Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2) (21 page)

Cassie rolled her eyes. “Shall we drop you
in Castro?”

Krista would have laughed, but Cassie was
entirely serious. The two argued a little more before Cassie gave
up and went towards the TV.

“Everyone, I have a surprise for you,” she
said as she picked up a DVD.

She put it in the player. Sean was still
standing close to Krista, but as he caught sight of what Cassie
had, he groaned and moved toward the kitchen.

“It’s one of Sean’s first performances!”
Cassie said, giggling like a little girl.

Mary, Ray and Krista moved into the living
room. Krista sat on the love seat, Mary and Ray grabbed the couch,
Cassie yelled for Sean to come back, and then sat in the recliner.
Keith was off pouting somewhere.

Sean slowly moved into the room.

“Not fair, Cass,” he said with an
embarrassed smile.

Cassie shrugged. The way Cassie looked at
Sean proved what Sean had said earlier. They were very close, and
he was everything to her; her role model, her savior, her big bro.
It was cute. Krista wished she was closer to her sister.

That thought lasted long enough to remember
that her sister was a bitch, and Krista would rather punch her in
the face than hug her. The feeling was mutual. And that worked for
them.

Her thoughts were disrupted as Sean, seeing
that Cassie wouldn’t relent the torture, plopped down next to
Krista. Then, surprisingly, he put his arm around her and snuggled
close as the DVD started.

It turned out that the movie was a bad
recording of a bunch of little kids on stage. Everyone could
immediately tell which one was Sean by the way he stood, but if
they couldn’t, Cassie made it easier by pointing him out. Even at
that young age his charisma drew the eye.

It became apparent that Sean had always had
an eye for the ladies, just not in the way one might think. Young
Sean was delivering a line, when his attention was drawn away from
the audience. He stopped talking as he looked at a little girl in a
sparkly pink dress near the edge of the stage doing a pee-pee
dance. She was supposed to be the princess, it looked like, and
Sean the prince.

The prince walked over gallantly, seemingly
to help the princess safely away from the edge of the stage. When
the courageous hero reached her he gave her a mighty shove!

“Oh my God!” Krista exclaimed as she leaned
forward.

The little girl quickly exited the stage,
via the ledge, and landed on the ground in front of the audience.
The music in the background was interrupted by a loud gasp as a
surge of adults crowded the stage.

Undaunted, Sean waltzed back to the center.
The footage continued to watch the girl, everyone shrieking and her
howling, but from the background Sean could be heard, talking
loudly over the din, continuing on with the play. The show must go
on.

“
That should have been on
America’s Funniest Home Videos!” Krista exclaimed, wanting to see
it again.

“Sean kept going until they made him stop,”
Cassie laughed. “I barely remember, but I hear the story every time
I meet up with Sally—that was our neighbor back in the day. She was
the one who took the video.”

Krista leaned back, an incredulous smile on
her face. Sean adjusted her so she was once again in the crook of
his arm before he laughed and kissed her head. Cassie replayed the
scene and they all laughed anew.

“That must never get old!” Krista exclaimed
in delight. “I want a copy!”

“No way!” Sean laughed, squeezing her. “That
is for my eyes only. It will be burnt as soon as everyone
leaves.”

“I copied it to my laptop, so go ahead,”
Cassie said with a know-it-all air about her.

“Cass!” Sean couldn’t stop smiling.

“Cassie, you
have
to give me a copy!”
Krista turned her face up to Sean’s. “It’s only fair! You have that
piece of art even if you didn’t put it up.”

“Oh yes, the
art!”
Mary exclaimed.
She looked around the room. “But I thought you said you hung it?”
She looked at Sean with raised eyebrows.

“The abstract painting, wasn’t it?” Ray
asked.

“No one knows that is you, though,” Sean
said, kissing Krista lightly on the nose. “Or what it means.”

“No one will know that video is you unless I
tell them. Which is the same situation as the art.”

“Did you get it from Ben yet?” Ray asked,
following Mary’s example and looking at the walls.

Sean did have art up, but not Ben’s
painting. Or anything really decent. Ben had to come over and sort
Sean out.

“I did, yes,” Sean said quietly.

Krista tensed. That had been the other part
of their problem, Krista remembered. Sean hadn’t hung the picture
like he said he would, probably because it was her. He still
hadn’t. It didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Going into
this night with her eyes open, and no regrets, meant she had to
battle through the unpleasant things. And she would. She would get
satisfaction, damn it!

“Show them, Sean,” Cassie said, noticing
Krista’s unease.

Sean followed his sister’s glance and caught
the meaning of her pointed look. Sighing greatly—Krista had to
remember to tell Jasmine--he got up and pulled a reluctant Krista
up with him. “I do need to move it out into the front room. I need
to move some things around, though, first. So in the meantime, I…
just follow me.”

Krista trailed behind Sean, being dragged by
her hand. Ray and Mary joined, followed by Cassie and a sulking
Keith. They went up the stairs and turned left, walked down a small
hall and came to the master bedroom.

“No way!” Keith exclaimed. “I am not going
into another man’s bedroom!”

Everyone turned as Keith thumped back down
the stairs. A second later they heard the front door slam.

Cassie looked at everyone apologetically.
“Excuse me. I’ve already seen it anyway.” She looked at Krista. “It
really is remarkable.”

“I didn’t paint it,” Krista said, taken
aback.

Cassie smiled at her, and headed down the
stairs.

“Okay, seriously, what is up with Keith?”
Krista asked as they neared Sean’s bedroom.

Mary pushed forward to hear what Sean said.
Krista wasn’t the only one wondering, but was the only one rude
enough to ask.

“He and Cassie split up a week ago because
Cassie is moving here from Arizona. Well, and she is not all that
into him. He doesn’t want her to go and insisted on coming this
weekend.”

“So he could mope the whole time?” Krista
asked.

Sean shrugged.

“And what is the deal with his disdainful
interest in gay men?” she persisted as they all filed through the
bedroom door.

“He thinks this place is full of, and I
quote, ‘queers.’ I think he thinks I am gay, too, but he hasn’t
said.”

“That
you
are gay?” Krista asked,
incredulous.

“I’m an actor, and also, he hasn’t seen me
with a girl.”

“Until now,” Ray said.

Krista eyed Ray, who was looking at her with
a knowing smile.

“I liked it better when you were quiet and
in the corner, Ray,” Krista said in mock hostility. He just
laughed.

“But,” Krista said, getting back to the
point. “He hasn’t seen you with a dude, either, so why would that
make you gay?”

“I think the acting part was enough.”

“Yikes. Seems homophobe-ish, doesn’t
it?”

Sean shrugged again. Keith wasn’t his
problem.

Once they were all in to the large bedroom,
Sean looked to the far wall, where, lo and behold, Ben’s painting
hung.

The world fell away as Krista stared,
incredulous, at Ben’s representation of Krista and Sean’s struggle
to coexist hanging on the wall near Sean’s bed. She turned her
widened eyes on Sean. “How long as it been there? And why
there?”

No one else existed but her as he said,
“Since the day I got it. And because I spend all my time in the
office or my bedroom. I wanted to see it every day. This was the
only place I could accomplish that.”

Ray and Mary walked forward, leaving Krista
and Sean to themselves. As Krista looked up into those lush green
eyes she fell in love. Deeper in love, maybe. She entwined her
fingers through Sean’s and leaned into him, tilting her head up to
be kissed. He complied eagerly, wanting nothing more than to wake
up and see the real thing every day. Starting tomorrow.

“Ben
did that?” Ray asked in a hushed voice, cutting through
Krista and Sean’s moment.

“Yes,” Sean said, turning to the painting
and putting an arm over Krista’s shoulders. “I’ve seen some other
paintings and some graphic art he’s done. He’s gifted.”

“Yes, I see that. This is a neat
picture.”

“Painting,
honey,” Mary helped, patting Ray’s
arm.

“Oh, right, painting.”

“Are you having him do design for the
presentation?” Ray asked, turning back toward Sean.

“Yes, but technically it is Judy’s call. So
far she wants to use mostly what she came up with.”

“Is it better?”

“Not even remotely. I
showed Ben what Krista put together, what I wanted to spin, and the
software and supplies he had to work with. The next day he showed
up in my office with…” Sean shook his head and focused on Ray.
“It’s
genius
Ray.
Original, unique--it… I can’t even describe it. It’s better than
anything we had. Much better. We have a dream team.” Sean gave
Krista a one-armed squeeze.

Krista was only half listening. Her libido
was firing up again. She was looking around the bedroom in
interest. He had a queen-sized bed in the middle of the room with a
wire headboard. He had a bookcase with a few books, most crooked or
leaning, a dresser and two nightstands. He hadn’t put much effort
into the décor of this room, except for the painting. It was the
only thing on the wall. Krista had the feeling the rest of the
house, or the living areas anyway, got remodeled, but this room
wasn’t bothered with. It screamed bachelor.

“Was it a fluke?” Ray was saying, moving
toward Sean and Krista.

“It was hastily done, as a
matter of fact.” Sean snorted. “The next day he had better. More
polished. He actually apologized
for the
earlier stuff.”

“What are you going to do about Judy?”

“Wait until she has all she’s going to give,
and show her Ben’s stuff. I’m hoping she’ll do the right
thing.”

“She won’t,” Krista said, crossing to the
dresser to look at a few pictures of him and Cassie or older
people—grandparents?

“Why do you say that?” Ray asked.

“
She’s already jealous of
Ben. Actually, not jealous. That’s the wrong word. She’s…
wary.”

Krista turned around to lean against the
dresser before realizing it wasn’t the most stable of furniture.
She pitched forward and caught herself right before she fell on her
face.

“Wow, clumsy,” she said, waving away a
frantic Mary. “Anyway, she’s worried about her job. Ben is
inexperienced but obviously way more knowledgeable. Judy won’t want
his stuff getting seen.”

“How do you know this?” Sean asked
skeptically.

“Tommy told me,” Krista said, crossing to
the closet.

“I think you’re making Sean nervous,” Ray
said lightly.

Krista looked over in
surprise, stopping still. Seeing Sean’s guarded expression, and
realizing that he probably didn’t often have women over for
anything other than sex, she took two steps back to him as she
exclaimed, “Oh my God--sorry!
How rude! I
was just half bored. You have
nothing
in this room, Sean,
seriously. It’s weird. Sorry about that, though—you should have
said something!”

Sean relaxed, “I don’t often leave people to
their own devices in my bedroom. Haven’t often, I should say. Not a
big deal.” He smiled, stirring Krista’s insides again, and flicked
her hair. “But yeah, I haven’t really put much time into
decorating.”

“It shows.” Krista slipped her hand into his
back pocket comfortably as she said, “Anyway, I guess Ben has got
Judy seriously nervous. Especially because he is Marcus’s new
favorite. She’s watching Ben like a hawk.”

“Huh,” Sean said, furrowing his brow. “That
might hinder Ben.”

“Nah,” Krista replied, on the move again,
now meandering toward the hall and leaning against the door. “I
talk to Ben about it often. I’ve got damage control down pat on
this one.”

“Judy can get aggressive at times, though,”
Sean countered.

Krista shrugged. “If Ben can’t ignore it,
I’ll mention it to Kate and Jasmine. One of them will sort it out
right quick. They don’t allow people to pick on Ben.”

“They don’t allow people to pick on anyone
they know.” Sean smirked.

“I know. They’re good—AH!” Krista jumped
into the room, spinning around quickly.

Keith was standing behind her with a sullen
expression.

“Jesus,
Keith. Creep around much?” Krista spat, walking directly for
Sean and sliding an arm around his middle.

Cassie walked in in a temper. She spared a
glance around the room before turning to Keith. “It’s settled.”

Keith ignored her.

She turned back to everyone else. “What’s
up?”

“Besides Krista looking in all my drawers
and jumping three feet when Keith snuck up on her, nothing much,”
Sean said with a grin.

Cassie smiled, too, and looked at Krista,
“Find his collection of porn?”

“Cass—“ Sean scolded.

“I didn’t—but I haven’t checked his computer
yet.” Krista laughed, giving Sean a pat on the back.

Everyone filed out, heading back to the
living room. Krista bounded ahead with Cassie, the two of them
already thick as thieves.