Angie leaned back against the wall of the truck and reviewed her pile of stuff. "Not that Mom's not going to freak out as it is, us pulling up in a pickup in jeans," she remarked. "But what the hell. Kerry didn't rebel until her late twenties, maybe it's our turn."
Mike eyed her dubiously. "You're not going to get a tattoo are you?"
His sister gave him a look.
"Just asking."
KERRY DROPPED INTO the swing in the solarium, glad to get off her feet after a day of hauling boxes. She looked around at the quiet, glass lined room, the air rich with the scent of carefully tended plants around the borders of the room.
It was quiet here, though she could hear voices through the door coming from the direction of the hall where she'd left her sister getting her things arranged in their new surroundings. Surely though this house was almost as familiar to her as her own since she knew Angie spent a lot of time here.
Ah well. Kerry let her head rest against the chain holding the swing up, savoring the peace around her. She'd always loved the solarium, and now as she leaned back and gazed around her, she allowed memories of scampering around hiding behind the plants surface in her mind's eye.
It smelled so green, and there was so much for a small child to look at-plants with their big leaves, and the rich potting soil, and the occasional ladybug to capture and watch.
She glanced back into one corner, where there were now rose bushes, but once had been a stand of potted pines, clustered in a clump she'd learned to worm her way into and which had provided a haven for her. She could still, to this day, remember the Christmas tree scent.
She stretched her arms out along the back of the wooden bench seat, and rocked back and forth a little, looking up as she heard footsteps to see her mother approaching. Inwardly she bit off a curse, not really wanting to face an interaction with her at the moment.
"Ah, there you are, Kerrison," Cynthia Stuart said. "My goodness, what a lot of work you children did."
"It was," Kerry had to agree, as her mother seated herself on the bench across from her. "But we ended up with a lot of stuff that can go to charity, and I think Angie's happy to have her things the way she likes them."
Her mother smiled. "I think so too. I have to say it will be nice to have at least one of you back in the house. It's been so quiet."
Kerry relaxed a trifle. "You should have seen us last night. We ended up locking Mike in the truck and having a pillow fight in the living room. Sure you want that much excitement around?"
"Did you really?" her mother asked. "My goodness and you're all grown up."
"We're still brothers and sisters." A smile crossed Kerry's face. "We had fun."
"It certainly sounds like it," Cynthia said. "I'm very glad you have had some time to spend with Angela and Michael. I know they have both missed you."
"I'm glad too," Kerry answered.
Her mother cleared her throat. "So you're speaking at the reunion tonight?"
Kerry nodded. "They asked me to. I wasn't going to go."
"Why not? After all, you were going to be here this week."
"I just didn't want to." She'd gotten the invitation.
Dar had even encouraged her to go, and had said she'd work around the Europe schedule to be there if Kerry wanted to, and wanted her there. "I don't much like being the celebrity freak show, I guess."
Her mother straightened. "Oh, but surely that's not the--" She paused, and frowned.
That, at least, made Kerry smile, if only a bit wryly. "Anyway, I'll do the speech then we're going out to the pub for dinner," she said. "So I guess we should get back to Angie's old place so I can change." She stood up, stretching her body out and reaching back to free her shortened hair from her polo shirt collar.
"Ah, yes of course," her mother said, rising hastily. "We thought perhaps we could all have brunch here tomorrow. Would that fit in your schedule?"
Kerry's ears twitched. "Sure," she answered, after a moment's hesitation. "I think we're done with packing. What time?"
Her mother looked pleased. "Eleven, I believe," she said. "Just the family, really. I want to get a chance to chat with all of you alone."
Uh oh. Kerry nodded. "Sounds like fun," she answered, reasoning that at least if they all were there, the subject could hardly be anything relating to her, personally. "Well, let me get going." She eased past her mother and ducked under an errant limb, heading back into the hall where she could see her brother standing.
"Kerrison?"
Urg. Kerry paused and turned, giving her mother a questioning look.
"I do like that haircut on you. It frames your face very nicely."
Kerry ran her fingers through the layers near her eyes and produced a brief grin. "Thanks. It got so hot this summer I had to get rid of some of it. I like it, though. I may keep it this way." She turned and slipped out of the door and back into the lit entryway, where Angie was now also waiting for her. "Hey. Ready to go?"
Angie glanced past her to see their mother emerging, and then gave her sister a wry look. "Ready if you are." She slid her small clasp purse under her arm. "Mom, see you tomorrow."
Cynthia waggled her fingers at them, as they stood together for a minute. "So nice to see the three of you together. We must get some pictures at brunch."
They got out the door, and Kerry realized a second later that not bringing a jacket wasn't the brightest thing she'd ever done. The cool air blew right through her polo shirt, and she was really glad she'd decided against wearing the tank. "Brr." She rubbed her arms with her hands. "Where'd the damn sun go?"
Mike snorted. "Boy did your blood thin."
Kerry didn't deny it. "Hey, it was ninety three degrees when I left," she protested. "I'm used to walking outside in a bathing suit in September." She scooted ahead of them and unlocked the truck door, sliding inside and shutting it after her to block the wind.
Angie got in the passenger seat, laughing, and Mike slid in the jump seat also chuckling. "It must be so bizarre not to have winter." Angie shut the door as Kerry started the engine. "I can't imagine it"
"We have winter." Kerry put the truck in gear and pulled around the big stately driveway. "We have at least two days where it drops below sixty. Dar and I make hot chocolate and wear our footie pajamas." She turned and waited for the big iron gates to open, and then eased out onto the road, looking both ways first. "I don't miss it. I like not having to think about putting layers of clothing on and being able to go swimming at midnight the whole year."
"Do you? " Mike poked his head over the seat. "Go swimming at midnight?"
Kerry had stopped at a traffic light, and now she turned and looked at him. "Yeah," she admitted. "When we get home from work sometimes, or in the ocean when we're down at the cabin. We've got a little cove all to ourselves."
"You guys swim naked?"
"MIKE!" Angie slapped him. "Of course they don't!"
"Well, actually we do." The light changed, and Kerry moved forward. "Sometimes," she answered, smothering a grin as she heard Angie nearly swallow her tongue while her brother chortled with glee. "Rebellion has its good points, y'know."
"Oh my god."
"Sweet!"
THE SALES PITCH over, it was time to get down to the real business.
"We understand that there are companies here with a lot more built out infrastructure." Dar faced the room, holding the remote for her presentation laptop in her right hand. "So your likely question for us is, how in the hell are we going to support this application until we can catch up."
Sir Melthon grunted.
"It's a good question." Dar clicked the control, and her laptop obediently responded with a lively, pulsing display, projected against a silver cased, insanely expensive screen set up at the far end of the table. It displayed a reasonably scaled diagram of their global network, long lines of green and blue tracing across the planet.
"Animated, eh. At least that's more interesting than the last idiots," Sir Melthon interrupted, "bloody boring the lot of them. You put me to sleep, woman, and you can go sell your slides out on the street."
"That's live, isn't it, Dar?" Alastair remarked from his seat next to Sir Melthon, drawing both the magnate's attention and that of the two men on the other side of him that had been introduced as his business leaders for the project. "That screen there?"
"Live?" One of the men leaned forward. "Do you mean to say that's showing a real time view of something?" He looked around. "What the devil are you connected to?"
"It is," Dar responded. "This is a reflection of the main operations console at our commercial headquarters in Miami, Florida." She went on. "I have a cellular link-up to our international gateway and we're backhauling the signal from there."
The man studied her. "Sorry, go on," he murmured.
She reviewed the screen. "As you can see, we are very built-out in North America, but we also have a significant presence in South America, India, Africa, and the Far East."
The man got up and walked around to get closer to the screen.
"We do have a basic set of pipes in Europe." Dar manipulated the control and a set of green lines grew brighter, across the European continent. "But since we size the infrastructure to the business, we haven't upgraded the port speed to provide a high capacity full mesh. Yet."
The man looked at her. "How long will it take you to do that?" he asked, sharply.
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