Angie shook her head. “It seems ridiculous. Why should our mother be a senator, just because she was married to our father?
She doesn’t know the first thing about politics. You know she always made a point of steering clear of all that.”
“Yeah, I know,” Mike said. “But you have all those scum-buckets who worked for him desperate to keep their jobs. And how else will they do it? Not like they can just dig up an election this time of year.”
“Mm.” Angie nodded. “That’s true. Hope she tells them to go stuff it.”
Mike’s lips quirked into a smile. “You’re in a feisty mood today.”
Angie sighed. “I’m just sick of it. That stuff with Kerry pissed me off.”
“Me, too.” Mike nodded. “I mean, it’s not like it’s this deep dark secret anymore, so what’s the big deal? If the lawyers hadn’t been stupid enough to make Kerry just blurt it out on national television, that’d have been one thing, but, Jesus, like, who cares anymore?”
Angie shrugged. “That’s what I was thinking, too. It’s old news, and besides, it’s not like she’s done anything really radical, like buying a motorcycle or getting a tattoo.”
Mike self-consciously cleared his throat.
Angie looked at him. “Oh, you didn’t.”
He batted long, dark lashes back at her with devastating innocence. “Don’t worry. No one’ll see it unless they get me really mad, and I show them where they can kiss my ass. Tony and Brad and I went out last week and got pretty plastered. They bet me I didn’t have the guts to go through with it, so…”
Angie sighed. “Michael.”
Thicker Than Water 111
“I know, I know.” Michael grinned. “I’m a jerk.”
“You’re hopeless. When are you going to grow up?”
Michael shrugged.
They were quiet for a moment. “You going to keep working for the publicity firm?” Angie asked.
Michael stared at the floor past his clasped hands. “I dunno. I haven’t really thought about it. I don’t have to now, do I?”
“No.” Angie shook her head. “But he’s not around to get your butt out of trouble anymore, either.”
“I could run away and join the circus.”
“Mike.”
“You going to tell mamma about Brian?”
Angie fell back onto the bed and gazed up at the ceiling.
“Maybe. I might have to. I slipped the other day and left Andy’s medical papers out where Richard could see them.”
Michael looked at her. “So? He doesn’t have Brian’s name branded on his ass, does he?”
“No, but my blood type is O and Richard’s is A. Andrew’s is B, just like Brian’s,” Angie said with a grimace. “I told Richard they must have made a mistake on the papers.”
“Ah,” Michael murmured. “Well, if things get real bad, you can reveal that little tidbit, I’ll pull down my pants, and Kerry’ll come out looking like the Republican in the family.”
Angie paused a moment, then burst out laughing. Mike joined in, relieving some of the stress of the situation.
“What’s so funny?” Kerry asked, as she paused in the doorway.
“Don’t ask.” Angie propped up on her elbows. “We were just comparing scandals. What are you two up to?”
Kerry and Dar entered the room. Kerry took a seat on the wooden side chair, and Dar merely lowered herself to the carpet, extended her long legs out, and crossed her ankles. “I was giving Dar the tour. She didn’t get to see much last time. What scandal did you get into now, Michael?”
“I got a tattoo,” Michael admitted.
Dar snorted and folded her arms over her chest. Kerry just rolled her eyes. “Oh, God, it figures. How drunk were you?”
“Maybe I wasn’t,” Mike retorted in an injured tone. “Maybe I just decided it was something I wanted to do for personal growth.”
Kerry studied him, her fair head cocked, then she smiled. “No way, Mikey. You’re the biggest chickenshit I know when it comes to pain. You were either drunk off your butt or unconscious.”
Mike scowled, then stuck his tongue out at her. “You’re just jealous because you don’t have one.”
112 Melissa Good Kerry’s green eyes twinkled. “How do you know I don’t? You haven’t seen all of me in a very long time.”
Mike looked at Angie, who looked back at him, then they both looked uncertainly at their older sister.
“I have.” Dar came to their rescue. “Every square inch, and she doesn’t.” Kerry blushed a deep crimson, making her fair eyebrows stand out vividly. Everyone laughed, and even Dar chuckled at her lover’s loss of composure.
“Stop that.” Kerry covered her face with one hand and rubbed her skin. “Dar, you’re so bad.”
“Well, you don’t,” Dar said matter-of-factly.
“Wanna see mine?” Mike asked, to distract everyone.
“No,” Dar replied. “Based on what I know about you, I can make a guess where it is, and that window’s got a clear shot to the street.”
Angie burst out laughing, holding her stomach as she rolled over. Kerry joined in, pointing at Michael’s injured expression.
“She’s right, isn’t she?”
Michael stuck his tongue out again. “You guys are such girls.”
Dar pulled her collar away from her body and glanced inside her shirt, then nodded. “Guilty.”
Now the laughter turned a little giddy, mixing amusement with relief and not a small touch of bittersweet-ness. It finally petered out, and Kerry wiped her eyes with her sleeve and regarded her siblings.
“Sorry I lost it before,” she said. “I know you guys were trying to keep things under control.”
“That’s okay.” Angie rolled over onto her side and exhaled.
“After you left, we both did too. I’m just so over it. Mike’s just so over it. We’ve had enough of all the political garbage, and we just want our sister back.”
It caught Kerry by surprise, and she gave them a stunned look, her face going very still for a long moment. Finally she released a breath and rested her elbows on her knees. “I’d like that too. I never meant to hurt either of you.”
Angie got up and went to Kerry’s side. Dar remained very still, just watching. “Kerry, you never did. If you did anything, you helped us both realize there was another way to live.” She put a hand on Kerry’s arm. “You always were our ringleader.”
“Yeah.” Mike scrambled to them and stepped carefully over Dar’s legs. “We love you.”
Dar smiled from her spot on the carpet. Kerry’s siblings were surpassing her expectations of them, and she was silently delighted at the look of surprised pleasure on her lover’s face. She Thicker Than Water 113
was glad, now, that Kerry had changed her mind, though Dar would have supported her either way. This was better. Kerry needed this.
Now, if she could just figure out a way to prevent the rest of the Stuart family from ruining it.
THEY TROOPED UP to the attic together. Mike opened an unobtrusive door set in a small alcove, and they walked up the heavy wooden stairs.
Dar listened to the door close behind her, and she exhaled, shifting her shoulders nervously before she followed Kerry. The stairwell was very narrow, and her shoulders only just fit in the space. The closeness made her uncomfortable, and she suspected Kerry realized that, because halfway up, a hand reached back and she took it and felt the comfort of Kerry’s fingers curling around her own.
That was good, because the ceiling came down rather close to her head, and by the time they climbed up and out into the vaulted attic space, Dar was twitching. It was far more open, though, and she relaxed a little. It was warm—the heat from the house clustered up there despite the chill outdoors, and the eclec-tic nature of the place quickly drew her interest.