Chapter Ten
Once he’d retrieved the cornhole bag from the camper roof, which involved getting the ladder, his uncle Kevin footing it, and all the men in the family who weren’t running the grill watching and offering unhelpful tips, Rob wanted to grab a drink and go relax in the shade. Preferably with Hannah.
Unfortunately, she was talking to Melissa and he’d have to run a gauntlet of his family to get to her.
He wasn’t surprised at all when his mom managed to corner him before he got far.
It seemed as though she’d deliberately intercepted him in a spot where they were alone, and he braced himself for a maternal interrogation.
Or maybe a lecture. He couldn’t really judge why she’d singled him out, but he knew she’d done it on purpose.
“Hannah seems nice.”
His head whipped around to face her, and his eyes narrowed when he saw that fake-innocent look she never actually managed to pull off. “What did you just say?”
“Hannah,” she repeated with not even a hint of chagrin. “She seems nice.”
“What have you heard and who did you hear it from?” Not that it really mattered which of his brothers was talking, but Brian liked to push his buttons a little more than the other two when it came to their mother being involved.
Rob’s money was on him. Luckily, Hannah was far enough away—talking to the kids and Stella—that she wouldn’t overhear this conversation.
“Oh, you know. A mother hears things.” She smiled and rested her hand on his arm. “Listen, honey. I know it’s hard to own a business with family and it requires setting boundaries, but if she’s the one, don’t let a rule about fraternizing with campers stand in your way.”
“The one? I’ve known her for two weeks, Mom.”
“When you know, you know.”
“I know she’s pretty and smart. I know we share a similar taste in books and that she loves history. And I know she’s going back to California at the end of July. That’s what I know.”
“She just needs to get to know you.”
“Mom.”
“I could tell you were looking for her earlier. You said you were just making sure nobody needed anything, but as you’ve learned, moms know things.”
Mothers heard things. They knew things. Basically, they didn’t mind their own business. “Fine. I like her. But if you make it awkward, she’ll go back to her camper, so leave it alone.”
“You must really like her to be taking that tone with me.”
“I’m sorry.” He sighed. “It’s just that when it comes to this family being up in her business, she’d probably rather be left alone.”
“From what I’ve heard, she doesn’t want you to leave her alone.”
“We’re getting to know each other and that’s all I’ll say. But please keep in mind everything you’re hearing is filtered through my brothers.”
“Oh, trust me. I never forget that.”
When he saw Danny making his way over, Rob was relieved. He could hand Mom off to his brother and then make his way back to Hannah.
But his grandmother called his mom’s name, and it turned out Danny was actually looking for him. “Hey, are there any cabins open next weekend?”
“Memorial Day weekend? Nope. We’ll be totally full, which is both awesome and terrifying.”
“What about the weekend after?”
“Pretty sure the small one’s open, but I can’t guarantee it’ll stay that way. We get more calls every day.”
Danny snorted. “Of course it’s the small cabin. That’s the same one Uncle Joe used to stay in so he could write in between family activities.”
“You thinking about coming up? You can just stay in the house. I know it’s not great, but you don’t have to go outside to get to the bathroom.”
“I need to lock myself away and figure out how to push through this writer’s block.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in writer’s block.”
“Yeah, I didn’t—until I got writer’s block.”
“If you really need to lock yourself away, it makes more sense to come up during the week when it’s quiet. I have a feeling weekends won’t be quiet.”
“And we won’t lose the weekend income on the cabin, I guess,” Danny said.
“Oh, you weren’t going to pay?” Rob asked, and they both laughed. He’d only been half joking, but he’d let it go. Without Danny, they couldn’t have gotten the financing to buy the campground, so they’d all be cutting him slack for a long time.
“Later, let’s get together and figure out which week I can come up for several days. I just need space and quiet to get out of my head. Or deeper into my head. I don’t even know what I need anymore.”
“We’ll get you set up.” Over Danny’s shoulder, Rob could see Hannah looking around, and judging by her expression, she was thinking about leaving. “Right now, though, I’ve gotta talk to somebody about something.”
Danny snorted. “Tell her everybody loves the fruit salad.”
Hannah was about to head back to her camper when she saw Rob heading her way. He looked determined about it, too, brushing off several people who tried to talk to him. He even dodged his grandparents, which was flattering, she thought. He really wanted to talk to her.
“Hey,” he said when he finally reached her. “Sorry about that. It only took a few minutes to rescue the cornhole bag, but my family loves to talk and, as you said, there are a lot of them.”
“Everybody here loves to talk. If the goal was people getting to know each other, you succeeded, because life stories were shared.” When he gave her a questioning look, she smiled. “Except mine, of course. But I did learn a lot about everybody else. Want to hear about Connie’s colonoscopy?”
“No. No, I don’t.” He frowned. “That’s fun cookout conversation.”
“I think she was trying to explain the mountain of potato salad on her plate.” She shrugged. “As if potato salad that good needs justification.”
“The meat should be coming off the grill soon,” he said, his hand on his stomach.
She mimicked the gesture, but for an entirely different reason. “I’ve already eaten so much, I can’t imagine having a burger now.”
Rob laughed. “We’ve told Mom I don’t know how many times over the years that they should hold the salads and chips and all that until the grill’s fired because people eat it because it’s there, and then the meat gets done and everybody’s full of pasta and veggies and dip.
Oh, and fruit salad. I’m told it’s excellent and I really hope it’s not gone. ”
“If it’s gone, I’ll make you another batch sometime. And you can leave it in my camper’s fridge so you don’t have to share it with your brothers.”
“And so they can’t eat it all at two in the morning while I’m asleep.”
“Well, they can try, but if they’re rummaging around in my camper in the middle of the night, they might get clocked with a frying pan.”
Even his laughter couldn’t distract her from her phone buzzing in her pocket.
Her family knew she was busy today since she’d made a call home to ensure she was remembering the fruit salad recipe correctly, which meant it was probably Erika trying to reach her.
She felt a pang over ignoring the call, because her friend’s career plans were in limbo while Hannah decided what she wanted to do going forward.
But the pang wasn’t strong enough to make her leave Rob’s side and take the call.
“Okay, I see movement over by the grill and the chicken goes fast,” he said. “What do you want me to grab for you?”
She really wasn’t hungry, but—unless she was mistaken—the way he’d phrased the question was a gambit to keep her here. And as long as she was with him, she didn’t really want to leave.
“If you just put an extra piece of chicken on your plate, I’ll nibble on that. I wasn’t kidding about being full.”
“I won’t be long. Why don’t you go claim those two camp chairs over in the shade.”
She looked at the chairs, which were tucked away under a tree. “Don’t they belong to somebody?”
“They’re my uncle’s, but they’re sitting at a picnic table with my grandparents already.”
As she went and sat in one of the chairs, it occurred to her that her and Rob sitting off by themselves was going to attract attention—especially if she was eating off his plate.
She’d overheard some comments today that led her to believe none of the Kowalski brothers were allowed to dally with the campers, and this would definitely give the impression they might be dallying.
She didn’t want to cause any problems between Rob and his brothers, but he was an adult and he knew what he was doing. If he wanted to spend the time with her, she wasn’t going to be able to summon enough willpower to walk away from him.
When he returned, Hannah laughed at the mound of food on his plate. “How many people are eating from that plate?”
“Just the two of us, but I wasn’t sure what you’d want with the chicken, so I got a little of everything.” He handed her one of the two forks he’d stuck in the pile of potato salad.
“I don’t see any fruit salad.”
“It was gone,” he said with exaggerated sadness.
“Was it really gone, or do you just want an entire bowl of your own?”
He grinned. “It was mostly gone. And it will definitely be gone by the time there’s enough room on this plate for it.”
While they ate—or he ate and she picked at the chicken and a little bit of the coleslaw and pasta salad—he told stories from his family’s trips to the campground and how they used to have picnic lunches up on one of the scenic overlooks, complete with hot dogs grilled on a hibachi grill strapped to one of the machines.
He explained the rules of Water Ball of Doom to her—essentially there were no rules other than nobody was allowed to actually drown.
It sounded like a combination of volleyball, keep-away and football, but played in the pool, and it was a good thing Hannah wasn’t very hungry because she spent more time laughing than eating.
When the plate was empty, Rob set it on the grass next to his chair, but he didn’t make any move to get up. “Your parents’ camper is nice, and obviously you’ve been camping before. Did you ever tent camp?”
“We went tent camping once. It was our very first camping trip and it wasn’t in a campground like this.
We had two tents—one for my parents and one for me and Jenn—and we were just out in the woods.
For some reason, my dad thought taking his wife and two daughters to a spot where they’d have to dig little holes to go to the bathroom in the woods would be super fun. ”
“Oh, he went super rustic, then.” He laughed. “Yeah, we don’t camp that way.”
“We never did that again. We also went home early because my mom had assumed there would be bathrooms nearby and didn’t pack enough toilet paper.
Even though we got our first camper the next summer, that was the last time my dad got to plan a family vacation without running it in detail past my mom. ”
“That was us the first and last time we went to Six Flags and my dad just gave us money and told us to have fun and try to stay in groups of two, at least.”
“How old were you?”
“I was probably eleven or twelve, and the others went up in age from there.” He chuckled. “That night was the first time I saw my mom pay restaurant prices for wine, and she kept saying she thought she was never going to see all four of us together at the same time again.”
“She must have been exhausted.”
“Yeah, and I think that wine was the only reason my dad’s still with us.” He looked over to where his family was mingling with the other seasonal campers. “She wasn’t very happy with him.”
Hannah followed his gaze and saw some of the women taking plastic wrap off of trays. “Rob, is that actually more food?”
“Desserts.” When she groaned, he laughed and put his hand on her leg. It was only for a moment, but his touch triggered a heat that spread through her entire body. “We told them not to bother but they always bother when it comes to food.”
“I don’t know if I can eat another bite,” she said after clearing her throat to make sure her voice wouldn’t be husky from the lingering effects of his touch. “And I mean it this time.”
“Gram made her blond brownies. They’re amazing.”
She groaned. “Okay, maybe one more bite.”