“But even if there was,” Rob said, “I definitely wouldn’t aid and abet him in taking outanyof our campers.”
She blinked, and after a few seconds, her body relaxed. “If we do have to sacrifice somebody, Dave would get my vote. If he’s the killer, though, I wouldn’t bet money on him having acted alone.”
“Ah, you’ve met Dave and Sheila?”
“They were the doom in my Grocery Shopping Trip of Doom. I don’t remember seeing any bleach or duct tape in their cart, if that helps narrow your suspect list.”
He was about to explain why this was something of an inside joke when he remembered that the talk about a murderer in the campground had started with Hannah traveling alone. Somehow he didn’t think confessing that the four of them were talking about whether or not she was a criminal would make this situation any less uncomfortable.
“Okay,” Brian said, startling Rob because he’d forgotten his brother was there for a moment. “I guess we can add ‘make sure there are no campers in the store before complaining about the campers’ to our list of lessons learned since buying the place.”
“Yeah, but...it’s Dave.” Rob shrugged. “I think even Sheila would understand.”
“Anyway, you want both tanks filled?” Brian asked Hannah.
“Yes, please. I didn’t fill them for the road. I just kept enough in one to run what I need, but it’s almost out.”
“We can do that. And from now on, you don’t have to walk all the way down here. You can just text me or Rob and we’ll take care of it for you. You can also call, but we always welcome visitors to the store because it gets boring in here.”
“Except Dave,” she said.
He grimaced, making her lips twitch. “No, even Dave.”
“I’ll go grab my propane tanks and bring them down.”
“We can come get them,” Rob said.
Hannah crossed her arms and he recognized the body language of a woman about to get stubborn. “Do you do that for all your campers or just for me because I’m a woman?”
Brian snorted. “To be perfectly honest, I feel like our father has some kind of dad radar that would ping if we sat on our asses and let a woman wrestle a propane tank and we’d hear about it. But to answeryourquestion, it’s a service for all of our campers. The utility side-by-side has a holder built into it for just that purpose.”
Rob was relieved when she dropped her arms. “Okay, thanks. And to be perfectly honest, as you said, I would have let you do it anyway. I was just curious whether you thought I couldn’t do it myself.”
“Mom’s radar is even stronger than Dad’s,” Rob said. “There’s zero chance we tell any woman there’s something she can’t do.”
“I think I’d like your mom.”
“You’ll get to meet her next weekend—the weekend before we fully open. Along with almost everybody in our family,” Brian said, and Rob groaned. He couldn’t remember who had come up with the idea of the cookout—probably his mother—but he wasn’t looking forward to it.
“I’m not sure what my plans are,” Hannah said. “But maybe.”
After the door closed and they were alone again, Rob took a long swig of soda. His mouth always felt dry when he talked to her.
“Maybe it’s her,” Brian said with a chuckle. “For all we know that camper’s full of bodies of hitchhikers and she wants to go out in the woods to find a good place to bury them.”
Rob barked out a laugh that made Stella lift her head. “She’s not a serial killer.”
“That’s what everybody who’s known a serial killer has said about that serial killer before the bodies were found in the freezer.” Brian grabbed a set of keys from a hook under the counter. “I’ll go get her propane tanks. If I’m not back in an hour, call the FBI.”
“I’ll go.”
Brian looked at him for a long moment and then shook his head. “I don’t think so. Since meeting her, you’ve fallen in the pool and you’ve hit your head. With your luck, you’ll wreck the UTV or blow up the propane station.”
Rob didn’t bother to protest. If he fought to fill Hannah’s propane tank, he’d just take more crap about how she’d turned him down flat at the restaurant.
He’d come into this endeavor with the intention of earning the respect of his family, and so far it wasn’t going well.
Hannah woke feeling more rested than she had in a long time. The camper was comfortable and her nest was cozy. Plus, the campground had been almost silent, other than the faint sound of traffic on the main road and the low rumble of the nightly train.
