An Alaskan Proposal. Beth Carpenter
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HARD TO BELIEVE people did this for fun. Sabrina climbed over a sodden log and hurried around a boulder to catch up with the rest of the group. A sudden gust whipped the hood of her borrowed plastic poncho across her face, momentarily blinding her. In that instant, she stepped on a wet root and slipped, falling to her knee. A flash of pain shot up her leg.
“Are you okay?” Clara, Sabrina’s temporary supervisor, offered a hand up.
“I’m fine.” Sabrina managed to puff the words out between gasps for air. She accepted Clara’s hand and got to her feet. “Thanks.” She rubbed her knee. There would be a bruise tomorrow, but it wasn’t bad.
“It’s not far now,” Clara said. “And I think we’re winning.”
“Great.” Sabrina forced a smile, but she needn’t have bothered. Clara had already turned and hurried up the trail, which left Sabrina to bring up the rear.
What was she doing here, climbing a mountain, in Alaska, in the rain? Sabrina didn’t hike. She didn’t wear ugly boots and plastic ponchos. At least the old Sabrina didn’t. The new Sabrina—the one she’d pretty much created out of thin air—loved spending time outdoors. At least that was the story she’d sold Orson Outfitters’ management during her job interview, and that was the story she intended to live up to. Today’s team-builder outing was her first test.
You’d think all those hours at the gym would have prepared her for this, but it turned out running on a treadmill and hiking rough trails weren’t quite the same. Her muscles complained, forcefully. Still, she couldn’t quit, or everyone would know she was an impostor. Somehow, Sabrina continued to put one brand-new hiking boot in front of the other. Twenty minutes later, they were still trudging uphill, the rain was still coming down and everyone around her was still acting happy about it. What was with these people? Every place she’d ever worked had a resident whiner—someone who made a federal case out of running out of staples or complained about the quality of the coffee—but she hadn’t heard a peep of dissension from this crowd.
Then Clara, who was at least fifteen years older and probably thirty pounds heavier than Sabrina, broke out into a song, but she still didn’t slow down. Several others joined in. How did they have enough breath for singing and climbing? Maybe all of Sabrina’s new coworkers were animatronic robots. That would explain a lot.
Just about the time her legs were seriously considering a mutiny, they crested the top of a rise and saw the company van and another truck parked beside a canopy emblazoned with the Orson Outfitters name. “We’re first!” Clara called out. Everyone cheered. Sabrina cheered along with them, just happy she didn’t have to climb anymore.
The van’s driver was relaxing in a folding chair beneath the canopy. Sabrina would have tried to snag that job, but the woman who’d volunteered to drive all the supplies to the rendezvous point looked to be about eleven months pregnant.
Two guys dressed in matching navy rain jackets were unloading something from the back of a pickup with a Learn & Live logo on the door. What were they doing here? Maybe they were part of the special surprise Walter had promised the group.
Sabrina collapsed onto a big rock and swallowed the last of the water from her bottle. Clara plopped down beside her. Sabrina was lucky to be training under Clara in her first assignment. Clara was one of those people who always assumed the best about everyone, which meant she tended to attribute Sabrina’s lapses to rookie jitters rather than ignorance. “Great climb, huh?”
Sabrina nodded. “Challenging.”
“Oh, yeah. We were determined to get here first this year. Walter’s group usually beats us up. Oh, look. Here they come.” Clara bounced up and hurried over to the other trail to deliver some good-natured razzing.
Sabrina watched from where she was. A brief expression of disappointment crossed Walter’s face when he saw their group had already arrived, but he grinned when Clara teased him. Their store manager was quite a character, about five-four with a walrus mustache and an oversize personality.
He’d insisted that Sabrina call him Walter when they met on her first day and pumped her hand with such enthusiasm he’d all but sprained her elbow. “Great to have you here, Sabrina. I have high hopes for this new management-trainee program. We’ve been telling Corporate for years the managers need to understand how the stores work before they can make good decisions at the corporate level, and they finally listened.”
“Thank you, sir. I’m glad to be here.”
“Trust me, you drew the best assignment.” He straightened the chunk of turquoise