A Kowalski to Count On (The Kowalskis #11)

Prologue

March

Today had been one of the most exhilarating, terrifying and also greatest days of Rob Kowalski’s life.

Signing his name on several bottom lines had put him in enough debt to make him sweat, but he’d signed his name alongside his brothers’ and now they were all in debt together. And they owned a campground.

Now that it was done, it felt damned good.

Or maybe that was the sugar talking. They’d decided to celebrate closing on the Birch Brook Campground with a campfire, complete with s’mores, and he might have overdone the marshmallows.

Rob looked at his brothers over the top of the fire they’d built to fend off the early March chill—and to provide flames for toasting the marshmallows, of course.

The four of them had always been chaotic, whether they were getting along or fighting, but they were his brothers and he hated the distance that had come with adulthood.

Not a physical distance, really. None of them had moved far from their parents.

But they were busy, and it often took a family dinner or holiday for all four of them to be in the same place at the same time.

There would certainly be some intense togetherness in their near future, and right now, it felt good as he looked around at his brothers.

Danny had been very clear he’d be a silent partner thanks to his financial contributions, and while he had no interest in the day-to-day running of the campground, he’d help get it off the ground.

And Joey and Brian, who’d be learning about pool chemicals and sewer hookups and astronomical insurance premiums right alongside him.

“This is the most reckless thing we’ve ever done, and that was already a high bar,” Brian said, his eyes reflecting the flames they’d all been staring into.

Rob shook his head. “It can’t be reckless, because we have a business plan. Reckless people don’t write out business plans.”

“Even if that business plan was written on the back of a Jasper’s napkin?”

He nodded. “Especially if it was written on the back of a Jasper’s napkin.”

They all knew any agreement written on the back of a Jasper’s Bar & Grille napkin was considered legally binding in the Kowalski family.

Three of them had been hanging out at their uncle’s sports bar—Danny had been away on a book tour at the time—catching up after a busy few weeks of not seeing each other, when Brian had mentioned the campground where their family had spent so many summer weeks was closed down.

It was for sale and languishing on the market because the previous owners were of an age that made it difficult to keep up with the property.

The brothers had reminisced, laughing over the summer antics of their youth, before lapsing into silence as they each mourned the loss.

We should buy it.

Rob couldn’t even remember which of them had said it aloud, but it didn’t really matter. All it had taken was another pitcher of beer, a napkin and a pen, and the three of them were ready to scrap their existing life plans—such as they were—in favor of ones that sounded like a lot more fun.

Kowalski Brothers Business Plan:

1. Buy the Birch Brook Campground*

2. Work hard

3. Play harder

* Ask Danny for money

As business plans went, it probably wouldn’t show up in any college curriculums, but it had worked.

..so far. As of eleven o’clock this morning, they owned the campground.

The true test of their agreement would be when it actually opened for business and they found out if it would put money into the pockets of Kowalski Brothers, LLC instead of just taking it out.

“This campfire would be a lot more fun if we weren’t sitting in snow,” Danny said, propping his boot-clad feet on the large rocks surrounding the fire ring.

“It’s not like your ass is actually on the ground,” Rob pointed out, since he was the one who’d remembered to sneak into their parents’ garage and “borrow” four folding camp chairs. “Also, it’s still early March. Snow was pretty much a given.”

“It’s gone at home.”

Rob shrugged, but didn’t bother arguing since he got the feeling Danny was complaining just to hear himself complain. His brother knew as well as anybody that winter came early and stayed late in the northern part of New Hampshire.

“You need to spend more time outside,” Joey told Danny. “You’ve become an inside cat.”

The yellow Lab lying next to Brian’s chair picked her head up at the mention of a possible cat.

Brian had found a wooden pallet and covered it with a wool blanket and dog bed he’d brought from home so Stella would be comfortable, which made Rob smile.

His brother hadn’t thought to bring a chair for himself, but the dog was living large.

“If I’m outside, I’m not at my desk,” Danny pointed out. “Books don’t write themselves.”

Rob kept his mouth shut because he didn’t know how much—if anything—Danny had shared with the others about his struggle to write anything at all lately.

Buying this campground was undoubtedly a distraction he didn’t need, but they hadn’t been able to do it without him adding a substantial amount to the financing pot.

Now they’d have to wait and see whether he managed to keep to being a silent partner, or if he was going to welcome rolling up his sleeves and using the work to be done here as an excuse to avoid his actual work.

“It’s supposed to be warm next week,” Rob said. “The rest of this will melt off by next weekend.”

“It’s been a long day,” Brian said, pushing himself out of his chair.

Stella lifted her head again, but she didn’t get up.

Rob knew she’d wait to see if any of the other humans moved, because if Brian was hitting the bathroom or grabbing a snack and then coming right back, she wasn’t about to give up the warm, comfy spot she’d nestled into.

Then Danny stood and folded his chair. “Last one in gets the camp cot.”

That got Joey moving, but Rob took his time. As the youngest, he already knew he was getting the camp cot because there weren’t enough beds in the fixer-upper house that had come with the campground. With three older brothers, he’d gotten used to making do with whatever was left.

Rob knew the argument for the queen bed would get heated—Joey was the oldest but Danny had put up the most money—and he didn’t want to hear it.

Instead, he took his time dousing the campfire, using the pile of snow they’d dug out of the ring so they could fill it with wood.

Then he took his chair and the chair Joey had knocked over and left in his rush to get to the house and set them on top of Stella’s bedding.

Then he put that pile in the shed with Danny’s and Brian’s chairs.

Before he went inside, he took a last look around the quiet, empty campground he now owned a quarter of. His finger itched for his camera’s shutter button, but he’d already taken at least a hundred photos today.

This was it. This was the day his life changed and he stopped being the irresponsible youngest Kowalski boy who’d had three different jobs in the last four years and just wanted to take pictures.

Today he became a business owner, and his partnership with his brothers would give him the opportunity and freedom to finally take his photography to the next level.

Maybe he wouldn’t be able to support himself with his camera, but he wanted to be taken seriously.

His family didn’t take him seriously. They never had, but that was going to change.

They had less than two months to get this campground ready for the campers to move in and there was a lot of work to be done.

If everything went according to plan, Danny would go back to his desk and write more books.

And Joey would spend most of each week in the southern part of the state with his wife and stepdaughter, leaving Brian and Rob to coordinate their schedules and do most of the heavy lifting.

But if there was one thing Rob knew, it was that when it came to the Kowalski family, things very seldom went according to plan.