Sarah would occasionally join in on some of the banter, but he could tell there was something reserved about her, some reason she didn’t want to open up to him or anyone else. He didn’t care that much, because he wasn’t interested in any kind of relationship with her other than a professional one. His only concern was that the distance might cause her to be untrustworthy when he needed her.
Moose, on the other hand, would sit there and refuse to even join in the conversations. Unless he was asked a point-blank question that pertained to his position in the team, he had nothing to say. Noah recalled Allison telling him that he needed to find a way to break through that wall, but so far, he didn’t have any ideas along that line. Moose didn’t like him—that was obvious. Noah didn’t know what to do about it.
The boat occupied some of his days off. It had a big Mercury V-8 engine tucked into its stern, and would move along at a pretty good clip. Noah had learned to waterski a few years earlier, and began thinking about buying a set. All he needed to do was find someone to drive the boat for him, but so far, he wasn’t having any luck in that regard.
Some evenings he spent alone, but occasionally he would wander down to Charlie’s for a beer. He wouldn’t let himself drink much, because he didn’t trust himself not to get into trouble. A couple of early experiences in drinking, as a teenager, had showed him that he had as little common sense when he was drinking as he had emotion when he was sober.
Charlie, despite his near-toothless appearance, had turned out to be quite an intelligent person. He and Noah had several very interesting conversations, ranging on everything from politics to religion to the debate over which pile of crap might be best to put into the White House for the next term. So far, they hadn’t come to any real conclusions on that one, but the debate was still ongoing.
To sum it all up, Noah was slowly going stir crazy. It was time for Allison to either put up or shut up, in his opinion—either give them a mission and let him determine whether his team could properly function, or else split the team up and reassign everyone. He had done everything he could think of to try to win them all over, but as far as he could tell, they were just as raw and fragmented as they had been the day they met.
He sat down at the bar, and Charlie set a bottle in front of him automatically. “Hey, kid,” Charlie said, his habitual greeting.
Noah smiled. “Hey, Charlie, how goes it tonight?”
The two of them talked about the usual things for a few minutes, but then Noah got more serious. “Charlie,” he said, “I’ve got a question for you. Let’s say you’ve got this group you got to work with, people that are assigned to you, so that you’re their boss. One of them seems to like you, one acts like she’s afraid to let you get too close, and the third one just plain hates your guts. How in the world can you turn them into a team?”
Charlie grinned his toothless grin. “Oh, come on, kid, ask me a hard one,” he said. “That’s easy. First, you get the one that likes you to tell the others to knock off their crap. Then you get the girl who’s afraid of you into what looks like a position where you can take advantage of her, but you don’t. You walk her out the door, and let her go. Then you find the guy who hates you, get him alone, and challenge him. Tell him that if he can kick your ass, then you’ll do everything you can to make sure he doesn’t have to put up with you anymore. On the other hand, if you kick his, then he’s got to shut up and back you up a hundred percent. Then you make damn sure you kick his ass all the way up to his forehead!”
Noah sat there and thought through what Charlie had said, and came to the conclusion that it warranted a chuckle. “That’s a good one, Charlie,” he said.
“Now, I wasn’t kidding,” Charlie said. “If there’s one thing I learned the hard way in my years, it’s that sometimes, the only way to get a man to be your friend is to whip him in a fair fight. The trick is to make sure the fight is more fair for you than it is for him, and I suspect you might be the kind of guy who could figure out a way to do that. Am I right?”
Noah grinned. “You might be.”
Charlie went to help another customer, and Noah thought about what he’d said. When he left a half hour later, he was already thinking of ways to put the old man’s plan into action.
FIFTEEN
He decided to try to settle the issue all at once, and called all three of his team members that night. He told them that he needed to meet with them the following evening, and invited them over for dinner. All three agreed to come, but he could sense that Sarah and Moose were not happy about it.
Neil was, because the boy could put away more food than Noah had ever seen anyone eat! If there was one thing he knew was always going to get Neil’s attention, it was free food.
Noah had bought a grill, and he was quite good at using one, so he grilled beef kabobs and put beer and soft drinks on ice, then set up a picnic table he’d bought and strung up some lights. The dinner was set for seven, but Neil showed up at six, and Noah took the opportunity to talk to him.