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“To hell with it. I’ll think of something if she starts asking questions again.” She glanced sideways. “Unless you think I should.”
    “Nope. That sounds good to me,” Dar responded immediately.
    ”C’mon, let’s go get slurped.” She got out and took her bag, then waited for Kerry to join her before she trotted up the stairs and keyed the door open.They ducked inside and turned the lights on. Kerry dropped her bag on the couch and continued on into the kitchen towards the utility room, which was issuing shrill yelps. ”Okay...okay Chino. Take it easy.”
    She unlatched the gate, and let the three month old Labrador puppy out. ”Did you miss us?”
    The puppy scrambled up her leg, hopping up and down until she picked her up and cuddled her. ”Hey.” Kerry laughed as the pink tongue got her neck. ”Hey...no nibbling!” The sharp little teeth nipped her skin, as she glanced into the puppy’s area. ”You were a good girl, were’ntcha!”
    Dar wandered over, and the puppy whined, wiggling towards her.
    ”Hey, puppy.”

    24
    Melissa Good
    ”All right, all right, here.” Kerry turned her over. ”Go. I know who your favorite is. Look, Dar, she was a good girl all day.”
    Dar suffered a nose nibble, and peered into the room. ”Hey, look at that. Good girl,” she praised Chino. ”Getting resident services to come and let her out twice during the day was a good idea, huh?”
    ”You bet,” Kerry agreed. ”Want to take her for a walk while I get dinner up?” She watched indulgently as Dar scratched Chino’s chin, the little tag on her collar which bore her name and their address jingled softly as she moved. ”Dar?”
    ”Hmm?” The executive glanced up. ”Oh, right, sorry.” She kissed the puppy on the head. ”C’mon, Chino, let’s go out, see if you’ll piddle for me, huh?” She slipped out the back door and down the patio steps into the moonlit grassy area.
    Kerry had to laugh, as she rinsed her hands off. ”No one at work would believe hearing that.” She shook head wryly. Dar had proven to be an extremely soft touch when it came to their little addition, and Chino had learned all it took to get a puppy biscuit was a pair of soulful brown eyes, and a tiny paw.
    She’d find Dar, and sit next to her, raising the paw up and patting Dar’s leg with it, and the well trained human would immediately produce an Iams biscuit which Chino would crunch contentedly.
    It was cute in the extreme, and Kerry loved watching her intimidating lover turn into a blue eyed puddle over Chino’s admittedly adorable ways.
    She put up the satay and some rice and added some fresh green beans to the steamer. ”That’ll do.” She dusted her hands off and retrieved her bag, glancing around the living room with a sense of quiet satisfaction.
    At one time it had seemed very sterile to her, but since she’d moved in, she’d coaxed some personal items out of Dar, and added her own stuff to it resulting in a warmer and more cheerful atmosphere.
    The room now included some prints they’d picked out at the Grove Art Festival, a colorful native woven blanket that was draped over the central table, and a brass sculpture of dolphins and waves sitting in the middle of it. On the entertainment center, once barren of anything but a little dust, there were pictures of her and of Dar at various ages, and one of them together that always made Kerry smile when she looked at it.
    She walked over and picked it up, both of them staring back at her sprawled on the couch pretty much in each other’s laps. “What this picture didn’t kick off.” She shook her head. “Good thing I got it back before I left home.”
    Kerry set the picture back down and trotted up the stairs, dropping her laptop off in her office and continuing on to her room.
    She still had to run that through her head when she walked in, as the spacious vaulted ceiling and the wide glass doors that opened out onto the Atlantic Ocean hit her eyes. It was the