Page 101 of Lady and the Camp
“How did you know?” I hadn’t told her a thing.
She shot back a self-satisfied smile. “Give me credit. You can’t keep secrets from me.”
I folded my arms, refusing to let her dig under my skin. “I won’t leave the camp high and dry. I have a plan.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do. So how did it go?”
I sat forward. “Hard to say. I’m not great at interviews.” Especially on video. Something about it made me choke up. “They said my experience lines up. That they’d be in touch soon. They’re in a crunch after losing two staff—one to injury, the other to a family issue where somebody needed to relocate. If this goes well, it could move quickly.”
Twila grinned. “I’m justtickledto see you excited. Kind of like when Hudson was here and you’d get that gleam in your eye.”
I stared at her. Didn’t she know discussing Hudson was off-limits?
Twila hummed to herself. “She was a delight. I miss the girl and it’s only been a few days. And wow, that adventure with the feds! My book club set an emergency meeting to get the details.”
The front office door opened and Maggie walked in, right on time. “Come on in.”
Twila shifted aside to let Maggie into my office. “I’ll leave this door open a crack.”
I grunted. “Close it.”
The door closed.
Maggie sat. “Hey, Lucas. How are you doing?”
How to sum that up? How about I didn’t. “I wanted to be first to tell you I’m looking elsewhere for employment. It’s not a done deal, but if it works out, I could be leaving very soon.”
“Yeah, I knew that from Twila.”
My fists clenched involuntarily. “Okay. Well, I don’t think she knows this. I choose you for the camp director job. I trust you completely to run Camp Junebug.”
“Oh.” She straightened and smoothed her wild ponytail. “That’s flattering. Truly.”
Maggie always had been modest. “You deserve it.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that. But I can’t accept.”
It took a second to realize what she’d said. “What? Why?”
“Because I love my job. I like being front and center with the kids. I like wrangling the teen counselors even if I complain about them. Now my bestie is here again working with me. Things are good.”
I hadn’t foreseen this. Her rejection of the director role added a huge crack to my concrete plan. “But you’d be great at it. The job pays more money. You can do anything you want with the camp.”
She appeared thoughtful. “I appreciate your faith in me. I don’t doubt I could run this camp. But I don’t want to.”
I stood and paced behind my desk. “Then who will? I can’t leave if no one takes the job.”
She smirked. “Ah, so handing off the director job is convenient foryou. I get it.”
“No, that’s not—” Yeah, she nailed it. “I mean it when I say you could run this camp. I guess I assumed you’d want to.”
I could hand her the keys and start over with my new job in Colorado. Never look back. Never have to see reminders in every corner of this camp that glowed a faint pink.
“I could have offered to take over during the split,” Maggie said. “I knew you dreaded the director job. But you were committed to the vision and I knew I could support you. If you want to leave, I’ll support your decision. You’ll have to post the job listing yourself. Or talk to Brycen.”
I leaned against a dusty bookcase. “I already talked to Brycen. We’re sharing some camp staff for coverage. You know that.”
“I mean talk long term. He regrets the split. I heard him say as much. To you. When we all met the other day.”
