“I don’t remember.”
Hannah shrugged. “It sounds like your childhoods were pretty epic, so there’s that.”
“True. We had some good times—especially here.” He pulled out his phone. “I can send you the location of the store we like. It’s about a half hour from here and the prices are higher than they are down at home, but they have a decent selection and it’s the cheapest in the area.”
A momentafterhe sent it and her phone chimed, he realized it might appear strange that he had her contact info saved in his phone. But maybe she’d just assume he had all of the campers’ information in there in case there was a problem.
He should probably do that.
“Thanks,” she said, after checking the text. “Oh, and one more thing while I’m here. Is it okay if I walk out back in the woods? I don’t have an ATV, obviously, so I’m not very interested in the trail system, but I like to walk.”
Rob looked to Brian, who only shrugged. They hadn’t talked about it since most of their campers were there for the ATV trail systems. “I guess that’s okay. The cell phone reception is pretty sketchy, from what I remember when we walked the land, so you have to be careful.”
Her smile twisted him up inside, but he did his best not to show it. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”
He didn’t even realize he’d watched her leave and then stared at the door until the pen Brian threw hit him in the back of the head.
Hannah almost made it back to her site without any more interaction, but then she ran into a couple walking a small dog that started yapping hysterically as soon as it spotted her.
“Sorry,” the woman said, picking up the dog, which immediately bared its teeth and gave Hannah a look that promised as soon as it could figure out how he’d manage it, he was going to tear her apart. “He’s not very friendly.”
“No problem.”
“I’m Tony,” the man said, holding out his hand, which Hannah shook. “My wife is Barb, and the little guy’s Oscar.”
As inThe Grouch? Hannah didn’t ask the question out loud, and she was thankful Barb didn’t extend her hand because she was pretty sure if she reached out, she was going to lose a finger or two to the dog in her arms. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“We’re on site eleven.”
“Twenty-nine.” Hannah pictured the campground map in her head, and site eleven seemed far enough away so she wouldn’t hear Oscar threatening everybody who walked by once the campground fully opened.
“Where are you from?” Barb asked. “We drive up from Rhode Island.”
“I’m from Northern California,” she said, and the couple looked surprised. “A little north of San Francisco.”
“I guess you won’t be doing the weekend thing, then,” Tony said, and they all laughed.
“I’ll be here until the end of July, and then I’ll head home and get back to work.”Probably.She wasn’t sure exactly what that work would entail, but she’d have to do something. The podcast had given them nice savings accounts—hers a little nicer than Erika’s thanks to her lack of interest in shoes—but she’d burn through a big chunk of it this summer.
“What do you do?” Barb asked, and Hannah winced because she’d opened that door herself.
“I’m in education,” she hedged, and then quickly pivoted the conversation back to them. “What do you do?”
“I’m a plumber,” Tony said. “Self-employed, and Barb handles the office.”
His wife rolled her eyes. “He likes to call me his intern because it sounds better than ‘free office help.’”
They parted ways, and as she walked back to her camper, Hannah scolded herself for not being totally honest about her job. She was going to be here for three months and people who stayed at campgrounds tended to be chatty. There would be a lot of conversations in her future, and she didn’t necessarily want to spend half the summer trying to dance around whatin educationmeant.
She just hated telling people she was a true crime podcaster—especially a podcaster who earned enough to call it her day job. Everybody either had a great idea for a podcast and wanted to pick her brain, or they had a true crime story they wanted to share in length because it would be great for her show. Sometimes both. When she met somebody in passing, it was easier to claim she did something that wasn’t a lie, but wasn’t the entire truth.
Back in her camper, Hannah pulled up the shopping app she used and looked over the list she’d been compiling. She had to scroll several times to see it all.Grocery Shopping Trip of Doom indeed, she thought with a smile.
After making sure she had everything she needed, she locked the door behind her and once again, walked around the truck to put the cooler in the back seat.
And once again, there were kids there.
“Where are you going?” Red asked.
