at her.
“And what?”
“This is the part where you say ‘And you can call me Lacey.’”
The way he said Lacey in his British accent stirred memories she had successfully deleted from her mental hard drive until yesterday. “O’Connor is just fine.”
He grinned. “Okay, then. O’Connor it is.”
She was not making nice with Victor Carlisle. She was not. She was just making a strategic alliance. That was all.
Re-opening Rachel’s message, she replied with thanks for the heads up.
For a second, she thought about telling Rachel more. Except she didn’t know about Victor. Nobody knew about Victor. They had no idea why finding herself sitting next to him on a bus, let alone potentially about to spend a week in the wilderness with him, was even a thing.
A thing from the past. That was all.
Even if he had reformed, there were a million other reasons why he had to stay there.
CHAPTER EIGHT
You have all been identified as having potential for roles at senior levels in the merged company. Victor focused on Meredith’s proclamation as he dug his paddle into the water, enjoying the feel of resistance for a second before it cut cleanly through, propelling his shared canoe forward.
Lacey had been half right. As the bus had pulled to a stop, clipboard lady had informed them that whoever they were sitting with was their first team member. As soon as they got off the bus, they’d been ordered to form a team with two other pairs. Lacey had moved at warp-speed to grab a colleague called Jen and her partner. The other two had simply been the pair closest to them. They’d ended up with three from Langham, three from Wyndham. If this turned Survivor-style, at least it was an even pairing.
In the front seat, Richard plunged his paddle into the water, determination in his movements. Victor had to give it to him. For a man who openly admitted that he considered a three-star hotel to be roughing it, he hadn’t uttered so much as a word of complaint during the three-hour paddle.
“We are going to need to portage soon. Not for long. Just twenty minutes or so. Then another short paddle and it will be time to set up camp for the night.” Kelvin, their guide, issued the instruction from the back of the three-man canoe a few meters across the water. “Follow us to the exit spot.”
Victor glanced left. Lacey and Louisa lagged about ten meters behind them. Even from across the water, Victor could see the sweat beading down Louisa’s beet-red face. Thank goodness they weren’t doing this in the heat of summer. The woman would be melting down like a nuclear disaster.
He felt for her. Louisa had a whip-sharp legal mind. But this was far from the right context for her to shine.
Kelvin, Cassie, and Jen beached their canoe gently into the edge of the lake. Kelvin jumped off the back with a splash while Cassie and Jen exited the front.
A few seconds later, theirs nudged up beside the first canoe. Victor jumped out after Richard, the water lapping at his ankles. Wet feet didn’t bother him. He had spent an entire English spring and winter drenched when he was rowing. Once you’d spent six hours rowing in sleet and hail, a few days in wet socks and boots was a mere annoyance.
Victor pulled their canoe a bit further up the shore so that there was no chance of it floating away, then unloaded their backpacks from inside.
Lacey and Louisa’s canoe scraped against the rocks just as he finished. Louisa, then Lacey, jumped up off the front. Lacey grabbed the canoe to pull it up next to Victor’s.
Victor itched to offer to help, but he’d learned his lesson on that front.
Kelvin checked his watch. “Right, take a few minutes break. Then we’ll portage.”
“I can do ours by myself and Richard can carry the other two-man one.” Victor was a head taller than anyone else in the group. It made sense for him to portage one canoe by himself. That would leave two women to carry the three-person canoe. Then the other two would only have to carry their packs for however long this hike was going to take.
Kelvin didn’t respond.
“Kelvin?”
“I’m not the team captain. Decisions like that are her job.” The man nodded toward Lacey.
In all the hustle, Victor had forgotten that Lacey had pulled the Captain bandana out of a bag Kelvin had passed around. “Is that okay, O’Connor?”
Lacey looked up from where she was pulling a pack