Free Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3) by K.F. Breene

she said when she picked up.
    “Krista is single. She broke up with her
boyfriend a week after getting back to L.A..”
    The other end was silent. Sean looked at his
cell phone to make sure it was still on, then into the live call
said, “Hello?”
    “You promised.”
    Sean let out the breath he didn’t realize he
was holding and half laughed. “Yes.”
    “So now what?”
    “Want to move to L.A. with me?”
     
    ~*~*~*~
     
    Six months had gone by since Krista’s San
Francisco visit. They hadn’t taken Sean’s account, and Krista
hadn’t seen him since that night on the beach. She heard he quit
Dexico, sold his house—apparently to Cassie--and moved away. No one
knew what company he moved to, or even what location. He was a
ghost.
    Dexico was in the midst of crumbling from the
inside out. Apparently John was shocked Sean moved on; he hadn’t
seen it coming. In fact, no one had. When Sean gave his notice,
John did everything he could to entice Sean to stay. Marcus said
the salary and perks being thrown at him were staggering. Not only
that, but the President offered him a VP title. He would share the
role with John. Nothing would keep him, though. He worked hard for
his last month, gave his stuff to the other salesmen, and closed
another book in San Francisco. Ray had left shortly thereafter.
    The good news was, Kate and Jasmine decided
to go to L.A. They said they had nothing better to do, and needed a
change of scenery. Judy had gotten another job, too. Everyone from
their old team evaporated. The company wasn’t nearly as loyal as
she first believed, and it showed in their turnover.
    Even Cassie agreed to move, eventually. Eventually being the key word. She was with a great company
in a great job, so she had to transfer within the company, and
right now there weren’t any openings in L.A. in her field. But the
rain check was good enough for Krista and friends. She was a solid,
though distant, member of their group.
    Although, Krista would be lying if she said
she was the one that kept her in the circle. Kate and Jasmine took
up that mantle. Cassie was Krista’s only link left to Sean, and his
rejection hurt so much, she couldn’t face Cassie without the pain
of it consuming her. And it seemed like Cassie knew it, too,
because they’d talked once on the phone—Cassie had called for a
friendly chat—and Krista broke down in tears ten minutes in. It was
slightly embarrassing. Especially since Cassie didn’t have any
excuses for her brother’s behavior.
    Cassie had ended the call saying to call her
when Krista could stomach her humor. Krista laughed through her
pain, but hadn’t dialed her number since. If only her humor was the
problem.
    Kate was hired on in Krista’s department. She
was better qualified, so Jasmine got to lounge around at Krista’s
house and look for work. That lasted a couple months until she
found employment in another part of Kate and Krista’s company. A
word from Krista, and a whirlwind of chat from Marcus, and she was
in before she even interviewed.
    It helped that Tory heard the girls were the
back-up researchers when Krista was with Dexico. He’d asked how
well they worked together. Krista had answered that they were her
dream team before she’d even met Marcus and Ben. He nodded once and
then changed the subject, which meant he planned to think it
over.
    Whichever it was, Tory, Marcus, or Krista—or
maybe all of the above—Jasmine got in with a good salary, and they
were all together again.
    It was a perfect day of spring in Los Angeles
and Krista was trapped indoors looking at some specs. Marcus came
in. “Geegee.”
    “Marcus,” she said as she leaned back.
“What’s today’s news?”
    “No news. I came to walk to the meeting with
you. Ben said he’d meet us there. He was in the middle of some
nerdery or something.”
    “Oh crap! Is that today?”
    “Yes.” Marcus sighed, extremely put out.
“C’mon.”
    “What would I do without you?” Krista got