Eye Of The Storm - DK3 (43 page)

“It grows on you.” Kerry smiled. “When I first moved here, I hardly ever went to the beach. It was so busy and you don’t think of it down in Kendall.” Kerry inhaled a lung full of salty air. “Then I found a few 234
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places where it was quiet and I used to go there when I needed to think.”

She paused. “Or when things were bothering me. Sometimes looking out at all that vastness helped, because you realize you’re such a small part of what the world is, and you have so much less to worry about than surviv-ing like the crabs.”

Ceci gave a slow nod. “That’s true.” She cocked her head slightly “So you’re a deep thinker, hmm?”

Kerry smiled. “Kind of.” She waggled her hand. “Sometimes.” Her eyes went to the sketch pad. “Ooo, that’s nice.” It was the end of the rock jetty, with a seagull in close-up, its feathers ruffled in the wind. “I feed them crackers when I come by here in the morning.”

“Thanks.” Ceci smiled back, resting her hands on the top of the pad.

She watched Kerry close her eyes and absorb the sunlight for a moment, then cleared her throat. “Did you come down to dabble your toes in the pond, or...”

“Oh. Sorry.” Green eyes appeared, a little sheepish. “Breakfast’s ready.” She stood up and tugged her oversized shirt down. “It’s just such a nice morning.”

“Mmhm.” Ceci gathered her things and hopped off the rocks, then followed Kerry back up the beach. “It’ll be nice to get back in the water,”

she ventured. “Especially on a nice, sunny day like this. The colors are very vivid if you stay close to the surface.”

“Oh, yes.” Kerry turned, her eyes lighting up. “I was on a really shallow reef just across from here not long ago and an entire school of yellow and purple fish rolled right over me. I felt like I was inside a rainbow.”

She held her hands out. “Just beams of light coming down through the water and hitting everything and then these clown fish swam by. It was incredible.”

“Have you seen lobsters?”

“They’re green. I was surprised.” Kerry laughed. “And they’re strong, too. Dar handed me a puffer fish the last time we were down.

Scared the heck out of me for a minute.”

“Did you learn to dive here?” The silver gray eyes watched her curiously. “I guess you did. Not much to see up in the Great Lakes.”

“Dar taught me, yes.” She nodded. “They do have diving up in Michigan, but for one thing, you have to wear dry suits, and for another, I’d be kind of nervous to see what’s at the bottom of Lake Michigan.” They both laughed. “I spent a lot of time sailing on top of it, though.” They entered the back garden and headed up the stairs.

“Me too.” Ceci reached for the door. “We spent summers up there.”

She pulled the door open. “We’ll have to compare notes.”

Kerry smiled. “All right. Let’s do that.” She entered, almost crashing into Dar who was standing right there. “Whoa!” Chino scrambled past her and crouched at Dar’s feet, depositing a piece of driftwood. “Oh, look, she brought you a present.”

“Thanks, Chino.” Dar bent down and picked the wood up. She juggled it as they all walked into the dining room where Andrew was
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sprawled, examining a bit of machinery. Chairs scraped as they took their seats, then the soft clinking of dishes as they served themselves.

Then an awkward little silence fell. Kerry could see the discomfort on Dar’s face and she sighed, having spent her share of meals across a less than cordial table. It wasn’t, she was glad to realize, her problem this time. “Dar, do you think we can dive the shallow reef off the island? I want to try out my new camera.”

“Sure.” Dar gave her a pathetically grateful look as she buttered her toast. “Did you get film? I have a light you can use.”

“With the sun, I hope I won’t need it,” Kerry replied, busying herself with her eggs.

“Should always carry a light. You kin get lost real easy down there,”

Andrew commented around a mouthful. “Get people thinking you’re a fish.”

Dar almost snorted her coffee. “Nah. Long as I’ve been diving, I’ve yet to see a phosphorescent pink and yellow fish with blue gear and a bright red tank.”

Andrew looked at Kerry in aghast shock, then at his daughter. “Ye’re joking.”

The dark head shook back and forth. “Nope. Wait till you see the flippers. Trust me. I can spot her at forty fathoms.”

“Lord.”

“I was going to get those neat neon tracer lights around my BC, but Dar convinced me the weight of the power pack wasn’t worth it,” Kerry added, with a straight face.

Andrew covered his eyes, getting a chuckle from his wife. “Oh mah god.” He peeked at Kerry. “Pink?”

“Hey.” Kerry waved a fork at him. “I’m a girl. I’m allowed to wear pink if I want to.” She glanced at Dar. “At least it’s better than my karate gi. That got pink because I accidentally washed Chino’s collar with it.”

Ceci covered her mouth, as her shoulders shook.

Dar cleared her throat, then took a sip of coffee, feeling the atmosphere relax considerably.
Okay.
She let her thoughts settle.
Maybe this
was doable after all. They were okay. Kerry was doing fine, and Mom’s...
She got caught looking across the table, meeting gray eyes that locked with hers for a split second, then dropped.

Mmm.

I can do this.
She felt a hand reach for hers under the table, and met it, tangling her fingers with Kerry.

We can do this.

THEY WENT TO the marina in Dar’s golf cart, which she only barely wrested from her father’s clutches. Their gear was already stowed on board, so they had only the fresh food from the market and their beach bags to bring over the gangplank, as the sturdy boat rocked gently in the morning air.

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Andrew picked up the bags and edged down into the cabin with them, as Ceci gazed around curiously at the well appointed Bertram.

“Nice.” Her eyes flicked briefly to Dar, who was checking the various things on the console.

“It’s a little much,” Dar commented absently. “We fit the back there with a fold down ladder and a hook for diving.” She peered down. “You untying us?”

“Got it.” Kerry had loosened the front rope and was climbing around to the second, unlashing it and jumping on board. “Go for it, Dar.”

Dar started the engines and trimmed them, cocking her head to listen as she adjusted the throttles. She liked the big boat, actually. It had power to spare and enough luxury that she could appreciate the on board shower and the refrigerator after a long day of diving. She and Kerry often took advantage of the compact bed, then brought out a few candles, and ate a cold dinner by their light, under the blanket of stars overhead.

She backed slowly out, then swung the bow around and edged her way through the marina, which was starting to stir as other boat owners got the same idea from the beautiful, almost cloudless weather. A light breeze picked up and pushed her hair back and she exhaled, determined to enjoy the day as much as possible.

CECI FINISHED HER tour around the upper deck and descended into the cabin, breathing in a rich scent of polished wood and salt. She paused just inside and her eyes roamed the small, but neatly arranged space and she found herself nodding. “I like this.”

“Whole lotta extra doo dads and whatnot,” Andrew replied, from where he’d set down the bags and stowed them. “Half expected t’find a damn computer set up in here last time.”

Ceci chuckled and wandered past him, examining the compact kitchen with interest, then poking her head in the tiny bedroom, and it’s functional, if cramped bathroom. “This is adorable, Andy. I can’t picture May paddling around in it, but it’s nice.”

“Huh.” Andrew put the basket down on the counter and opened a cabinet, finding a tape player inside. “Figgers. Go out to the best natural entertainment on God’s earth and y’gotta drag along one of these.” He turned. “And you tell me what need there is for a damn refrigerator?”

Ceci opened it, then peeked inside the small freezer.

“Cooler’s good enough for sandwiches. Damn thing’s a waste of power. I surely don’t know what the devil that woman was thinking of.”

“There’s chocolate ice cream in here,” his wife mentioned. “Does that qualify as a good reason?”

Andy leaned over the counter and looked. “Huh.” He gave her a squinty-eyed glare. “Ah think that is a loaded question, Mrs. Roberts.”

They smiled, then Andy fiddled with a piece of tie down and chewed his lower lip. “This all right with you?” His eyes encompassed the boat and its other occupants.

Cecilia paused, then nodded. “It’s hard.” She lowered her voice. “I know Dar’s uncomfortable. I think I am too, but we have to start somewhere.” She looked around. “Besides. We all love doing this—we’ll get through it all right, Andy.”

“Right.”

“You know, I really like Kerry,” Ceci offered, a touch hesitantly.

“She’s a nice person.”

“Yeap. Me too.” Andy seemed uncomfortable for a moment.

“Reminds me…um…don’t get shocked or nothing, but she calls me dad.”

He glanced up at his wife, who blinked in surprise. “Family means a lot 238
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to her. Didn’t see no harm in it.”

“No, no of course not,” Ceci murmured. “I’m sure that whole issue with her parents bothers her.” She felt a curious sympathy for Kerry, almost a kinship, having gone through more or less the same gauntlet when she’d married Andrew.

Though her family had never disowned her. Not that it would have mattered—not then and not now—she’d refused all their overtures, all their proffered help, all their mock sympathy during the struggles they’d gone through over the years, preferring to work through the rough spots on her own.

A matter of pride, really.

Only after Andrew was gone and nothing mattered anymore, had she taken what was offered, letting their smug sympathy wash past her.

“It’s so strange, Andy. Even after what I did to Dar, I can still stand here and wonder how they could just…turn their backs on her simply for being in love with the wrong person.”

“Wrong person?” Andy’s eyebrows rose.

“You know what I mean.” She showed a faint smile. “I don’t think it’s the wrong person, but from their viewpoint, it must seem like that.”

“No excuse.” The square jaw moved. “Yer folks didn’t take a cotton to me cause I’m a Southern Baptist hick from the swamp with less education than the family dog.” He pointed up the small set of stairs. “Dar ain’t none of that.”

“I know, Andy.” Ceci put a hand on his arm. “But not everyone’s as accepting as you are.”

“Damn fool idiots,” he muttered. “Ain’t got the sense God gave a gopher, or they’d realize if’n they were lucky enough to find someone t’care about them like those two do for each other…” He paused. “Or like I do fer you. What the hell difference does them body parts make?” He was upset and it showed. “I’d like to...” He paused and sighed. “It ain’t right.”

Ceci chafed his fingers. “My crusader.” She lifted his hand and brushed her lips against it. “I’m glad Kerry decided to call you dad.”

He scowled.

“You’re such a good one.”

The scowl deepened.

“C’mon. Let’s go up on deck.” Ceci moved out from behind the counter and tugged his hand. “Where are we going, anyway?”

“Dar’s island.” Andy straightened and followed her. “Nice little place. Sand, few trees ’bout it.” He put a hand on her back. “Had their little joiny thing out there.”

Ceci stopped in mid step. “Their what?”

Her husband paused uncertainly. “Got together, few friends of theirs, and some pastor guy Kerry knew back home. He said a few things.

You know, like a wedding, sort of, but not…um…” He faltered as he saw her expression. “I got pictures if you’d like t’see them?”

The slim woman’s shoulders dropped a little, but she resumed her
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climb. “Sure. I’d like that.” She felt an irrational pang of loss, at missing an event that never in her wildest dreams occurred to her would happen.

“Sounds like it was nice.”

They emerged into the sun, then glanced up to see Kerry standing on the flying bridge next to Dar, one arm draped casually over her and her head resting on a tanned shoulder. The wind whipped dark and pale hair back, tangling it as the boat raced out of the cut, and headed into the Atlantic.

“Yeah,” Andy replied softly. “It was. Kerry said this real nice poem she had. Then Dardar sang something. I liked it.”

“Is she a poet?”

“Yeap. But she don’t talk much about it.” Andy cleared his throat a little. “Hey. Don’t you two fall asleep up thar.”

Two heads turned. “We’re not.” Kerry smiled, detaching herself from her taller companion. “We’ll be out by the reef in about ten minutes.

Time to check gear, I guess.” She clambered down to join them and went to the equipment lockers on either side of the stern. “We keep our stuff on board mostly.”

“It ain’t really pink...” Andy ambled over and looked down. “Oh mah god.” He clapped a hand over his eyes. “You will scare every living thing for a nautical mile with that stuff on.”

“Tch. I do not.” Kerry pulled her BC and regulator out and the thin half wetsuit she used. “Fish love me. I can’t get rid of them, in fact.” She gave Ceci a shy look. “Did you get everything you needed? We’ve got some extra stuff if you didn’t.”

“Ah, no.” Cecilia opened the next locker and tugged at the handles of a new, fairly well stuffed dive bag. “I think Andy covered just about everything. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve got enough equipment here to dive the Antarctic.”

“Ah did not.” Andy took the bag from her and swung it over to the deck. “You are surely exaggerating.” He unfastened the grips and unzipped it, exposing a new set of diving gear. “Nothin’ extra there.”

Kerry knelt beside him. “What’s this?”

“Multi range depth gauge.”

“Um. We’re diving a twenty foot deep reef, Dad.”

“That is not the point, young lady.”

“Uh huh.” Kerry poked around. “What’s this?”

“Spear gun.”

“In case of dangerous clown fish?”

“You can not be too prepared in the sea,” Andy stated firmly.