Rob chuckled. “Probably for the same reason we did it back in the day—to see what would happen. We never did find the cap.”
“I don’t think they will, either. Not that they’ll have a chance to look for it, because, by the sound of it, they’re grounded until they’re twenty-five.”
“If they continue to follow in our campground footsteps, she’ll get so tired of listening to them be bored, they’ll be ungrounded by lunch tomorrow.”
“I guess since you’ve done the same thing, you won’t be too hard on them?”
“Somehow harmless pranks don’t land the same when you’re the one responsible for the safety and property of everybody in the campground.” He smiled. “I’ll try to keep a straight face while I lecture them, at least. And it can wait until tomorrow.”
“I didn’t want to rat them out, but I know what it sounded like, and I didn’t want you walking around worried about it.”
“I appreciate that.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a thumbs-up emoji to Brian. “Just letting my brother know all is well.”
“It must have startled Stella.”
“Yeah, it did. And she’s not a fan of thunderstorms, so she got anxious, but she’s probably snoring again already.”
“I hate thunderstorms, too,” Hannah said, leaning her head back against her chair. “Mostly because I’m terrified of them. I have been since I was a kid and a tree crashed through our neighbor’s roof. Nobody was hurt, but I could hear her screaming in my room.”
Because they were keeping their voices low and it was dark, there was an intimacy to the conversation he didn’t want to get up and walk away from. He wanted to keep talking. “That must be hard to deal with in a camper.”
“It is. I usually turn all the lights on so I can’t see the lightning as much, and play loud music through my headphones. But it’s impossible to totally block it out, of course.”
“You’re always welcome to ride out storms in the store. Or in the house, if we’re closed.”
She smiled. “I probably won’t cross the open space to get there, but thank you for the invitation.”
His phone chimed and he read the text message from Brian.What was it?
Bug spray in a capped bottle in the fire. Site 28.
That was a lot funnier when we were kids and didn’t own the place.
Rob smiled and locked the screen, but he caught Hannah frowning at the phone. “Sorry. Brian wanted to know what it was.”
“I don’t blame him. I’d want to know what that sound was, too.” She shrugged. “I was trying to decide if I should walk over to my truck or something and maybe scare them out of doing it, since Scottie’s off at another campfire and Melissa went inside to clean up, but I didn’t make my mind up quickly enough, I guess.”
“It sounds like they’re kind of loud if you could hear them scheming. Are they bothering you at all?”
“No, they’re fine. I don’t think it’s so much that they’re loud, but that I’m pretty quiet. And sound carrying is part of being in a campground.”
“Are you sure?”
She waved a hand at him. “I’m sure. And what are you going to do? Throw them out because they talk to each other and laugh a lot? I like hearing the boys play, actually. They’re good kids, and Melissa’s friendly without being...you know,thatneighbor.”
“I know what you mean.” He cleared his throat, not sure how to bring up their trip to the waterfall and the distance between them since.
“You guys have been busy this week,” she said, and he was relieved to have the opening.
“It’s been hectic. It seems like every time we get comfortable, a new challenge is coming up that we have to prepare for.” He paused and cleared his throat again. “I’ve wanted to stop by and...say hi, I guess. But Brian keeps coming up with a million things I should be doing instead.”
She chuckled softly. “Operation No Fraternization is going well for them.”
I’m telling you, Bobby, I don’t think you should get in over your head with her.
Rob thought about what his brother had said and though he wanted to ignore the advice, he knew Brian wasn’t totally wrong.
“You should know I have a long history of not letting my brothers boss me around,” he said, hoping his grin hid the uncertainty he was feeling at the moment.
