Chapter Ten
Danny found it was different being back at Birch Brook Campground when he wasn’t there out of desperation and looking for a place to hide. Without the pressure of finishing the manuscript weighing him down, he was free to really appreciate what he and his brothers were building here.
He walked the property every day, not only to make a note of anything they needed to address before opening for the season, but to reward his body for months of stress and bad posture with fresh air and movement.
And every time he walked through the campground, he felt a shot of pride in his brothers.
He’d come up with them for a day trip, back when they were trying to convince him to invest in the property.
It had been a mess, neglected and badly in need of repairs and upgrades.
Barely recognizable as the place so many of their best childhood memories had been made, so his head had told him absolutely not.
But he’d followed his heart and invested not so much in the business as in his brothers.
Now they were only a few days away from welcoming back their seasonal campers, and less than a month from being fully open for business, and Danny could tell by conversations—mostly by text message—that all four of them were feeling the pressure.
Last year had been a learning curve, with a lot of money and even more physical labor dumped into the campground.
Even with advice and a handbook, so to speak, from the previous owners, they’d had to learn a lot on the fly.
But this season would be a much more accurate indicator of whether or not Birch Brook Campground was a viable business in the long term.
He was in the campground store, in the area behind the counter that doubled as the office, when Rob walked in.
His brother had been working on the pool, which had proven to be a pleasant surprise when they uncovered it last week.
Danny didn’t know a lot about pools, but he knew the water didn’t look too bad.
“How’s it going?” he asked his brother, who grabbed his water tumbler off the counter and plopped into one of the comfortable chairs in the seating area for campers who liked to pop in and visit.
By the end of the previous season, Brian wanted to set them on fire to discourage those visits, but cooler heads had prevailed.
“It’s going to be perfect by Memorial Day,” Rob said after taking a long swig of water. “What are you up to?”
“Just going through some paperwork. Looking at numbers.” He chuckled when Rob rolled his eyes. As a partner who was supposed to be silent, but who’d invested the most, Danny had ridden them pretty hard about expenses last year. “I think you should be drawing a paycheck.”
He looked confused. “What do you mean? That’s not how it’s set up.”
“I know, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I’ve been digging around the reports since I got here.
The four of us did this thing, but now there are families involved.
Joey and Brian kept their jobs. Yes, Brian gave up the summer jobs, but as we’ve seen this spring, he can pick up work whenever he wants.
You are the only one who’s made this campground his full-time job. ”
“Hannah and I are really happy here. We don’t pay rent, utilities or taxes from our own pockets. She works. I have so much more time for my photography, and I’ve sold some pictures. The campground paid for the supplies for the work we did on the house.”
“But not your labor.”
Rob shrugged. “There’s not a lot else to do here in the winter, though I put a lot of miles on the snowmobile, I’ll admit.”
“And your food and all that. Tell me you’re not dipping into your savings.”
“This year, we’re going to start seeing profit. We’ve got a handle on it, and I’m okay with the way things are.”
“It’s not fair,” Danny protested.
“Look.” Rob shoved a hand through his hair and leaned forward so his elbows were on his knees.
“I’m okay with the way things are right now.
And between you and me, I’m afraid if I start drawing a paycheck, then it’ll become only my job.
Right now, the only leverage I have to keep from doing this alone is sibling guilt. ”
Danny looked into his brother’s eyes and saw that he truly meant what he was saying, so he nodded. “Okay. I get that. But promise me, if you start feeling resentment or things get tight for you, you’ll come to me.”
“Deal.” Rob relaxed back into the chair. “Maybe now, while you’re feeling kind of bad about my workload, is a good time to bring up the fact we need the stuff to do that work on the laundry area.”
Danny laughed. Getting the stuff meant making the long drive to the nearest town with box stores because they’d priced out what they’d need at the local hardware store.
It was definitely worth time and gas to travel for it.
He was a little annoyed the list hadn’t been made while he was still down south because bringing it with him would have been the cheapest option.
“I can go now. I’m not really doing anything else, and while I’m there, I can hit up the drive-through and get a coffee I didn’t have to make myself.
” He closed out of the documents open on the computer screen and pulled out his phone to take a photo of the supplies list set on the counter.
“You want to text Hannah and see if she needs anything while I’m there? ”
By the time he got on the road, his list of errands had grown, as he’d known it would. When it took half a day to get there, grab what you need and then drive back, there was a tendency to lump those errands together.
He hit the building supplies store first, thankful he had a locking tonneau cover on his truck to protect the wood, water-resistant paneling, caulking, new fittings and everything else they needed to revamp the musty laundry room and make it easier to clean.
Then he went off to buy the groceries. He’d known when he saw Rob setting two coolers by the truck to put in his back seat, it would be quite a list. Perishables definitely cost more at the local stores, so Hannah wasn’t messing around.
Danny was crouched in front of what looked like thousands of cans of tuna fish, wondering why there were so many to choose from, when he heard a laugh he would have recognized anywhere.
He stood and turned to find the source of the sound, almost bumping into the cart he’d been crouched behind. And there she was, just a few feet away, her lips parting in surprise when their gazes locked.
“Kenzie.” He usually liked a few seconds’ warning when he was about to see her so he could brace himself against the usual reaction. Increased heart rate. Weak knees. That sort of thing. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She smiled, her beautiful dark eyes crinkling at the corners. Right—shortness of breath. That was the other thing.
“So also hi, I guess,” the woman next to Kenzie said, startling Danny because he’d already forgotten she was there. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Rhylee Atwell, Kenzie’s cousin.”
“Danny Kowalski,” he said, reaching out to shake her hand. “I’m one of the brothers who bought the Birch Brook Campground.”
“Oh, right. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
He wanted to know more about that. Had she heard a lot about him because he was one of the brothers who bought and reopened the campground? Did she know he was an author?
Or had she heard about him from Kenzie?
As much as he was supposed to spread the word about the campground or his books as often as possible, he hoped it was the latter.
It had been a few days since he’d seen Kenzie, when his self-control had slipped and he’d try to spend the afternoon with her instead of working on the hefty to-do list on the campground store’s counter.
“I’ve met two of your brothers—Rob and Brian—but you haven’t been in to town hall,” Rhylee said.
“They handle all of that stuff. I’m just helping out with the winter cleanup and getting the place ready to open.”
Rhylee started talking about the previous owners and how sad they’d all been when the campground closed, but Danny struggled to focus on that conversation.
His entire body was focused instead on Kenzie, wishing she was the one doing the talking. She just stood next to her cousin, her eyes warm and her cheeks slightly pink.
He’d give anything to know what she was thinking.
* * *
When Kenzie had said she’d probably see Danny around, she hadn’t meant in the middle of her grocery shopping trip with her nosy, extremely extroverted cousin at her side.
All she could do was hope Rhylee didn’t say anything to embarrass her because she felt flushed enough as it was. If her cheeks got any hotter, one of them would surely notice.
“You have a laptop, though, right?” she heard Rhylee ask, dragging her back into the moment. “So you can work from anywhere? That must be cool.”
Hoping the movement was hidden by the grocery carts, Kenzie shifted her leg and kicked her cousin in the ankle in warning. If Rhylee was thinking what Kenzie thought she was, she might have to run her down with the cart.
“In theory, yes,” Danny said, not appearing to find anything odd about the question.
Maybe, being an author, he was asked questions about his writing process all the time.
“But I also have a desk and chair set up the way I like them. There are notebooks and sticky notes. I have a giant whiteboard. The laptop might be the most important tool, but it’s not the only one. ”
That definitely sounded like, if not a rehearsed answer, than one he gave a lot.
And it was an answer that, once again, reinforced the fact Danny being up here was merely temporary.
Before Rhylee could go any further down whatever train of thought was running through her mind, Kenzie decided to step in.
“We should get going,” she said. “I’ve got a lot to get done this afternoon, and I’m sure you guys are really busy getting everything set for this weekend.”