Chapter Thirteen #2
Because they were keeping their voices low and it was dark, there was an intimacy to the conversation he didn’t want to get up and walk away from. He wanted to keep talking. “That must be hard to deal with in a camper.”
“It is. I usually turn all the lights on so I can’t see the lightning as much, and play loud music through my headphones. But it’s impossible to totally block it out, of course.”
“You’re always welcome to ride out storms in the store. Or in the house, if we’re closed.”
She smiled. “I probably won’t cross the open space to get there, but thank you for the invitation.”
His phone chimed and he read the text message from Brian. What was it?
Bug spray in a capped bottle in the fire. Site 28.
That was a lot funnier when we were kids and didn’t own the place.
Rob smiled and locked the screen, but he caught Hannah frowning at the phone. “Sorry. Brian wanted to know what it was.”
“I don’t blame him. I’d want to know what that sound was, too.
” She shrugged. “I was trying to decide if I should walk over to my truck or something and maybe scare them out of doing it, since Scottie’s off at another campfire and Melissa went inside to clean up, but I didn’t make my mind up quickly enough, I guess. ”
“It sounds like they’re kind of loud if you could hear them scheming. Are they bothering you at all?”
“No, they’re fine. I don’t think it’s so much that they’re loud, but that I’m pretty quiet. And sound carrying is part of being in a campground.”
“Are you sure?”
She waved a hand at him. “I’m sure. And what are you going to do? Throw them out because they talk to each other and laugh a lot? I like hearing the boys play, actually. They’re good kids, and Melissa’s friendly without being...you know, that neighbor.”
“I know what you mean.” He cleared his throat, not sure how to bring up their trip to the waterfall and the distance between them since.
“You guys have been busy this week,” she said, and he was relieved to have the opening.
“It’s been hectic. It seems like every time we get comfortable, a new challenge is coming up that we have to prepare for.” He paused and cleared his throat again. “I’ve wanted to stop by and...say hi, I guess. But Brian keeps coming up with a million things I should be doing instead.”
She chuckled softly. “Operation No Fraternization is going well for them.”
I’m telling you, Bobby, I don’t think you should get in over your head with her.
Rob thought about what his brother had said and though he wanted to ignore the advice, he knew Brian wasn’t totally wrong.
“You should know I have a long history of not letting my brothers boss me around,” he said, hoping his grin hid the uncertainty he was feeling at the moment.
She laughed softly and it looked as if she was about to say something, but the sound of a truck slowing out on the main road made him turn. Sure enough, it was dark enough so he could see the red glow of brake lights, and he sighed.
“More campers coming in. I should go help because we definitely don’t want people trying to find their sites in the dark.”
“It’s getting late.”
“Yeah. The previous owners told us that Friday nights can be long, especially on long weekends when the traffic down south is particularly bad. Sometimes it can be as late as midnight, and we still have a few more to come in.”
“It’s a big weekend for you,” she said, and his phone chimed at the same time.
Rob pulled out his phone to read the text message from Brian. Dude.
It was only one word, but he had a lifetime of knowing his brother and knew he was seriously annoyed that he hadn’t come back from checking on the sound, and that he knew he was at Hannah’s site.
“I have to go. Thanks for the tip,” he said, nodding toward the Scotts’ site.
“No problem. And good luck this weekend.”
As he stood, he was tempted to lean over and give her a quick kiss good-night, but two things stopped him. One, they hadn’t spoken since the last kiss, so he couldn’t be sure she actually wanted to do it again. Maybe she’d gotten a taste and didn’t like it.
But mostly it was the fact he didn’t want to give her a quick kiss. He wanted to give her a long, slow and very thorough kiss, and doing so would require actually getting to spend time with her.
Alone.
Brothers really were a pain in the ass, he thought.
Hannah didn’t leave her site for the entirety of the long weekend.
The place was packed and almost everybody but her was there for the four-wheeling.
Some of them rode ATVs and some of them drove side-by-sides, but they were all loud and kicked up dust. She wasn’t opposed to them, but since she’d already done her grocery shopping and had everything she needed, she wasn’t tempted to venture out.
And Rob was busy. Without the temptation of getting to talk to him, there was no real incentive for her to leave her comfortable, reasonably private site.
She’d heard him once, from a distance, yelling to a guy who was exceeding the five-miles-per-hour speed limit on his four-wheeler.
And she’d been leaning against the front of her truck, talking with Melissa Scott, when he’d driven by in the UTV pulling a small trailer filled with bundled firewood to sell to the campers.
He’d waved and though he didn’t stop, his gaze had definitely lingered on Hannah before he gave her a smile that made her feel like she wasn’t the only one who’d rather he was sitting under her awning with her at that moment.
She sat under the awning now, even though it was getting dark and she usually would have blown out the citronella candles and gone inside at dusk in favor of burrowing into her nest with a good book.
There was no denying—especially to herself—that she was hoping if she sat outside long enough, Rob would be able to squeeze out a few minutes to stop and chat.
And she’d really like to kiss him again.
Sometimes Hannah wondered if he regretted kissing her and didn’t want to do it again. But that didn’t seem likely because as far as she could tell, he hadn’t been disappointed at all by the kiss at the waterfall.
It was more likely his brothers were more of an issue than he’d led her to believe. He was the youngest, and she’d gotten the impression he felt as though he had something to prove to them, so if they were adamant about him not spending time with her, he might have to give in.
In the few times they’d managed eye contact since the kiss, though, the look in his eyes made her think that if he was really forced into choosing between pleasing his brothers and kissing her, she had a chance.
A flash of movement in the brush caught her eye, and Hannah smiled when she spotted the skunk.
It was adorable, snuffling around as it looked for an evening snack.
While she gave them a wide berth for obvious reasons, Hannah had always thought skunks were one of the cutest of the campground critters.
Raccoons were chaotic and they could be destructive.
And as gorgeous as bears were, their visits weren’t a good thing.
But skunks were cute little creatures, with precious faces and fluffy tails.
She especially liked the way they stomped their tiny front feet as a first warning that things were about to get smelly.
Of course, she’d never been sprayed herself.
Being doused might have changed her opinion of them slightly.
But she enjoyed watching them from a distance, hoping a dog or a human didn’t startle them or harass them.
She’d probably see a lot of little critters while she was here, since the smart ones would avoid the other side of the campground.
Oscar might not be a big dog, but that honey badger mouth and attitude would have the skunks and raccoons—and any bears who wandered in—finding quieter spots to go foraging.
In her peripheral vision, she saw a camera lens, but she didn’t run into her camper this time. One, she didn’t want to startle the skunk. But also, she could make out enough of the photographer’s face to recognize Rob, even though he was crouched in the shadows.
Hannah watched the skunk, humming softly to let it know she was there without being threatening, until it decided to forage farther up the hill.
The Scott family was outside—making s’mores, judging by the sounds—so Hannah figured the skunk would cut their site a wide berth and check out the quieter side of the hill.
But with kids, graham crackers and sugar in the mix, it would probably circle back later.
Once it had moved on, Rob crossed the road to join her under the awning.
He sat in the other chair, which she’d left out and open for just this purpose.
“Here I am taking pictures in your general direction again. You might change your mind about whether or not I’m actually trying to take them of you. ”
She laughed softly, so happy to see him she didn’t care about the camera. “I’m not quite as exciting a subject as wildlife.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” He hit a few buttons on the back of his camera and then showed her the display screen. “But it was a cute one.”
He’d captured the skunk in the act of pawing at a spot on the ground, with the legs of Hannah’s picnic table in the backdrop. Even in the dim light, his camera had picked up on a lot of detail, especially in its face.
“That’s adorable,” she said.
“I’ll put it up on our social media with a reminder we share the space with furry little woodland creatures, and maybe a few tips about food storage and trash disposal.”
“They’re lucky to have you to take pictures for your accounts,” she said. “It gives you a bit of an edge over using stock photos. Cheaper, too.”
After setting the camera carefully on the ground at his feet, Rob pulled out his phone. He unlocked the screen and tapped on it a few times before holding it out to her.
It was open to the campground’s Instagram feed, and she noticed he had a decent cell signal.
Probably a different provider, she thought as she scrolled through it, noting the photos and captions, along with the number of likes and comments, and his generic hashtags.
He should be getting more likes, especially if she assumed quite a few of them were probably from his large family.
And there were probably some Birch Brook campers following it, as well.
“The photos are fabulous,” she said, handing him back the phone. Then she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing when he actually preened a little, like a peacock. “But then your captions are just...the locations.”
“Captions should tell people what they’re looking at, right?”
“Yes, but you want them to do more than that. You’re showing people these gorgeous places and telling them what those places are.”
“Right.”
“But you want to show them these gorgeous places and let them know they can actually come here and see it for themselves. And you want to sell them on why this is the place to stay if they want to do that. Think of the words less as a caption and more as marketing copy.”
“I think I get what you’re saying.”
“You’re displaying your art, but for this account, you’re supposed to be making commercials, so to speak, for Birch Brook Campground.”
“Okay. Yeah.” He nodded and then looked at her. “Will you help me?”
Hannah was torn. Taking a break from social media was a big part of why she’d told Erika she wanted three months off.
Even though they’d hired somebody to take over their accounts, Hannah had seen the shift from a typical amount of criticism and negativity to what had come after the viral episode—anger, hate and harassment.
The internet was so baked into her regular day-to-day life that this trip not only gave her the time and space to think, but it encouraged her to stay offline.
Ways to tweak and improve his captions were already popping into her head, though. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to coach him a little.
“I can do that,” she said, and the smile he gave her felt like a reward.
“That would be amazing,” he said. “Most of the campers will be leaving tomorrow, so maybe we can get together this week. My brother’s coming up to stay in the small cabin to get some writing done, but other than that, it should be quiet. I hope.”
She hoped so, too. Even if it meant doing some marketing work, she welcomed an excuse to spend more time with him. “I’ll give it some thought in the meantime.”
“Me, too,” he said. He looked like he was going to say more, but then a dog barked and a woman made a sound that wasn’t quite a scream, but was definitely distress. “I think our furry friend wandered into the wrong site.”
“That’s going to put a damper on their weekend.”
He pushed himself to his feet and then picked up his camera. “I’ll go see what’s up and then probably grab some Dawn and white vinegar from the store, since I doubt they brought any with them. But we’ll figure out a time to get together, right?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Just not for the reasons he thought.