“Brooke’s team got paired up with Thad’s for this challenge,” Kuvi said wryly. “She’ll be in heaven.”
“From what I saw yesterday, so will Thad,” Alice replied under her breath. Kuvi gave her a sharp, knowing glance. Yesterday, Alice had spied Thad and Brooke kissing in the woods. She’d immediately told Kuvi what she’d seen. The accidental sighting had shocked her, because in the past Thad had only publically demonstrated a platonic interest in Brooke. In fact, Thad had previously not even attempted to hide that he was very interested romantically in her—Alice. She considered Thad a great guy and a friend, so what she’d seen between him and Brooke had left her feeling confused and disturbed. She’d been subtly avoiding Thad all day. Why was he purposefully misleading his friends when it came to Brooke? Was it because he knew how much Alice disliked her?
“Hey,” Kuvi whispered. “You promised yesterday that you were going to tell me where you have been disappearing to at night.”
Alice glanced around warily, assuring herself that their conversation wasn’t being overheard. Until yesterday, Kuvi had assumed she was sneaking away from their cabin at night for trysts with Thad. Alice had never admitted to that, but Kuvi and Dave Epstein—their other friend—had just assumed a relationship between them, given Thad’s obvious attraction to Alice.
“I’ll tell you tonight, after the night supervisors take over,” Alice said quietly. “I promise,” she added when she saw the question and concern in Kuvi’s eyes. Kuvi nodded.
Alice wasn’t exactly looking forward to confessing for the first time that she was having an affair with Durand Enterprises’ CEO. Kuvi was sure to tell her that she was out of her mind. If they were discovered, the ramifications for both Alice and Dylan could be serious. But part of her was relieved at the prospect of telling the truth as well. She respected and liked Kuvi too much to keep lying to her.
Alice spotted Sebastian Kehoe, the Durand vice president of human resources, a minute after they entered the woods. Kehoe stood at the bottom of a wooden flight of stairs that led to a forty-five-foot-tall zip line platform. He looked at them, pointedly checked his watch, and continued to write on a clipboard that Alice suspected was surgically attached to his hand.
Uh-oh. Were they late? Alice couldn’t really afford to get on Kehoe’s bad side, although she constantly felt like she was scrambling not to land there with a resounding thud. Kehoe was a longtime Durand executive. He was the top boss here—at least he was when Dylan wasn’t around. It was generally acknowledged, even grudgingly by Dylan himself, that Camp Durand was Kehoe’s baby and had been for as long as most people’s memories went. Camp Durand was held up as a model example of Durand Enterprises’ strong community and philanthropic ideals as well as being an innovative, fresh practice for finding the best of the best young executives in the world. Kehoe certainly held court at Camp Durand like some kind of village potentate. Which was unfortunate, because Alice couldn’t rid herself of the uneasy feeling that Kehoe didn’t like her at all. She thought it might have something to do with the fact that Dylan hired her, when Kehoe usually did all the hiring for the elite group of counselors and future Durand executives. On a more worrisome note, she dreaded that Kehoe suspected something was going on between Dylan and her, and didn’t like that fact at all.
She and Kuvi approached Kehoe while the other kids spread out in the clearing, talking among themselves.
“Hello, ladies. May I have your assignments for your zip line pair-ups?” Kehoe asked Alice and Kuvi briskly. Alice’s stomach dropped. Kuvi reached into her backpack and retrieved several pieces of paper. She handed them to Kehoe.
“Alice?” Kehoe asked unsmilingly, glancing up and peering at her through a pair of preppy black-rimmed glasses. Everything about Kehoe was neat, his appearance as exacting as his manner. Even in his camp sportswear, Kehoe was meticulously groomed. He was trim and sinewy, his athletic build making him look much younger than a man in his fifties. “Your assignments, please?”
“I, uh . . . I forgot to type them out,” she said in a rush. “But I know all of my pair-ups by heart. I put a lot of effort into it.”