He chuckled. “There’s no Father’s Day brunch. Dad’s always been pretty chill about it, and with Mother’s Day, we only had seasonal campers in, but he knows Sunday is our checkout day for weekenders. And we have to clean the cabins after they’re vacated and all that. We called him this morning.”
“Come sit if you have time,” she said. “The log I usually sit on was still damp from the rain, so I was standing for the entire call.”
“I can spare a few minutes.”
Luckily, Hannah kept her camp chairs folded and leaned by her door, well under the awning, so they hadn’t gotten wet during the overnight shower. Today would have been a good day to take the four-wheelers out. It wasn’t actually raining, but the trails wouldn’t be dusty and there would be some fun puddles to play in, but he’d gotten sidetracked by the calendar. And now he’d rather sit with Hannah, anyway.
They talked about the campground goings-on for a while. Oscar had slipped his collar last weekend and everybody had been too afraid of the little dog to help catch him.
“So Tony panicked,” Rob said. “He was running back and forth in front of the store and pool to try to keep Oscar from running onto Route 3, and Barb was panicking and chasing him in circles.”
“When was this? How did I miss the whole thing?”
“Saturday morning, I guess. Your truck was gone.”
“Saturday morning...” She thought for a moment. “Oh, I saw a flyer at the market about a yard sale that listed old books, and I always like to check them out when I can.”
“Find anything good?”
“Not this time. They didn’t meanoldas in antique or rare. They meantoldas in bloated, smelly paperbacks from somebody’s basement.” She held up her hand. “I don’t care about the books. What happened with Oscar?”
“Oh, so there was a lot of panicking and arm waving and yelling, which is totally how you want to calm a spooked dog. Then Connie went into her camper and got a slice of cheese. As soon as she crinkled that wrapper, Oscar was at her feet, sitting pretty.”
Hannah laughed. “A happy ending, then. With bonus cheese.”
“A happy ending for everybody except Connie, who had to listen to a lecture from Dave about giving people food to dogs.”
“Have you considered finding some kind of super epoxy and sealing their doors closed so they can’t get in and have to go home?”
“No, we haven’t considered that, but Brian and I have both thought about hooking the tractor onto their camper and dragging it to the curb.”
“You could pretend there’s something wrong with their electrical system that requires them to pull their camper out.”
He chuckled. “Okay,thatwe thought of, although Brian said the sewer lines.”
“Oh, that’s better. They can run on the battery and propane without electricity, but nobody wants to mess with sewer lines.”
“My dad talked us out of just telling them to leave because they’re jerks and we’re tired of hearing them complain.”
She made a questioning sound. “But isn’t this supposed to be a fun place to relax?”
“Yeah, but they don’t interact with the transients much, and most of the seasonal campers either avoid them or seem to actually like them for some reason. And like my dad said, it’s not good to limit your business to only people you like.”
“I guess, but it’s not a regular transaction. This is also a community of people you’re spending the entire summer with.”
Rob shrugged. There wasn’t much they could do about Dave and Sheila. They weren’t breaking any rules, since there was no personality clause in the agreement they’d signed.
“I have to get back because I’ve got a running to-do list and the longer I leave it unattended, the more stuff Brian adds to it.”
“I have a load in the washer down at the bathhouse, so I should go switch it before I forget all about it.”
Rob knew it was now or never. “Before I go, I have a question for you.”
Something in her expression changed just enough to let him know she was apprehensive about what he might ask her. “Okay.”
“Brian’s going home for a couple of days. Stella has a vet appointment and he’s got some other things to take care of.” He paused, taking a deep breath and marshaling his courage. “Would you like to come over to the house for dinner Tuesday evening? And maybe a movie?”
Her expression cleared instantly, and then she laughed as she pointed toward the house. “Rob Kowalski, are you inviting me on a date to over there?”
