Eye of the Storm

Chapter

Forty-eight

“MORNING, MARÍA.“ DAR poked her head through the office door, feeling a little strange after being gone for over a week.

The secretary looked up, then beamed at her. “Buenos días, Dar. It is so good to see you again.” She stood up and came around her desk as Dar entered, then paused, obviously stopping herself in some action and folded her hands in front of her. “I am glad you are back.”

Dar came over to her and managed to feel only slightly awkward as she gave María a hug. “Thanks.” She received an enthusiastic response, as the smaller woman hugged her back, then she released her and ran her fingers through noticeably sun-lightened hair. “It’s good to be back. But I had a great time.”

“I can see that you did.” María smiled warmly. “You are so tan. You had nice weather, I know.”

Dar stuck her hands in her pockets and nodded. “We sure did. So what’s going on here this morning?” she asked casually. “I think I processed through most of the things in my inbox over the weekend. Wasn’t anything major in there.”

“It is quiet, yes,” María agreed. “Mark is saying that with the new network, there is much less problems.” She looked proudly at Dar. “This is your fault, yes?”

Dar chuckled. “My fault. Eyah. I guess you could say that.”

“There is many calls from the newspapers and twice they came here, but the security would not let them come in,” María advised her. “You are famous, I think. My husband taped all the times you were on the television. We showed them to my family when they were over for dinner this weekend.”

“My parents did too,” Dar admitted, with a smile. “I finally saw it last night. Thought the first one went pretty well, but I wasn’t fond of the second.” She glanced around. “I’d better get to work. I think I’ve got three conference calls scheduled this morning.”

“Sí. You do.” María nodded. “Is Kerrisita here?” She leaned closer.

“You know what day tomorrow is, yes?”

Blue eyes twinkled. “Of course.” Dar grinned. “Kerry’s living in fear.

She thinks I’m going to have a male stripper delivered to her office.”

“Tch.” María looked shocked. “You are not, surely?”

Eye of the Storm 445

“No,” Dar reassured her. “She’s trying to play down her birthday, though. How did she put it? She’s gotten enough bad press in the last few weeks?”

María grinned at her. Dar grinned back and then she ambled into her office, pausing as she cleared the door to appreciate the sunlit view of the ocean. “Nice.” She circled her desk and said hello to her fish, who blew bubbles at her, then swam in expectant circles as she got the food jar out and gave them a sprinkle. “Hey, guys. Didja miss me?”

The fish waved feathery fins at her as she sat down in her comfortable leather chair and leaned back. Glad of the tall chair’s sturdy support.

The diving had been great, but she’d overdone it the last two days and her back was feeling very cranky with her.

Maybe the tandem parasailing wasn’t the best idea I’d ever come up with.

Dar leaned her chin on her hand as she waited for her PC to boot. But damn, Kerry’d had such a blast. The phone buzzed and she slapped lazily at it. “Yes?”

“Dar, I have Mr. Alastair on número uno,” María told her.

“Sure.” Dar hit the other button. “Morning, Alastair.”

“Morning Dar. You up for a teleconference?” Alastair’s voice was cheerful. “Didn’t see you logged on, so…”

“Yeah, hang on.” Dar logged into the system and started up the network meeting software. “Go ahead.”

A moment later, the black window cleared, and she was looking at Alastair’s round, freshly scrubbed face. He wore his usual starched white shirt and sober navy blue tie, with its company tie clasp. His eyes shifted to his monitor, slightly off to one side. “Boy. You got some sun, huh?”

Dar leaned back in her chair and rested her elbows on the arms of it.

“Sun, sand, water. I didn’t go to Key West to snow ski, Alastair.”

The CEO chuckled. “No, I suppose not. Well, you look great. Really relaxed.” He watched Dar nod. “Good.”

“Uh oh,” Dar drawled.

“Now, Dar. What makes you think I’ve got bad news?” The blue gray eyes twinkled. “C’mon. You’ve had a nice, relaxing week, no stress, no frantic phone calls. No urgent emails.”

A dark brow lifted.

“All right. We’re planning a recap and strategy session tomorrow for the stockholder’s meeting. Remember you’re our main presenter this quarter.” Her boss relented. “I had a very interesting pow-wow with several of the senior board members on Friday. Seems they’re now finding you sort of intriguing.”

Dar rolled her eyes.

“You didn’t tell me your father was so highly decorated either, Dar, or that your mother was a critically well known artist. Erlich was sniffing around, saying how it was great timing to put your bio in this year’s company yearbook, so he dug out the files on you and your parents. Quite the family you are.”

Dar sighed.

446 Melissa Good

“Nothing to be ashamed of,” Alastair told her mildly. “It’s just great press.”

Dar leaned forward. “So what about the part where I’m gay?”

Her boss shrugged. “Do you want to make it an issue? I never pictured you as a crusader for gay rights, Dar.” He studied her. “In fact, I don’t think you ever personally mentioned it to me. I mean sure, we heard rumors, and there was that whole mess with Elena Nechovia, but…”

Dar shrugged.

“Of course, you never mentioned anything personal about yourself. I mean, you could have actually had three heads and sixteen children by a Tibetan yak, and I’d never have known.” Alastair now sounded a bit peeved.

“I have an ‘if you ask, I’ll tell’ policy,” Dar remarked dryly. “You never asked.” She glanced up as María entered with a small tray and set a gently steaming cup on the desk along with a plate of pastries. She winked at María and gave her a tiny wave, as the secretary waggled her fingers back and left. Dar picked up the cup and sipped from it. “I’ll pencil in the meeting. What time is it?”

“Four-thirty our time,” her boss stated. “Good. I’m looking forward to it. Maríana has been giving the press what details they wanted about you, by the way.”

Dar looked distinctly alarmed.

Alastair grinned and waggled his fingers. “Bye.”

“Hold it, hold it.” Dar held a hand up. “Listen. I’m going to go ahead with that project of mine today. Is that still fine with you?”

Alastair considered thoughtfully. “Well, we discussed it at the board meeting. I don’t see any problem with it, no.” He paused. “Is it on my worklist?”

Dar nodded.

“Hang on.” Alastair pecked at his keyboard for a minute. “Wh—oh, that. No, no, no. No, no. What, are you kidding? No, no…ah.” He rested his chin in his hand and read the screen intently, then flicked a gaze towards the camera. “Did you write this?”

“Partly.”

“Nice job,” her boss complimented. “All right, go ahead with it, but let’s not make a press announcement until the stockholder’s meeting. It would be a little on the sensational side right at the moment.”

Dar nodded. “Will do.”

“MS. KERRY, HERE are the reports you asked for. Is there anything else I can get you?” Mayte put the folders down and gazed at her boss.

Kerry tugged one over and opened it. “No. That’ll do for now. I’ve got to make the decisions on who’s going to migrate to the new network first, and every single account manager is giving me a sob story over why they should be put on the top of the list.” She glanced over her shoulder Eye of the Storm 447

towards the window, with its late afternoon shading. “Thank goodness it’s been quiet here today. Haven’t heard a peep out of anyone in an hour.”

Mayte scratched her ear. “Um, yeah. I was going to get some hot tea.

You want some?”

“Sure.”

Mayte eased out of the office, leaving her in the quiet of the big room. Kerry leaned back and stifled a yawn, reflecting on the fact that though she had a fantastic time on vacation, it was nice to be back here.

She slid down in her leather chair and carefully turned the cuffs on her silk shirt up another fold, gazing down at her stockinged feet under her desk. She looked up as a little gopher popped up on her screen and chit-tered at her. “Hey!” She chased after it with her mouse pointer, but it scuttled behind a window, and peeked out at her, poking its tongue out.

“How in the hell does she do that?”

The little gopher program was one of Dar’s and she frequently amused herself by changing it around and sending it over to pester Kerry. The animal was cute, with a snub face, and little black button nose, and the neatest thing was, every time he was different.

Today, GopherDar was wearing a tiny surfer outfit, complete with flip flops and wraparound sunglasses, and he proceeded to dance a hula across the bottom of her screen while she giggled in pure reaction. “You are sooo twisted.” She popped up a netmessage screen and typed exactly that in and sent it over to her boss’ computer.

Her phone rang and she hit the button, half expecting it to be Dar, but saw it was an outside line. “Operations, Kerry Stuart speaking.”

“Hey girl!” Colleen’s voice rang through the speaker. “How is it, being back there after a week in paradise?”

“After four days in Hell?” Kerry inquired wryly. “It’s nice. I’m tired as heck, since I’ve been busting my butt all day trying to catch up to everything, but I’m starting to make a dent in the piles. What’s up with you?”

“Busy making copies of videotapes for everybody you know,” Colleen answered smugly. “You rocked in those hearings, Ker. We were all so proud of you.”

Kerry blinked in surprise. “Really?” The office had been conspicuously quiet on the subject. In fact, she’d gotten the idea all day she was being slightly avoided. People had stopped talking when she came into view and she suspected she’d been the topic of some very juicy gossip for the whole week. “I just answered what he asked. They were pissing me off though.”

“No kidding,” Colleen said. “So, listen. What are your plans for tomorrow? You up for a little party?”

Kerry sighed. “Not really, Col, no,” she answered honestly. “It’s just been such a weird few weeks. I’d kinda like to keep a low profile for a while on a personal level. Dar and I were just going to go out to dinner or something like that.”

448 Melissa Good

“Awwww.” Colleen drew the word out. “Keeerrryyy. C’mon. That’s not fair. We haven’t seen you for weeks and weeks. We weren’t going to cater the Queen Mary, just a few of us.”

True. Kerry rubbed her eyes. “Yeah. Um, I know, Col. I know.” Would it hurt? “How about Wednesday? I have to take it really easy at the gym because of my shoulder. Maybe we could all go out afterward?”

“Mmmph.” Colleen sounded mildly mollified. “Yeah, that’d be okay.

How about Dave and Busters? We can have dinner and play some pool.”

Hmm. Kerry perked up. “Yeah, you know, that sounds like fun.”

Mindless electronic entertainment, good food, a few beers... “Good plan. Hey, you feel like coming over tonight? I’ve got a ton of pictures to show you.”

“You bet.” Now Colleen sounded pleased. “Y’know, Ker, we were really, really worried about you.”

Kerry smiled a little. “Thanks. It was an awful time up there.” She shifted and leaned against the desk. “If Dar hadn’t been there with me, I don’t know what I would have done. She was so there for me.” She chuckled. “Not to mention her folks. You know Mrs. Roberts introduced herself to my parents as my mother-in-law?”

“Ohmigod.”

“Yeah. She’s such a trip,” Kerry agreed.

“What was that all about with your father giving Dar and her dad those medals?” came the curious question. “Was that like, for real?”

Kerry shook her head, even though Colleen couldn’t see it. “I wish I could say yeah. That was his way of getting as close to an apology as he’s capable of. But honestly? I think he just did it for the good press.”

“Mmm.”

“It was great for him. Here he is, national spotlight, handing out medals. That’s why they had to postpone those hearings. His public approval rating went through the roof. They saw him in that window and they think he’s wonderful.” Kerry’s voice held a bitter tone and she knew it. “If they only knew. Andy had to practically kick him in the ass to get him to help out.”

“Wow,” Colleen murmured. “Hey, tell me all about it tonight. I’ll pick up a six pack of Corona. Okay?”

“You’re on.” Kerry smiled as she hung up, swiveling as her inner door opened. “Hey, look. It’s GopherMom.” She snapped a rubber band at her boss. “You are so out there sometimes.”

Dar sauntered over, hitched up her skirt, and perched on the edge of Kerry’s desk. “Just proving I can still put out a little code if I have to,” she drawled. “How was your day? I haven’t seen you since nine. I’ve been pretty buried myself.”

Kerry lifted a hand and indicated her full outbox. “I’m about half caught up. I was digging through all the facilities requests today, sorting them, trying to find an equitable way to move people to your new net.

Fielding questions from every single account manager we’ve got practically.” She patted Dar’s nearby knee. “You caused me so much work, Boss.”

Eye of the Storm 449

The outer office door opened and Mayte came in with a steaming cup. “Oh,” she paused, when she saw Dar, “I’m sorry. I can…”

“Nah.” Dar waved her in. “I was just getting a status report.”

The slim girl smiled, then deposited the cup on Kerry’s desk. It was a dark, fragrant brew, and Kerry sniffed it appreciatively before she took a sip. “Oh wow. This is nice. Blackberry?”

“Sí.” Mayte blushed a little. “I saw you liked that.” She lifted her eyes and met Dar’s, then cleared her throat. “I am going to drop off the mail, then go home. Unless you need something else?”

“Nope. Go on.” Kerry leaned back, both hands cradled around the mug. “I’m going to finish up here, then head home myself.” Her assistant left, closing the door softly behind her, and she sighed.

“Tired?” Dar asked.

“A little.” Kerry flexed her arm. “My shoulder’s aching. I don’t want to take those muscle relaxants until I get home though. They put me out like a light.” She studied Dar. “And it’s been a little weird here today. I kinda get a creepy feeling people are avoiding me.”

“I think you’re imagining things.”

“No, I’m not. When I walk through the halls, people used to say hi, make small talk.” Kerry gazed at her desktop. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re wondering what kind of person would do what I did.” Then she shrugged it off. “Anyway…or maybe I’m just overly sensitive.” She glanced up at Dar. “Col’s coming over. I wanted to show her my pictures and the stuff we brought back and give her the present I got her.” Dar nodded. “She and the gang coerced me into going to D and B’s on Wednesday. You up for that?”

Dar straightened her back a little and winced. “Not skeeball, but yeah, that sounds okay.” She cupped both hands around one knee. “I had a visit from Gerry Easton today.”

“Really?”

“Mmm. Yeah. He had a very interesting proposal,” Dar said. “He’s gotten approval to contract us to provide high level consulting services to the Navy.” She shifted. “To review all their processes, systems, and procedures and recommend, procure, and implement technological improve-ments.”

Kerry’s eyes widened. “Wow. That must be huge.”

Dar slowly nodded. “His one condition was,” she chuckled, “I head it up.”

“Big surprise there,” her lover remarked. “Wow. What do you think about that?”

“I think,” Dar got up and walked over to the window, pressed her fingertips against it and looked out, “I think I’m very, very intrigued.”

She turned. “Means I’ll have to travel a bit but most of the analysis can be done from here.” A bright, interested look came into her eyes.

“Do you get to go out to the ships and stuff?” Kerry asked, folding her arms. “Like to the aircraft carriers and those things?”

Dar nodded.

450 Melissa Good

“Ooo, that does sound interesting. Can I help?”

Dar gave another nod. “You bet. I wrote up the prospectus and sent it up to Alastair. He approved it in nothing flat.”

“Wow.” Kerry exhaled. “I’m glad. I know you were looking for another project to do. This sounds right up your alley.” Her speaker buzzed. “Operations, Stuart.”

“Kerry? This is Eleanor,” the Marketing VP announced crisply. “I have a conference call on with all the regional managers regarding the new network and I can’t find Dar. Can you please come down and join us, so I can get a coherent explanation of the new system?”

Kerry rubbed her neck and sighed, giving Dar a plaintive look.

Her boss shrugged and held up both hands. “You’d do it better than I would anyway,” she whispered.

“Yeah, yeah.” She shifted a little. “Okay, Eleanor. I’ll be right there.

Where are you, anyway?”

“The big presentation room. Can you come down now?” The VP

sounded impatient.

The big presentation room? Kerry’s brows knit together. What on earth was the woman doing in that huge place all be herself? “Uh, sure.” She at looked Dar in confusion. “Was the conferencing bridge broken in the executive center?”

“It was booked.” Eleanor drummed her fingers impatiently. “Anything else?”

“No. I’ll be right down.” Kerry released the call. “I can just picture it.

That cavernous room. She probably just likes to hear her voice in there.”

“Probably,” Dar agreed amiably. “Well, I better let you go. I’m going to finish up some stuff in my office. Catch you when you’re done?” She patted Kerry’s arm.

“Sure.” Kerry stood and shrugged into her jacket, lifting the collar of her silk shirt above the lapel. “This shouldn’t take long. ‘More pipes, bigger pipes, faster service, better network,’ right?”

“Right,” Dar agreed, clapping her on the back. “Go get ’em, tiger.”

Kerry gave her a bemused look, then turned and went to the door, opened it, and slipped out into a quiet hallway.

KERRY LEANED AGAINST the back wall of the elevator, watching the floors change slowly. That new project of Dar’s really sounds neat, her mind mused. I’m glad. A smile crept over her face, as she realized just how glad she was that something had come along to keep her boss’ interest, since she really had no desire to see Dar leave the company any time soon.

Part of that was very selfish, she acknowledged. She liked having the security of Dar’s presence down the hall and the benefit of her experience and knowledge. Not that Dar would refuse to answer her questions even if she weren’t part of the company, but still.

Yeah. She was glad.

Eye of the Storm 451

The doors opened on the tenth floor, and she walked out, turned right, and went down the long hallway. “Boy, it’s quiet,” she commented, hearing the faintest of echoes. The late afternoon sunlight painted the occasional stripe from the offices she passed, but only a muted buzz of the phone system broke the silence as she continued through the marketing area towards the big presentation room.

She was pretty sure the company’d be glad Dar was sticking around too. After what she’d achieved so far this year, the moaning and whining had subsided to less than nothing, and even José and Eleanor seemed a lot happier. Sales were up, the new network was the talk of the industry.

Heck, they should throw Dar a freaking party.

Kerry paused before the conference room door and straightened her jacket, then ran her fingers through her hair. Eleanor tended to have teleconferencing running, and who the hell knew who she had on the big screen? She put her hand on the door latch and pushed down, then pulled the door open and walked inside.

“SURPRISE!” A roar greeted her.

Kerry stopped dead in her tracks, shocked beyond speech. The entire of the huge room was filled with colorful banners, balloons, confetti, and lots, and lots of people.

Hundreds of them, it seemed.

Cheering and coming towards her, with flashbulbs going off and laughter. To one side, a huge table was set up, with a cake, and bowls of chips, on the other side were chafing dishes of something hot or other.

Kerry managed to get her jaw closed and she blinked, as Maríana reached her and patted her arm. “Oh my god.”

“You all right?” The Personnel VP laughed. “Happy birthday!”

On cue, everyone started singing with the usual success that a group of unrelated non-singers had.

At least it gave her a minute to start breathing again, Kerry realized, as a belated flush darkened her skin and her mind finally acknowledged exactly what had happened.

They’d given her a surprise party.

Wow. Kerry sucked in air, and looked around in amazement, finally finding a pair of twinkling blue eyes near the back of the room, just watching her. “Wow,” she managed to say. “I’m…uh…”

“Freaked,” Mark supplied helpfully. “Man, what a facial expression.” He held up his digital camera. “Happy birthday, Kerry.”

Kerry rubbed her face. “Oh my god.” She laughed helplessly, as they closed in on her, and hands touched her arm and patted her back. “Wow.

I have no idea what to say here.” Laughter. “I’ve never had a surprise party before. Thank you, guys. This is amazing.” A smile spread across her face. “Totally amazing.”

Then she spotted Colleen lurking in the back and she put her hands on her hips. “Hey. Waitaminute.” She pointed at her friend. “Didn’t I just talk to you?”

Colleen held up her cell phone and grinned, then pointed. “I brought 452 Melissa Good the Corona.” She came over. “Sorry, Ker. I know you wanted to be low key but…”

“Well,” Kerry looked around and laughed helplessly, “so much for that. At least I didn’t have to plan it all.”

“Nope,” Colleen agreed, clapping her on the shoulder. “Vacation did you good, Ker. You look great. Look at that tan, wouldja?”

Kerry ran her fingers through her hair a touch self-consciously.

“Yeah. I scared myself in the mirror this morning.” She joked. “It was great though. We had a fantastic week.”

“About time,” her friend told her firmly. “G’wan and enjoy the party.” Colleen gave her a little bump.

A buzz of voices surrounded her and Kerry just shook her head, moving further into the room and murmuring thank yous to people who came up to wish her a happy birthday. She wandered over near the cake and glanced at it, then laughed uncontrollably. “Oh my god. Who did that?”

The frosting was ocean blue and green and someone had, somehow, crafted an entire darn tropical reef, complete with little fish and what looked like a lobster. It was gorgeous. “I can’t eat this,” she yelped. “Look at that angel fish. It’s almost real.”

A soft throat clearing caught her ear and she turned to see Dar standing behind her, reviewing the cake diffidently. “My mother is gonna be really ticked off if you don’t at least try it.”

“Your…” Kerry glanced at the cake, then back at Dar. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it.”

Dar chuckled.

“Can’t believe what? That she has a mother?” Eleanor gave Dar a sweet smile. “We couldn’t either.”

“No, no. I’ve met her mother. But…” Kerry laughed and just shook her head. “Thanks, guys. This is incredible.” She stole a tortilla, scooped up some salsa, and munched on it as everyone mingled and grabbed food and drinks. “And you,” she muttered in a very low voice to Dar, “are so busted.”

“Ah, ah. Not me.” Dar shook her head solemnly. “I found out about it when I got back to Miami. I had nothing to do with this.”

Kerry pointed mutely at the cake and lifted her brows.

Dar shrugged. “Apparently they found out this was going on and Mom offered.”

“Ahem. Excuse me folks.” Maríana had taken control of the mike at the nearby podium. She tapped the mike for effect, making a squeal as her nails hit the screen grid. “Whoops.”

“Hey Mari, maybe we can find a geek somewhere around here to help you with that.”

The Personnel VP shaded her eyes with one hand and made a production of scanning the audience intently. “Don’t see any here.”

A round of laughter echoed.

“Anyway,” Maríana cleared her throat, “as a representative of com-Eye of the Storm 453

pany management I just wanted to wish Kerry a happy birthday.”

Cheers. “And to welcome her back after her vacation.”

“Thanks,” Kerry said from where she’d just cornered a Corona and taken a sip of it. “This is really nice and I’m amazed at the effort you guys put into it.”

Cheers.

“Ahem.” Mari regained control of the audience. “As long as we’re all hanging around here, I might as well take the opportunity to give Kerry her official birthday present from ILS.” She held up a small, thin item wrapped in gold paper, with a blue bow, and tiny, embossed company logos all over it.

Everyone quieted and turned to watch as Kerry, visibly blushing again, put her drink down and walked forward to take it gingerly from Mari’s hands. “Um…thanks. I didn’t expect anything from the company.”

“Well, sometimes we just have these things lying around. So…” Mari shrugged and leaned on the podium. “Go on and open it.”

Dar moved silently up behind Kerry and stood there watching, her hands folded in front of her.

“Well,” Kerry peered around, obviously embarrassed, “I mean, okay, sure.” She cleared her throat and carefully removed the ribbon. “Oh, isn’t that cute?” She admired the embossed logos, then tucked the ribbon under her arm and continued opening the wrapping.

It was a very flat, heavy something, whatever it was, and she found her curiosity piqued, trying to imagine what it was. A base for her PC? A paperweight for her desk? A bookend? She peeled the tape off and eased the wrapping back, very aware of the expectant silence around her. A hint of brassy metal appeared and she opened the other side of the paper, then flipped it over and exposed the front.

She blinked three times.

Vice President of Operations, Kerrison Stuart.

“Urk.” Kerry uttered a tiny noise, then her knees unlocked and she almost went crashing to the ground in pure surprise. A powerful hand gripped her arm and held her up, and she just swayed, glad of Dar’s close presence. “Oh boy,” she whispered, “I wasn’t expecting this.”

José cleared his throat and stepped forward, sticking a hand out to her. “Congratulations, Kerry. I am glad you will be on the team with us.”

Kerry returned his grip, as a rush of blood returned to her head after her heart seemingly stopped for a minute. “Thank you.” Holy bleep. She and Dar had discussed the possibility, sure. When Dar had given her that damn evaluation, and she’d agreed that it looked like she felt comfortable with it but…

After what she’d gone through in Washington, she’d figured that was on indefinite hold.

“Yes, congratulations, Kerry, for a purely selfish reason, of course.”

Eleanor also shook her hand. “You have no idea how much more pleasant you’ve made my work here.” She gave Dar a smile over Kerry’s shoulder.

“Not to mention you freed up the uber-nerd here to finish our new net-454 Melissa Good work.”

“Um, thanks, I think,” Kerry murmured.

Duks was next, studiously patting her shoulder. “Do not worry that you have big shoes to fill, Kerry.”

“I wasn’t.” Kerry chuckled. “Thanks. I’m glad I’ll get a chance to work more with you guys.”

“Congratulations.” Maríana now smiled at her. “It was well deserved.”

“Hey Kerry.” Mark snapped yet another picture. “This is gonna look great on the front page of the department newsletter.”

Kerry winced. “C’mon. I must be as red as a lobster.”

“We’ll just tell ’em it’s sunburn,” the MIS Chief replied cheerfully.

“Hold the plaque up, huh?”

Dar settled back against the wall, enjoying her partner’s position in the very center of the spotlight. Kerry’s smile just kept getting bigger and bigger, and Dar felt a distinct sense of pleasure as she listened to the crowd’s comments and watched them cluster around the new VP, chattering and congratulating.

Yeah. It was a pretty damn good day after all. She snagged a Frito and scooped up some chili dip.