After the lies she’d told about Keven, what was wrong with Noah to still be drawn to her? He rubbed the ache in his chest, the old sense of loss growing stronger. He thought he’d put those old feelings behind him. It’d been two years, after all. It would be the hardest thing he’d ever done to work with a woman he’d once loved and now loathed.
When Sona paused,Caitlyn started typing the dates of the trip into her phone. She only had a week to get ready for it, including preparing her father for the separation. It might be good it was soon. He would have less time to worry.
Since the day of her emergency appendectomy and the surgeon’s report that “something’s wrong with your right ovary,” her dad had been Caitlyn’s support, her strength.Shemight not have understood the significance of the surgeon’s words, but her father had already lived through it once withher mother. At fifteen, Caitlyn hadn’t understood what it meant that her mother’s Stage IV ovarian cancer had metastasized. But she learned, when she and her father had watched her mother die, despite the chemo, less than a year after her diagnosis.
Caitlyn rubbed her temple, staring at her phone. To allay her father’s worries, she must be doing better thanfine. That meant she would have to force herself to eat more, even when it made her feel queasy. And if she couldn’t keep down what she forced herself to eat, he couldn’t know about it.
She glanced up and found Noah watching her, the animosity coming from him almost palpable. Even after all this time, she still didn’t know for sure what had gone wrong. One day she’d been wondering if their dating was ready to turn exclusive. The next day he’d ghosted her. And it really had been like she’d died and he couldn’t—wouldn’t—acknowledge her existence.
Keven was behind it; she was sure. A little shudder went through her at the memory of her old boyfriend, short though their relationship had been. The way he tried to manipulate her emotions had already alarmed her. Then he’d hit her. That had been when she’d ended it.
The short time she’d dated Keven during her freshman year should have been ancient history, but Caitlyn had learned the hard way he got too much pleasure from his little vendettas to let them go.
“Would you two like to know who the others on your team will be?” Sona asked when Caitlyn had finished typing into her phone.
“Aye,” Noah said at the same time Caitlyn nodded.
“Each department head nominated an intern from their department. They also suggested people to be team leaders andthen narrowed it down to the two of you. I know it’s overkill to have two, but we wanted this particular retreat to be a leadership experience as well. That’s why we have two of you.” Sona tapped her keyboard and an employee photo appeared on the wall.
“Finn!” Noah cried, looking pleased.
“And this is Max Draven,” Sona said.
“Is he new?” Caitlyn asked, not recognizing him.
“He’s been with us for six months and just finished his first rotation. He’s been working under Rafe coordinating the champion lore.”
The next picture showed a young woman with long dark hair and black horn-rimmed glasses.
“Zoe. Excellent.” It was Caitlyn’s turn to grin happily. At least there would be someone there she knew she could trust.
“I doubt either of you knows our sixth team member.” Sona shifted her mouse and a new photo appeared to show a man who looked like he was old enough to be in a graduate program. “This is Heath Savage. He works part-time for us but lives in Washington state, where he has strong family connections. He’ll fly to New York to join us there. He’s one of our part-time programmers, and Kayn’s been trying to talk him into moving to North Carolina.” Sona chuckled and showed a picture of a castle set in a beautiful forest with a large expanse of lawn and garden before it. “But who wouldn’t want to live here?”
“Oh, wow,” Caitlyn breathed. “I didn’t know they had castles in Washington state.”
“That looks familiar.” Noah peered closely at the photo. “‘Tis an Irish castle.”
“Right.” Sona turned off the projector, and the picture disappeared. “It was disassembled and brought to Americaback in the mid-1800s by one of Heath’s ancestors. He can tell you about it when you’re together in New York. We hope learning about each other will help our employees to bond. This is what we want your activities to foster. Something REKD Gaming has always had was a sense of community and some would even suggest family. It’s become harder to maintain as we’ve grown, but we don’t want to lose it. So, keep that in mind as you work with your team. When things get difficult, our employees need to have confidence that their fellow employees will have their backs.”
“I love the idea, Mrs. Rafferty,” Caitlyn said, trying hard not to look at Noah, “and I hope we’re successful, but I know from sad experience there will always be haters.” She couldn’t help but glance at him then but quickly shifted her gaze away.
“Then I’m tasking the two of you especially to seek out meaningful experiences for your team members to share with the intent to turn the haters into friends. I cannot stress enough how important this is.” Sona looked first at Noah and then Caitlyn. “I heard once that people who read fiction are better sympathizers because they’ve learned to empathize with the characters. Well, everyone has a story. We all have people we interact with but know little about. If they knew the pains we carry, even the haters might be able to find some compassion. I’m not talking about trying to push your team to share deep terrible secrets. But activities to help scratch the surface and show a glimpse at the real person behind all the protections might help them to open up more.”
“To trust more,” Caitlyn whispered, struck by the sudden intensity in the woman’s words. It seemed clear Sona was thinking of something personal. What loss had she suffered? “You’ve given me a lot to think about,” she said.
“Good. Now if we can get this lunk to think at all.” Sona winked at Noah.
“Hey, just being your cousin doesn’t give you the right to call me names.”
The first time Caitlyn had heard that this obviously Irish man was related to an Asian woman, it’d been clear there was a story there. One that fascinated Caitlyn, but she hadn’t had a chance to ask about it before Noah ghosted her. The painful memory of what he’d done made her wince, and she reminded herself he and his family connections weren’t her business anymore. Never really had been.
Her stomach growled, followed by a wave of nausea. For a second, she thought she might lose the small amount of lunch she’d managed to eat earlier. The others shot Caitlyn a quick glance but looked away.
“Excuse me,” she mumbled, dipping her chin.
“I’ve emailed both of you a list of things each team member should bring. I would suggest you begin exchanging ideas before we head to New York.” Sona looked between the two of them again. “That’ll do for today. Time to get to work.”
“Mrs. Rafferty,” Caitlyn said, gathering her bag, “do we need to worry about making room assignments or shopping for food during our stay?”
