"What?" Kevin gave a bark of laughter. "No way."
Shanna frowned in denial. "Definitely not happening."
"Look at that, you're agreeing already."
It sounded like a joke, but their boss's stern expression confirmed he wasn't kidding around. Her pulse skipped at the prospect of forced time in close quarters with the man to her right. Years ago, she'd been to a few team building exercises. Sometimes things got physical, where you had to trust a co-worker to not let you fall and shit like that.
Touching and trusting? For once she did agree with the jerk. No way in hell. She'd met Butch Walsh and his wife last summer. The man might look like Santa, but he needed to re-evaluate his Naughty & Nice lists if he thought she and Kevin belonged on the same one.
"Nash, seriously, man." Kevin actually sounded worried.
"I am serious. You two need to learn to work together."
He straightened from the windowsill and approached the desk. "What the hell are we even going to do?"
"I'm not sure yet, I just decided on this. But, I'll find something appropriate and email you the details over the weekend. We'll meet at Josie's bakery in town at eight a.m. on Monday."
"In town here?" Kevin clarified with a frown. "We're doing this in Wisconsin?"
"Yes."
"I'm not team building with him," Shanna said firmly.
"You are if you want to keep your job." He shifted his gaze from her, to Kevin, and back. "This is not optional for either one of you. Understand?"
She didn't bother hiding the mutiny in her gaze as she fumed inwardly. There was no way Nash would fire both of them-but, he could fire a senior executive much easier than his vice president. And he'd known Kevin longer. She fisted her hands in her lap at the thought Kevin had the upper hand, and her stomach churned with the knowledge she didn't have one hundred percent control over her future.
"Can I talk to you in private?" she requested of Nash in a tight voice.
"Not if it's about trying to get out of this." He raised his eyebrows in question.
Shanna averted her gaze with a scowl.
He walked around his desk and opened his door as a clear signal for them to leave. "Take the weekend to clear your schedules. I'll see you both on Monday morning."
Chapter 2
Saturday evening, Kevin pulled into Nash's driveway and parked his rental car. He needed to talk his buddy out of this irrational, cockamamie team building idea.
Camping.
He was actually sending them camping in some Wisconsin state forest nearly an hour north of Pulaski. Even though Kevin had never been camping, he didn't mind giving it a try. It was who he had to camp with that made it intolerable.
It would be a week-a whole damned week-of wanting to strangle the uptight prima donna while simultaneously fighting the urge to kiss her until she moaned his name again. She definitely hadn't been uptight that night.
The faint echo of her desire-husky voice made his dick twitch as he approached the front door. He gave a low growl of annoyance-and regret-and prayed to God the years he and Nash had been friends would count for something.
His wife opened the door, and Kevin gave Josie a quick hug after she invited him inside.
"Nash took Lincoln out back to play while I clean up after dinner. Did you eat? I can make you a plate if you're hungry."
He smiled as he followed her into the kitchen. "Thanks, but I had a burger at that bar called Rowdy's. Bit of a misnomer if you ask me. Nothing but old couples, families with kids, and me."
"You were there early," she said with a grin. "They liven up later with the karaoke crowd."
"How many beers you gotta have to endure that?"
"Don't knock it until you've heard it," she chastised. "We have some good singers around the area, including an award-winning song writer from Redemption, a couple towns over. And Santa Butch does a decent cover of Johnny Cash."
Kevin narrowed his gaze at that name. Butch, not Johnny Cash. He'd met the old guy once. Still thought it was weird the whole town called him Santa behind his back. Weirder still was the old man giving unsolicited advice on sending him and Shanna on this stupid team building trip. He didn't even know them.
"I got Nash up there once."
Josie's words captured his attention once more. He glanced outside to see his friend sprawled out on a blanket with their six-month-old son. "Tell me you recorded that."
She laughed while opening the fridge to put away containers of leftovers. "I did, but he threatened divorce if I ever showed anyone."
"Aw, come on. You know he'd never do that, whereas I would pay good money to see that video. Name the charity."
"Hmmm … now that I might have to consider. Want one?" She lifted up a bottle of beer and then shut the door when he nodded.
He accepted the drink on their way out to the backyard. "Thanks."
Nash sat up as they approached, and Kevin read the silent warning in his eyes. Yeah, his friend and boss could likely guess the reason he'd shown up. He wasn't going to heed said warning, but he'd bide his time before broaching the subject.
Before begging, you mean.
He squatted down for the obligatory small talk while the baby played with toys on the blanket. Between swallows of beer, his tension eased as he watched his friend play peek-a-boo with the boy and give him belly raspberries without an ounce of self-consciousness.
The sight triggered a pang in his chest. It wasn't unexpected. He did want a family someday-sooner rather than later. He just had to find the right woman first.
A vision of Shanna's whiskey-brown eyes smiling up at him as she held a baby in her arms flashed in his mind.
Oh, hell no.
The key word in the prior thought was the right woman. Control freak Shanna Rogers was light years away from that designation.
And yet, the image reappeared and refused to fade.
Shit. He reached up to run a hand through his hair and rose to his feet to chug the last few swallows of his beer. Josie and Nash both glanced up at his restless movements.
"Time for a bath, and then bed," Josie declared as she scooped Lincoln into her arms. "That'll give you guys a chance to chat."
The moment she disappeared inside, his buddy asked, "You get all your gear today?"
Kevin had received an email with a list of half the items needed for the next week, while Shanna had been sent the other half. Meaning they would have to share. He tapped the empty beer bottle against the side of his leg. "No. You can't really be serious about this."
Nash bent to gather up the toys in the blanket before starting toward the house. "I'm dead serious."
"Come on. Camping? Shanna's not going to last a day in a tent, let alone a week."
"That's what the team building is about. Help each other. Make it work."
"I'll do all the work while she sits there afraid to break a nail or get her clothes dirty."
"Don't underestimate her."
"Don't worry. I'm not."
An unsympathetic shrug lifted Nash's shoulder. "You two need to figure out how to deal with whatever this animosity is between you. You're professional adults who should be able to work together in a civilized manner."
"You don't understand. That's pretty much impossible at this point."
His friend plunked the blanket on the patio table and turned so they faced each other across the table. "Why are you so sure if you haven't even tried?"
Kevin shifted his stance and winced. "We … slept together."
Nash shook his head with a should've known grimace. "So, that's what this is all about. When did this happen? When you first met, or more recently?"
"Uh … 'bout a month ago."
Not that he hadn't noticed her back when they first met. She was younger than him by two years, held a lower position in the company, had less experience than him, and yet something about the woman had intimidated the hell out of him from day one. He'd gone on the defense and discovered rather quickly she had an uppity attitude to match her smart, sophisticated, ice princess exterior.
His friend's eyebrows reversed direction. "Obviously things didn't turn out well."
Oh, the together part had gone extremely well-it was the after that tanked.
"It was awful the next morning, so I left. Ever since then, she's been worse than ever."
"What do you mean, you left?"
"I left and went home." When Nash gave him a look of disbelief, he lifted his palms up with annoyance. "What was I supposed to do? Stay and start planning a wedding?"
"Of course not, dumbass, but most people get that you don't run out first thing in the morning."
"If I'd stayed any longer, she probably would've started throwing things at my head."
"So she was pissed off?"
"That's an understatement. Picture the worst you've seen us at the office and double it."
"Why?"
Kevin frowned as he gripped the chair in front of him. "What do you mean, why? How the hell should I know?"
"You're the one who slept with her. Did you say or do something to set her off?"
"No," he denied, offended that's the first assumption his friend made. "She's just an uptight control freak. It was obvious she didn't want me there, so I got the hell out."