Page 37 of A Winter Wish

“Madrid?” she asked, pulling herself back to the room. Behind Mike, she could see the massive windows, typical of this Georgian style of building, and the glimpse of the city below, with the abbey in the distance.

“We’ve been talking about setting up a new trip there for next year,” Mike said. He’d acknowledged her at the beginning of the meeting with a booming, “Lexie! Wonderful to see you sticking it out, good for you,” which Lexie was trying not to hold against him. “There’s a big cultural festival there in May,” he continued, “the Fiesta de San Isidro.” His put-on Spanish accent was just as bad as his French one.

“Yes,” said Ange, “and you’ve just about got time to do a recce this year, if you get organized and decide on a strategy.” Lexie noticed Ange tended to do this—refer to “you,” rather than “we.” It reminded her of what Theo had said, about her not taking enough credit for what she did for the company.

“I have no idea why Richard didn’t ever get this one off the ground,” Mike said, shaking his head. “Old boy was missing a trick.”

Lexie saw Theo clench his jaw at that, though he said nothing. She wondered if he was upset about the slight on her dad. Did he feel he owed Richard something, maybe—for giving him a job, and now, for giving him a chunk of the company?

“We don’t have anything else in Madrid, do we?” Ange asked pragmatically. “Nothing this will clash with?”

“Makes no sense that we haven’t done Madrid in all this time,” Mike said. “Seems obvious, doesn’t it? Plenty of people will want to go there and we can sell the Spanish dancing and tapas and the like. Be perfect for anyone who imagines themselves a bit of a romantic and wants to dance the salsa or whatnot.”

“I went to Barcelona once,” Harry said. “But it was with a bunch of friends when I was eighteen, and I don’t remember much about it, if I’m honest.”

Lexie chose to look out the window rather than engage in the conversation. Her dad might not have set up an R&L trip to Madrid, but she knew for a fact he’d been there at least once before. She pressed her lips together tightly. Bitterness was not helpful—and she could do nothing to change the past.

“I can make time for a weekend recce,” Mike was saying. “Kate loves Spain. I’ll take her along.”

“I don’t know if you’ll be able to do a proper recce if you take your wife along,” Theo said, and though his voice was mild, Lexie heard annoyance layered under it.

“Nonsense, Kate will love it.”

“Mike,” Theo said, with the air of someone dredging up patience, “Kate is lovely, but she will not want to have a full-on weekend like that. And you won’t want to go to some of the places either—you told me that you hated the dancing on the Mexico trip.”

“Well, we won’t actually do the dancing; it’s more about watching it, isn’t it?”

“And are you actually going to make time to investigate all the places, or are you just going to take Kate out to the best places for lunch?”

“Now, listen here, old chap, I’ve been part of the company longer than you have, and I’ve been on enough of these things without you stepping in to tell me what I can and can’t—”

Lexie glanced at Ange, but she seemed to be doodling in her notebook, waiting for the argument to pass. Harry was swiveling his head back and forth between Theo and Mike as they argued.

“I’m not telling you what you can or can’t do. I’m asking you if you think Kate will make things difficult, which you’ve mentioned before that she has a tendency to do on work trips.”

Mike made a sort of blustering noise before saying, “Well, I’ll go on my own, then.”

Theo took what Lexie imagined was a calming breath, and Harry used that opportunity to pipe up with, “I would love to go to Madrid. Just in case that’s useful for anyone to know.”

Lexie thought Theo might shut Harry down immediately or point out that a comment like that wasn’t helpful just now, but instead he just shook his head, and she saw the smile he tried to stop when Harry grinned at him.

“We’ll get you out on a trip soon, mate, I promise, but it can’t be a recce. I think for this one it might be better if I—”

“I’ll go.” Lexie hadn’t fully thought it through before she said it, but now that the words were out, she found she meant them. She’d wanted to go to Madrid for a long time—why not now? And she wanted to prove she could do more than answer customer inquiries. She wanted to be able to prove, at the end of the year, that she’d helped the company turn a profit—and helping to set up a new trip was doing that, wasn’t it?

Mike gave a tinkling laugh, while Ange looked up from her notebook and gave her an approving smile. “Lexie,” Mike began, “I admire your enthusiasm, honestly I do, but you won’t have the first idea what you—”

“I’ve got a good few weeks before I’d have to go,” she pointed out. “That’s loads of time to do some research, figure out what to check out, come up with a rough itinerary, and then see if it could work. I can talk to you and Theo about previous trips and figure out what I’m looking for. OK, I haven’t done a ‘recce’ for you before, but I have traveled a lot. I’m good at talking to new people, and I know how to throw myself into something.”

Mike opened his mouth to talk over her, but Lexie cut him off. “Plus, I own half the business. Doesn’t that give me the right to at least try?”

Mike blustered to himself, Ange gave her a wink, while Harry said, “Hear hear.” Theo was looking at her, frowning slightly, but he didn’t immediately shoot her down. She made herself face him.

“I won’t mess it up,” she said, trying to speak calmly and professionally. Technically, she knew, that wasn’t something she could promise. She could try not to mess it up, though.

“I, for one, am all for it,” Ange piped up. “She is good at the people side of it, after all.”

“I know she is,” Theo said. It surprised Lexie enough that she didn’t immediately say anything. She thought of what he’d said in France, when he insisted he was trying to give her a compliment. Apparently he’d meant it.