Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(84)

“Correct.” He opened her door and waited until she was comfortably inside before closing it softly.

“Where are your driving gloves?” Krista asked after Sean climbed into the driver’s seat.

Sean reached over her bare knees, making her flinch back slightly, as he popped the glove compartment open.

“Shut up,” Krista peered in the little cubby, trying to find the driving gloves he alluded to.

“What must you think of me?” Sean laughed, flicking the glove compartment shut. “Of course I don’t have driving gloves! Who am I, John?”

“He has’em, though, doesn’t he?”

“He does. Black leather ones. He wears them when he drives fast on the freeway or windy roads, supposedly. I’ve never seen it myself.”

They exited the parking garage into the mild, late winter day.

“Where to?” Sean asked.

“46th and Quintara.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I know, way out there.”

“Do you surf?”

“Funny story. I intended to when I moved out from Seattle, but …”

“What happened?”

“The temperature of the water.”

Sean barked a laugh, “Say no more.”

“Do you know the way?” Krista asked, scanning the streets with squinting eyes.

“Sure do.”

They sat in silence for a second before Krista ventured to speak, “So…”

“Sew buttons.”

“About what happened earlier…with the…episode I had…“

“When you turned into a vampire, you mean?”

“Yeah, about that. Sorry that I…you know…”

“Tried to suck my blood?”

Krista blew out her breath. “Yeah. I wasn’t in my right mind. I don’t usually make it a habit of going around...”

“Chewing on people’s necks?”

Krista laughed nervously, “That, yeah.”

“What was up with that? Did my stink overcome you and you turned werewolf or something?”

She laughed again, more relaxed now that he was laughing it off. She looked out the window. “I was daydreaming about Brad Pitt, I guess.”

“Oh yeah, I get that all the time. The likeness is uncanny, so I’m told.”

She rolled her eyes. “You look exactly like him, sure. You could be his wax statue.”

“His wax statue?” Sean laughed. “Tell me honestly… You were actually going for my jugular, weren’t you?”

She gave another relieved laugh. “You caught me. I figured I’d end it there, but then I realized that Marcus would tell and I didn’t feel like going to jail.”

“Consider me warned.”

They drove for a while longer in silence. Krista turned to him suddenly.

“You’re happy to finally get to meet Ben, aren’t you?” she asked suspiciously.

It was one of the reasons he was in such a good mood, just about the only one that he’d openly admit. “Guilty. I want to see if he is as good as he seems. And if he is, I want access to him. We could use him.”

“He’s in school. He only works part-time.”

“Good. He’s cheaper. If he is a fast worker, we only need him part-time.”

“He’s terribly slow with art.”

“You probably think that because you get bored watching him do it.”

“And listening to him talk about it.”

Sean laughed as they pulled onto Krista’s street. She directed him to her house then jumped out to get Ben, who answered the door with arms full of what could only be called junk.

“What are you mak—actually, no, never mind. C’mon.” Krista took a large piece of Styrofoam and turned back to the car.

“I ate your pizza,” Ben said as he navigated down the steps.

“You ate my pizza?” Krista whined.

“I am doing you a favor over finals weekend. You owe me. I decided that pizza was the payment.”

“Can I help?” Sean asked, not sure what to grab because there were pipes and ribbon and all manner of odd things.

“There is more in the house,” Ben threw his head toward the open door, getting to the sidewalk. “Is this the car?”

“Sean, you owe me pizza,” Krista yelled after him. “And I want Goat Hill because it is delicious and I was really looking forward to it.”

Sean passed her with a pile of pipes. “Done. I’ll buy, you get delivery.”

Ben gave Sean direction on how best to fit it in the trunk. Then the boys faced each other.

“I’m Sean.” He extended his hand.

“The Captain?” Ben asked, shaking hands.

Sean smiled. “I loved what you did with Krista’s presentation.”

“Oh, that was easy.” Ben cast his eyes at the ground. “You should see what she does with my finances.”

“C’mon,” Krista said, getting into the car.

“I think I put her in a bad mood,” Sean apologized.

Ben stepped around him toward the back door on Krista’s side. “Oh no, I knew full well what I’d get if I ate her pizza. She gets cranky when she’s hungry. Or when you eat leftovers she was looking forward to. She’ll get over it.”