Still nothing. Kerry stood up and walked across the stern deck, which had comfortable looking bench seats on either side and a storage 310
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locker in the center that doubled as a table.
“Huh.” She walked over and leaned on the railing, peering down into the dark blue-green water. “Maybe he went to the dock shop.” She watched a sea grape float by, lulled by its peaceful bobbing.
Then the water heaved and a hand surged up to grab the railing between hers, scaring the living daylights out of her.
“Yah!” Kerry squealed, jerking back and scrambling away from the railing. “Jesus!”
Andrew peered through the metal bars at her and the curious expression on her face. “Hold on t’yer shorts, kumquat. I sure ain’t the good Lord.”
Kerry sat down on the center console, and put a hand on her chest.
“Wow,” she laughed weakly. “You got me.”
The ex-SEAL pulled himself up and climbed over the railing, the boat’s deck rocking a little under his weight. He was dressed in a half wetsuit and his minimal diving rig, which he shed as he ambled over to where Kerry was sitting. “Didn’t mean to scare you, Kerry,” he apologized. “Just wasn’t sure what that shadow was looking over my rail.” He knelt beside her and put a damp hand on her knee. “You all right?”
Kerry felt her heart rate start to slow, and she ran a hand through her hair. “Yeah,” she said. “Boy, a dolphin’s got nothing on you.”
Andrew chuckled. “Long as you don’t smack me in the snout with no mackerel.” He cocked his head at her. “Didn’t ’spect visitors t’day.”
Kerry abruptly remembered her task. “Ah.” She folded her arms, holding her news close and cherishing it. “Do you know where your wife is?”
Andrew’s grizzled brows creased in puzzlement, and he glanced around at the empty deck. “Figgered she went down to the shops,” he hazarded. “Why? You know different?”
“Mm-hmm,” Kerry nodded. “She’s at our place.”
“Ah see.” Andrew seemed to relax as he stood up and walked over to the padded bench, picking up a towel and tousling his short-cropped hair dry. “Dar need something?” He peeked at her from behind a corner of the terrycloth.
“No. They were just spending some time together.” A gentle twinkle entered Kerry’s eyes.
A big grin spread across the ex-SEAL’s face. “For real?”
Kerry nodded.
“Hot damn!” A chortle of joy escaped. “C’mere!”
He held out his arms and Kerry scrambled over and threw herself into them, not minding the wetness one tiny bit. She felt the laughter as they hugged each other. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said as they released each other. “I called Dar, and she sounded so happy.”
Andrew shook his head in amazement. “Damn, that’s good to hear,” he breathed. “I knew things were getting easier, but I never
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figured it would go this fast.”
“Me, either,” Kerry admitted. “They’re both pretty stubborn.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” he chuckled. “You just stop by to tell me that? Y’coulda just used the land line, kumquat.” He went back to drying himself off.
Kerry shook her head. “No,” she said. “They asked me to stop and pick you up for a family dinner.”
Andrew stopped in mid-motion and let the towel fall, his eyes fastening on Kerry and his eyebrows lifting up. “’Scuse me, young lady?” he asked in a surprised tone.
Kerry reviewed her statement, then blushed. “Oh crap.” She started laughing. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Uh-huh.” Andrew snorted. “Damn straight.”
“Speak for yourself.” A slim finger pointed at Andrew. “That got me in enough trouble the other week.”
Andrew cocked his head at her. “Trouble? I thought them folks were all right with you and mah kid?”
Kerry smiled briefly. “They are, but a couple of nosybodies saw you pick me up the other night and thought I was cheating on Dar.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “What a morning.”
Her father-in-law’s jaw dropped. Then it shut with a click. “That is not funny.”
“It wasn’t then,” Kerry admitted. “But we laughed about it later on that night. Dar’s secretary María chewed everyone a new...um...” She paused. “Anyway...”
Andrew frowned. “Ah do not like that,” he said. “Them people got no sense at all.” He dried one ear. “Ain’t they got better things to do than spread all kinds of foolishness?”
Kerry regarded the horizon. “Well,” she pursed her lips, “there’s a lot of folks there who aren’t really comfortable with Dar and me, and...”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “A few with personal agendas, too, I guess.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The guy who saw us was kind of, um,” Kerry blushed slightly.
“He liked me.”
“Ah.” Andrew snorted softly. “Figgers.”
“And the other person doing the most talking kind of used to like Dar,” she concluded. “But we got it all settled, so...” But she frowned, Clarice’s continued aggressiveness coming into memory. “I suppose people will be people.”
“Jerks’ll be jerks,” Andrew amended succinctly. “Ain’t no changing
’em. Like a few we bumped heads with down south.” He shook his head. “Mah wife ain’t doing no cooking for us, is she?”
Kerry found herself glad of the change of subject. “Actually, I was told to pick up a bucket of Captain Crab’s Takeaway Seal.” She grinned at him.
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Andrew put his hands on his hips. “Mah wife say that?” He watched Kerry nod. “Uh-huh. All right then, we’ll just go get us exactly that.” He draped his towel over the railing and headed for the cabin.
“Y’all just stay put, kumquat. We’ll give ’em some crabs.”
Uh-oh.
Kerry sat down on the center console.
Is that good or bad?
She nibbled her lower lip as she thought about her father-in-law’s sometimes peculiar sense of humor. “Dad?” she called down the hatch.
“Yep?” Andrew answered.
“You’re not talking about live crabs, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Or the icky kind, right?”
“’Scuse me?”
“The ones that require medication?”
“What?”
Kerry sighed. “Never mind.” She swung her feet back and forth idly.
Guess I’ll just have to wait and see for myself.
DAR STRETCHED HER legs out along the couch, the cool leather warming to her bare skin. She settled her arm in its sling and exhaled in satisfaction. It had ended up being a nice day after all. Laundry had gotten done, a set of cookies had been dubiously prepared, and she’d even managed to spend a lot of the day lying down as she’d promised she would.
“Don’t tell me you watch this,” Ceci commented from the loveseat.
Dar glanced at the television. “Sure. All the time,” she replied. “We love the croc guy.”
“Dar, he’s a lunatic,” her mother complained. “His brains have all dribbled out, and he uses cat food stuffed through his ears as a replacement.” She was curled up in the smaller couch’s confines, a visible smudge of chocolate present on the knee of her white cotton pants.
Dar had known better. She had put on a pair of ragged denim cutoffs and an old gym shirt, so of course she hadn’t gotten a drop of anything on her. “Nah, he’s not that bad. I like the way he respects animals.”
Ceci’s silver-blonde eyebrow lifted. “Dar, he doesn’t respect animals, he sleeps with them.”
Dar pointed. “No, that’s his wife,” she said mildly. “She’s not an animal.”
“Dar, that’s not his wife. That’s a chimpanzee.”
Dar looked closer. “Oh. Sorry.” She tilted her head. “I saw the hat and thought it was Terry. It’s hard to tell up in that tree.” She leaned back against the soft cushion and let her eyes close, more tired than she’d expected to be. For a while, she’d tried to do a little work in her office, but after a few minutes her head was pounding, and using only
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one hand was driving her nuts.
Oh well. Dr. Steve had warned her about that, right? She’d gotten off pretty lucky, he’d told her, showing her the scans of her head. The swelling inside her skull hadn’t really put much pressure on her brain, but still, it was there.
Expect some blurred vision, he’d said. And the headaches. Maybe a little dizziness. Dar sighed silently. At least he’d promised it would be temporary, which was a damn good thing, because it was going to take a lot of concentration and long hours in front of a keyboard to produce the analysis everyone and their uncle was waiting for.
Dar felt her breathing slow, and the sounds of the condo faded a little. She could feel Chino’s warmth pressed against her legs, and if she concentrated, hear the faint sounds of movement from her mother.
Her mother. Dar freed herself for a moment of thought about that.
She felt a little off balance, thinking about the talk they’d had and the hours they’d spent together afterward. It had been a curious, almost weird feeling as they’d both let down barriers and simply gotten along as two people who had more in common than either of them had ever realized.
Dar took a deep breath and released it. She frowned as her brain analyzed the intake of air and detected something unusual on it.
Garlic. Lots of it, and spices, too.
Dar opened one eye and peered around in surprise, almost jumping when the expected empty air was suddenly filled with a very solid-looking Kerry. “Hey. Where did you come from?”
“Saugatuck,” Kerry replied with a grin. “Glad to see you’re behaving and taking a nap.”
Dar frowned. “I wasn’t napping.” She glanced over at her mother, who muffled a smile. “Was I?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “What the heck is that smell?”
“Ah.” Kerry turned and pointed toward the dining room table, which had sprouted some mysterious-looking buckets and assorted bags. “Crabs.”
“Crabs?” Dar looked over at them, then up at her father. “Crabs?”
Her voice perked up considerably.
“Oh no,” Ceci groaned. “Not those damn things.”
Andrew chuckled. “Yes, ma’am. You did send this here young lady out for takeaway, and we done did that.” He looked quite pleased with himself. “Got us three kinds, too, and them taters you like, Dardar.”
“Heh.” Dar eased upright. “All right.”
Kerry winced. “Honey, you’re not going to tell me you actually eat those things, are you?”
Ceci sighed and covered her eyes. “Hope you got some corn. Kerry and I can at least share that.” She got up and walked around the couch to the table to investigate the packages. “Oh, goddess, Andrew. Did you have to get the hot pepper ones?”
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“Heh.” Andrew chuckled, moving across the tile floor to join his wife at the table. “Yep, I surely did.”
Dar swung her legs off the couch and sat up. “You have to try them, Ker. They’re great.”
Her lover crouched down between her knees, resting a hand on either one, and grimaced. “Dar, they look like big old bugs,” she whispered. “I can’t eat those.”
“Sure you can,” Dar whispered back, leaning forward. “C’mon, I’ll show ya.”
“Daaaarrrr...” Kerry bit her lip. “Eeeeewwww.”
“Don’t be a chicken,” Dar chided her. “Trust me.”
Easy for her to say
. Kerry sighed and gave her partner a hand up, keeping hold of it as she joined Dar and they walked over to where Andrew and Ceci were unpacking the bags and buckets.
“Ooh.” Dar pried the cover off one and peered inside. “Yum.”
Kerry peeked over her shoulder at the pile of red-hued, spice-speckled marine insects, complete with beady little eyes looking back at her. “Oh,” she moaned softly, and leaned against Dar’s arm. “I’m going to have nightmares.”
Dar picked up a crab and examined it. “Sure you are.” She deftly removed a claw, exposing some white flesh. “Here. Suck on this.”
Big round pale green eyes looked up past the curve of her breast. A tiny squeak issued from Kerry’s throat.
“Go on,” Dar laughed.
Kerry glanced over at her in-laws, who were bent almost double with silent laughter. “Dar, I can’t suck on that leg. It looks like a grasshopper leg. I’m going to throw up.”
Dar sighed, removed a bit of the crabmeat, and held it out. “There.
Can you suck on my fingers?”
A sigh. “Oh, God, if you insist.” Kerry closed her eyes and leaned forward, opening her mouth and closing her teeth gingerly on the bit of white substance. She closed her lips and carefully tasted it, then opened her eyes. “Hmm.” It wasn’t at all like lobster or shrimp. It was much more tender, and... Kerry licked her lips. “Mm.” The spices stung her tongue pleasantly. “Okay, that’s not bad.”
“See?” Dar sounded triumphant. “Told you.” She sat down and pulled out a chair for Kerry next to her. “Now, c’mon. Grab a hammer.”
Her lover, who had been heading for the kitchen for a pitcher of something cold, stopped dead in her tracks. “Hammer?”
ANDREW RELAXED, STRETCHING his long frame as he settled more comfortably in the large leather chair. “So, that’s what that old bag of wind told me,” he drawled. “All ’bout how he’d been gotten to some years back, and he just didn’t want to say no.”
The television played softly in the background as the two couples shared coffee and each other’s company.
Dar shook her head sadly. She was lying on the couch with Kerry curled up against her, and she had her injured arm draped over her lover’s body. “Hard to believe.”
Ceci snorted from her perch on the loveseat. “No, it isn’t. He always was a pompous asshole.” She ignored her husband’s round-eyed look. “You know it’s true, Andy. He was always wanting to be in charge. Remember that bowling team he hornswoggled you on to? He had to be the captain.”
Andrew grunted.
“Bowling?” Kerry opened one eye lazily, so completely stuffed she wouldn’t have moved even for a fire drill. “I didn’t know you bowled, Dad.”
“Ah most certainly do not,” Andrew replied. “Damn fool just would not listen.”
“Andy is so good at everything, Jeff just assumed he’d be a good bowler,” Ceci told, blithely ignoring another outraged look.
“Unfortunately, Jeff loved to stand behind his team and make comments.”
“Ah,” Kerry noted sagely.
“That lasted all of one time.” Ceci gave her husband a look. “Until Andy threw the ball backward.”