“What’s so funny?”
Kerry absolutely could not look up at her. She almost inhaled half the beach as she put her head down and held her stomach, laughing so hard she was finding it difficult to breathe.
Dar took a seat next to her and waited, watching Ceci snicker quietly to herself. “Someone,” Dar said, in a low, no-nonsense voice, “is gonna let me in on this joke, right?”
Kerry rolled over and looked up to see Dar’s cool blue eyes regarding her over the edge of her sunglasses. She immediately dissolved into giggles again and hid her face. Dar looked at her mother and raised an eyebrow.
Ceci cleared her throat and stood up, having a firm belief in discretion being by far the better part of valor. “Your father’s calling me. Gotta go.”
Uh huh. Dar slid down onto the sand and stretched out, waiting for Kerry to finish laughing. Eventually, she did, and rolled over onto her back.
“Oh God.” Kerry exhaled, rubbing her face. “Your mother.”
“My mother,” Dar repeated obediently, “was telling knock knock jokes?”
Kerry peeked at her from between her fingers, then smiled 216 Melissa Good ruefully. “No. It’s my own fault. She came over here to talk to me, and I was dozing off I guess, so I woke up and rolled over and…um...” She paused and scratched her nose. “You were in my line of sight.”
Dar waited to hear a further explanation, then cocked her head when none was forthcoming. “So I am what you were laughing at?” she asked in a tone of mild bemusement. “Didn’t think this suit looked that bad.” She frowned and plucked at it. “You should have told me that before, Kerry; I mean—”
“Shhh.” Kerry covered Dar’s mouth with one hand. “No, sweetheart, you look totally awesome.” She paused. “That was the problem.” She removed her hand. “Apparently my opinion on the subject was um…obvious, and your mother made a joke about that.”
“Oooohhhh.” Dar grinned. “I get it now. She caught you looking.”
A tiny smirk tugged at Kerry’s lips. “Yeah.”
Dar’s eyes twinkled. “I’m flattered.”
Kerry briefly wondered what would happen if she just pulled Dar’s head down for the kiss she really wanted to give her. Later, Romeo, she chastised herself with an inward sigh. “Having a nice time?”
Dar uncapped a small bottle of Noxema, took some on her fingers, and spread it over Kerry’s skin, getting the nostrils flaring almost at once. Dar bit her lip to keep from smiling and ran her hands across Kerry’s shoulders and felt her lean into the touch, the warm skin under her fingers growing perceptibly warmer.
“I’m having a great time. What about you?”
“Getting better every second,” Kerry replied, her voice husky.
She cleared her throat self-consciously and glanced around, then up at Dar, a beseeching look on her face.
Dar chuckled and wiped a bit of the cream across Kerry’s pink nose. “I’m going to grab a dry shirt from the boat; you want one?” She handed Kerry the jar and accepted her nod. “Be right back.”
Kerry tucked the cream into her bag, sat up, and wrapped her arms around her upraised knees. The crowd was milling around closer now, and she spotted Andrew and Ceci heading her way.
Andy had a large album tucked under one arm and he sat down on the rock next to her and laid it on his knees.
“Hi,” Kerry greeted him as Ceci circled around to the other side and sat down. Duks and Mari drifted over, and Mark sat down near her, as well. “Whatcha got there?”
“What ah have here is pitchers.” Andrew glanced at the now interested crowd. “Seeing as it’s Dardar’s birthday, me and Cec Thicker Than Water 217
figgured you all’d like to see what that kid looked like as a tot.”
“Ooohhhh.” An eager rumble escaped as Mark scrambled to get a better spot. Everyone crowded around, including Alastair, who put his hands behind his back and peered over Andrew’s broad shoulder.
Andrew opened the album to the first page and smoothed down the time-yellowed plastic. “This here’s at about five minutes.” He pointed. “Yelling already.”
Alastair quipped. “Shoulda known.”
DAR TOOK A moment to rinse off in the shower before she removed her suit and pulled on a pair of shorts, along with a tank top she tucked into them. Then she regarded her reflection in the mirror. “Hey, beach rat, haven’t seen you in a while,” she greeted her scruffy mirror image, wind and salt sodden hair and all.
“Aw, you don’t look so bad for an ancient, almost thirty-one year old.” Dar raked her fingers through her hair to give it some kind of order, then she fished in the small chest of drawers and pulled out a pair of shorts and a soft cotton shirt for Kerry. She wandered through the boat’s compact cabin and stopped in the galley to retrieve the quart of chocolate milk she’d tucked into the refrigerator.
It has been a great day, Dar reflected as she walked out onto the stern and uncapped her milk. She took a sip as she watched the crowd out on the island, all gathered together near the fire. She could hear the laughter from where she was standing, and she took a moment to try and understand the wonder she felt at the scene. It was hard to fathom. Here she was, standing on the deck of her boat, looking at her little island, and it was full of her friends, and her family, and her lifelong soulmate and partner.
Mine. Dar took another swallow of milk. Wow! Then she smiled and shook her head as she leaned against the pilothouse’s support poles. Life is good. Complex, but good. She knew she had some tough decisions coming up in the near future, but somehow, those hovered out beyond the holidays, past the golden week she had planned with Kerry.
A whole week, just the two of them out there together. It would give her time to think. It would give Kerry time to heal.
They’d both just been through a month of hell together and damn it...
Dar paused and thought about that for a moment. They had been through hell for a month, hadn’t they? And the last week had been tough and a bitch. They’d both been off balance and out of 218 Melissa Good temper. And it had only brought them closer together.
Dar put her milk down on the edge of the deck and shivered in the light breeze as the truth of the realization seeped through her. Even with the tension between them, she’d never felt even a hint of fragility in their relationship, no whisper of doubt, no sense of fear that perhaps they were headed down a sad and familiar road to distancing themselves from each other.
It was as though they’d laid down a foundation so strong, that the worst storm could barely dampen the surface.
Dar wrapped that thought around herself as she climbed down the ladder and back across the pontoons, a gentle smile on her face.
CECI INTERCEPTED HER halfway down. “Hi.” Her mother had her hands stuck in her pockets.
“Hi,” Dar replied, stopping and peering down. “Need something?”
Hm. Ceci considered the question. “No, I’ve got everything I need right at the moment. But I’d like to give you something, and I’d rather it be in private.”
Uh oh. Dar blinked a little. Now what? “Um…okay.”
A faint grin flashed across her mother’s face. “C’mon.” She led the way back down the pontoons, past Dar’s boat to the one behind it, which belonged to her and Andrew. She was aware of her daughter’s intense curiosity as she followed, the long strides making the wooden bridge rock from side to side. “You don’t have to worry, it’s not anything that would embarrass you in front of your friends.”
“I wasn’t worried, really,” Dar replied. “I just thought we had all the boxes under the tree.”