An Alaskan Proposal. Beth Carpenter

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СКАЧАТЬ She found cooking utensils, lanterns, some sort of special toilet paper and a bunch of C-shaped hooks with levered latches.

      Will, the guy who’d built the fire at the team-builder, walked past, presumably on his way to the shoe department. “Hi, Sabrina. What are you looking for?”

      “Beaners.”

      He gave her a puzzled frown and gestured at the hooks. “Right there.”

      “Oh, duh.” Sabrina gave a little laugh. “Right in front of me. Good thing it wasn’t a snake.” Quick, change the subject. “So, has Amy had her baby yet?”

      “Soon. She called in while her husband drove her to the hospital this morning. Asked me to finish the inventory without her.” He grinned. “She says she’s going to name the baby after me. Course, her husband, Bill, is really named William, too.”

      “That’s convenient. Well, I’d better get these to Tim. See you later, Will.” Sabrina grabbed a few medium-sized hooks, which she now realized were labeled as carabiners. Ah, like the clips on the tent. Carabiners equals ’biners. As if she didn’t have enough trouble with camping terms, they were using nicknames for tools. Hopefully, Will would just assume she was blind, rather than ignorant.

      She brought the carabiners to where Tim was now on a ladder, threading ropes over beams. “There you are. I thought you’d deserted me.”

      “Sorry. I ran into Will and he said Amy is having her baby.”

      “I heard. Maybe she’ll take some time off now. She was over there stocking shoes last week even though she could hardly bend over. Did Will say she’s doing okay?”

      “I don’t think he had any updates yet.”

      “I’m sure we’ll hear something soon. Can you give me one of those?”

      Sabrina handed him the carabiner. The employees here all talked to and about each other like they were all part of one big family. At least that was how Sabrina assumed families functioned. She really didn’t have a lot of experience. It had been just her and her mom since she was twelve, when her dad left.

      That was when Sabrina discovered security was an illusion. That counting on someone else for love and support was a gamble. Sabrina didn’t believe in gambling. The only person she could absolutely depend on was herself. And that was why she had to keep this job.

      She thought she’d done all the right things. In college, she’d been tempted to go into fashion design, but chose the safe route of fashion merchandising. Only it turned out not to be so safe. The department store where she’d been working as a buyer went bankrupt. With her experience and references, Sabrina had assumed she’d be able to find a similar position, but in-store sales were down all over, and everyone was cutting back.

      There was a rumor circulating that one of the senior buyers at McCormick and Sons was about to retire. McCormick’s had always been Sabrina’s dream job. A family-owned chain of upscale department stores based in Scottsdale, they had the reputation of hiring the best and keeping them forever. Once you were a part of McCormick’s, you were set.

      Sabrina had tried to wait it out, but the buyer stubbornly refused to retire. Time went by and Sabrina’s carefully accrued savings dwindled. A friend of her mother’s mentioned this management trainee program with Orson Outfitters in Seattle. Sabrina applied there along with several dozen other places, but Orson’s was the only company that showed interest.

      At the time she applied, she’d assumed they were a casual clothing company. It wasn’t until they’d contacted her requesting an interview that she’d researched the company and discovered they made and distributed outdoor equipment, with clothing making up only a small portion of their product line. But after five months of unemployment, and her cash reserve almost gone, Sabrina was determined she was going to get the job with Orson Outfitters, even if it meant she had to fudge a little about her outdoor experience.

      “Sabrina? Another one?”

      “Oh, sorry.” She handed Tim the second carabiner.

      “Attention, everyone.” Walter’s voice came over the speaker. “We have a new member of the Orson family. It’s a boy, nine pounds, eleven ounces.”

      Everyone cheered. Tim grinned. “Wow. Almost ten pounds. And my wife thought an eight-pounder was big. We’ll have to go by and see Amy and the baby after work.” He tied the ends of the ropes into loops and passed them to Sabrina. “Can you use a couple more carabiners to clip these onto the gunwales of the canoe, so we can hoist it up?”

      Okay, Sabrina didn’t know what a gunwale was, but the only reasonable place she could fasten a carabiner onto a canoe had to be the posts across the top. She clipped the ropes to the canoe, front and back. “How’s that?”

      “Good. Pull on those lines to raise it?”

      She tugged on the lines, lifting the canoe off the ground, while Tim guided it into place from the ladder. Once they had it in position, he tied it off. “Great. I just need to set out a chair in front of the tent, and I’ll be all done.”

      She thought about offering to create the display. She had an idea about arranging two chairs in front of the tent with a few stones suggesting a fire ring, like the one at the team-builder. She could set a bird-watching book and some binoculars on one of the chairs, and hang one of those cute lanterns she’d spotted in aisle ten somewhere. Maybe lean a paddle in place to draw the eye toward the canoe. But the more she was around other employees, the more likely it was that her secret would come out. She’d better not risk it. “I should get back on the register.”

      “Okay. Thanks for your help, Sabrina.”

      “No problem. See you later.” Sabrina returned to her post next to Clara. This was ridiculous. She was supposed to be gaining practical experience as a preliminary to moving into management, but instead she spent most of her energy avoiding any conversation that would expose her ignorance.

      Only the top half of the candidates working in the stores would be chosen to move to the next round of the training program. If Walter didn’t give her a high rating in a little over three months, she would once again be searching for a job. And so far, the only impressive thing she’d managed to accomplish was to blow up a few cans of beans.

      If she was going to keep this job, she needed a crash course. And obviously she couldn’t get it from any of her coworkers. There was only one person in Anchorage she could think of who might be able to help her without giving away the whole thing. After all, he was already suspicious, and training people to survive outdoors was what he did for a living. So be it. She’d contact him. Because, obnoxious though he might be, Leith Jordan was her best bet if she wanted to keep her job.

      TIRED AND A little damp, Leith rolled into the office after a long day of watercraft survival training in the swimming pool at one of the local high schools. He unloaded the kayaks and headed to his desk to fill out his reports. Everyone else had gone home for the day. Before he could even sit down, his phone rang. Volta.

      “Hi, sis.”

      “Hi. Want to come for dinner? I made a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs.”

      Leith’s stomach growled at the mention of food. He loved Volta’s spaghetti. She usually only made it when she was having a bunch of people... Wait. “Who else is coming?”

      “Just СКАЧАТЬ