Without his help, I gained access to our private Wi-Fi and dove in. Minutes or hours later, Cade sat down next to me. I felt his heat, even though he didn’t say a word while he looked over my shoulder.
“It’s been a couple hours, dollface. Why don’t you take a nap or eat? You’ve got to be tired from traveling?”
“I’m proving my work ethic, Cade,” I ground out.
“You can’t work on these sorts of things when you’re tired. You’re missing some of the bigger issues.” He pointed out one right in front of my face, and I slammed my laptop shut.
“Did you want me in this cabin to micromanage me?” It made sense now. He didn’t want to work with me, he wanted to make sure I didn’t mess anything up. He thought I wasn’t competent enough to handle JUNIPER. And my gut twisted at his lack of confidence in me. “If you feel the need to do that, maybe it’s better you get someone else in here to work with you.”
“I don’t work well with others.” He shrugged.
“I don’t work well with you!” I screamed. “You have no respect for me, and you don’t believe I can do this. And I need—” I stopped abruptly.
To need someone’s support, to ask for it, to want their approval, was never a good thing. Especially for someone like me. I could be let down. I knew that. I knew that I didn’t want anyone but my family that close. I couldn’t afford the risk.
“You need what, Izzy?”
“I need you to find someone else to do this with.” I waved at the computer, surrendering some of the work I was most proud of because I wasn’t willing to risk the person I’d become. I could stand on my own, be happy on my own, and operate well enough on my own. I didn’t need anyone.
It had been that way with Gerald. I’d engaged with him, but I’d never really let him in. Maybe that was why he’d hooked up with someone else, why it didn’t hurt me as badly as it should have.
“I’m only working with you.” He grabbed my rose gold laptop and opened it back up. “You might miss a few things, but you’re capable enough and more tolerable than most.”
“Do you even hear yourself? I’m ‘tolerable’？ ‘Capable enough’？”
It was Cade’s turn to squirm under my assessment. “Can we just work rather than pass around compliments we don’t mean?”
I decided he wasn’t worth it and plopped back down in my seat to work in silence.
Making amends wasn’t something he was good at either. Or maybe Cade simply didn’t care to make amends with me, because he sat at the opposite end of the table and got to work, tapping away at his computer, sending me tasks digitally.
The very last one said Eat some food.
I left it unchecked, got up, and called Lucas. “Are we going in the lake today?”
He whooped and said yes.
I left Cade to his devices. We weren’t friends, he wasn’t social, and I didn’t want to engage with him anymore that day anyway. Instead, Lucas and I looked over the itinerary and mingled beside the lake.
“We get three days of no work and all play,” Lucas practically sang into the blue sky like he was in heaven.
“I’m already working. Cade wants me revamping JUNIPER for testing.”
“Damn. Did you show him the itinerary? Tell him Rodney and I need some alone time with you.” Lucas smirked.
“Ha-ha. Not happening. I just want to prove I can do this and that I’m good at—”
“You’re good at your job, Izzy. Don’t let him make you feel like you aren’t. That’s a slippery slope.”
I nodded, but doubts crept in, like the ones I used to have about not fitting in when my brothers went off to college, like the ones that pushed me into bad habits rather than healthy ones. “I just need to stay occupied and enjoy—”
“The world that this retreat is offering.” Lucas pointed to some more very sweaty, very muscular men. “I think they dropped us at a Temptation Island experiment or something. How did everyone on our team get so hot? I even stared at Cassie a little too long in her swimsuit today.”
“You did?” I turned to study him in disbelief.
Lucas’s smile was as bright as the sun setting on his blond hair. He’d put on swim trunks and abandoned his shirt to showcase his abs of steel and biceps that were strong enough to carry anyone into the lake. “Well, that’s a lie, but I stared at her flirting with Rodney.”
“Now that I believe.”
He chuckled. “Anyway, tomorrow night there’s a mandatory campfire where we should know everyone’s name, as there will be a quiz.”
“Sounds like we’d better go learn some damn names.” I shrugged and Lucas pulled me along like this was his grand adventure.
We met a few at the grill. Rodney, our buff crush, made hamburgers while Melanie, a redhead who was as small as a mouse, flirted with him. Theo was quiet and scared of the lake but nice enough.
Later that night, after enjoying a few drinks and laughing with my new friends, I meandered back to my cabin with Lucas. “You don’t have to walk me back to the cabin, Lucas. It’s like two hundred yards from yours.”
Cade, still in his navy suit and his freaking hot eyeglasses, swung open the door as we stood there, arm in arm.
He laser-focused on where our bodies linked. “Thanks for bringing her back, Lucas.”
Lucas didn’t say anything for a whole second as he gaped at Cade in glasses. He practically drooled before I elbowed him and he came back from being feral for our boss. He cleared his throat and pointed out, “See, I did need to bring you back. Mr. Armanelli is even thankful for it.”
“I’m not going to be mauled on the few steps from one cabin to the other.”
“There are bears out here.” Cade shrugged and then winked at Lucas, who was smiling like they had some inside joke.
“Bullshit. There are not.” I swiveled my head around, though.
“How do you know?” Cade leaned against the doorframe. “We’re in their territory now.”
“Actually, I think I heard one growling in the forest earlier.” Lucas carried on with him.
Still, grizzlies and black bears weren’t a joke. “I watched a documentary—they will rip apart a person. So this isn’t funny. People have died.” I stepped closer to our patio, then hesitated. “Well, how’s Lucas supposed to get back now?”
Cade outright laughed. “Security has us surrounded, Izzy. No bears are getting through. Or people, for that matter.”
Did I feel ridiculous for forgetting we were actually a national asset working on election cybersecurity? Yes. Was I going to admit it? No.
I waved him off and shoved him aside to walk into the cabin as I yelled over my shoulder, “Love you, Lucas. See you bright and early for a swim.”
Cade corrected me. “She’ll see you at noon because we need to work first.”
Lucas’s eyes widened at me, then he mouthed, “Text me,” before he spun around and hurried away.
“Great,” I grumbled, “so I’m working while everyone else gets to know each other.”
“You’d really rather do nothing with everyone than something epic online with me?” Cade stood there in his suit, looking at me with a completely puzzled expression.