Chapter Two #2
“How’s Kenzie doing?” Rob asked, and when Danny froze in the process of grabbing his laptop bag from the passenger seat, he laughed.
“I saw a truck that looked like yours go by, but I wasn’t sure it was you.
But then—after about the amount of time it takes to have lunch and some conversation—here you are, turning left onto the property because you were coming from that direction. ”
“Maybe you should stop playing with that camera, little brother, and write a detective novel.”
“I could start now and still be done before you finish your book,” Rob shot back.
Danny forced a chuckle because it wasn’t his brother’s fault the sibling trash-talking had hit a nerve.
He must not have covered well, though, because Rob gripped his upper arm.
“Bad joke. You’re going to finish it this month.
Hannah and I are going to do our best to support that.
She descaled the Keurig to get it ready for you, and if I have to feed you like you’re a toddler so you can keep typing, I’ll do it. ”
Danny laughed, some of the tension easing away. If there was one thing he could always count on, it was his family having his back. His brothers might tease him and poke at his weak spots while having his back, but they wouldn’t let him down.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a matter of having the time and opportunity to type.
Sitting in front of the keyboard with a fresh coffee and a silenced phone did no good if his brain refused to cough up anything to actually type into the document.
It was the thinking that was the problem, and not the desk time.
He was saved from further discussion about his inability to do his job by his future sister-in-law stepping out of the house. “Danny!”
“Hey, Hannah.” He pulled her into a hug, genuinely thrilled to see her. Somehow the perfect woman for his brother had chosen their campground to roll into last spring, and Rob had been smart enough not to let her go.
“We got the second bedroom done just in time,” she said. “Right now the windows are open, so it’s a little chilly in there, but it was a choice between chilly and paint fumes. Let’s get your stuff and you can see it.”
They each took a bag and went inside, though Danny didn’t get very far before he stopped. “Wow.”
Rob looked around the living room as though trying to see it through his brother’s eyes.
“It’s mostly cosmetic, but we also did some insulating and replaced the two windows in here so we can put in a decent air conditioning unit.
The dream is central air someday, of course, but for now we just want to not be dying in July and August. And just some paint and taking out all that old, dark wood trim helped make it look bigger. And the floors.”
“We started the floors the day after the campground officially closed for the season,” Hannah said.
“While it was still mostly warm enough for us to stay in the camper. That meant we could rip up all of that old carpeting and linoleum, and let me tell you, refinishing hardwood floors yourself is a workout. But we got it all done before it got so cold we had to move back into the house.”
“It looks amazing,” he said. It wasn’t perfect, of course. They didn’t have the money for a proper remodeling. But it felt more like a home and less like a place for the brothers to hang out when they weren’t outside or in the store.
“We couldn’t do much with the kitchen,” Hannah said. “Our options were doing some of the kitchen or some of the bathroom or really making a difference in the living room and bedrooms. You know how it is.”
Kitchens and bathrooms absolutely devour a renovation budget, and he knew his brothers would feel the same about it as he did—all that really mattered was that things functioned. Looking good was secondary.
“We stole the primary bedroom,” Rob said, which wasn’t a surprise because there had been a day’s worth of text messages about it in the family group chat.
Last season, Brian had taken the bigger of the two bedrooms—literally the only thing that made it the primary, since the entire house shared one bathroom—because it had a queen bed. Stella, his yellow Lab, actually claimed the bed, and since Brian was her human, he got the big bedroom.
But now Brian was spending more time at home, with his new wife and the son he hadn’t known about until last summer. And Stella, of course. Rob and Hannah were making the campground their full-time home, so they’d all agreed it made sense.
“We did what we could with the second bedroom,” Rob said, standing back so Danny could go in.
In a small house with small rooms, the phrase smaller bedroom really meant something.
But he was still impressed with how they’d maximized the space.
The window had been replaced, the walls were a light cream, and the floors gleamed.
On one wall was a bunk bed that had a double mattress on the bottom and a twin on top.
In the corner was an armchair with a side table that had a drawer and two shelves under it.
Next to that was a portable crib, folded up in its case.
“Since most anybody using this room will be here for a weekend, or a week or two at most, we skipped a dresser and just put a low shelving unit in the closet,” Hannah said from the hall. “Most of you just bring a duffel bag, so we chose the space over a full bureau.”
“We didn’t consider a desk setup, though,” Rob said.
“There’s a space issue, of course. And also, a desk and a chair for somebody who spends most of their time sitting feels a little personal.
We could maybe set something up in the store, but we’ll be deep cleaning and doing inventory in there pretty soon. ”
“I’ll probably work at the kitchen table if I won’t be in the way.” He’d already considered the working situation, and, while it wouldn’t be great on an ergonomic level, he needed to be pushed out of his comfort zone because that clearly wasn’t getting his book written.
“Whatever works for you,” Rob said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll let you get settled, and give a shout if you need anything.”
“Thanks.”
What he needed right now was to email the manuscript to Kenzie before he lost his nerve.
It was one thing to knock around plot points and character choices with her.
Letting her read the unfinished manuscript was a huge step for him.
It wasn’t really an exaggeration to say he’d be more comfortable letting a stranger drive his truck or stay in his house than he was letting somebody read unfinished work.
But it was Kenzie. He’d already shared more of his process with her last summer than he ever had with anybody else. And he needed help.
Before he even unpacked his clothes and put them on the shelves in the closet, he opened his laptop and waited while it connected to the not-so-high-speed internet that fed the store and house. After he typed in her email address, he took a deep breath and attached the manuscript file.
Then he spent ten minutes writing a cover note for it. There was typing. Thinking. Deleting. More thinking. If only his brain could work as hard on his book as it did on an email to Kenzie Pelletier.
I’ve attached the first two-thirds of the book in both Word and in a PDF, so you can read it however works for you.
I don’t usually let anybody read it before it’s done, so please don’t share it or talk about it with anybody else.
I’m a little superstitious, I guess. I want to ramble on about why I think I might be stuck, but then I decided it might be best if you cold read it and maybe you can see problems I don’t.
I know you’re busy, and I appreciate this so much.
It was only a few minutes later that he got a text message from her, and he wondered if she’d been watching for the email from him, since she was still at work.
It’s our little secret. I’ll start reading it tonight.
He sent back a happy face emoji because he wasn’t sure what else he could say, and now that he’d hit Send, it was even more difficult to stop himself from telling her to never mind—that she absolutely couldn’t read it because it wasn’t done.
Our little secret.
He did like the sound of that, though. Maybe it wasn’t scandalous, as secrets went, but Danny liked having something only he and Kenzie shared.