“Me, too.” Kerry nodded as she got up and walked to Dar, put her arms around her and gave her a hug. ”Dar, will you do me a very big favor?”

“Sure. Name it.” Dar enjoyed her hug, almost getting lost in the faint coconut and butter scent of the lotion Kerry was wearing.

A hand touched her cheek, and she looked up into Kerry’s face, surprised to see utter seriousness there.

“Please,” Kerry murmured, “please be careful and take care of yourself, Dar. If I ever lose you, I’ll die.”

Dar’s jaw dropped in alarm, and she half turned and took hold of Kerry’s body with both hands. “Kerry...”

Kerry’s forehead dropped to touch hers. “I had this nightmare the other night. The one you woke me up from?”

“Yeah?” Dar nodded anxiously.

Kerry fell silent for a moment. Then she sighed. “I was...in that hospital again. In the CCU. Only…”

Dar could feel her shaking. “Easy.”

“Only it was you in that bed, and I couldn’t...I couldn’t stop...you...I...”

Kerry’s knees buckled and she would have fallen, but Dar caught her, pulled her down on her lap, and held on for dear life.

“Easy, sweetheart. It was just a dream.” She could feel the jerks as Kerry sobbed. “It’s okay.”

Chino poked her nose under Kerry’s arm, snuffled worriedly, and licked the skin within her reach.

“Ohh.” Kerry finally took a deep breath and sniffled. “God, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Dar gently stroked her back. ”Take it easy, honey.

I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. I won’t ever leave you, Kerry. Never.”

Kerry sniffled again. “I…don’t know where that all came from. I was just...sitting here thinking about what a great day it was and...” She sighed. “Jesus. What the hell’s wrong with me?”


Thicker Than Water 211

She impatiently wiped the tears off her face.

Dar hugged her tighter. “I…um…” She paused to collect her thoughts. “I think you’re just stressed out, Ker. It’s been a bitch of a week, and you’re on overload.”

Kerry remained silent for a bit, stroking Dar’s hair with an almost hypnotic regularity. “Yeah. I think you’re right.” She exhaled. “Boss, can I take next week off? I need to decompress before I go on a wild vacation with someone I love more than life itself.”

“Sure.” Dar smiled. She felt a distinct sense of relief at not having to order Kerry to do exactly what she’d just requested. “I’ll see what I can do about scaring you up some company.”

Kerry exhaled. “Only if the company is tall, dark, and daunting and has blue eyes.”

Dar waited a moment before asking, “You want to hang out with my dad?”

It worked. Kerry snickered through her remaining tears, her body shaking with laughter.

“I could arrange for that, I guess,” Dar went on with a sigh. “I was hoping you’d rather spend time with me, but—”

She was stopped by a gentle kiss on the lips. Then Kerry rubbed her cheek against Dar’s and smiled. “Thanks. I needed a laugh.”

“Mm.” Dar tilted her head and stole another kiss. “I needed that.”

They snuggled for a moment longer, then Kerry regretfully got up and ruffled Dar’s hair. “Okay. My head’s on straight now; let’s get ready to party.” She held a hand out to Dar and led her into the condo, with Chino frisking at their heels and occasionally between their legs.

DAR STRETCHED OUT her legs in the warm sand and wriggled her toes contentedly as she watched the crowd milling around the island. It was late afternoon and the party was in full swing, with buckets of assorted seafood on one side of the neatly made campfire, and a standing bar with plenty of ice, beer, wine coolers, and champagne for the guests on the other.

She herself had downed four or five Bacardi Breezers and was in a pretty darn good mood, sitting there in the shade with a plate of lobster, shrimp and rice balanced neatly on one thigh. Kerry was on the other side of the fire, talking with Maria, Duks, and Ceci, and another knot of guests was clustered around where Alastair and her father were trading tall tales.

Nice.


212 Melissa Good Dar bit into a spicy shrimp and chewed it contentedly. The island looked great, nothing like she, in her childhood, had ever imagined it could become. There were comfortable beanbag chairs scattered around, and neatly dug in Lucite tables for drinks and dinner, and to one side the most incongruous looking Christmas tree she’d ever seen.

It was purple, for one thing, and had bright pink flamingo and bright green palm tree lights. And it was surrounded by piles and piles of presents. Some were theirs, some were their guests—

all of whom seemed to be having a great time.

Dar rocked her head a little from side to side and hummed along with the music emerging from the strategically placed speakers. It was one of Kerry’s favorite songs and Kerry danced a little to it.

Oo. Dar grinned. That is so cute. She took a swig from her bottle and leaned against the tree, glad of the cool breeze and the gorgeous day, and another successful party.

“Hey there, Dardar.” Andrew appeared suddenly and plopped down beside her. “Penny fer your thoughts.”

Dar glanced at Kerry, then glanced back at him and blushed.

“Heh,” her father chuckled. “You having a good birthday?”

“Yeah.” Dar nodded. “It’s great. The best part is having you and Mom here, though.” She gave him a quiet, serious look.

“Means a lot.”

“Mmph,” Andy grunted. “Well, it means a lot to us too, honey.” He folded his hands and propped them against an upraised knee. “Sometimes ah just have to slap the side of mah head ’cause I can’t believe Ah’m having all this back, after going and losing it.”

Dar thoughtfully reflected on this very long speech. “Does it ever feel like a dream to you?”

“Yeap.” Andy nodded. “It does.”

“For me, too.” Dar adopted the same pose, resting her hands on her knee. “I look back to where I was a year ago, and it’s like remembering a whole other lifetime.” She gazed off across the ocean, its surface lightly ruffled with the odd wave. “It’s so hard to believe, sometimes I just have to think it’s a dream.” She paused. “A dream I just hope I never wake up from.”

They watched the revelers in silence for a while.

“Well,” Andrew eventually commented, “better a dream than a nightmare, that’s for sure.”

“Mm,” Dar agreed.

Andy drew in a breath. “Dardar, when you were a kid, you wanted something real bad.” Dar looked at him. “Was a time you made a choice, but the Navy didn’t like that choice much. So they Thicker Than Water 213

told you no.”

“Yeah,” Dar said. “That they did.”

A small silence ensued. Andy seemed to be deep in thought.

“Wasn’t the Navy that said no to that, Paladar. Ah made that choice for you.” He looked at her. “Ah told them to tell you no.”

Dar met his eyes with only the faintest of smiles. “I know.

I’ve always known.”

Andrew just stared at her, a stunned look on his face.

“It…um…” another half smile, “was in the computer files.”

Dar looked out at the horizon. “For a while, I thought maybe you figured I’d embarrass you by not measuring up, and that was just your way of making sure I didn’t have to go through all that.”

“Ah did not think that,” Andrew muttered huskily.

Dar just nodded. “Then I figured maybe you knew me well enough to know I’d never have fit in with the Navy.” She exhaled.

“Then I finally just settled on knowing you made decisions the same way I did: you trusted your guts and let the chips fall where they fell.”

Andrew blinked. “You are the damndest thing.”

She shrugged. “You made me.”

Her father had to chuckle a little. Then he looked at his hands and flexed them. “Paladar, if you’d had your mind set to fit in the Navy, you surely would have, and if you’d set your mind to be a sea dog like me, you’d surely have done that also.”

Dar suddenly felt the seriousness of it. “I wanted to. I wanted to do what you did.” She looked at him. “And you’re right; I could have.” Her eyes glinted. “It wouldn’t have been easy, but I’d have done it. All the way.”

Andy nodded. “Yeap.” He looked her in the eye. “And that’s why Ah told them not to.” He drew a deep breath. “Ah did not want you to do what ah do.”

A thousand little tiny puzzles suddenly made sense to Dar.

“Oh.”

Andrew remained silent, looking out over the waves.

Dar picked at the tiny grains of sand covering her leg.

“Sometimes being able to do what you do is a very good thing.

Sometimes it needs to be done.”

“Yeap,” Andrew replied softly. “And some of the times, ah do enjoy it.”

Dar looked up at him quickly, but he was still gazing out over the water.

“’Specially when you can help out people you care for.”

Andrew turned his head to look Dar right in the eye. “Ah do like that.”

Dar released her breath and nodded slowly. “You put those 214 Melissa Good papers in my briefcase.”

“Ah did,” Andrew said.

“Thanks,” Dar replied. “You saved my ass.”

Andrew’s grizzled brows twitched and he gave Dar a side-long glance. “Ain’t that what daddies are for?”

“Only when you’re lucky.” Dar turned her head towards him and smiled, this time more broadly. “Did you really think I’d be mad at you for getting me turned down?”

Her father blew out a breath. “Lord, Ah had not the first idea what you were going to think about this. Been wanting to tell you for the longest time, and here you just up and trip me. Shoulda figured you knew.”