Rob was going to say more, but Danny started typing again and he probably wouldn’t hear him anyway. He backed out of the cabin and, after noting Hannah hadn’t pulled in while he was inside, he went back to the store.
“Is he leaving today?” Brian asked when he walked in.
“Doubtful. I told him that the cabin’s already reserved for the weekend, though.”
“Is he writing or is he lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling fan to keep from throwing his laptop out the window?”
“He’s writing. Pretty intensely, too. I guess Kenzie helped him brainstorm some stuff when he went down to the restaurant to eat.”
Brian frowned. “He brainstormed story stuff with Kenzie? He usually refuses to talk about his books at all while he’s writing them. He won’t even tell us what the plot is, never mind let us help with it.”
Rob snorted. “To be fair, we don’t have a history of being all that helpful.”
“I thought his protagonist showing up for Thanksgiving and finding everybody dead would be a hell of a plot twist.”
“Uncle Joe writes the horror, not Danny.”
A vehicle turned into the campground, and when he saw that it was Hannah’s truck, only knowing Brian would never let him live it down kept him from running out the door to greet her. Instead, they exchanged a wave through the windows and she kept going.
When he turned back, he caught Brian staring at him and raised an eyebrow. His brother just held up his hands in silence before going back to the spreadsheet he was working on.
After a few days of making short trips around the area—to the grocery store and the library as well as visiting a few spots of interest—Hannah stayed close to her site on Friday. And her site was close enough to the small cabin so she overheard the heated debate about who was going to clean it.
Rob thought Danny should clean the cabin since he hadn’t paid to stay in it and they had people checking in soon. Danny thought Rob should clean it because he had a call with his agent scheduled for the afternoon and he didn’t want to talk business while driving, which meant getting home before the call.
It sounded as if Rob actually made Danny show him the appointment in his phone before they compromised and cleaned the cabin together. It didn’t take long. They probably argued over who would clean it longer than they actually cleaned, and then she heard Danny’s car driving away.
A few minutes later Rob appeared around the end of her camper, as she’d hoped he would.
“Writers are a pain in the butt,” he said, dropping into the empty chair. “A writer who’s also your brother? I could use a drink right now. I didn’t think he was ever going to leave.”
“He was a quiet neighbor,” she said.
“All he did was type and drink coffee. I was afraid we’d need another dumpster just for his K-Cups.”
“Still, having a famous brother must be neat,” she said. “I’ve seen his books. I don’t think I’ve read any, though.”
“They’re good. Like, literary, I guess. Mainstream? A lot of themes and allegories and all that stuff we had to learn about in high school. They’re not as fun to read as Uncle Joe’s books, but I like them.”
“Your uncle Joe writes, too?”
He chuckled. “I think you knowing Danny’s books but not Uncle Joe’s might be a first for the family. Joe Kowalski? The horror writer?”
Her eyes widened. She might live in the true crime space, but she liked her fiction on the nonterrifying side. “Horror? Idefinitelyhaven’t read his books.”
“They’re both big deals, which is cool.”
“You’reallvery cool. You have a great family.” She belatedly realized that might be too much and waved a hand. “I mean, from the little time I’ve spent with them, they seem cool.”
“They are. I’m pretty blessed.” He sighed. “I have to confess I wish I’d gotten some of those bestselling-author genes, though.”
Hannah laughed. “I saw Danny around the campground a couple of times this week, and it didn’t look like being a writer’s as easy as most people probably think it is.”
“Oh, nobody in my family thinks it’s easy, that’s for sure. But Danny doesn’t usually lookthisrough. He’s been stuck for a while and finally had a breakthrough, so he was in the zone. The zone is not pretty and can smell sketchy, but it’s well caffeinated, at least.”
“Did you run those captions and hashtags I sent by your brother?”
He shook his head. “He doesn’t care, but I tried some and we’re already getting more interaction on our social media. Especially on Instagram. Look.”
