Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(50)

Sean shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. He wanted to joke with her about it. A five-foot-nothing woman of her size hitting him—yeah, she couldn’t hurt him with a baseball bat. But he didn’t think she’d understand joking about it. He played it safe.

“I forgive you.”

~*~*~*~

Krista took a big, steadying breath. The last time she had hit a man playfully it had been Jim. They’d been at his house with no one else home. He’d hit her back. It was on the arm, but she couldn’t wear a short-sleeved shirt for two weeks. The bruise looked like it had been painted on.

Krista nodded. “Sorry. Anyway, um…”

“I was saying that I learn well. From Ray Man.”

The name had her solemn expression softening. She took another large, cleansing breath. “Right.”

“I started helping him make sales. Then I started making them on my own. Then… I surpassed the teacher.”

Sean had an incredibly soft expression on his face, but he wasn’t pushing her. He wasn’t asking for her secrets.

“He wasn’t pissed about that?” She asked thankfully.

“You’ll see with Ray. His ambition only goes so far. He sells to make a living for his family. He works to live, and lives for his family. I don’t have a family, so I work to live, and live to achieve.”

“Material boy.”

Sean’s smile was out of the blue. “I still have my passion, it just doesn’t pay the bills.”

“So then, you got a job with our company?”

“Oh, no. No, I worked for two others after the one with Ray. The job directly after I did pretty well. I made Senior Sales Associate all on my own. But the guys I was working with were real salesmen, what everyone thinks of as real salesmen, anyway. They lived for it. They were manifestations of it. They weren’t my kind of guys.”

“Testosterone freaks.”

Sean looked at her in surprise, then leaned back and started laughing. A few other people looked over with smiles.

“Yes. Exactly!”

“But you are plenty testosterone-y. Man’s man and all that.”

“I can be when I need to be, yes. I mean, I’m not effeminate or anything. Opposite of that. I like being a man and all that, but...a different sort, I guess you’d say? Not sure how to explain.”

Was he flustered? Krista grinned, back onto the path of comfortable. She’d have nightmares, though. Whenever she had a flashback like that, she had nightmares. But Sean was making the moment easy. He wasn’t asking questions to fill his curiosity, and he wasn’t smothering her. He was cautious, she could read that, but he was floating beside her, keeping her relaxed. It helped so much she wanted to break down all over again.

He noticed her grin and said quietly, “Shut up.”

She laughed then. She couldn’t help it. Straight men hated saying anything that even remotely made them sound g*y. Bunch of dummies.

“I got it. Go on.”

“O-kay. Well, I moved on again--a different company with a higher pay bracket. I realized at this time that not only did I like making money, and want to climb higher--because, after all, what else am I working for besides money, right?”

“Correct, sir. Money makes the world turn, n’ all that.”

“Uh, yes. Well, there was an opening so I let Ray know about it. Ray applied for it because it was more money than he was making without a lot more responsibility, or hours. He got it with some help from me. We worked on a couple projects together and I realized we made a dynamic team. Plus, it was good to work with someone who was more my speed.”

“You always share a higher level of trust with someone who pops your cherry.”

Sean choked into his beer. “What?”

“Your sales cherry. Your mentor. You trust him—I get it.”

“Good Christ, Krista—and you were worried about me being too sexual?”

“No, I was worried about you being sexually cajoling. Nothing about sex in general. I’m not a prude.”

Sean’s pupils dilated as they held hers. “Right,” Sean said quickly, looking away. “Anyway, we learned to be the best sales team in the company. I moved up the ladder, he moved up with me. I moved to this company, made my way and gained my stripes, and just recently brought him with me.”

“So ... you are the young, hot-headed hell raiser. The guy who gets his man regardless of the obstacles. Ray is the level-headed father figure who keeps you in line, but in the end helps you get your guy?”

“This isn’t a police show, Marshall,” Sean laughed in his rich baritone. “But kind of, yes. The people I can’t reach, he usually can.”

“Good cop, bad cop. Okay, I get that. Why is that a secret?”

“It is a secret because I am not nearly as good without him. He is my crutch, plain and simple.”

“I don’t think that’s true at all, but I do think he is the one who makes the work less dismal.”

“You are perceptive.”

“As Helen Keller, yeah. I have my moments.”

Krista’s phone beeped with a text message. Being a solid member of the technology social network, she dove into her bag to see who it was. As soon as she saw the name she threw her phone back with a hair too much force.

“Not looking forward to that text?” Sean asked casually.