Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(57)

Sean regarded Krista for a beat, then looked past her to Kate and Jasmine. When his eyes returned to her, he was clearly asking to be introduced.

I don’t wanna, would probably sound lame.

“Sean, this is Kate,” Krista motioned to her friend, currently frozen with her glass halfway to her mouth. “And Jasmine.” Who still had wide eyes. “Girls, we aren’t playing freeze tag. Also, this is Sean, my current…uh, kinda-boss.”

Sean smiled his most charming smile, causing Jasmine to blink. “It’s nice to meet you ladies. I’ve heard a lot about you. Jasmine,” she blinked again, “I believe you do a Thump-Bird I have been wondering about.”

“Why are you here?” Krista asked, ignoring her friends, who were currently making asses of themselves. And her.

Sean leaned against the bar. It was clear he wanted to sit down. It was also clear he would wait to be invited. Call her rude, but Krista did not want to invite him. She didn’t need work and social life intermingling. Not with this guy.

“I just finished a meeting,” he replied. “I was about to leave when I saw you.”

“Oh, a work meeting,” Kate unfroze. It was clear she thought it was a different kind of meeting.

A brief look of surprise flitted across Sean’s face. He straightened up slightly—he no longer wanted to hang around, it seemed.

“Yes,” he said easily, turning his focus back to Krista. “How is the office? Have you settled in?”

Krista relaxed. Talking about work was fine. That was common ground.

“My chair has my butt print in it,” she laughed. “You weren’t kidding when you said I’d be busy.”

“Have you made any headway?”

Krista sighed, her mind drifting back to the lengthy list sitting on her desk. With her mind distracted and overwhelmed, she missed the mouth-made sound of a helicopter crossed with a pair of giant wings.

She didn’t miss the feeling of getting flicked in the head by Jasmine.

“Damn it, Jaz!” Krista yelled, ducking to avoid further Thump-Birds and rubbing the sore spot on the side of her head. “I’m talking to my freaking boss!”

Sean was laughing. He had one hand braced on the bar, the other clutching his chest. The girls were back to staring.

To Jasmine he said, “It’s okay, I’m not really her boss. But thank you for the demonstration.”

“I told her to stop that sighing,” Jasmine said, coming back to reality. Star-struck never lasted long with those girls.

“Anyway,” Krista said, giving Jasmine a dirty look. “I am working on it. You want a lot of info, so it’ll take time.”

Sean was still smiling. “You have time. Doing a good job is most important, so take the time you need to be thorough. Just let me know if you get overwhelmed.”

“If she gets overwhelmed?” Kate said, laughing. “Just look at her. If she gets any more wound up, she’ll go suicide bomber on you.”

“Don’t embarrass me, Kate.”

Sean dropped the fun and honed in on Krista with his business look. Jasmine gave an “oh my” as he said, “Don’t panic, Krista. We have plenty of time. We are in a marathon on this one, not a sprint. I’m not looking for miracles. If you need help with any of it, just let me know and I’ll do whatever I can to help, okay? We’re a team now--we work as a team. Everyone needs to count on everyone else. We won’t let you fall.”

“Good pep talk,” Kate commented, nodding.

“Yeah, it usually works,” Krista answered. She was flushed and embarrassed. As such, she excused herself to the restroom.

~*~*~*~

Sean semi-awkwardly stood in Krista’s wake, trying not to watch the sway of her h*ps as she strode away. He didn’t want to leave without saying good-bye, but he didn’t want to stay with her two friends. Krista had obviously been talking about him, and it didn’t seem positive. Her friends were loyal; they would take him to the cleaners. It spoke well of all of them, but still.

“Krista is a hard worker,” Kate stated when Krista was out of earshot.

Jasmine nodded.

“We were with her in school,” Kate continued. “She worked best when left alone. Give her a goal and a deadline, and stand back. If you don’t rein her in, she’ll go way beyond your expectations. It sounds like that’s what you’re after.”

“Yeah,” Jasmine said, nodding. “And don’t try to play tough guy with her. She’ll just shrink. Give her constructive criticism in a matter-of-fact way and she’ll work harder. Be pushy and angry, she’ll shut down.”

“Oh yeah,” Kate spoke up again, eyes lit up with memories, “and don’t put her with others unless you want her to take over the whole group. She is the worst kind of overachiever you will ever meet. Seriously. She’ll push everyone else around to make sure she gets an A. Or, you know, whatever the goal is.”

“I hated working with her in groups,” Jasmine declared.

“That’s only because she made you work harder,” Kate reflected, apparently forgetting entirely about Sean.

“Yeah because she made me work harder! I was happy as a B student.”

“I stuck to her butt like glue! She did more work and I still got an A. Win-win!”