have been feeling it since the first hour. Glad you could finally join us.” There was the sound of the bed shifting, and Lacey turned her head to make out the profile of Jen’s head propped up on her elbow. “So …”
“So …” Lacey was too tired to play games. If Jen had a question, she was going to have to come out and ask it.
“I’d always tagged you as a Connecticut girl. But as I thought about it today, I realized you’ve never told me where you grew up. I’m not even close, am I?”
Lacey had never lied about where she’d come from. People had assumed, and she’d let them. “I grew up here. In a town a couple of hours from Duluth.”
“Is your family still here?”
“Yes.”
“You never talk about them. Your family, I mean.”
“It’s complicated.” Lacey knew all about Jen’s family, even though she’d never met any of them. Jen had the type of family who talked every day and went on holidays together. It was about as far from Lacey’s family as she could imagine.
“What about Victor? Is he complicated too?”
Lacey rolled over at the sudden change in topic. She’d taken out the braid for the night and regretted it as her hair flopped in her face. “Not even close.”
“He watches you, you know.”
“I’m sure he does. I’m the competition.” Thank goodness it was dark, and Jen couldn’t see the flush Lacey felt chasing up her neck.
“Uh-huh.” It was impressive how much skepticism the woman managed to fit into two syllables.
“Besides, he’s my cousin’s fiancé’s brother.”
There. That silenced her for a second.
“So you already knew each other?”
“No.” Why had she said anything? Now she was going to have to tell Jen the rest. Otherwise, she’d put her foot in her mouth with Victor. “He doesn’t know who I am. I mean, I’m pretty sure he knows Emelia has a cousin called Lacey, but he doesn’t know I’m that Lacey.”
“And you don’t think you should’ve mentioned that?”
“Victor and his brother don’t have a great relationship. I guess I didn’t want him to feel weird. Like I might be reporting back on him.”
“Hmm.” The sound was a drowsy one. “Well, you’re going to have to tell him soon. Otherwise, it’s going to be super weird when he finds out.”
Jen was right. “Maybe I’ll tell him at the end of this trip.”
Silence from the other side of the tent. When Lacey looked over, Jen’s head was buried in her pillow, her curls sticking up in the shadows like a halo.
Lacey rolled onto her back and stared at the low ceiling of the tent. Even though her body was weary, her brain was still buzzing.
She and Victor had barely spoken to each other since breakfast. Coincidence, or was he avoiding her? She didn’t really care. Hopefully, he now believed her to be some kind of gun-slinging redneck and would keep his distance for the rest of the trip.
It may make her a horrible person, but she didn’t like Victor not being the person she’d had in her head for over five years. A version that had been reinforced by her cousin’s tales of his fecklessness, run-ins with the law and propensity to swing first and ask questions later. Not to mention Anita’s death.
She tossed over again, unable to find a comfortable spot. Beside her, Jen’s breathing had deepened. She thought she’d done an okay job today as captain—if she ignored the coon incident, because who knew if that would add or take away her score. But she still had ground to make up. Everyone had their eye on the prize. Everyone had shared more than her the previous night. So, if Meredith was going for some kind of vulnerable leader schtick, she was even further behind.
Beside her, Jen let out a little snuffle and rolled toward Lacey, making the small tent seem smaller still. Half an hour of deep breathing exercises later, sleep was no closer than it had been when she’d first laid down.
Lacey pulled her hoodie over her head, slipped her feet into flip flops, grabbed her gun, and crawled out of the tent. There were more dangerous things roaming around at night than the day.
The May air nipped around her. She reached back into the tent and dragged out her sleeping bag, unzipped it and wrapped it around her body, holding it in place with one hand.
They’d set up camp a short distance from the water, and she wandered down to where the lake lapped the edges and