“I wouldn’t say that.” He hit a few buttons on the back of his camera and then showed her the display screen. “But it was a cute one.”
He’d captured the skunk in the act of pawing at a spot on the ground, with the legs of Hannah’s picnic table in the backdrop. Even in the dim light, his camera had picked up on a lot of detail, especially in its face.
“That’s adorable,” she said.
“I’ll put it up on our social media with a reminder we share the space with furry little woodland creatures, and maybe a few tips about food storage and trash disposal.”
“They’re lucky to have you to take pictures for your accounts,” she said. “It gives you a bit of an edge over using stock photos. Cheaper, too.”
After setting the camera carefully on the ground at his feet, Rob pulled out his phone. He unlocked the screen and tapped on it a few times before holding it out to her.
It was open to the campground’s Instagram feed, and she noticed he had a decent cell signal.Probably a different provider, she thought as she scrolled through it, noting the photos and captions, along with the number of likes and comments, and his generic hashtags. He should be getting more likes, especially if she assumed quite a few of them were probably from his large family. And there were probably some Birch Brook campers following it, as well.
“The photos are fabulous,” she said, handing him back the phone. Then she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing when he actually preened a little, like a peacock. “But then your captions are just...the locations.”
“Captions should tell people what they’re looking at, right?”
“Yes, but you want them to do more than that. You’re showing people these gorgeous places and telling them what those places are.”
“Right.”
“But you want to show them these gorgeous places and let them know they can actuallycomehere and see it for themselves. And you want to sell them on why this is the place to stay if they want to do that. Think of the words less as a caption and more as marketing copy.”
“I think I get what you’re saying.”
“You’re displaying your art, but for this account, you’re supposed to be making commercials, so to speak, for Birch Brook Campground.”
“Okay. Yeah.” He nodded and then looked at her. “Will you help me?”
Hannah was torn. Taking a break from social media was a big part of why she’d told Erika she wanted three months off. Even though they’d hired somebody to take over their accounts, Hannah had seen the shift from a typical amount of criticism and negativity to what had come after the viral episode—anger, hate and harassment. The internet was so baked into her regular day-to-day life that this trip not only gave her the time and space to think, but it encouraged her to stay offline.
Ways to tweak and improve his captions were already popping into her head, though. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to coach him a little.
“I can do that,” she said, and the smile he gave her felt like a reward.
“That would be amazing,” he said. “Most of the campers will be leaving tomorrow, so maybe we can get together this week. My brother’s coming up to stay in the small cabin to get some writing done, but other than that, it should be quiet. I hope.”
She hoped so, too. Even if it meant doing some marketing work, she welcomed an excuse to spend more time with him. “I’ll give it some thought in the meantime.”
“Me, too,” he said. He looked like he was going to say more, but then a dog barked and a woman made a sound that wasn’t quite a scream, but was definitely distress. “I think our furry friend wandered into the wrong site.”
“That’s going to put a damper on their weekend.”
He pushed himself to his feet and then picked up his camera. “I’ll go see what’s up and then probably grab some Dawn and white vinegar from the store, since I doubt they brought any with them. But we’ll figure out a time to get together, right?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Just not for the reasons he thought.
Chapter Fourteen
“You should go see if Danny’s planning to leave today.”
Rob laughed, shaking his head. “Nope. All my life, you’ve been dumping the stuff you don’t want to do onto me, but I’m not going to be the one who breaks Danny’s concentration if the writing’s going well.”
When their older brother arrived Monday morning with his laptop and a bulk-size box of K-Cups, he’d said he only needed a couple of nights to clear his head and he’d be gone Wednesday. And while he wasn’t expected to honor the 11:00 a.m. checkout time exactly, it was midafternoon and as far as they knew, he’d yet to emerge from the cabin.
“I cleaned the bathhouses this morning,” Brian pointed out.
