"You got lucky?" Kerry's brows arched.

Dar smiled and lowered her head, kissing the waiting lips.

"We could really recreate this, and turn the news on," Kerry suggested, between light kisses across Dar's collarbone.

"Try it, and I'll bite your fingers off," Dar replied.

"Oo."

THEY BOTH WOKE at the same time. Kerry heard Dar take a sudden, irregular breath, as she opened her eyes to see the early morning sun pouring through the window. Once again, she was sleeping half on her side, half on her stomach, and snuggled tightly up against Dar's body.

Oh, but what a difference. Kerry smiled. This time she had no urgent desire to levitate herself off the bed in pure shock, and her heart didn't attempt to emerge from her ears with its hammering.

This time her welcome was sure, and the shoulder her cheek was resting on was as familiar to her as her own pillow.

Well, it often was her own pillow. Kerry slid one thigh up over Dar's and gave her a squeeze, humming low in her throat as sleep slowly cleared from her eyes. "Morning, sweetheart."

"Eeurrgh." Dar made a purring noise in return. "Morning to you too." She rubbed Kerry's back with her fingertips. "And what a pretty one it is." She turned her head and watched the sunlight creep across the floor, still tinted coral instead of the bright white yet to come.

It would be yet another in an almost endless series of summer days, hot and sticky, the morning fair with the ever-present possibility of thunderstorms in the afternoon as the earth struggled to throw off the sun's heat.

Water parks in the morning, Dar decided. Then maybe a visit to Epcot in the afternoon, since the technology park offered up lots of indoor attractions to escape the heat, and possibly the rain as well. "You up for dinner at the Living Seas?" she inquired. "I love that tank."

The sea green eyes brightened. "Oo...yeah." A nod. "Good idea."

Dar smiled contentedly. "I think that sounds like a plan," she said, as she arched her back to stretch it out, lifting Kerry a little with her before she relaxed again under the covers. "Damn, I'm glad we got all that crap squared away last night. If I'd walked in there today with nothing done, heads woulda rolled."

Kerry traced an idle pattern on Dar's ribcage. "So the only reason you didn't was because there were no heads to roll?"

"Hm." Dar grunted after a moment's silence. "You know something? I really don't know." She lifted one arm and settled her hand behind her head. After another short, pensive silence, she shrugged. "Ah...probably faster if I did it myself anyway."

Kerry nodded slightly. "I had the neatest dream last night," she related, changing the subject. "You and I were getting married."

Dar's eyebrows twitched. "Um...aren't we?"

"Yeah, I know we are married, but not... I mean, it was this whole ceremony with rice, and flowers," Kerry felt Dar start to laugh. "You and me in pretty gowns."

"Don't tell me white ones." Dar groaned.

"Sure," Kerry cheerfully agreed. "You looked gorgeous. You had this lace sheer neckline thing on and..."

"Kerry." Dar tapped her on the shoulder. "You need some coffee or something?"

"No, why?"

"Just wondered."

"Anyway. We were in this beautiful cathedral, with stained glass windows, and everyone was throwing bags of rice at us..."

Dar half sat up, bringing Kerry up with her and displaying the considerable strength of her abdominal muscles. "What?"

Kerry tumbled and rolled into Dar's lap, peering up at her as she lay on her back across her partner's legs. "What?"

"Bags of rice? What was this, a Cuban wedding? Were there bags of beans too?" Dar queried, tossing her head back to clear the disordered hair from her eyes. "Five pound bags? Ten? Fifty?"

Kerry folded her hands over her bare stomach. "Sweetheart." She twiddled her thumbs. "Yankees don't like to whip out their dustpans during a wedding. We wrap a pinch of rice into a cloth bag and toss that at newlyweds," she informed her lover. "It's supposed to be good luck.

Dar put a fingertip against her nose. "It's supposed to be for fertility, so you'll have lots of babies," she corrected her in a wry tone. "Leave it to Yankees to conveniently forget that."

"Mm...we didn't forget it." Softly glinting green eyes peered up at Dar. "It was so nice. All our friends were there, and Chino had a hat on...your dad was in a tux."

Her partner smiled in reflex. "You have cute dreams."

"I had one the first time we stayed here too," Kerry admitted. "Remember you were saying you did? Before we woke up? So did I." She sat up and pulled her legs up crossed under her, pushing her hair back with one hand.

"It didn't have rice in it, did it?" Dar leaned on one elbow, facing her. The sheets draped loosely over her body, exposing roughly half of her torso and all of the length of one long leg.

"No." Kerry leaned her elbows on her knees. "I didn't remember it until way after we left Orlando. It was you and I up in a tree."

"A tree." Dar sniffed reflectively. "I like trees," she allowed. "What kind of tree?"

A shrug. "I have no idea. But we were up in it, looking at the sky." Kerry glanced at the sheets, drawing her finger over the soft surface. "I remember being so happy, a strange feeling for me back then."

Dar laid her hand on Kerry's knee. "And now?"

"And now?" Kerry laughed, a light, joyous sound. "Oh, my god, Dar. What a question." She peeked up into her partner's eyes. "Do I sound like a babbling idiot this morning or what?"

The blue orbs twinkled. "Wanna have breakfast here, or go find some hapless characters to harass?" Dar rubbed the skin under her hand gently.

"Here." Kerry rolled over onto her side and stretched out on the bed. "Banana stuffed French toast?" she suggested. "Then we can grab our swimsuits and go look for trouble." With a quick twitch, she yanked the covers off Dar and scrambled back off the bed with them as her partner rose to the challenge and chased her.

She almost got away and then her feet got tangled up in the sheets. "Augh!"

Kerry hopped madly to free them, bouncing all over the room and nearly causing Dar to cough up an eyeball laughing. At the last hop, Dar got an arm around her and they both fell, hitting the carpet and thrashing around with the sheet winding itself around them.

"Ee!" Kerry squirmed, as long, ticklish fingers attacked her bare ribs. "You punk!"

"Yeah? Takes one to know one!" Dar grappled with her, the fabric tangling around them and winding them tighter together. "Auarrgguhhh!!"

"Ooooo...gotcha!" Kerry wrapped her arm around Dar's calf and attacked the inside of her knee, feeling the powerful limb jerk in response to her tickling. "Ahahahahahah!!!!"

Buzz.

Dar's head popped out from under its wrapping of cotton. She glared so intently at her cell phone the leather cover nearly shriveled.

Buzzz.

One long arm snaked out and snatched the instrument, but then paused as Dar took a moment to catch her breath before she opened the phone. "What?" She snarled into it.

"Oo." Kerry wiggled up and poked her head out into the open to listen. "Rambunctious interruptus. How rude."

"Well, good morning to you too, Dar. Always such a pleasure to talk to you." Eleanor's voice held equal parts sarcasm and amusement. "Were you up?"

Dar's pale blue eyes slitted. "Yes," she said. "You get assigned wake-up call duty this week? I thought Alastair was gonna invest in software to do that."

The VP of Marketing chuckled. "Oh, there're parts of you that never change, aren't there? It's a relief really...like death, taxes...you know?"

"Eleanor, what the hell do you want?"

"Is Kerry there?" Eleanor asked, giving up on her torment.

Dar gave her cell phone another evil look. "It's a quarter to seven in the morning, I'm in my hotel room, and I'm not dressed. What do you think?"

A pause. "Well wouldja put her on the phone, please? She's at least civil before coffee."

Kerry fell forward against Dar's chest, laughing helplessly, covering her mouth to keep Eleanor from hearing.

"She's occupied at the moment." Dar gazed down at the blond woman draped over her. "What do you want?"

Eleanor sighed audibly. "Okay, okay--there are a lot of really ticked off people here, Dar," she said. "I'm about to head into a meeting with ten of our fellow exhibitors."

"And?" Dar nuzzled Kerry's hair, nibbling its softness. "If the hall's screwed up, what do you want from me? It's not my fault." She leaned back against the bed, sliding her free hand around Kerry's now still form. "And it sure as hell isn't Kerry's fault."

"No...Jesus, all right! I'm coming!" Eleanor sounded more than exasperated. "Listen, Dar...bottom line, these guys want to know who you paid off to get our booth up. Nothing fancy. They're frustrated, and out of time, and they want to get it all done so...who gets the check?"

Dar grinned at her cell phone. "Me."

"What?"

Dar smirked. "I didn't pay anyone off, Eleanor. I went...sorry...we went in there last night and made it happen."

"You?"

"Me," Dar confirmed. "Tell them I take credit cards. What do you think, three, four thousand a minute? What's my time worth?" She chuckled. "I tell you what, it's gonna take them the whole goddamned day to pull the circuits, because the nitwits who installed them didn't label the damn things. I had to check them one by one and let me tell you, I was raising the roof in that Telco room cursing."