Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) (5 page)

The door swung open with a gust and there was
Sean. He wore a pair of shorts. Nothing else. Krista swallowed and
ripped her eyes away from his six pack. When she met his eyes, he
seemed excited. She could relate—she always got this way before
surfing. It was a rush to hit that big wave just right and claim
it.

“Hi,” she said, a little too breathily.

“It’s not even six,” he said as he peered
into her eyes, absorbedly.

“Close enough. Why? You missing your beauty
sleep?”

“Don’t need it. I was born gorgeous.”

Krista laughed to hide her shiver. There
wasn’t a truer statement.

“Can I use your bathroom?” she asked, holding
up her bag of wetsuit.

“Yeah, sure.” He stepped out of the way to
permit her.

She stepped over the threshold and found
herself face-to-face with a surge of memories. Things they had said
to each other, making love, laughing over dinner—it was all so
present. All the episodes she had lost over the two year absence
came rushing back in vibrant colors.

Krista’s breath
whooshed
out and she
staggered a little. She felt Sean’s hand on her arm to steady
her.

“You okay?” he asked gently.

“Yeah, ‘course. I just need to eat a protein
bar is all. My eating schedule has taken a real poop with this new
job.” She straightened up and headed to the bathroom. She tried not
to notice all the special places she remembered. It was hard.
Everything looked exactly the same.

As she crossed to the bathroom she couldn’t
help but notice the bits of female paraphernalia. There were heels
left by the couch and a hair thing on the coffee table. In the
bathroom, she noticed more hair products and some perfume. He might
be single, but someone came over regularly.

She dressed quickly, suddenly wanting to be
out of his house. The memories were too vivid, the female presence
too unsettling. Unfortunately, getting into the wetsuit was turning
out to be impossible in that small bathroom.

She jumped when she heard the knock.

“You fall in?” Sean’s muffled voice asked
through the door.

Krista opened the door, her suit half on.
Sean was in his wetsuit already. Being that it was as tight as
skin, Krista saw every nook and cranny of his body. “Christ,
McAdams. The years have been kind.” She laughed as she hastily
looked away.

“Ditto. What’s the malfunction?”

“My brain, I think. I tried this thing on
before, but now it won’t budge. Either I gained ten pounds last
night, or I got the wrong suit.”

Sean studied her. “Nah, you’re just a newbie
is all. Let an old pro help out. First of all, it’s on
backward.”

“What?” She looked down. Rookie mistake. She
felt like a tool.

She tried to hastily get out of the suit, but
nothing with a wetsuit was fast. She ended up falling back against
the wall. She would have then hit the ground if Sean hadn’t grabbed
her.

“Marshall, what the…? Here.” He braced her
against the wall, his large hands glancing against bare skin,
making her small hairs stand on end.

Sean carefully stripped the suit off of her.
She was wearing her bathing suit underneath, so she gave a quick
check to make sure it was still on. Luckily (or unluckily?) he’d
been mindful of it. He got the wet suit situated, turned it around,
and started helping her into it. Krista planted a hand firmly on
his muscular shoulder to steady as she lifted each leg, letting him
work the suit up her body.

She had her head tilted back and her eyes
closed, focusing entirely on the feel of Sean’s hands working up
her leg when she heard a woman call Sean’s name. Krista went rigid.
Sean didn’t seem embarrassed or worried. He answered that he was by
the downstairs bathroom, and continued working the suit up Krista’s
leg.

Obviously this would look bad. Maybe he was
back to his womanizing ways. Worse, maybe his woman was
understanding and completely trusting. That would mean they shared
intimacy. Maybe ‘single’ meant nothing more than unmarried in
Sean’s pea brain.

Krista heard footsteps and braced herself. In
walked a beautiful woman in pajamas. For the second time that
morning, Krista let her breath out in a
whoosh
.

“Cassie,” she said, doing a poor job of
covering the relief in her voice.

Cassie’s eyes were half open but her smile
was radiant. “Krista!” she exclaimed, barreling into Krista with a
bear hug.

Krista couldn’t step back because Sean had
her legs, so they fell into the wall before Sean grabbed them.

“
Cass
, cut it out! I’m trying to get
this suit on her,” Sean said with frustration.

“How are you?” Cassie asked when they righted
themselves. “I was so excited when Sean said you were coming by.
Would have been nice if you chose a decent hour, though.”

Krista laughed. “Surfing waits for no
one.”

She rolled her eyes. “I thought you hated
mornings? Want a cup of coffee?”

“I do and no thanks. Things change. I hit the
surf before work if I can. It clears my head. Helps me focus.”
Krista left off that it was also her time to remember Sean and her
life in San Francisco before she started her lonely life in
L.A.

Cassie made a face that said Krista was
ridiculous before she settled on the couch with her legs tucked
under her and a steaming cup of java in her hands. “What are you
doing for the rest of the day?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure if I would get eaten by
a shark or sucked out to sea by a rip tide, so I don’t have any
plans.”

“Good. We’ll go shopping and then meet back
up with Sean for dinner. We can get Jasmine and Kate to come.”

“Cassie, leave her alone. She might have
something she needs to do,” Sean said tightly. Krista’s heart
sank.

“She just said she was
free
, Sean,”
Cassie replied darkly. “And so are you, so stop squawking.
Love
that bathing suit, by the way, Krista.”

Sean had the wetsuit to Krista’s waist. He
worked it up higher and helped her get her arms in. Finally he
turned her around and zipped her up.

“See, all set,” Sean said, strain lancing his
voice.

“Great. Cassie, nice to see you again. I
expect a big breakfast when I get back!”

Cassie laughed and hugged her coffee. Krista
followed Sean to the garage.

“Where’s your board?” he asked, raising the
garage door. He had a shiny, new Audi SUV where the Beemer once
was.

“New car?”

“Oh, yeah. I make a ton more money now so I
gave my car to Cassie and bought this. I splurged a little.” He
sounded embarrassed.

“What’s the point of money if you can’t spend
it?”

“Saving for a rainy day.”

“This is California, baby. Ain’t no rain in
California!”

Krista headed out of the garage.

“L.A. has warped you. Whose wheels are
those?” Sean pointed to the Volvo she was driving.

“Company car.”

“Nice company car.”

“I made friends. Well, let me take that back.
Marcus made friends and introduced me.”

“Marcus is a hell of a guy.”

“More than you know. He has been my life line
out there. Ben, too, but Marcus more so. He is basically my support
group. When I want to jump, he talks me down. Ben is the one that
catches me when I fall, though, so I guess they have an equal hand
with the life-line.”

“I always thought Ben had a crush on
you.”

“He does, in an asexual kind of way. Most shy
guys do with an outgoing, hot-mess of a woman friend. But he’s
seeing someone. I haven’t met her yet—she lives in Santa
Barbara—but Ben is totally hung up on her. We’re supposed to do
dinner when Tory gives me a break.”

“Tory is working you pretty hard, huh?”

Krista snorted. “That’s putting it mildly.
And I thought you were tough.”

Sean was quiet while he waited for her to
wrestle her surf board out of the car. They crossed the street in
silence and jogged to the ocean.

“You still do your routine?” Sean asked as
they neared the water.

It was a cold day at the beach. The weather
was overcast and the beach was nearly deserted. It wasn’t at all
what Krista was used to.

“I do. I tweaked it a bit. Made it harder. I
figured I had to if I ever hoped to be stronger than you.” She
laughed.

They were at the water line now, the waves
retreating and surging forward again. Sean ran in and dove into an
oncoming wave. Krista hesitated and let the wave creep up her
leg.

“Holy crap its
cold
!” She yelled.

She very nearly turned and walked back up the
beach.

“Get in fast. Like a Band-Aid,” Sean yelled
as he paddled.

Krista gritted her teeth and ran in. The
first dunk was a shock to her system. She paddled hard through the
next wave. Then the next. More just kept coming. Sean was a ways
ahead of her, so she kept her head low and paddled with all she
had. Finally, after a grueling workout, she caught up with him. He
was sitting on his board, floating in the cold ocean, acting like
shark bait. Krista did likewise.

She was panting and shivering. Her head,
hands and feet were going numb. The rest of her body wasn’t
freezing, but the wetsuit didn’t keep it warm, either.

“Not used to paddling so hard?” Sean asked
with a smile.

“I’m not used to so many waves coming in at
one time. It is a long trek out here.”

“Yeah,” Sean said, surveying the water. “It
keeps you in shape, though.”

“How often do you surf?”

“As often as the weather permits. Every
morning if I can, though a few times a week is all I usually
get.”

Do you do any other exercise?”

Sean glanced at her. “Gym.”

She took stock of her choice of waves. She
wasn’t quite ready to try her hand on one. The paddle back out was
too daunting.

“And I still do the routine. Run more,
though. Figured I had to if I ever hoped to be faster than
you.”

Krista heard the laughter in his voice as he
echoed what she’d said. She closed her eyes against the surge of
pain. Maybe one of those times, just one of those times, when she
was walking on the beach, looking north and wondering if Sean was
doing their routine, he was. Maybe one time they were doing it
together, 800 miles apart.

“How are Kate and Jasmine doing?” Krista
asked, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. Thankfully, her
face was wet. Not thankfully, it was cold, her nose was probably
red, and she certainly looked ridiculous.

“Not well. They’ll tell you all is great, but
they are excluded from the department for the most part. They only
get accounts when I request them specifically, and I’m not able to
do that very often. Otherwise, they get all the crap work. I think
they do a lot of filing.”

“At least they have each other. It was
because of me, though, right? Because they came on under me?”

“Yes. James resents them for it. They aren’t
managed well, either. They goof off with the art department most of
the time.”

At least they were liked outside of the
department. Krista would have to convince them to move on. She
currently had an opening in her department. She thought she might
see if one of them would move to L.A..

“Okay, Marshall, do or die time. Get on a
wave. Show me what you’ve learned in two years.”

“Do you hate me for that meeting yesterday?”
She stalled.

“Why? Because you shut me down and made any
hope of getting that account next to nil?”

“Yes?”

Sean laughed sardonically. “Actually, no. You
did me a favor. Tory took my best players. I can’t physically keep
up anymore. There aren’t enough hours in the day to harass Art and
Research for better work. I have to have my hand in everything to
keep our company going and I am exhausted. Physically and mentally
exhausted. You did me a favor.”

“I probably could have been a little nicer
about it, though.”

“You? Nice? I have heard about you over the
last two years. More so over the last year. No, I didn’t expect
nice. I expected insightful and fair. That’s what I got. Poor Larry
had another thing coming, though.”

“Poor Larry, my butt! He’s a clown!” Krista
laughed. So he had heard about her. She wondered if it was from
Judy telling others, or from someone else. She wondered if he ever
asked or just wandered into it. She wondered what his reaction had
been to her Bad Bitch persona. She asked about the latter.

Sean leaned back and laughed deeply. “Well, I
heard about that at the same time I heard about your promotion. I
had to ask if they were talking about my Krissy. It didn’t take
long to convince me. You shaped up our team in no time flat.”

His
Krissy? Krista knew he was just
talking about his past team member, but she flew at the words. If
only he knew how truly correct they were.

“You created a monster.” Krista laughed.
Waves were coming and going around them. She could have taken a
dozen already, but she didn’t want to miss this time with Sean. The
two of them alone, away from the world, was a treat she would
probably never get again.

“I discovered an insightful, hard worker. I
think it was Tory that made the monster.”

“Yeah, true. He said he would mold me and he
wasn’t kidding! You could learn a thing or two from that guy.”

“I have.”

Before Krista could ask about that comment,
he was paddling. “See you down there!”

Sean smoothly got to the sweet spot and
perfectly grabbed the coming wave. He hopped up on his board as if
he’d been doing it forever, and away he went. It looked easy when
he did it. His body cut and sliced through the water, his arms
keeping balance. He got to the end of the wave and hopped off his
board into the water again.

Apparently that meant it was Krista’s turn.
And she was no pro! She saw a wave coming and started paddling. She
gave it everything she had for a quick burst of speed as the wave
started to get ahead of her, and then she caught up just in time.
She jumped onto her board, nearly lost her balance, but stuck it!
Her mind went into sharp focus as she fought for balance.