Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) (31 page)

“What are we going to do, plug our ears?”
Krista asked.

“Speak in Spanish,” Dean suggested.

“I speak Spanish,” Georgie intoned.

“Me, too,” Donald said. “I am taking classes
with my kids.”

“Then speak French,” Dean altered.

“I speak French,” Krista volunteered.

“
Un peu.”
Sean chuckled.

“More than a little!” Krista shot back at
him.

Sean smirked.

“Well, speak in muffled tones behind a tree,
then, if you don’t want to be heard,” Dean said with a smile and a
sigh.

“New York did not get through the top hole,
no,” The ref said, resolute. “They passed their youngest member
through the hole that Mr. McAdams went through. One person did not
finish.”

Krista was about to tally points when they
landed in front of their final challenge. There were a bunch of
extremely tall trees with ropes and contraptions spread throughout.
Sounded great, sure, to an
adventurer
. To a girl afraid of
heights, who didn’t see a way
up
the tree, and also didn’t
see ground under the challenges—
since they were in the
tree-tops
—things were looking dicey. She lost her nerve
immediately.

“I give up.” Krista walked over to a log and
sat down.

“Can’t,” Sean said as he surveyed what was
next.

“I don’t like heights. I don’t feel well. I
am exhausted. I am hated. I don’t fit in. I. Give.
Up!
”

Sean turned around, realizing she was
serious. “Geegee, we need you to finish strong. You can do it.”

All time worst pep-talk.

“You need, you need, you
need
!” Krista
shot back in a snot. She was hungry and tired, the two biggest
enemies of cohesive team work. It was an extremely bad combination
and Sean knew it. She was pushed past her limits, and now he would
have to beguile her in every way he knew to turn her attitude.

Proving his point, she said, “Well, I don’t
care what you need.” Her dialogue was dry, meaning she was hamming
it up for effect. Sean had to thank her desire to continue acting
like a 12-year-old in front of Bob for that one. “You always get
what you want. You always get your man. Everyone bow down, Sean
needs something. Well, guess what? This is what
I
need: To
lay down and die. And here’s what I’ll do for you—let you skip the
burial. You’re welcome.”

“Krista, this is the last hurdle. After this,
either we’ve won or we haven’t. Just one more.” Sean persuaded.

“What part of
I give up
did you miss?
I thought I was pretty clear. Fire me and move on. Bob wins, I
lose. All you men can sleep at night.”

There was a pause as Sean racked his tired
brain for tactics.

Into the din Bob said, “She’s right, we don’t
need her.”

She was tired and hungry, but not yet mad and
unreasonable. Bob had just changed that.

Krista got up so fast her head spun. She
rounded on him. “What did I ever do to you, Robert? Did I screw
your wife in a past life or something? Why are you always down on
me? Do you hate vaginas in your proximity
that much
?”

Bob’s face got purple and he exploded. It was
the show-down each of them longed for, displayed for the whole team
to see, within earshot of god-knew-who.

“What do I hate about you?” Bob said,
stepping toward her with balled fists. “You’re
lazy
! I had
to
work
my way into management. I couldn’t
lay
down
and spread my legs to get where
I
am! You disgust me!”

Krista’s brain flooded with rage. Sean came
over to stop them, but everyone else stood very still. Except
Krista. She took a page out of John Susan’s book after a case of
Red Bull.

“First of all, are you implying that I slept
with Tory? Because he was the one who hired me. Second, are you
implying you’ve ever worked a day in your useless,
good-for-nothing, King-of-all-lazy
life?
Because I have! I
have worked my
ass off
to get where I am. I did two years of
changing
everything
in my sight, including Phil’s job, thank
you very much, to get where I am. I have reduced the company of two
salaries, made processes so much better that the operational
savings is already starting to pour in, and I
always
get my
job done before the due date. Always! You’ve done none of that. You
do your work half assed
all
the
time.
Your employees
think you are useless. All they do all day is play on the Internet.
I’ve beat all odds to get where I am, and-I-am-still-struggling. I
prove myself
constantly
, and I still have it tough. You have
a cake walk compared to me. What the hell are you bitching
about?!”

“Sean made you manager,” Bob retorted
pointedly.

“I became manager after he got hired, okay.
And yes, I screwed his brains out. I liked it. I would do it again.
But-that-was-before-I-even-got-the-job! Two or more years before
he
got the job. Are you implying that I am
so
good
that he quit his old job, convinced Tory to hire him and move him
from San Francisco to L.A., two years later,
just
so he
could make me manager for my services? Is that what you are
implying? Because if you are, you are a real dumb-fuck,
Robert
!”

“Krista, that’s enough,” Sean said
firmly.

Krista froze at Sean’s words. That lasted
long enough to take in Bob’s smug grin. Then she decided that she
didn’t need this job that badly, and turned to Sean slowly. His
eyes widened.

Krista threw her pointer finger at him. “No,
Sean. That
isn’t
enough! You have defended this horse’s ass
the whole time. You’ve let him get away with murder. He does
nothing, misses his deadlines, talks crap about me, talks crap
to
me, is a canker to this team, and you say nothing. I miss
one
detail in a report I did
on top
of what I was
assigned, and you make me drop everything and do it all over.
For-a-detail-you-hadn’t-even-
thought-
of. And this idiot
calls me
LAZY?
That’s rich.”

Krista turned back to Bob with a
whoosh
. The crazy had been let out and now Krista would let
it run its course. “Let me tell you something else,
Robert
.”
She got right up in his face and lowered her voice. “I do my job
well. Whatever it is I take on, I do it to
very
best of my
abilities. You sent spies after me in a sad attempt to play 007 and
all you learned was that Sean and I were an item
once upon a
time.
I have spies, too, Bob. But my spies are under my
management, and unlike you, I am a good manager. If I go down, Bob,
I go down fighting. So think about
that
next time you spread
a rumor about me, or everyone will know that you are as useless to
your wife as you are to this company, you
impotent
jerk
!”

Bob’s mouth snapped shut and his eyes got
bigger than the world. Krista stared him down for a second,
daring
him to say something, then turned on her heel and
walked away.

She’d made it about three strides when Sean
said, “Krista, a word, please.”

The way he said it brooked no argument. Sean
rarely exerted his full weight as a boss. Usually he would learn
his employee’s style and talk to them in a way they could best
understand. People thought he was a softy because of that reason.
And he was, for the most part. Until someone crossed the line. Then
his bending willow routine turned into a willow belt sculpted in
steel. Krista thought of him like a rich man’s sword. Pretty,
artfully done, intricate precision and detail, but if it needed to,
it’d cut you in half.

He was the sword. Krista was the steel mace.
At least today she was. Blunt and traumatizing was the way to get
Bob out. She’d just done what was necessary.

Still, Sean was the boss. It had been the
wrong day for a stress pressurized hangover.

She followed him with a grimace on her face.
She was in trouble. She’d crossed the line. She’d yelled at the
boss and a co-worker in the space of ten minutes. Sean didn’t take
that kind of thing lightly.

It was definitely time for Krista to
seriously entertain Dorito’s. More money and less Bob sounded good
to her.

When they were about ten feet away from the
others, but still in hearing range, Sean stopped and turned to her.
He wanted her chastisement to be public. That was her punishment.
Much worse than quiet research. She hated being disciplined in
front of people, and he knew it. He was planning on using it,
because it had to be done. The way she acted had to be called
down.

She hated that she knew all this. Sometimes
it was better to sulk into the face of misunderstanding.

Sean started the chastisement in a firm, low
tone. “I give you a lot of freedom. I let you have the run of it
most times. This weekend I have bent over backward to try and help
you acclimate—“

Krista opened her mouth to argue but Sean
held up one finger and said, “Don’t.”

There was such dominating force in his eyes
and power in his body, Krista immediately froze. He was six feet of
cold, hard muscle. He looked perilous, and despite herself,
butterflies filled her stomach and her legs got tingly.

But she wasn’t scared for once. His
dominating treatment wasn’t bringing dark memories to the surface.
The realization of that astonished her. Because he was faster. She
could run longer, but he was a faster sprinter. Unlike Jim, who
only had a few quick steps, Krista would have to be well in front
of Sean—
well
in front of him—to get away. Her usual fear
didn’t surface, though. And it was because she knew Sean wouldn’t
chase her. If she got scared because he got animated, he would let
her run, then wait for her to return. He would stay right where he
was, for hours if necessary, on a cold path in the park, because he
trusted she would come back. When the fear rubbed off, and she
found herself again, she would return. And ask to be held.

She knew that, because it had happened
before. They’d gotten in a stupid argument, he’d moved his arm up
to run his fingers through his hair in frustration, and she took
that movement as the beginning of a strike, of a punch to her face.
A vivid reminder of Jim’s mistreatment. Of being knocked out. Of
not seeing through her left eye for a week.

She’d taken off running like a bird in
flight.

Sean had watched her go, surprised and
confused at first, and then deteriorating as he realized what was
happening. Of why she was so adamant about pushing herself when
running. Of why she never slacked off on the physical stuff. It was
the first time he’d realized it, and it killed him. It rubbed at
his soul. So he sat down where he stood and waited for her. He
stayed there for three hours. She watched him from the trees for
two before approaching him and falling into his lap in tears. She
was sorry. So was he.

And now she knew he wouldn’t raise a hand to
her, even in the worst of moods, which let her keep her anger at
this miserable job and the dumb employees that plagued her life. It
wasn’t all that nice of a settlement for being trustworthy, but she
was human. What could she say?

“I realize our team isn’t melding all that
well,” he went on, his eyes pinning her with controlled green fury.
“I also realize I expect a lot from you. I know your limits and I
know how to push you to get the best results. But I am still
figuring out how to work with everyone else.”

Sean stopped and looked at her, letting the
silence lengthen. Letting what he said sink in. Also proving he had
control of the conversation, and making sure she knew it.

“Despite how it looks right now,” Sean went
on, ignoring the heat in her eyes, “This is
my
team, and I
have a good handle on it. I realize there is a lot of dissention,
and most of it is aimed at you. I haven’t babied you or given you
any extra credit for that because I didn’t think you would’ve
appreciated it, but maybe I should have. Regardless, that is your
problem with me. I don’t care how well we work together, or how
long we’ve known each other, I will not tolerate you creating
dissent on this team. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

Sean’s eyes burned into her.

She thought:
Meh.
She said, “Crystal,
sir.”

He looked at her a second longer to make sure
she wasn’t going to start arguing again, and then turned away.

“Okay everyone, let’s get back to it,” he
said, pushing his way to the ref.

They fell in line behind Sean in silence. Not
even Bob had anything to say. He probably would have sneered at
Krista, though, if she hadn’t revealed his crazy-big secret. He
would have been better off if he did. He was acting all kinds of
guilty, which meant that what Marcus said was true. Even Krista
didn’t fully believe it. Until now.

The ref explained what they were supposed to
do, which was basically act like a monkey and play around in the
biggest group of trees in the woods. He showed them how to work the
harnesses in case they fell out of the tree, and set them adrift to
find a harness that fit and get ready to go a-climbin’.

Everyone broke up and herded to fit
themselves in a crotch-grabbing device.

When the others had moved away to look,
Georgie said, “Sir? Since when do you call people
sir
?”

Krista’s face got hot.

“I can show respect,” she said
indignantly.

She stepped into her harness, which was
basically nothing more than a bunch of straps that connected
together in a belt looking thing. It was supposed to hook under
each leg and around the waist and meet back up in the crotch area.
The only things keeping her from death, should she fall out of the
tree one-hundred feet up in the air, were a few straps connected to
a rope with a metal loop and plenty of alone time dangling. It
wasn’t confidence inspiring.