Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2)(37)

“I am led to believe so.”

“How do you sleep?” Sean looked at Krista with a boyish gleam in his eyes, probably the same look he would’ve given a slug when he was five. Then there was a shift. It was subtle, but it was there. His eyes took in her plaid pajamas, which were far from sexy, her messy hair, her fuzzy slippers, and his look started to smolder. He let a breath tumble out of his mouth slowly and stood up.

“You have anything to eat yet?” he asked quietly as he put his hands in his pockets. His playful mood was extinguished.

Krista blinked in uncertainty at the change. “Um, no. I was just going to think about that, actually. This is the first time I have been up all day.”

“C’mon. I have to get away from the absurd sex.”

Instead of the playful banter from a second ago, now it seemed like it was bothering him. If Krista was paranoid, she would think he didn’t want to think of her and sex in the same brain compartment.

Good thing her paranoia took a back seat to her fuzzy head and empty belly.

Outside in the fresh, yet cold, air, Krista felt immensely better. The house had been stuffy. Warm, but stuffy. One open window would change the warm part in seconds, so sometimes it was necessary to deal with stuffy. Plus, she’d been too lazy to get out of bed and walk the five feet required to open the window. Might as well have been five miles. A change of scenery was another thing she really needed.

“Anything interesting happen today?” Krista asked as she followed him into his house.

“Our date is set in a few weeks with the clients. We are incorporating just the core team--the sales guys, you, Marcus and Judy. The execs don’t want the clients knowing the group working on their campaign is so small.”

“Yeah, Dell had an army at their command.” Krista couldn’t hide that she was disgruntled by that fact.

“Afraid of hard work, are we?” he asked as they headed toward the kitchen.

“Not afraid as much as pissed that we are working so hard with a big account when just a couple months ago the whole company was working on a different big client.”

“I could get more help if I wanted to, but so far I’ve refused.”

“What?” Krista rounded on Sean, who had put his stuff down and gone in the kitchen. “You mean we are doing all this without help because of your ego?”

Sean looked at her askew, anger barely contained. “It has nothing to do with my ego. My privileges of hiring in are depleted thanks to your friends. From now on I have to use the company staff resources, which are less than adequate. Do you want to do their work all over again? Or fight them on the right way to do a presentation?”

“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you burn out your team, you won’t even have someone to redo work.”

Sean braced his hands on the counter. His muscles were flexed through his white shirt, his eyes were a dark, muddy green, and his lips were slightly open. He looked like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to shake her or talk rationally.

He chose reason. “After Friday I am going to meet with John and assess the situation. We are already strategizing on a plan to reorganize the company. Our team has done better work than the company has seen in years, and John and I are going to help the company realize this. If you can hang on for a while longer, I am sure you will benefit from my illustrious, though misplaced, ego.”

“I don’t think you should be telling me about reorganizing. That is really good gossip...” Krista was poking the beehive jokingly to ease the situation.

The corners of Sean’s mouth tugged upwards and his eyes sparkled. “Marcus is desperate to learn the gossip on you, you know. You mystify him. You mystify a great many people, in fact. No one can gossip for long about you because no one knows enough about you to do so. Especially now that you are rarely in the break room. Those who do know you have only seen you in a working capacity, with a stellar work ethic at that. I have so far been silent on your strange inner-workings, but a couple sentences from me would turn into great, lasting gossip...”

“You blackmailing f**ker!” Krista said with a laugh. “You know too much.”

Sean shrugged as he got out various food items from cabinets and the fridge. “I know more than you think, young lady. I pay attention for just such an occasion.” He glanced at her with those clear eyes, deeper now then she could ever remember, and gave her a wink.

Sean dumped some vegetables in front of her with a chopping board and a knife.

“Make yourself useful,” he said with an eye-twinkle.

“Not ordering in?”

“Not tonight. A home-cooked meal is best for the flu, I think.”

Smiling, she did as she was told. She wasn’t an expert in the kitchen, but she did know enough to get a hot dinner on the table. Eating out was expensive.

“Does Marcus know we live so close to each other?” She didn’t bother to look up in case she might cut off a finger.

“No one knows I live out here, actually. It’s not something anyone really asks.”

“So he doesn’t know we spend so much time together?”

After finishing her carrot, she belatedly realized she hadn’t gotten a response. She glanced up to see if Sean was in the middle of some cooking extravaganza and saw that he was braced against the counter again, looking at her with eyes that went all the way to his soul. They contained equal parts longing and wariness.