“Grocery shopping.”
Blue groaned. “Boring.”
“I know, but it’s more fun than running out of food.”
They both nodded and then ran off in the direction of the playground. Hannah watched them for a few seconds, and then she glanced up at the site they’d come from. Melissa was outside and she waved. She looked like she was going to move toward Hannah, so she waved back and then turned away. Without looking hurried, she got the cooler in the back seat and herself in the driver’s seat without any more conversation being required of her. If she didn’t get this grocery shopping done today, it was granola bars for dinner. And breakfast.
She very deliberately didn’t look in the office windows as she passed by on her way to the exit and turned north onto the main road. If it seemed as if she was looking for Rob, not only would his brother probably make fun of him some more, but it might encourage him, and she didn’t want to do that.
Well, shedidwant to, but it wasn’t a good idea.
The scenery was gorgeous. Everything was green and lush from the spring rains, and the road followed the Connecticut River. She spotted a few places she’d return to once she was settled and ready to spend her summer exploring.
The grocery store was busy, and she resigned herself to being there awhile. Not only because of the number of shoppers, but because her list was ordered by aisle, but by the aisles in her store at home. And she didn’t know the layout of this store, which meant she’d probably be backtracking a lot. Multiple laps of the store was good exercise, she told herself. And the piped-in music wasn’t bad.
She was about halfway through the store when a man standing with the cart while the woman with him looked at the jarred sauces glanced at her and then did a double take. “Wait. I know you.”
Hannah had been recognized a few times over the last several years, but it was usually her voice that gave her away. She would expect fewer people to look at the makeup-free woman with her hair in a ponytail in a northern New Hampshire grocery store and connect her with the glammed-up promotional photos they used on social media.
“You’re on site twenty-nine, right? The Airstream?” he continued. She nodded, realizing they must be seasonal campers, too. “I thought so. I’m Dave and this is my wife, Sheila. We’re on site four. Have been for almost thirty years.”
“What brings you here?” Sheila asked, and then she laughed and waved her hand. “Not the grocery store, of course. But here to the campground.”
“I was in New England for a few years at UNH, but I’ve always wanted to come back and see this part of the area. And as for the campground, they were the only ones who didn’t have a waiting list.” That wasn’t quite true, but she didn’t want to get into it.
Dave’s laugh was loud and slightly abrasive. “That’ll do it. We were sad it closed down and clearing our stuff out was no fun. But then those kids bought it and gave us the opportunity to come back. We talked it over and I’m not sure they’ll make a go of it, but there aren’t many places you can access the ATV trails right from the campground, so we’re back.”
Kids.The word amused Hannah. “After so long, it must feel like home.”
Instead of looking happy to be back, Dave scowled. “Well, that’s the problem with campgrounds. It feels like home, but we’re just renters, really, and at the whim of whoever owns it. Those kids are already making changes and we liked it just the way it was.”
“They took down the tree that was Bert and Connie’s only shade, over there on site seventeen,” Sheila said, shaking her head and folding her arms over her chest. “Didn’t even ask them. They got here yesterday and their shade was just gone.”
Hannah didn’t know who Bert and Connie were, but since she knew showing off the amount of shade in the campground was something Rob had been trying to capture in pictures, she assumed the tree needed to be taken down or it was going tofalldown. But she had refrigerated stuff in her cart, and also a feeling it wouldn’t matter what she said. Dave and Sheila liked complaining.
“That’s sad about the tree, but it was nice to meet you and I’m sure I’ll see you around. I have an appointment and I’m running behind on my shopping.” And she smiled and started walking before they could really respond, or ask what she could possibly have an appointment for on a Saturday when she’d just arrived.
Of course, she’d have to circle back to this aisle because there were several items on her list she’d find here, but it could wait. From now on, she was Pac-Man and Dave and Sheila were the ghosts to be avoided at all costs. And there were no power-ups in grocery shopping, so she’d have to be quick and keep her eyes open.
Grocery Shopping Trip of Doom, she thought again, and she giggled right in the middle of the coffee aisle.
Chapter Six
“If thereisa serial killer in this campground, I hope he takes out Dave first,” Rob said as he walked through the back door of the store, going straight to the cooler and grabbing a soda. “I’ll even lend him a shovel.”
“Hey, Rob?” Brian called.
He turned to face the front desk and then froze in the act of twisting off the cap when he saw his brother wasn’t alone. And, of course, it had to be Hannah. He hadn’t seen her in two days, and naturally she was seeing him in a bad moment.Again.
They really needed to stop meeting like this.
“Sorry,” he said, because she was looking at him funny. “There isn’t really a serial killer in the campground.”
“That we know of,” Brian said, and Rob gave him a look that should have set the paper he was holding on fire. “It’s a statistical probability.”
“Really,” she said. “A statistical probability?”
“Okay, a statistical possibility, at least.”
