Chapter Nineteen
When Brian and Stella pulled back into the campground that evening, Joey and Nora were right behind them. Apparently their brother felt guilty about not being around more, but his wife had plans, so he brought Nora with him.
Rob didn’t bother to ask how he thought bringing a child who wasn’t old enough to be unsupervised in the campground was helpful. At least Joey recognized he wasn’t pulling his weight and he was trying to do something about it.
Unfortunately for Rob, it also meant sleeping on the ancient couch because Nora got his regular bed.
Going from sharing the queen-size bed with Hannah to sleeping folded up on cushions that had lost their spring at least a decade ago was quite a downgrade, so he didn’t sleep well.
And that did nothing for his mood when he woke up the next morning.
While he ate the pancakes Joey made because that’s what Nora wanted, he wished he could have woken up with Hannah in his arms again. And again and again and again.
When he was finally able to escape the house, he skimmed the pool and checked the chemical levels.
After battling with it for so long, the chore had actually become soothing somehow.
He assumed he got the same benefit from tending the pool as other people did from tending a garden, and it was the one job he didn’t try to pawn off on Brian—or Joey, when he was around.
Then he opened the store, hoping to have more alone time.
He wasn’t in a bad mood often and he was trying like hell to shake it off, but he was low-key resenting his brothers for showing up and putting an end to his alone time with Hannah.
It wasn’t fair, but he still wasn’t happy to see Joey walk in an hour later.
“Why aren’t you helping Brian clear that fallen tree over by the northern fence?” he demanded with a little more attitude than was merited.
He wasn’t surprised when his older brother pinned him with a questioning look before shaking his head. “He decided the two of you can do it next week.”
“Oh, Brian decided we’d do the physical labor while you’re not around?”
“I’m not sure where you got the hair across your ass today, but yes, Brian decided that it wasn’t going to get done today because Nora’s here and she wants to hang out with him and Stella.
And it can’t be done over the weekend because it’s going to be loud and messy.
Therefore, next week. If it’s that big of a deal to you, I’ll arrange to come back for it. ”
Rob scrubbed a hand over his face and blew out a long breath. “No. It doesn’t make sense to do it while Nora’s here or to have you come back for one fallen tree. I woke up on the wrong side of the couch this morning, I guess.”
“I know it sucks, but I do appreciate you giving up your bed for Nora. She was so excited to come, I didn’t have the heart to tell her no. I should have asked Gramps if I could borrow their RV. It doesn’t even need a site. I could just park between the house and the store.”
Rob chuckled. “When people say our parents and grandparents love us unconditionally, I think there’s really tiny fine print that excludes scratching or dinging the RV.”
“Or spilling drinks on the cushions.” Joey shook his head. “And I’d probably have to take out a loan to fill the fuel tank.”
“We’ll figure it all out,” Rob said. “We have to get through this first summer and then we’ll start making improvements for our sakes and not just for the campers.”
Joey nodded. “Since Brian’s making up things to do that Nora’s capable of helping with, I figured I’d do an inventory.”
“Inventory of what?”
Joey gestured toward the shelves and coolers. “Of the stuff. We should be doing it regularly.”
Rob rolled his eyes, but he didn’t care enough to fight about it.
It had probably been Danny’s idea, anyway.
Instead, he opened the campground’s email account and started sorting through the bids they’d been collecting for personalized merchandise.
At the very least, they needed to get some T-shirts made.
The previous owner had left four boxes of them in the storage closet, but they all had the wrong telephone number on them.
It was tedious work because it wasn’t just a matter of price. There was also the quality of the product and the screen printing process. And the one that had, hands-down, the best price also had a minimum order size of five hundred. Who the hell needed five hundred T-shirts for anything?
When the door opened and Rob saw Hannah walking in, his entire body lit up. Their gazes locked and the smile she gave him melted away the sour mood he’d been in since the last time he saw her.
Then she spotted Joey, who was actually counting individual bags of marshmallows. The smile stayed on her face, but the wattage dimmed slightly.
“Hi, Hannah,” he said. “Good to see you again.”
“You, too. You picked a good weekend to be here, I guess. The weather’s supposed to be great.”
“Hot enough for Nora to be in the pool, but not so hot and humid I die sitting poolside watching her is excellent weather.”
“Oh, is Nora here, too?”
“Yeah, but she ran off with Brian and Stella. I’m sure you’ll run into her at some point.”
When Hannah finally made it to the counter, Rob cast a glance at Joey and found him still counting, so he leaned across the counter and Hannah met him halfway for a quick kiss.
“What can I do for you today?” he asked, trying to keep as much innuendo as possible out of his voice because they weren’t alone. She caught it anyway, but other than raising her eyebrow, she didn’t respond to it. “Fair warning, not a good weekend to shoplift.”
“I don’t think our campers are shoplifting,” Joey protested loudly. “I think you and Brian are taking stuff off the shelves and not marking it down.”
“Maybe a water here and there, but I promise Brian and I are not sitting around eating bags of marshmallows.” After taking a breath, he gave all of his attention back to Hannah. “Sorry about that. What’s up?”
“It says in the contract that any overnight visitors have to be approved by you.” She cleared her throat, still looking down at her phone screen on which he could make out the seasonal agreement for her site. “So I guess I need to get you to approve an overnight guest for me.”
Hell no, he didn’t want to approve an overnight guest for Hannah—not if it was some guy, anyway.
Not that it was any of his business, of course.
And, unless there was some giant red flag, he’d approve her visitor because that was his job.
But if she’d invited a man to join her overnight in her camper?
Rob wasn’t sure what, if any, right he had to question her about it, but he was going to do a lot of tossing and turning and trying not to think about it if it was the case.
“Okay. I just need to write down the details and when your guest arrives, they should check in here.” He flipped open a file and took out the guest form they’d put together.
“Name?” he asked, trying to sound as professional as possible.
“Erika Dawson.”
His breath left him in a relieved rush before he could stop it, and then he gave her a sheepish grin. “Your podcast partner’s coming to visit?”
“Yes, she is.” She stabbed her finger at him. “You thought I invited a guy to sleep over.”
“No, I didn’t,” he lied.
“Yes, you did.” She put her hands on her hips. “And you were just going to approve that?”
“My job is to keep track of who’s in the campground, not to judge your choices.” He shrugged, struggling not to grin. “Even really, really bad ones.”
Joey cleared his throat and Hannah’s cheeks turned a cute shade of pink. She’d obviously forgotten he was there, and while she was comfortable with Brian, she didn’t really know Joey.
“I’ll just let you fill it out yourself,” he said, spinning the paper around so it faced her and setting the pen on top.
While she was bent over the counter to write, Rob looked at Joey over the top of her head. Then he jerked his head toward the door, trying to send the message he’d like for his brother to go away and leave him alone with Hannah.
Joey pulled out his phone, sat in the chair and started scrolling. Rob wanted to throw something at him, but that would only make it worse. Sometimes older brothers were like feral animals—it didn’t pay to show weakness.
“I won’t know her license plate number until she gets here. I offered to go get her, but she’s renting a car.”
“That’s fine. Just write rental on that space.” She did that and then slid the paper back to him. He skimmed the information and then looked up at her. “She’s arriving tomorrow? How long have you known she’s coming?”
“About two hours. She flew into Boston yesterday for a meeting today.” She paused, her jaw tightening, and Rob got the impression she wasn’t pleased about the meeting.
“Then she decided since she’d come that far, she should check out where I’m staying.
She’ll spend a couple of nights and then drive back to Boston to get a flight home. ”
Rob ignored the pang in his chest when she said home like that. While it might be good for him to have regular reminders this woman lived in California and they were over halfway through her time in New Hampshire, it still got under his skin.
“It’ll be interesting,” she continued. “Erika’s not really the outdoorsy type. Or the camping type. Or the woods and bugs and dirt roads type.”
He chuckled. “Introduce her to Dave and Sheila. They can bond over their joy of Birch Brook Campground together.”
“I can’t think of anybody I dislike enough to do that to. Erika would never speak to me again.”
“Decision made,” he joked, but the quick glance she sent his way told him it hadn’t landed well. “I can steal a bag of marshmallows for you if you want to introduce her to s’mores.”
That made her laugh, much to his relief. “I bought marshmallows for just that reason, but I appreciate your willingness to turn to a life of crime for our entertainment. The customer service here really is excellent.”