Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) (32 page)

When Georgie shimmied into his straps made of
a delightful shade of dirty, pale green, and tried to fasten it, he
said, “Christ, this one is cutting my nuts off.”

“Does it gross you out a little how many
crotches these things have hugged?” Krista asked as she fastened
her harness.

Georgie stopped mid-adjust with a look of
disgust on his face. “It hadn’t, no.”

Krista shrugged with a smile. “I hope the guy
that had yours last didn’t pee himself.”

“I liked you better when you had your head
buried in a spreadsheet,” Georgie said in disgust. He was now
trying to touch the harness as little as possible with his bare
hands.

Krista laughed harder.

“You were correct, though,” Donald said,
having ignored the harness conversation.

“Which time, Donald?” Krista asked, making
sure she was secure.

“Is she ever wrong?” Georgie laughed at
her.

“Bob is bringing us all down,” Donald
continued. “He hasn’t been effective for a great many years. Sean
should have called him down before now.”

“Sean goes about things a little
differently,” Krista explained. “He learns everything about a
person and then tries to find the best way to manipulate them to
get what he wants. Probably learned it from his years of
womanizing.”

Georgie grunted. Then he said, “But still, he
should have done
something
to get Bob moving.”

“I think he tried. Sean is really great at
recognizing talent, and then working with it. It seems like he
isn’t as good at brow beating people into doing what he wants. The
only way to deal with Bob is to grab him by the balls, though.
Which I just did.”

“Okay then, why didn’t he finesse you into a
position where you would do it for him before now?”

“Sean and me…we have issues. I only stepped
in this weekend because I want to win. I think he was waiting for
me to take control, though. You heard what he just said—since I
noticed you all hanging on his every word—he knows how far I’ll go
until I push back. He’s seen it a few times. But I was good for a
long time. I think I’m growing up.”

“Then why did he reprimand you?” Donald asked
with a hint of anger.

“Because only a dumb-ass throwing a tantrum
would do it in front of the boss and all his subordinates. I should
have done it when he was elsewhere. Then it would have had the same
result but been hearsay.”

“Basically, you wouldn’t have gotten in
trouble in front of everyone,” Georgie said with a smile.

“Well, yeah, there’s that.”

“Let’s go!” Sean called.

“I don’t understand,” Donald said with that
brow furrow. “He was plenty capable of pushing his weight around
with you, so why not use that same tactic with Bob?”

“Good question, Donald,” Krista said, “I have
no idea. He can be a bit of a jackass at times.”

“I don’t think he can push people’s buttons
the same way Krista can,” Georgie said thoughtfully. “I think Sean,
in a work capacity, can’t very well go calling someone
impotent.”

“You heard that?” Krista asked. She’d thought
she had lowered her voice for that bit.

“You said it loud enough!” Georgie
laughed.

Oops.

“That’s true. Not much can get through to
Bob. Sean would have to fire him, I think,” Donald said as they
neared the others.

“Bob’s not going to come around,” Krista
whispered. “That guy is stuck in mud.”

“No, but I bet he quits,” Georgie
replied.

“Why?” Donald asked, also whispering. They
were in hearing range now.

“Hell, Donald, wouldn’t you quit if the boss
didn’t like you, his girlfriend was out to get you, and everyone
knew you were impotent?” Georgie said.

The others turned to glance at them coming.
Krista punched Georgie. He was too loud by half. Sean was standing
a step apart from Dean and Bob, looking up at the tree. Dean and
Bob weren’t talking, and if Krista wasn’t mistaken, Dean was
choosing a side, and she had a feeling it wouldn’t be Bob’s. No one
would blame him.

“Okay,” Sean said, still looking up. “It
looks like a climb up, then a tight rope walk across to another
tree. From there it looks like a plank or something to a third
tree. Then a zip cord. There might be something else, but I don’t
think so. It looks pretty basic.”

“Basic?” Dean muttered, following Sean’s
gaze.

Krista’s legs were trembling, and not in a
good way. She had never been up that high before. At the top of a
ladder she got nervous.

“Krista, you look like you are going to
puke,” Georgie mumbled.

“Is
this
a good time to mention I am
not great with heights?” She asked in hushed tones.

“Yes, this is a good time,” Sean said.
“Anyone else not good with heights? Or climbing?”

“I ain’t doin’ this,” Bob announced.

Everyone looked at him. He was sweating and
supporting a contest winning frown. Her old boss Mr. Montgomery
would blush with envy.

“We can walk you through it, Bob. Those of
uswho don’t mind heights can help the others,” Sean reasoned.

“No way. I ain’t doin’ it. Climbing up a tree
and falling down it? Not for me. Never done it in any one of these
things, and I ain’t startin’ now.” Bob crossed his arms in front of
his chest.

Sean looked at Bob with a completely blank
face. Bob wouldn’t meet Sean’s eye, but his mind was set; Krista
could see it. She was suddenly glad she had the blowout before this
small standoff. Normal people would have doubled up their courage
to prove they were worth their salt after they got yelled at. Not
Bob. He was useless to the last.

Sean looked away disappointedly, realizing
the lost cause. “Okay. Bob, why don’t you head back to the hotel
then.”

Bob didn’t argue, he didn’t wait, and he
didn’t say goodbye. He started to trudge off immediately.

“Anyone else want to pass? Krista?” Sean
asked, looking back at her.

He was wary and basically pleading. He knew
she didn’t have any more of a vested interest than Bob. Probably
less, actually, since she had a job offer to go back to. But he
needed her. She could tell that, in that moment, he needed her
support and reassurance. He needed her to step up here and lead by
example.

Krista saw it. She saw the uncertainty, as
well. He had never cast her down in front of others like that
before. He knew her well, better than anyone, but he didn’t know
her well enough to trust she would understand why he did it. He’d
never understood her loyalty, and they had so many problems, Sean
probably thought she was ready to walk out of his life, not to
mention the hell-climb in front of her. Added bonus, if she left or
refused, his team would fall apart. There wasn’t much holding them
together as it was, and if she left, the strongest part of their
unit left with her.

Krista had all the power in this one, and it
felt good. She probably shouldn’t have milked it, but he did just
yell at her in front of everyone, so with a straight face, she
looked at the god-awful monstrosity of trees in front of them in
feigned contemplation. She had a good pause going, hamming it up,
until Georgie elbowed her. The dog.

She laughed—apparently she was transparent.
“No Captain, with you to the last. Even though I might throw up,
pass out, or start crying.”

Relief flooded Sean’s eyes. “We’ll figure it
out. Anyone else?”

No one said anything. Dean inched toward the
group a bit more. They were winning him over, which meant Bob was
losing him.
Hah!

Krista would do a happy dance later. Right
now she was silently praying she wouldn’t pass out and fall out of
the tree in the next ten minutes.

Sean sighed. “Okay, who’s first?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“I’ll go first.” Georgie stepped forward. “I
was a climber, once upon a time.”

Sean clapped him on the back. “Good man
yourself. Krista, I want you to go last. I have a feeling you’ll
take the longest and I don’t want everyone to have to wait for
you.”

“I don’t mind,” Donald said. “It’ll give us
something to laugh at.”

“I would believe that, Donald, if you had a
sense of humor,” Krista spat back, assessing the leaves
one-hundred, long feet up and surrounding the challenges.

Dean snorted. He said, “I’ve done these
before. I can go behind Krista and help if you want?”

“Yes please,” she said in a small voice. He
was quick with the olive branch. She felt it her duty to accept it.
Also, she was scared and would take all the help she could get.

“I’ll go directly in front of Krista,” Sean
said. “You want to go second or last Donald?”

“Last. I want to see how everyone gets
through before I go.”

“Okay, let’s get going.” Sean clapped once in
excitement. “Krista needs about five hours to get ready for
dinner.”

“What is this?” She asked with mock disdain.
“Pick on Krista day?”

“Pick on Krista weekend, more like,” Georgie
said as he passed by. He ruffled her hair, and then got hooked up
to the ref’s rope. He headed to the tree with a bounce in his step.
He scaled the thing without hesitation or problem. He was up in a
flash.

He disappeared behind the tree trunk he’d
just climbed by a wooden bridge thing, was out on the tight rope
portion, and above open space in no time. He shimmied across that
like a rat on a ship’s rope and was on to the next horrible torture
device.

“Next,” the ref said. Apparently Georgie
exchanged the safety rope up in the air.

Sean got hooked up. The harness was tight on
his legs, making his sizable manhood pronounced. He caught Krista
looking at it, gave her a wink, and headed to the tree. Just like
Georgie, he scaled it easily. Unlike Georgie, his arm and leg
muscles bulged, lending his body a grace of movement as he shifted
weight between one peg and another. He was fluid grace up that
tree. He might as well have been a squirrel. Land or water, it
apparently didn’t matter—he was at home in any terrain.

It was really irritating.

“Next,” the ref said too soon.

“Don’t want to,” Krista said quietly.

The ref attached the rope to Krista’s harness
with a metal clip. After, he looked up at her expectantly, waiting.
She slowly turned around and headed to the giant tree.

It was even bigger from beneath it. The trunk
was massive—three people could have stood side-to-side with room to
spare in front of the trunk. The platform was about half-way up the
beast, and the pegs were spread out much too far for comfort.

“Okay Krista,” Dean said as he walked with
her. “Just focus on the pegs. Don’t look down, and don’t look too
far up. Just look for the next peg. Focus on getting one hand to
the peg, one foot, one hand, and on, and on. Eventually you’ll be
at the top.”

“You can do it, Krista. Easier than surfing,”
Sean called out from the heavens.

She did as Dean said; she put her foot on the
first peg, and reached up to grab another one. It was like climbing
a ladder, except that it was up a tree and all you had to support
you were awkwardly spaced little pegs. So basically it was a scary,
terrible, and capable-of-falling-over-at-any-minute ladder.

Half way up, Krista’s foot slipped off a
smaller than normal peg.

“OH GOD!” She screamed, clutching onto the
pegs in her hands and the tree bark with her face. Then, stupidly,
she looked down.

The ground was a world away, the people
standing on it were small, shifting dots with smiles. Her stomach
started to churn and her legs tried to let go. She shut her eyes
really tight and clutched the pegs with all her strength.

“What happened?” Sean yelled.

“She slipped, I think,” Dean called up.
“She’s still hanging on. C’mon Krista, keep going. One peg at a
time.”

“Don’t want to,” Krista said to the air.

“You can just let go and fall back down to
earth…” Georgie was-not-helping!

“One at a time, Krista,” Dean said helpfully.
“Get your foot back on the peg and pull yourself up. You are strong
enough, you can do it. One at a time.”

“What is this, an AA meeting?” Krista whined
with her eyes shut. She took a couple of deep breaths and opened
her eyes. She saw bark next to her eye. “Don’t want to.”

Her eyes were bleary and her hands were
sweaty. She reached for the next peg, found it and heaved herself
up. She clutched on for a moment, then found the next peg, then the
next. She didn’t look down again, nor did she look all that far up,
like Dean said. She figured out which peg would be next, went for
it, then looked to the next.

After she had ten more gray hairs and a few
more wrinkles, she made it to a platform. It was a slight scramble
to get up onto it, but once there, she hugged the tree with all her
might, thankful to have something solid under her feet.

“Gotta keep going, Geegee,” Sean said from
her right. He was at least on the same level.

“Don’t want to.”

“Then how are you going to get down?”

“Don’t want to.”

“C’mon, Krista,” Georgie called from the
ground. “It isn’t so bad. You aren’t going to die.”

“No, but what if I crap my pants?”

There was laughter as Krista clutched the
rope leading around the tree. She stayed as close to the tree as
she could, her face skating across the rough surface, until she got
to the tight rope area.

There were two ropes between the trees. One
was low, and level to the platform Krista was standing on, the
other was at about the level of her head. She was supposed to walk
across the low rope holding the high rope for balance. The rest of
the area was air.

Her legs were shaking and her stomach was
swimming just looking at the obstacle.

“No Sean, I can’t,” she squeaked, trying to
back up more against the tree.