Melissa Good - Tropical Storm

Dar shook her head. “No, can’t say I have, I hear it’s nice up there, though. Have you?”

“Twice. Maybe that can be another long weekend. You can take a tour of all the vineyards, and it’s really pretty,” Kerry replied enthusiastically. “I’ve always wanted to go back there.”

Dar felt a silly smile crossing her face. She masked it by lifting her glass and drinking a deep swallow. “That sounds fun,” she agreed soberly. “You interested in some diving tomorrow? Weather’s supposed to be nice.”

A nod. “After we go restock your kitchen.” Kerry pointed her fork at her.

“Even my creativity has its limits. I don’t think there’s much I can do with grapes, milk, pizza, and peanuts.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand how you haven’t just keeled over from scurvy or whatever it is people get who live on ice cream.”

Dar chuckled. “I take vitamins,” she admitted. “We should probably get you a BC that actually fits and a weight belt. That one you’ve been using is too heavy. Tell you what, we can go out to the dive shop and stop at the big Publix off Washington. How’s that?”

Kerry finished off her portion of stew and licked her fork. “Sounds good to me,” she agreed readily. “Though, I don’t know, give me a few months, and I think I’ll need that heavier weight belt.” She gave Dar a rueful look as she patted her stomach. “Not that everyone, with the exception of my mother, hasn’t told me how good I look,” she conceded.

Dar studied her. “To hell with what everyone says, how do you feel?” she asked bluntly.

There was a long pause as Kerry gazed out over the ocean. “Great,” she finally answered in a reflective voice. She let her hand fall to her bare thigh, flexing it and watching the muscles move under her skin. “Getting a lot more of these, I think, instead of just more padding,” she admitted. “Feels kinda good, actually.”

Dar reached over and extended her hand, smiling when Kerry took it, and curled her fingers around the taller woman’s. “Well, in my opinion, you look fantastic, and I’m the one who gets to see you naked the most, so…”

Kerry burst into an embarrassed giggle. “Dar!”

454 Melissa Good

“Hey, it’s true,” her partner protested with a smile, then she turned her attention to the water. “Can I interest you in a little walk in the moonlight?”

A squeeze on her fingers. “Absolutely.”

Dar stood and collected their bowls. “C’mon, I hear a hot fudge sundae calling me down at the market.”

Kerry latched on to the back of Dar’s shirt, following her inside. “Where you go, I go,” she assured the taller woman lightly.

They both stopped and looked at each other, twin shivers going down two spines. “Well,” Dar finally said softly. “I think I like that idea.”

Kerry nibbled her lip, wondering where the words had come from.

“Mmm, yeah, me too.” She smiled. “Guess we’d better put on some shorts though. Meet you back down here.” She trotted up the stairs, leaving a quietly reflective Dar behind.

“WHAT ABOUT THIS one?” Kerry picked up the nearest jacket and held it up. “It’s…colorful.”

Dar glanced up, then chuckled. “Oh yeah, no doubt about it. I’d be able to find you at 100 fathoms in that.”

The Dacor buoyancy compensator had bright pink and green pockets and was dazzlingly bright. Kerry slipped it over her shoulders and faced her friend. “Well?”

The taller woman sauntered over and adjusted the device, buckling it across Kerry’s chest and stepping back to judge the effect. “Nice.”

Kerry grinned and bounced a little, then unbuckled the catches and shrugged out of the vest. “Okay, and you said a new weight belt, right?” She mentally added up the cost and nodded a little. Her bills were paid for the month, and her raise allowed for little luxuries like this. She picked up a dark pink web belt, liberally studded with small pink weights. “How’s this?”

Dar studied it, then hefted the weight. “Yeah, that’d be okay,” she judged. “Here.” She added a pair of snug-fitting neoprene booties. “Oh.” She went to a rack holding wetsuits and pulled off one with short sleeves and mid-thigh length legs. “This, too.”

Kerry fingered the thin neoprene. “Ah, to protect against jellyfish?”

Dar stepped closer. “No, I just think you’d look really good in it,” she muttered softly, her eyes twinkling.

“Tch. Dar.” Kerry’s face wrinkled up into a mildly embarrassed smile.

“Let me pass on this right now. It’s a little over my budget.”

Blue eyes flicked over the supplies, then to her face. “I could, um…”

A hand touched her arm. “No.” Kerry’s voice dropped a little, and she glanced around. “I appreciate the thought, Dar, but I’m responsible for myself, okay?”

The dark-haired woman drew breath, then let it trickle out her lips. “All right, I was just…”

Kerry smiled at her. “I know, and I let you get away with it with my fish and those plane tickets, but it’s important to me to stand on my own two feet.”

Dar looked almost comically crestfallen. “Um…” She looked around.

“Look, the truth is, between my salary and the bonuses Alastair keeps dumping on me, I’ve got this huge lump of funds stuck in a couple of accounts at the credit union, and I’ve…” She paused and exhaled. “I haven’t had anyone in my life in a while that I really wanted to spend it on.” She shrugged a little. “I didn’t mean to insult you or anything.”

456 Melissa Good Kerry was at a loss for words. “Uh.” She frantically searched for some kind of response, and realized she was just out of luck. So she merely looked up into Dar’s eyes and tried to express what her heart was feeling silently.

Her companion produced a little smile, and glanced around the store.

“We about done here?”

For a sophisticated, intelligent, aggressive woman, Dar certainly could present an excellent imitation of a spanked puppy sometimes, Kerry noted mournfully. Maybe it was the way she stuck her hands in the pockets of her shorts. “Dar?”

Those pretty blue eyes focused on her. “Yes?”

Kerry gathered up her vest, belt, and booties, then handed her taller companion the wetsuit and lifted her eyebrows. “Since you think it’ll enhance the visuals.” A flash of white as Dar smiled and took possession of the suit. A compromise, Kerry reasoned as she made her way towards the cash register.

“Hey.” She stopped, as her eye caught a bathing suit in crimson with deep gold slashes in it.

Dar peered over her shoulder. “Not your size,” she commented regretfully.

Green eyes studied her speculatively. “No, but I bet it’s yours.” Her nose crinkled up in a mischievous grin. “Fair’s fair.” One dark eyebrow lifted slowly as Dar gave her a look, then plucked the suit off the rack without another word and headed up to the counter. “Heh,” Kerry chortled softly as she followed.

“GOOD THING I brought the truck,” Dar commented, putting the last bag in the back of the Lexus and giving her companion a slightly amazed, slightly alarmed look. “You actually use all that stuff?”

Kerry put a hand on her back. “Believe it or not, yes. When you actually cook real food with real ingredients, it’s not just pulling something out of a box and nuking it.”

Dar closed the back hatch and put her hands on her hips. “Sure is easier that way,” she commented teasingly.

“Yes, it is,” Kerry agreed. “But it’s a lot less healthy for you because of all the junk they put in there to keep the food from crystallizing when they freeze it. I think that stuff turns your ears blue or something.”

“Oh.” Dar considered this. “I guess that makes sense.” She walked around and got into the car, waiting for Kerry to do the same. “You up for some café con leche?”

Speaking of unhealthy. Kerry gave her companion a wry look but didn’t resist. “Sure,” she agreed readily, acknowledging to herself that she’d become somewhat addicted to the sweet coffee and the tiny pastries that would go with them. Her stomach growled, already anticipating the cheese and guava ones she particularly liked.

Dar navigated the beachfront streets with skill, pulling into the back parking lot of a small Cuban cafeteria and parking. Kerry took a deep breath of the morning air contentedly, tasting the strong hint of salt on it. “Nice morning,” she complimented the weather, being in the lower seventies, and Tropical Storm 457

much less humid than it had been recently. The sun was warm but not overbearing, and the breeze fluttered the thin fabric of her T-shirt against her body.

She felt… It was like having been in school, and now she was out on summer break, Kerry decided, but with the knowledge that there was no fall term to go back to. In a way, it was like when she graduated college and started out on her first real job. Everything changed. Now it was changing again, as she took slow, tentative steps towards a whole new life, allowing the reality of a partnership with Dar to sink in. It felt so strange, but in a weird way, familiar.

She was hurting over her parents, and she knew that. She knew it would be a long time before she could think about them and not feel the grief of not being accepted. But on the flip side, it felt so, so good to not have to measure up to their standards anymore. Now she was free to set her own standards.

The sea breeze blew cleanly across her, and a gull circled overhead as Kerry smiled up at the fluffy white clouds floating lazily overhead. What’s that about breaking eggs to make omelets? Her eyes slipped sideways, to the tall form pacing beside her. What kind of omelet are you, hmm? My favorite kind, I think.