Eye Of The Storm - DK3 (26 page)

“Hello?” Dar joked faintly, as she drove. “I know what you mean, though. I remember how shocked I was. She’s gonna lose it.”

He remained silent, just twisting his fingers.

Dar thought, turning her mind to the puzzle as she did throughout the day on less personal, less vital matters. Her father was counting on her. Finally, she exhaled. “Let the Navy do it.”

He looked up. “What?”

“Let the Navy do it. Have them contact her, say there was a mistake.

You know it happens,” Dar responded quietly. “It’s damn close to the truth.”

Andrew considered the words. “Doesn’t explain the months I been here.”

Dar had stopped at a red light, and now she turned. “No.” She searched his face. “That’s gonna be the tough part. Your tough part.”

The light turned green and she drove on, trying not to hear the audible sounds as he swallowed a few times.

“Damn it,” Andrew finally whispered. “I want to have the guts to just call up and do this and I don’t, Dardar. That’s a damn tough thing for someone’s stared down death as many times as I have and not cared.” He dropped his head against one hand. “Don’t wanta get the Navy into it.”

Dar pulled into the parking lot and turned off the Lexus, then pulled her cell phone out and checked the charge. “I understand being scared.”

She leaned her forearms against the wheel. “It’s like being in a dark pit and there’s no way out and you only go deeper into it, the longer you stay.”

They looked somberly at each other.

Dar keyed in her phone’s memory, and dialed a number, then held the instrument to her ear, until it was answered. “It’s Dar.” Hesitation, then a quiet response. “I’ve got someone here that wants to talk to you.”

She handed the phone to her father, who took it purely by reflex. “Here, say hello to Mom.”

Then she opened the door and tossed him the keys, closed it, and walked towards the building, without looking back.

Crossing her fingers and hoping they both would forgive her.

“OKAY,. OW, WATCH where you’re swinging that, Col.” Kerry ducked around the heavy blue ball Colleen was swinging. “I have no idea where—ah, there she is.” She spotted her lover enter and stop, her ears visibly twitching at the assault of noise around her. Dar had a strained expression on her face, though, and Kerry set her ball down on the tray.

“Uh oh. Be right back, guys.”

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She trotted up the stairs and dodged around moving waitresses, relieved when the roving blue eyes fell on her and softened in perceptible relief. “Hey.” She got up next to Dar and tugged her into a corner.

“What’s the matter?”

Dar chewed her lip. “What do you want to hear about first? Ankow figuring out we live together or me calling my mother and handing the cell phone to my father?”

Kerry’s jaw dropped. “Dar, I only left you alone for forty five minutes,” she spluttered in protest. “Jesus…wh…bu…” She rubbed her head in shock.

The tall, dark haired woman managed a faint smile. “Everyone here?

Let’s…just…I um…I need a distraction.” She put a hand on Kerry’s back.

“We can talk about it all later. The Ankow thing wasn’t that big a deal. I just told him we were roommates.”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure.” Kerry took her arm and guided her back to the lane, where their friends were waiting, watching with interested faces.

“Well, we are roommates,” she replied reasonably, then stopped. “Wait.

Where is Dad?”

“Outside,” Dar replied quietly. “I didn’t know what to do. I…he was so frustrated, and I…so I just…I…”

“Dialed her number and said ‘here you go.’” Kerry winced.

“Honey…”

“Tactless, huh?”

Kerry sighed. “Well, it’s direct and straightforward, and both you and your daddy are certainly that.” She exhaled again and smiled as they reached the lane. “Hey guys. Sorry about that. Dar had some problems before she left the office.”

“And after,” her lover muttered.

“Mmm. Would you like a drink?” Kerry signaled the waitress.

“Oh, yeah.” Dar ordered a Kahlua milkshake, then paused. “On second thought make that a double.”

The waitress popped her bubble gum and smiled. “Shawer.” Then she rolled happily off.

CECELIA STARED AT the phone, deeply puzzled. Getting called out of the blue like that from Dar was shocking enough, but who in Miami would want to talk to her? Unless Dar wasn’t in Miami, of course. Impatiently, she put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

All she could hear was the faintest sound of breathing.

For no reason she could detect, a chill passed over her. “Hello?” she asked again, softer. “Is there someone there?”

A soft rasp of in drawn air, then an almost inaudible sound came through the phone and touched her ears. “Cec?”

No.
She was frozen in place, unmoving. Unbreathing.
No.
No, that voice couldn’t be what she’d heard. Her chest moved, pulling in air audibly.

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“Ceci?” The sound again, a little stronger.

It couldn’t be. It was just another dream.

Just another nightmare.
She should hang up. That’s what she should do, hang up and forget about it.

Yes.

Her hand moved.

Her heart spoke. “Andy?”

“Yeah.”

Her world collapsed around her, becoming a small space filled with only that voice. “Andy.” She curled around the phone, cradling it with both hands.

“Ceci, it’s me.”

She gasped softly. “Oh.”

“Cec?”

She closed her eyes. “Yes?”

The voice took on an aching sadness. “I’m sorry.”

Her chest suddenly erupted in a sob. “Where are you?” She managed to get the words out. “Andy, where are you?” She started crying helplessly, hugging the phone to her so tightly it creaked.

“Cec. There’s so damn much I have to say I…”

“I don’t care,” Cecilia whispered. “I don’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done. Just come here. Come home. Please.” She stopped, as the tears choked her. “Please.”

He was curled up in the front seat, shaking so badly he could hardly hold the phone. “All right,” he finally choked out.

“When?” came back a barely audible whisper.

Andrew opened his fist, seeing the blood where his hand had clenched down over the set of keys his daughter had given him.

Cast bread up on the waters and it came back to you, didn’t it? God bless
you, Dar.
“Now,” he answered, hearing the almost hysterical sob on the other end.

God bless you.

“YOU OKAY?” KERRY leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees as she sat next to a very quiet and very pensive Dar. The taller woman was sucking on her milkshake, cradling it in both hands and trying to ignore the chaotic sounds and sights around them. “Worried about your dad?”

Dar nodded slightly.

“Well.” Kerry glanced up as Colleen announced they were ready to start. Everyone was furtively watching Dar, and she realized her friends knew something was wrong. “Listen. I’ve been thinking. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, you know?” She patted Dar’s knee. “Sometimes, when you think about something too much, you get too scared to do it.”

“Mmm. I know.” Dar sucked on her straw. “Kissing you on the beach comes to mind.”

Kerry felt her train of thought run right off its track and wander down Biscayne Boulevard. “Uh…what?”

“That was a major scared witless moment for me,” Dar remarked.

“It was?” Kerry sounded totally amazed.

A slight cock of Dar’s head. “Would have been an ugly moment if I’d have been wrong, wouldn’t it?”

“Tch. You knew you weren’t.”

“No, I didn’t,” Dar replied seriously. “Sure. I was hoping, but…” She sighed. “I’d been wrong so many times before.”

“Not this time.”

Dar smiled and leaned against her. “No. I got it right this time.”

They watched Colleen grasp her ball firmly and face the alley, flashes of disco light flicking over her sturdy form. Then she walked up to the line with a dignified air, spread her legs, and tossed the ball down the alley with a distinct crashing thump.

“Nice technique,” Dar muttered.

“She got two of them,” Kerry protested mildly. “I’m not much better.”

“You’re going to look a lot cuter with your butt up in the air.”

Outraged green eyes peered at her. “Oh great. Forget it. I’ll crawl up to the line.”

Dar smiled.

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“Can you bowl?” Kerry asked, suddenly suspicious. She never got an answer because at that very moment, her cell phone went off and scared the heck out of her. “Jesus!” She grabbed at the device, which she’d set to vibrate and was pressing against her side. She glanced at the caller ID, then hesitated, before showing Dar. “It’s you.”

Dar bit her lip, then took the phone very gingerly and opened it, pressing it to her ear. “Hello?”

A low, raspy voice answered, “Git out here.”

Dar swallowed. “Yes, sir.” She folded the phone carefully and handed it to Kerry, then stood. “Excuse me.” It was like being an adolescent again, she realized. The years peeled back and she was twelve or fourteen and knowing she’d done something that rated a first class dressing down for. “Be right back.”

Kerry caught the edge of her jeans and held it. “You okay? You need some backup?”

She exhaled. “No. I got myself into this. Lemme go pay my dues. It’s my father, remember? The worst he’s gonna do is chew my head off.”

“Well, remind him I have a real fondness for your head and I like it where it is.” Her lover gave the fabric a gentle tug. “Okay?”

That got a faint smile out of Dar. “Okay.” She tweaked a bit of Kerry’s hair, then turned and made her way through the crowd.

Kerry immediately got a pod of bodies attached to her. “What’s going on?” Colleen whispered. “Are you guys okay?”

“We’re fine. It’s…just…complicated.” Kerry tried to find a place to start.

THE AIR OUTSIDE was humid, and Dar could smell a distinct tang of rain on it. The door closed behind her and she headed towards the car, trying to convince her guts to stop quaking. Her father was standing outside the Lexus, leaning against its tall side, his face hidden in the shadows of his hood, and she swallowed hard more than once as she forced herself to keep walking.

Finally, she was there, finding it very hard not to hang her head and stare at her sneakers as she stopped a few paces away and waited. It wasn’t a physical fear. Andrew had never so much as laid a hand on her—ever—even in times where Dar now felt he probably should have.

He hadn’t had to. His disappointment in her had been enough.

“C’mere.”

Hesitantly, she took a few more steps, until she was almost even with him, his height topping hers by a mere inch or two as he straightened up. “Everything okay?” she murmured, still unable to distinguish his features in the dark. She wasn’t expecting the hug, and it took her a moment to throw off her shock and respond. “Dad?” she whispered, as she felt the rare pleasure of enfolding her father in her arms. He was solid, and warm, but she could feel the faint shaking as he breathed.

“Daddy?”

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The arms squeezed her. “Thank you.”

Dar’s knees almost gave out as the tension drained from her in a startling flood. She released her held breath and let her head rest on his shoulder until he released her, but didn’t let go. They backed off a little and looked at each other. Dar risked a tiny smile. “So, I was right, huh?”

Her father nodded slightly.

“Sorry I did it that way.” Dar hung her head, studying the ground between them. “She want you to come up there?”

A long, shaky breath. “Yeah.”

Dar shifted her energy away from the intense emotion and towards the practical. “Want me to take care of getting you there?” She peeked up at him. “I think I can get you a flight out tonight, yet.”

He let his grip on her go and leaned back against the car, either dazed or exhausted, it was hard for Dar to tell. “Lord, I can’t believe this is happening.” He raised his head with an obvious effort. “If’n that’s t’only way. Yeah, I guess.”

Dar took the keys of the Lexus and unlocked it, then opened the door and grasped his arm gently. “C’mere. Siddown.”

“She…wanted t’come here,” Andrew murmured. “Wasn’t fair, case things don’t work out.”

“They’ll work out.” Dar glanced around, then realized her father had taken the cell phone, and tucked it under one arm, where he had it pressed against his body. “I need…” She looked at the building and found worried green eyes in the doorway, looking back at her. “Ah. Yeah.

That’s what I need.”

She gave Kerry a smile, and a jerk of her head and the blonde woman practically flew out of the alley and bounded across the parking lot.

“Let me borrow your cell. I’ve got to get a ticket to Connecticut,” Dar announced, as her lover reached them.

“Really?” Kerry handed it over, then got in closer. “Awesome!” Her face lit up with a delighted grin.

Andrew lifted his head at that, and regarded her with a faint smile tugging at the very corners of his lips.

She threw her arms around him and squeezed. “Wow. I’m so glad,”

she whispered in his ear. “I had fingers and toes and everything else crossed for you.” He returned the hug and patted her on the side. “Can you get a flight?”

“Yeah.” Her lover held up a finger, the pressed the phone to her ear.

“Yes. Open return. My card’s on file.”

Andrew stirred, but found it difficult to stand with Kerry wrapped around him. “Ah.”

“Don’t argue with her,” Kerry advised softly, hanging on. “Just let her do her thing and get her back later.”

“Yeah. That’s right,” Dar was saying. “E-ticket it. We’re on the way over now.” She paused. “Thanks. No, that’s fine. Right. Bye.” Dar closed the phone and nodded. “All set.” Then she put a hand on her father’s knee. “You got ID?”

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He nodded.

“Do you have something to wear other than that?” Kerry inquired.

He shook his head.

“Okay.” Kerry released him and exhaled. “I’ll stop and pick something up and meet you there?”