You’re not in the Navy anymore.”
“That’s all right,” Andrew told him. “When I’m done with you, you ain’t gonna be either.” He sat down on Ainsbright’s desk. “So if you have half a brain left, you will sit in that chair and start talking about what you all are doing here.”
Ainsbright looked steadily at him. “Andrew, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I think you need to leave.”
Andrew leaned closer. “Listen, you jackass. How’n the hell you think you got that crack on the side of your haid?”
Unconsciously, Ainsbright lifted a hand and touched it.
288
Melissa Good
“Ah took that damn gun you had out of your hands and smacked you ’cross the face with it,” Andrew continued, standing up and circling the desk, his temper rising. “So you will, sir, you will tell me what is goin’ on here that makes a career jack like you point a damn gun at mah kid!” The ex-SEAL’s voice rose to a low roar. “NOW!”
Ainsbright froze, staring at the dark form looming over him, seeing the fire in those pale blue eyes surging toward the edges, ready to consume him. Andrew’s hands were tensed and his body coiled, his center of balance up on the balls of his feet, full of a stillness that bore its own warning.
“Andy, take it easy.” Ainsbright kept his voice low. “I’ll talk.”
“Yes,” a low, fierce growl agreed. “You surely will.”
“DR. STEVE.” DAR inhaled, visibly holding her patience. “They’ve taken enough pictures to star me in the next Sears catalog. I’m fine. Let me the hell out of here.”
Dr. Steve patted her arm as he reviewed a chart. “Just hold on to your britches, rugrat. You’ve still got a ton of swelling up in that rock head of yours.” He made a mark on the chart. “We’re not taking any chances with you.”
Dar peered over the doctor’s arm to where Kerry was curled up on the daybed, watching. Her brow creased as she scowled. “I’m not spending another night in this place,” she decided. “I can sleep just as well at home.”
Dr. Steve didn’t even look up. “Ain’t got nurses there. Though you gave the ones here a story to spread around over the water cooler.”
Dar glared at him. “I don’t give a damn,” she growled. “They can kiss my ass.”
Dr. Steve looked up to see a pair of truculent blue eyes looking at him. “Lord, you must be feeling better,” he teased her, reaching over and chucking her on the chin. “That’s the Dar I know.”
Kerry watched in amusement, resting her chin on her forearm. She could see Dar getting more and more annoyed, and wondered briefly if her sometimes mercurial lover wasn’t better off going home. “Hey, Dr.
Steve?” she called out.
The doctor turned and put the chart down, walking over to her and looking down. “How’d you get that bump, Squeaky?” His fingers touched the side of her head cautiously. “That hurt?”
“A little,” Kerry admitted. “I had a close encounter with a door.
Nothing major.” She took advantage of his proximity. “Dr. Steve?”
“Hmm?” The doctor crouched down and continued to examine her bump. “You feeling all right, Kerrison? You look a little pasty.” Behind him, Dar sat up and peered over, her brow creasing.
“I’m fine, really,” Kerry assured him. “Just a little headache, and I haven’t had my lunch yet.”
Red Sky At Morning
289
“Mm-hmm.” Dr. Steve turned her face a little toward the light from the window. “Feel a little shaky?”
Kerry sighed. “A little.”
“Uh-huh. When was the last time you had your blood-sugar levels checked?”
That caught her by surprise. “Um...” She took a breath. “I usually don’t have a problem.”
“That’s not true,” Dar spoke up.
Kerry peered around the doctor’s arm, annoyed. “Dar.”
“It’s not.” The dark-haired woman gave a little shrug of her uninjured shoulder. “You get dizzy when you don’t eat, and you know it.”
“That true?” Dr. Steve asked.
Kerry sighed again. “Sometimes,” she said. “I try to make sure it doesn’t.” She met his gaze. “I ran out of granola bars today.”
Dr. Steve fished in his pocket and came out with a package of cheese and peanut butter crackers. He handed it over to her. “Here.”
She accepted them, then changed the subject. “Does she really need to stay here?” Kerry asked quietly. “I think she’d rest better at home.”
The doctor rested his hand on her knee and gave her a direct look.
“Would you go home if I said no?”
Kerry shook her head, opening her crackers and removing one. She put it between her teeth and bit down, chewing the salty snack slowly.
“Where she goes, I go.”
Dr. Steve let out a chuckle, then pushed himself to his feet and returned to Dar’s bedside. “Found you a good match, Paladar.” He shook his head. “Two of a kind, I can see that.”
Dar tore her eyes from Kerry’s face and looked at him. “What?”
The doctor picked up her chart and made a notation on it. Then he looked up as footsteps sounded outside, and a young man carrying an envelope entered. “Ah, that the last of them?”
“Yes, sir,” the man confirmed, handing over the envelope. He gave Dar a professional smile, then turned and left. Dr. Steve removed some papers from the envelope and read them, scanning over the first page and concentrating on the second. Finally, he grunted and folded them over.
“All right, rugrat.” He turned and put his hands on the bedrails.
“I’ll let you go, on one condition.”
Dar’s eyebrows hiked up in pleased surprise. “What?” She glanced over at the watching Kerry. “Name it.” The doctor’s attention to her lover had caused a twinge of unease, even though she knew Kerry was conscious of her body chemistry and usually had little problem with it.
She had seemed a little wrung out when they’d gotten back, but Dar had put that down to her stair-climbing.
“You,” Dr. Steve took hold of her chin and forced her to look at him, “will get your ass in bed and stay there for at least three days.”
290
Melissa Good
Dar took a breath to answer.
“Promise me,” Dr. Steve stated flatly. “I mean it, Dar. This is no joke. You want to go home? Well, I’ve known you since you were born, and I know you’ll get more rest there than here with all them nurses poking at you. But you must—I’m saying must, Dar—stay in bed and let your body heal.” His manner was unusually no-nonsense. “Yes or no?”
The blue eyes flickered, then narrowed slightly. “Just stay in bed?”
she countered. “Not asleep?”
Dr. Steve warily eyed her. “Flat on your back,” he qualified. “No gymnastics or anything like that.”
Well.
Dar sighed inwardly. That meant three days of using her laptop, but there was probably enough data and crap she had to sort through to keep her busy for at least that long. “All right.” She nodded.
“I promise.”
Dr. Steve looked relieved. He reached over and ruffled her hair lightly. “Okay. I’ll go process your paperwork.”
Dar watched him leave, then looked over at Kerry. “Hot damn.”
Feeling much better, Kerry finished up her crackers and dusted her fingers off. She got up off the daybed and went over to Dar, curling her fingers around the bedrails and leaning against them. “Three days, huh?”
“Three days,” Dar agreed. “You should get plenty done at the office with me stuck at home.”
“Mm.” Kerry made a noncommittal noise. “Well, let’s get you packed up.” She slid her hand through the bars and circled Dar’s wrist with her fingers, rubbing her thumb against the soft skin. “And get you into that waterbed.”
Dar smiled. “Keep me company there?” She waggled an eyebrow.
Kerry grinned back.
KERRY CHEWED ON a carrot as she watched the large pot of soup cook. Discharge had taken less time than she’d thought it would, and they’d gotten home before lunch was served at the hospital.
Which was, she reflected wryly, a good thing, because it was fish.
Now, normally Dar liked fish, and so did Kerry, but as Dar put it, she liked her fish to be of some identifiable species and not pasteurized processed cod-like fishcakes.
Ugh.
Even the boiled smell coming down the hallway had made Kerry wince. So she’d been glad when the orderly showed up with a wheelchair to take Dar downstairs. Of course, it’d taken her ten minutes of arguing with her lover to get the stubborn woman to
sit
in the wheelchair, but they’d finally made it into the Lexus and away from the hospital.
Dar had been quiet. Kerry suspected she was in some pain, but she didn’t press her on the subject, theorizing that Dar had been poked and
Red Sky At Morning
291
prodded and messed with almost past her tolerance the last twenty-four hours and would only resent the mothering.
She won’t resent the soup, though.
Kerry poked a wooden spoon in and gave the mixture a stir. The spicy, rich scent of seafood gumbo wafted up, and she felt her mouth water in response. “Mm.” She lifted the spoon and took a taste. “Glad I had a container of this in the freezer, Chino.”
“Yawp,” Chino agreed, peering up at her hopefully.
“No soup for you.” Kerry took a biscuit from the dog jar and tossed it to her. “This would make you chuck up your Labrador guts all night.”
Chino crunched on her biscuit contentedly. “Growf.”
Kerry smiled, then turned and pulled two good-sized bowls down from the cupboard. They were sturdy, a nice shade of bone inside and a pretty cobalt on the outside. She and Dar had purchased them at the Mikasa outlet just a few weeks prior on a rare afternoon’s shopping together. That had been fun, Kerry mused, as she ladled portions into each bowl. Just a long Saturday that had started with breakfast at, of all places, McDonalds, and ended with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
“And you didn’t get any of that doggie bag, didja, Chin?” Kerry put the bowls on a small wicker tray and added silverware, then popped the door on the convection oven and removed a few buttermilk biscuits.
“Okay, let’s go bring mommy Dar lunch.” She picked up the tray and walked into the living room, where Dar had resumed her nest on the couch.
“Hey.” Kerry put the tray down on the coffee table. “Hungry?”
Dar lifted her head and sniffed at the bowls. “Is that gumbo?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Mm.” Dar smiled and settled back against the soft leather. She was dressed in her pajamas, with a fleece blanket tucked around her and her laptop resting on her knees. Now she watched as Kerry picked up one of the bowls and brought it over, settling it into her lap. “Where did this come from?”
“FedEx delivered it,” Kerry answered without a beat. “Didn’t you hear them?”
“On Sunday?” Dar asked.
“New service.” Kerry offered her a spoonful, pleased when Dar opened her mouth and accepted it. “How’s it going?”
“Eh.” Dar chewed a bit of conch and swallowed it. “I don’t know.
It’s...” She reached up and rubbed her eyes a little. “Hard to concentrate. My head hurts.”
Kerry checked her watch. “You can take a couple more Tylenol,”
she offered. “Or you could just—oh, I don’t know, lie down and get some rest.”
Dar considered. “Let me try the pills first,” she decided. “I’m really not tired.” She accepted the spoon Kerry held out and settled the bowl on her stomach. “Thanks for the soup.”
292
Melissa Good
“Any time.” Kerry ruffled her hair. “You know, you’re not nearly as bad a patient as I thought you’d be.”
Dar sucked on the spoon and regarded her lover thoughtfully.
“Would you like me to become an unruly curmudgeon?” she asked with a faint smile. “I could. But I figured it made no sense to have both of us be miserable.”
“I appreciate that.” Kerry reached over and gave Dar’s thigh a squeeze. “I just want you to know that I don’t mind taking care of you, Dar.”
Dark lashes fluttered. “I don’t mind letting you,” Dar said.
Kerry picked up her bowl and sat down on the couch, picking up Dar’s legs and sliding underneath them. She wriggled into a comfortable spot, then crossed her ankles and took a spoonful of soup.
“What are we watching?”
“Mpf?” Dar hastily swallowed, then glanced to her left. “Oh. I don’t know, I was just browsing and I—”
“Good grief, Dar, that woman is almost naked.” Kerry stared at the screen in fascination. “What in the hell is she doing with that stick?”
“Um.” Dar bit her lip. “I’m not sure. It’s one of those action things.
You know I never watch that stuff.” She watched anyway. “Hey, she’s pretty cute.”
Kerry glanced at her. “I guess.”
“Looks a little like you,” Dar went on.
“No she doesn’t,” Kerry laughed. “Not unless I spent twenty-four hours a day for six months in a gym, and got a serious haircut.” She watched the image on the screen. “Ooh. Nice kick.”
“Mm,” Dar agreed. “Nice outfit.”
Kerry’s eyebrows lifted, and she gave her lover a sideways look.
“Are you hinting at something?”
“Me?” Blue eyes opened a little wider. “Are you insinuating that I might want to see you in two strips of leather and a pair of floppy boots?”
A grin tugged at Kerry’s lips. “Would you?”
“Bet your ass I would,” Dar laughed.
Kerry reviewed the screen. “I’d look ridiculous.”
“You’d look mouth-watering.” Dar bit into a chunk of spicy fish.
“Can I have that for a birthday present?”
“Dar!” Kerry blushed, pleased at the compliment but embarrassed at the same time. “You sound so carnal.”
Dar chuckled, then jumped a little as her cell phone rang. “Crap.”
She balanced her bowl on her lap and put the spoon down, then picked up the buzzing instrument. “Yeah?”
“Dar!” Alastair’s voice boomed down the line. “Good gravy! What in the hell happened? Why didn’t you call me? Where are you?”
Dar held the phone away from her ear and grimaced. “When you’re done yelling, lemme know.” She waited, then, when no other sounds
Red Sky At Morning
293
issued from it, moved the phone closer. “Good afternoon, Alastair.”
“Dar.” He sounded exasperated. “For Christ’s sake, they said you were in the hospital!”
“I was.” Dar stretched a little. “We ran into a little trouble on the base,” she said. “I got a knock on the head, they wanted to take some pictures. No big deal, Alastair.”