Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) (40 page)

If she moved companies, she also wouldn’t
have her friends. Or the ability to get her hands on any other
departments and change everything around. It turned out she liked
managing people; checking their work and motivating them to better
things. She liked taking Sean’s impossible expectations and making
them a reality. She also liked working with Marcus and Ben, who
still had special projects that involved Krista in some form. The
other places couldn’t offer her any of that.

But a challenge wasn’t going to get her a
mortgage. She needed the money to grease the wheels. For that, she
would move on. If Tory didn’t give her something she could sink her
teeth into, she would move on.

Back into reality, she glanced at the clock.
5:30—
time to go
! As a rule, she didn’t work late on Fridays.
Not ever. She would work both days on the weekend to leave on time
on Friday. No matter how busy she got, and how much she might hate
work, she still always looked forward to Fridays. Somehow one good
day negated four bad ones. Or busy ones, at any rate.

She shut off her computer, grabbed her purse,
and stood up. That’s when she noticed one of the guest chairs was
taken. She jumped about a foot and swore. Sean was watching her
with a handsome grin, leaning back, perfectly comfortable, his
ankle crossed over his leg.

“Hi Geegee, how goes it?” he asked with a
smile.

“
Jesus
! I didn’t even hear you come
in!”

“You were too busy trying to sprint out of
here.”

“It’s Friday.”

“All day, yes. Do you have plans?”

“Happy hour with the girls and Ben. Per
usual.”

Krista got a tingling sensation in her groin.
She hoped he was finally asking her out. Being with Sean again got
her all revved up and a month was an extremely a long time to go
without sex. It was also a long time without any sort of contact.
She craved feeling those muscles on her cheek, or taking a big
whiff of his manly scent, or just cuddling up on the couch and
watching a stupid movie.

By the look in Sean’s eye, all the same
things were running through his head. “Did you want to go to dinner
after?”

“How about I skip happy hour and we just go
to dinner?”

“Great. What time should I pick you up?”

“An hour from now. Should I pack some
clothes?”

She wanted a whole weekend of lounging
around. One dinner on a Friday was a perfect gateway for a weekend
of sex.

“Unfortunately, just for the night. I have to
work this weekend.”

Krista’s sails deflated. “You’ve been working
a lot lately.”

Wariness passed over his face. She couldn’t
tell if it was because of what she said and their past, or if he
was just tired from the job. Either way, she couldn’t date the guy
if he never made time for her. And she wouldn’t be with him if she
couldn’t date him first. Chet may have been weird, but he always
made time. He always treated her well and took her out. It’s a sad
world when the Chet’s out-did the Sean’s.

“I just got the job. I’m trying to get things
together and in the right direction,” Sean said, shifting his body
position. He went from totally open to closed down in one quick
movement.

Krista let it go. She would wait and see what
happened. Hopefully in a couple weeks it would calm down, for both
their sakes. Krista had already decided she wouldn’t be with him if
he put work first. She never dated a workaholic, but she had seen
enough on TV to know they were home wreckers. It was time to look
out for number one.

After a fantastic,
expensive
dinner in
which Sean tickled Krista with compliments and gave her his
undivided attention the whole time, they rolled up a long driveway
to an enormous house. A-
giant
-house. As in, the buyer had
all the money in the world and houses the size of blocks were no
big concern.

“Where are we?” Krista asked as she stared
out at the darkened mammoth of a structure.

“Home,” Sean said, slowing in front rather
than opening the garage door.

“This is yours? Did you buy this?”
Why?

Sean got out. Krista followed. He waited for
her to shut the door of his new Audi, which was the most
comfortable car in the world, and set the alarm with his key
thingy.

“Yup. All mine. I wanted something near the
ocean. It is a bit of a commute, but worth it.”

“Wow.”

They walked around the four car garage toward
the landscaped path and up to the house. The path was lit with
small, elegant lights that were only about four inches off the
ground.

“They’re solar powered. They charge during
the day, and they light the path at night.” Sean hurried ahead to
unlock the door.

“Huh.”

The moon was only about half-full, and the
house must have been on a large expanse of property, because there
weren’t any houses close, and the lights from the street at the end
of the driveway didn’t reach the door. Because of all this, Krista
could only see the shrubbery close by, and had no idea what the
front of the yard looked like. She did hear the ocean, though. It
sounded close. Closer than her house. Actually, they sounded like
they were walking on the beach, the crash of the waves was so
loud.

“I need to install a motion censored light.
It gets dark,” Sean said as he jingled his keys, angling his hands
so the moonlight would help him find the right one.

“Why didn’t you park in the garage?”

“I haven’t done much unpacking. The garage is
still full of boxes.”

“Huh.”

They finally got through the door, Sean
stepping aside so Krista could enter first, then rushing around her
to find a light. When they were finally done squinting in the
harsh, overhead glare, Krista was presented with a giant foyer. The
walls were littered with interesting paintings, there were high,
wood paneled ceilings, and a tiled floor.

With a smile, Sean grabbed her hand and led
her through a big archway into a bigger room with couches, shiny
hard wood floors, a small bar set up in the corner of the room with
four bar stools, and a giant TV.

While the furniture was similar in style to
what Sean had in San Francisco, they weren’t the same couches. All
the furniture looked new, actually. All the colors and décor
matched and accented each other. It was modern, but comfortable. It
looked like an interior decorator had blown through and Sean took
all the suggestions.

It looked like it cost a fortune, is what it
looked like.

“Tour?” Krista asked in a small voice.

Despite it being stuffed with furniture, the
room was absolutely huge. High vaulted ceilings with more wood
paneling. It wasn’t wood paneling from the 70’s, either. It was
something you might see walking into a winery in Napa valley. There
was art and plants, sconces, and vases—the room bespoke money.
Everywhere the eye turned, it was interested in what it found.
Which was great. Krista had always wanted a home that looked like a
million bucks, but still felt like a home; a place that was luxury,
but inviting. She never figured she’d have that much money, though.
Unless she won the lotto, that was.

Which led her to one question: how much was
he making?

They went down a wide hallway to a library.
First thing of note—everything was Cherry wood. The giant desk, the
book shelf, the small table between two overstuffed couches, even
the stand that held the large globe. One wall was covered with
books. Big, ornamental, expensive looking books. They looked old.
Another wall had a giant tapestry depicting a battle. A third
wall…

“Is that a sword?” Krista asked, afraid to
take a step further into the room in case she brushed up against
something and broke it. She didn’t belong in a rich man’s
house.

Sean bounded over to it, a giant smile on his
face.

“It is! It is the first. I figure a sword
collection can begin in this room. That’s why the tapestry. It is a
relic, though I admit, I don’t remember much about it. I have all
the paperwork if you want to look at it. I figured you’d know. And
look…” He pointed to the far corner. “A suit of arms. That was for
me. Cool, huh?”

“Isn’t all this for you?” she mumbled.

He didn’t hear her, he was surveying the room
as though he was waiting for her approval.

Ignoring Sean’s expectant look, also his
explaining the love of the room, Krista walked quietly to the
bookcase. The first book she saw was Moby Dick. Not a book she
enjoyed reading, but a classic. The pages weren’t yellowed, though,
so it probably wasn’t old, just styled that way. She noticed at the
end of the bookcase, on the bottom, there was some Dean Koontz,
Stephen King and…wait, was that
Twilight
?

Sean had followed her gaze and turned a deep
crimson. “It was a gag gift. I hate throwing away books.”

“Uh huh,” Krista said as she ran her fingers
over the globe.

“Shall we move on?” he asked from the
doorway.

Krista followed him. There was another living
room, which was staged for company. No TV, no bar, no fun. Just
couches and chairs facing each other for idle chit chat. It was
something her mom would love.
Yuck.

“For guests,” Sean explained. “It can be
changed, though.”

Thank you Captain Obvious.

Next they moved on to a laundry room with a
permanently set up ironing board. Which was handy, of course, if
you planned on ironing. Which Sean never did. He was more of a
wash-and-fold type of guy. So was Krista. Time was valuable, and
spending it doing laundry was the pits. What’s the point of making
money when you couldn’t drop off your laundry to be washed and
folded by a business around the corner?

“It looks like it’s never been used,” Krista
remarked with a smirk. There wasn’t even any spilled detergent. Or
dryer lint. What laundry room didn’t have dryer fuzzies?

“I don’t actually do my laundry. I should,
it’s just…”

“Your free time is too valuable to waste. I
was just thinking the same thing.”

Sean smiled and ran a fingertip along her jaw
line. “I love you, Krissy.”

Krista leaned into his body and entwined her
fingers through his. “Where’s the bedroom?”

Sean laughed, gave her a light kiss, and
tsked
. “All in due time. There’s more to see. C’mon.”

Thankfully, Sean sped up the tour. There was
a sun room with large windows. The kitchen was giant with an island
and all new appliances. There was a small round table set up in the
corner where it looked like Sean did most of his eating. There was
also a dining room where Krista envisioned herself throwing
spectacular dinner parties. It didn’t look like it had been touched
since Sean moved in. There were two other rooms at the back of the
house that were largely bare. Sean explained that he didn’t know
what to do with them quite yet, so they were in transition. He was
thinking guest rooms, but wasn’t sure.

They’d finished only the bottom story and
Krista was tired. She opted not to see the basement, which was
probably also huge, and followed him up a wide staircase to more
house. Why there was any need for more house, she had no idea. No
one person needed this much space. She had no idea why he bought a
house so big. She also had no idea how he could afford it. His job
paid out six figures, sure, but nowhere near enough to afford a
house that large. At least, not right away. Maybe after a couple
raises and a lot of saving, it
might
be doable with two
incomes. Two Senior VP incomes, at that. His house in San Francisco
would fetch more than eight-hundred and fifty grand since the
property values there were outrageous, but L.A. was no dump. That
much would buy a house for about the same size here. So whatever he
made might have been a good down payment, but that still left a ton
to pay off. The house she was standing in would have been in the
millions—she was property hunting, she knew this from
experience.

As they went up the large, sweeping
staircase, Krista started to wonder if Sean took out a loan he
could never possibly afford. Maybe he lost his head and was working
so hard because he would be bankrupt otherwise. She had always
thought he was good with money and finances, but who was to say?
This house was way overboard so far. And that was just the bottom
floor!

On the second floor—
there better not be a
third!
—they hit the play room first. There was a large TV with
some sort of game console set up. There was a love seat and gaming
chair with a stool, and some small tables. It was probably played
once or twice because stuff wasn’t put away. Across the room was a
computer, equipped with joystick. That was all organized, so
probably not used often, or at all. The rest of the large room was
bare. It was carpeted and comfortable, painted a bright yellow, had
shelves and plenty of storage area, but nothing was in it.

Before Krista could ask about it, she was
whisked away to another room. Then two more. They were all set up
for guest rooms with a bed, nightstand, dresser, mirror, and a big,
empty closet. They smelled of fresh paint and wood lacquer. Never
been used—she’d put her life on it.

There were two bathrooms nestled between the
three bedrooms and game room. No one would have to wander far to
find a bathroom.

Next they hit the master suite. Ordinarily
she would be ready to fall out of her clothes and have Sean fall
into her, but she was a bit disturbed by the size of
everything.

The master suite was the only room that
looked thoroughly used. There were clothes draped here and there,
shoes lying around and the bed was made, but rumpled. Like the rest
of the house, it was massive. The bed was a king sized wooden
sleigh bed, where in San Francisco he had a queen with a
nondescript metal frame. He had large, matching nightstands for
both sides of the bed with reading lights. One side had papers, an
alarm clock and a book. The other side wasn’t used, which made
Krista sigh in relief.