“Thank you for letting me tag along,” he said. “It was a good day for a walk.”
“Of course, now we have to walk all the way back,” she said with a groan.
Rob laughed and stood before taking her hands and pulling her to her feet. “I’d offer to give you a piggyback ride, but I split a lot of wood yesterday and I can’t guarantee I won’t die and leave you to explain to my brothers that you leaving my body in the woods wastotallyan accident.”
Chapter Seventeen
“You can look at the calendar to find time to take a walk with your girlfriend, but not see where I blocked myself off of the schedule?” Brian pointed at the monitor. “It’s right there.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Pretty sure she is.” Brian’s finger swung to point at him instead of the computer. “You two were even seen holding hands, and Sheila sent us a message that it’s inappropriate because there should be no special treatment.Andshe sent it through Facebook, so Joey and Danny both saw it before I could delete it.”
“I amnotgoing to hold Sheila’s hand.” Rob did like knowing Brian had his back and would have deleted the message. “What exactly do they think Hannah is getting to do that Sheila isn’t?”
“Nothing, but that isn’t the point. The point is that Hannahisyour girlfriend.”
“I think the point is that you’re going to be gone for two days and didn’t bother to tell me.”
“Two days but only one night. Do you want me to see if Danny or Joey can come up? We won’t be busy so I figured you could handle it, but I can probably strong-arm Joey into coming.”
Only one night.
For only one night, Rob would have the entire house to himself. And that meant he could have company.
“Bobby.” Brian snapped his fingers. “If I’m going to call Joey, sooner is better than later.”
“No, I’ve got it.” He shrugged, trying to sound casual instead of like a man who’d just discovered a way to have a real night in with his not-girlfriend. “I was saying you could have told me instead of just entering it and assuming I’d see it.”
“Keep giving me crap about it and maybe I’ll just stay down south.”
For a brief moment, Rob imagined him and Hannah in the house, running the campground together. It was like a punch in the chest because the only thing in their future was the glow of Hannah’s taillights as she headed back to California.
“You’re not getting out of working that easy,” Rob joked, hoping to lighten the mood. “You and Stella can have a great time in the land of drive-throughs and box stores, but you’re taking the bathhouses for the whole weekend.”
Brian’s scowl slowly transitioned to a shrewd look. “How aboutyouclean the bathhouses for the whole weekend, and I’ll clean my room and put clean bedding on my bed before Stella and I leave.”
Rob tried to resist—he didn’t want to admit he’d already planned to do just that.
“And I’ll keep it to myself,” Brian added.
“Done,” Rob snapped, and then he turned and walked out the door. Even after it closed behind him, he could hear Brian laughing.
He’d intended to just walk around and cool off—maybe check the recycling bins and see if the UTV or the lawn mower needed gas. Instead, he kept walking and turned toward Hannah’s site.
He wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to ask her to spend the night in the house, but he wanted to do it now so he didn’t get his hopes up. Even worse than her not being interested now that they were out of the cocoon of the blanket fort would be finding outafterhe’d spent two days imagining the night in great detail.
But when he reached site twenty-nine, Hannah wasn’t there. The door was open, but he knocked on the side of the camper and got no response. Through the screen door, he couldn’t hear any movement, but her truck was still there. She must have gone for a walk, either around the campground or back into the woods.
Disappointment surged through him, until he started the walk back to the store and heard Hannah calling his name. He turned and saw her walking down the hill toward him at a fast clip. She waved, and he reversed direction, meeting her at the front of her truck.
“Were you looking for me?”
If he said he was, he’d be put on the spot as to why and he’d prefer to ease into inviting her over to the house. If he said no and she’d seen him from the top of the hill coming out of her site, she’d wonder why he was denying it.
“I was around and figured I’d say hi.” He figured that was a good compromise—yes, he’d stopped by, but he hadn’t been seeking her out deliberately.
“I was up in the overflow parking, talking to my dad. They’re doing a joint backyard barbecue for him and my sister’s husband, so I wanted to call him before they started.” She gave him a questioning look. “You and Brian didn’t have to go south to see your dad?”
