“Fine. I’m pissed. I took Hannah to the waterfall and we had a nice time, but I haven’t had a chance to spend any time with her since because you’ve decided you’re some kind of campground chaperone.”
“One, we had an agreement about not messing around with campers. And two, I think we’ve been running our asses off getting ready for today, so I don’t think it’s all me.”
“The whole don’t-fraternize-with-campers thing is getting out of hand,” he said. “It’s not like I’m making my way around the campground, hitting on every woman who checks in.”
“That would almost be better, I think.”
“How do you figure that?”
Brian shrugged. “Because you’re a single guy and hitting on single women doesn’t really mean anything. But this thing with Hannah? I’m telling you, Bobby, I don’t think you should get in over your head with her.”
He laughed, but it was a mirthless sound. “Tell me you’re not back to the serial killer crap.”
“No, of course not. But she lives all the way across the country, and I worry about you getting hurt, dumbass.”
Instead of snapping back at his brother, Rob forced himself to take a beat. He didn’t want to hear it, but he also knew Brian was coming from a good place.
Before he could decide how to respond, a loud boom made Stella sit up, her head swiveling toward the back wall, which faced the campground. She didn’t bark, though, and they all sat in silence for a moment, waiting to see if it happened again.
It didn’t, but Rob didn’t think he’d relax if he didn’t identify the source of the sound.
“Tell me that wasn’t a gunshot,” Brian said.
“That wasn’t a gunshot. I think. I sure as hell hope not.” Rob pushed himself to his feet. Usually Stella would have been interested in where he was going, but she was shaking a little, and she shifted closer to Brian. The dog didnotlike thunderstorms and she was probably confused by what could have been a single clap of thunder. “I’m going to take a look around.”
“What the hell was that?” Joey asked, coming out of the small bedroom in nothing but sleep pants. He’d gone to bed early because—thanks to the fact he’d gotten out of most of the work thus far—he was the one getting up at five in the morning to clean the bathhouses before the campers stirred.
“I’m going to check on things, but probably nothing,” Rob said, and he grabbed a lightweight hoodie off the pegs and a flashlight on his way out.
The campground wasn’t exactly quiet. Some campers were still setting up their sites. A lot of them were sitting around campfires, telling stories and laughing a little too loud. For many of them, this was the first outing after a long winter, and Rob and his brothers had decided as long as the vibe stayed positive and quiet hours were respected, they’d only interfere if somebody else complained.
But he could see quite a few of the transient camper sites from the back of the house and nobody seemed particularly alarmed by the sound. Or if they had been, they’d shaken it off already. He’d walk around, though, and make sure nobody looked like they’d been up to no good.
It was dark, and once he entered a section in the trees, it gotreallydark and he managed to trip over a rock. Luckily, he didn’t fall, but he did curse under his breath and pull the flashlight out of his pocket. He didn’t really want to use it since he’d attract a lot more attention, but he also didn’t want to break an ankle.
Movement in his peripheral vision made him pause, and he saw Hannah. She was standing at the end of her camper—out of sight of her neighbors—and when he looked in her direction, she gestured for him to join her. Then she put a finger over her lips to signify he should be quiet.
“Did you hear the boom?” she whispered when he reached her.
He wasn’t sure why Hannah was whispering, but he went along because it gave him an excuse to stand close to her. “That’s why I’m creeping around the campground in the dark.”
“Creeping?” She snorted. “Not so much. But anyway, the boom was courtesy of Red and Blue, and I don’t think they’ll do it again anytime soon.”
He gave her an exaggerated look of alarm. “What did you do to them?”
“I’ll never tell,” she whispered, laying her finger over her lips again. But then she had to cover her mouth with her entire hand to smother a giggle. “Sorry, I shouldn’t joke about that since your brothers think I’m a serial killer.”
“It’s not that they thinkyouare. It’s more like they realized that, statistically speaking, somebody in this campgroundcouldbe.” She rolled her eyes, but in a cute way. “So anyway, did they blow something up? They didn’t damage your truck or camper, did they?”
She shook her head before nodding toward the chairs and heading that way. That’s when he realized there were two of them.
“Hey, you have two chairs now.”
Even in the dim, yellow glow from her camper’s outside light, he saw a pink flush across her cheeks. “When I was shopping, I grabbed another one in case, you know, I had a guest who wanted to sit down.”
He nodded and sat, but it seemed a little odd that she’d been doing the campground thing for almost a month and only now thought it might be nice to have guest seating. Maybe it was foolish, but he wondered if she’d been hopinghewould sit and visit.
Hannah pulled her chair closer to his before sitting down, which he liked. “Basically they poured bug spray into some kind of bottle, put the cap on it and put it in the fire. I’m not sure why.”
