Nikki shifted in her seat. “Yes.” She looked to Ursula who nodded for her to continue. “We’re working very closely with the event organizers who assure us this is how they have run multiple events previously.”
“Why aren’t they here?” Brock asked.
“The event organizers are responsible only for their event. I am responsible for the rangers and organizing the staff.”
She was our boss now?
It surprised me there wasn’t even a single hint of reaction to her statement. Until I saw Ursula’s face practically daring any of us to defy Nikki.
I restrained my urge to huff, cross my arms over my chest, and slouch in my seat. Instead, I smiled sweetly through gritted teeth.
“To continue”—Nikki sat up a bit straighter—“the swimmers will exit the water on the far side of the swim beach, run up to the parking lot while peeling off their wetsuits—”
Brock snickered.
“—and get to their bikes where they’ll put on their shoes, shorts, and shirts before beginning the bike portion highlighted on page five.”
Everyone turned to page five where the bike course was drawn in a bright yellow.
“They’ll bike north out onto the roads away from the city. The event organizers hired several police officers, aid vehicles will be on standby, and we will not be dealing with any issues on the bike course.”
I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. The thought of headless bicyclists floated through my mind, and it wasn’t until Antonio nudged me with his foot that I realized I’d been in a serious daydream.
I searched the room, but no one seemed to be paying me any attention at all. In fact, Nikki was still droning on but was now halfway through the book and was talking enthusiastically about the race sponsors. Antonio nudged me again, and I turned and looked at his paper.
Wake up. You’re not going to get the full-time position sleeping on the job.
His writing was tiny and slanted to the right.
I pulled my pen from my uniform pocket and wrote on my own paper, trying to make it look like I was taking notes about the sponsors Nikki babbled on about.
I wasn’t sleeping.
He put his pen back to his paper, and I looked back up at Nikki. Ursula narrowed her eyes at me. Had she caught us writing notes?
Antonio nudged my foot again, but I didn’t look. Ursula was still watching with her hawk-like stare. I glanced down at my packet, now open to the completely wrong page.
I felt a nudge in my ribs. Antonio wasn’t letting up. I glanced to see if Ursula had diverted her attention to someone else. She hadn’t.
I shook my head down at my page, trying to tell Antonio to leave it alone for a minute, but he didn’t get the message. This time the nudge was harder and a squeak burst from my lips.
Every eye in the room turned to us. It felt like flames were engulfing my face.
“Is there something you need to tell Rylie, Antonio?” Ursula hissed.
Antonio let out a breath. “No, ma’am.”
I didn’t dare look up at anyone in the room for fear of breaking into laughter. It wasn’t funny. Shouldn’t be funny. It was my potential future on the line, but the thought of Shayla’s giggle or Ben’s snicker was almost enough to set off my own funny bone.
“Are you absolutely sure?” Ursula asked.
I willed her silently to let it go.
“Because it looked as if you were trying to get her attention pretty desperately.” Ursula was on her feet and standing behind us now. “May I?” She picked up the piece of paper Antonio had been writing on and then snatched my own before I could close it.
The air in the room was stiflingly still as if no one even dared breathe.
“It seems as though this entire meeting has become a laughing matter to these two.” Ursula threw the two packets back in front of us, and I caught what looked like an invitation to dinner written on Antonio’s packet under his first note, but before I could read it all the way, he picked the paper up and turned back to the first page. “Let’s take a break.”
We all stood and hurried out of the room.
“What were you writing notes about?” Shayla asked when we walked outside into the warm sun and fresh air.
“Antonio was only telling me not to fall asleep.”
Shayla shook her head. “That felt like being in middle school all over again. How much of all of that did you take in?”
“I think I stopped listening when Nikki started her inch by inch description of the race course.” I looked around to make sure Nikki and Ursula were out of earshot. “Why is it so important we know all of this?”
“It’s Nikki’s way of making herself feel important,” Brock said from behind me. “It’s complete bullshit that I had to be here.”
I couldn’t argue with him on that one.
“PCPD dispatch to any ranger on duty at Alder Ridge Reservoir,” a woman’s voice said over the radios.
Several of us reached for our mics before Greg waved a hand indicating he would take it.
“This is Ranger One, go ahead dispatch.”
“We’ve just gotten a report of a man running on the backside of the reservoir nude.”
Naked guy strikes again.
“Copy. We’ll check it out,” Greg replied.
“Thank you. Dispatch clear.”
“Who wants it?” Greg asked the group.
All of our hands shot up like a bunch of school kids. Anything to get us out of listening to more of Nikki’s presentation.
“Not Rylie,” Ursula’s said from behind me. “I need to speak with her.”
A chill ran down my spine. I felt like I was being called to the principal’s office.
“Dusty should go since he won’t be at the event,” Nikki said. Greg nodded, and Dusty was gone before anyone could contradict the choice. Lucky.
“The rest of you have five more minutes before we reconvene,” Nikki said and then
