“That’s a dumb rule.”
“But it’s one we all agreed to.” Brian shrugged. “It makes sense, and you know it. If we start messing around with campers, there’s going to be drama, and I feel like there’s enough of that without adding sex into the mix.”
Rob knew his brother was speaking the truth. When they’d had the discussion before the closing, he hadn’t balked at all. Hands off the campers. But that was before he’d met Hannah.
There was no way he could have anticipated meeting a woman on day one who he definitely wanted to put his hands on.
“I mean it,” Brian said, using his slightly-older-brother voice.
“I know.” Rob nodded slowly and closed his book. “You know I won’t let you down.”
Hannah’s days fell into the familiar, low-key rhythm that she’d come to appreciate since arriving in New Hampshire almost a week before.
Wrapped in a thin flannel throw blanket to help ward off bugs and because it was a comfort fabric for her, she drank her first coffee sitting in her camp chair under her awning. Though she usually slept past sunrise, it was quiet and still early in the morning. Peaceful.
Of course, the Kowalski brothers were around. Just Brian and Rob during the week, and Stella of course. The dog visited her daily, sometimes just jogging over for a belly rub before moving on. Other times, though, she’d stretch out on the camping rug under the awning and keep Hannah company while she read.
She was alone today, and after reading a few pages, she leaned her head back against the chair and closed her eyes, listening to the birds chirping.
As was often the case since she’d arrived in town, her thoughts wandered from a peaceful contemplation of the beauty of nature to a not-so-peaceful contemplation of her attraction to Rob Kowalski.
Sure, he was good-looking. And funny and kind. Rob was definitely her type. She hadn’t seen him to speak to in several days, but she often saw him from a distance and he always waved if he spotted her. He hadn’t stopped by her site at all, though, and she hadn’t been able to come up with a good reason to visit the store without being obvious.
“Hannah?”
Her eyes flew open and she jerked straight up in her chair, almost dropping her book. Rob was standing at the end of her camper, his hands in his pockets, and sure enough—zap—there it was. And her face was probably flushed because she’d been thinking about being attracted to him and now here he was, as if she’d summoned him somehow.
“Hey,” she said, pushing herself to her feet. She took a second to open the screen door and toss the book inside because she had a bad tendency of forgetting them outside and then finding them swollen from rain or dew. “What’s up?”
“My dad called this morning to let us know that even though we’re super busy and two hours north and everybody knows that, my mom’s dropped some pretty strong hints she still expects us to be at her Mother’s Day brunch Sunday. We’ll put a sign in the store, but since you’ll probably end up alone in the campground, I wanted to make sure you knew.”
“Yeah, my sister sent me a text to remind me to call our mother Sunday because she knows it’s easy to lose track of the days when you’re camping.”
“I wish my mom would accept a phone call.” He shifted, leaning against her camper. She only had one chair, or she would have invited him to sit down. “Are your parents in California?”
“Yes, they are. My parents still live in the small town where I was born. My whole family does, including my uncles andtheirfamilies. My sister’s the elementary school’s librarian and she’s married to a construction foreman. They have two kids and they bought a duplex so our parents could live next door. There’s a white fence around the property and they have a cocker spaniel.”
“That all sounds very...stable. What do they think of you roaming the country alone with a camper?”
“I didn’t roam. I stuck faithfully to the route my dad mapped out for me, both on my phone and on an actual paper map. They don’t love the idea, though, and I heard more safety lectures than one person could ever remember.” She grinned. “But you know how us youngest kids can be.”
His laughter echoed through the trees. “Yeah, I sure do.”
“Thanks for letting me know you’ll be closed.”
He must have taken that as a sign to leave because he stood up straight. “No problem. I don’t mind the walk.”
When he hesitated, started to turn and then hesitated again, Hannah frowned. “Is there a problem?”
“A problem? No.” He smiled, but it wasn’t his usual high-wattage grin. And somehow, even as the corners of his lips turned up, his brow furrowed. “It’s just that...no. Nothing.”
“What?” she pushed. Shedefinitelywanted to know what he was trying to say.
“Since you’ll be alone here Sunday, maybe you shouldn’t go walking out in the woods until we get back.”
Because she’d been hoping that awkwardness was a lead-up to maybe asking her a more personal question—like an invitation out for ice cream or something—she couldn’t quite hide the dismay, because he immediately looked embarrassed.
“We won’t be long,” he said. “I mean, we’ll actually be gone all day because it’s four hours of driving to eat pastries with my mother, but only the one day.”
