dully burnished surface.
Dar stuck her hands into her pockets and looked down at the item, unable to hide the unabashedly proud grin. “Yeah.” Her eyes twinkled. “That we are.” Her attention returned to Kerry’s face.
“Don’t worry, Ker. Dad would never be mad at anyone just for asking a question. Especially you.” She stroked Kerry’s hair. “He loves you.”
The green eyes looking up at Dar filled with unshed tears.
Kerry remained silent, just watching Dar’s expression.
“We’ve got a while before lunch,” Dar said in a gentle tone.
“Let’s go inside and relax. Okay?” She held out a hand. When it was taken, she guided both of them through the cabin door and out of the sun.
Inside, Kerry tugged her to a halt. She moved close and put her arms around Dar and hugged her fiercely.
Dar returned the hug, rubbing Kerry’s back as she did so.
“Urgh,” Kerry exhaled. “Can we just go out and get lost somewhere tomorrow, Dar?” she asked. “Find another of those blue holes and just leave our minds out to dry?”
“Hmm. That’s an appealing thought.” Dar inclined her head and nipped Kerry on the jawbone. “As a matter of fact, I could see spending a couple days lost somewhere with you.” She felt Kerry’s body press against hers. “I think I know some nice, deserted islands out there where it’ll just be you, me, and if they’re very lucky, a Terrors of the High Seas 349
couple of dancing lobsters.”
“Dancing into my nice big pot?” Kerry burrowed into Dar’s chest, greedily breathing in her scent. “I have a bottle of champagne in here that would love to meet them.”
“Oh yeah,” Dar assured her. “We’ll spend the whole day just being sea bums.” She squeezed her partner, feeling her shoulders shift and relax. “Hey, I’ve got an idea.”
“M’sure it’s a good one,” Kerry mumbled into the skin of her neck.
“I know we were going to go up to the condo for New Year’s.
How about we spend it down at the cabin?”
“Mmm.”
“Kind of get a couple of days of vacation back?”
“Kerry made a low, pleased humming noise. “Even if we don’t have furniture, I think I’d really, really like that.”
Dar rested her cheek against Kerry’s hair, pleased with the reaction to her plan. While she knew the interruptions had really been neither of their faults, she still felt bad about the net effect of it robbing them of their needed time off.
It was funny, but despite the fantastic nature of the events of the preceding day, she already found them fading into memory.
She’d always had a philosophy of setting things aside once they were over and done with, but she found it strange that she could look back on what she’d done the night before and not have it seem terrifying to her. It had been a bad situation; she had dealt with it as best as she’d been able to; and in the end, things had turned out all right. What more, really, could she have asked?
It was over. Most often when traumatic things happened, she examined them for lessons to hopefully avoid the problem the next time around, but usually that was in a business context. Dar sincerely hoped she would not have to put her experience in escaping wacko salvagers or pirates to use any time soon in the ILS
boardroom. Her blue eyes twinkled suddenly. Well…
“What are you doing?” Kerry asked.
“Just thinking,” Dar replied. “Why?”
“I can feel you smiling.”
Dar chuckled. “I was just imagining Alastair dressed as Captain Blood.”
Kerry’s body convulsed in abrupt laughter. “I can barely imagine Alastair dressed as Captain Kangaroo.”
“Heh.”
The blonde woman sighed and circled Dar’s neck with her arms, swaying against her as the boat rocked. “Well, there’s one thing to be said for all the stuff that’s happened.”
“Hm?”
“Made me totally forget my family,” Kerry murmured.
350 Melissa Good Dar lifted her head and looked down at Kerry’s profile. “Is that a good thing?”
Kerry nodded. “Maybe it helped some to see other people with crummier relatives than me,” she stated. “I was thinking about that this morning after I talked to Dad down in the hotel lobby. My parents were pedantic and clueless, Dar, but you know something?”
“Mm?”
“I think you were right. I think at some level, somewhere they both did love all of us.” Kerry blinked. “Even my father. Even me.
Because as bad as he was, somewhere in all that twistedness he thought he was doing the right thing.”
Dar blinked, surprised at the speech.
“I think I’ve seen enough true hatred the past few days to tell the difference.”
“Ah.”
“He hated what I was doing. He hated us. He hated my being gay, he hated me squealing on him,” Kerry went on. “But I don’t think he ever hated me.”
Dar nodded silently.
“I can live with that,” the blonde woman said. “Because it gives us something in common, because I never hated him either. Even after everything he did.”
And then, Dar considered, I’ve always lived by the theory that things happen for a reason. She cupped Kerry’s face in her hands and smiled at her. Their eyes met, and she could see a note of tired peace in Kerry’s expression for the first time since they’d gotten back from Michigan. She leaned forward and rubbed noses with her. Kerry pulled Dar towards her and traded a nose rub for a kiss.
Then they hugged each other again. “Okay.” Kerry released a long, heartfelt sigh. “Let’s get back to the serious business of having fun.”
Dar kissed the back of Kerry’s neck, moving the pale hair aside as she was rewarded with a sudden intake of breath at the action.
“I’ve had about enough…” she growled into Kerry’s ear, “of real life intruding on my hedonistic vacation. How about you?”
“You bet.” Kerry felt a nudge. “Hey!”
Dar nudged her again.
“I think I’m being bumped.”
“You are.” She followed the admission with another gentle shove.
“Looks like it’s toward the bedroom.”
“Good sense of direction,” Dar said.
“Heh.”
Terrors of the High Seas 351
KERRY LAY ON her back, her body half tangled in sheets and Dar’s head pillowed on her stomach. With one hand, she idly stroked the dark hair fanned across her belly, twirling a few strands of it around her fingers. After a moment, she lifted her arm and examined her palm, flexing it a little and turning it into the light.
The bruises were already fading. It felt a little stiff, both her hands did, but more like she’d had a tough workout on the bag at the gym than anything else.