Rob cringed. “We’re taking the cover off the pool when we get back. So we’ll see, I guess.”
She laughed, knowing just how long and hard Rob had worked on making the neglected, science experiment of a pool into something safe to swim in last spring. With money tight, they’d done it themselves, and Rob was clearly dreading having to do it again.
“We also had a lot of branches come down out back,” Danny added. “I’ve been cutting those up. I have to confess I really don’t like chainsaws. That’s Brian’s gig.”
Kenzie tilted her head. “Speaking of Brian, I thought I’d see him by now. Is he not coming up?”
She noticed the look that passed between Danny and his brother, and she hoped everybody was okay. Then Danny shrugged. “They’re newlyweds, you know. And they’ve got little Oliver. They’re fixing up their house a bit, so he took on some landscaping work with our aunt. He used to do that before we bought the campground. He kept the winter contracts for plowing and stuff, but this was going to be his summer job.”
“So you’re taking his place?” she asked, her heart hammering in his chest. Was Danny actually going to relocate up here?
“Hell, no,” he said, and there was that phrase again.Hell, no.“Brian’s not doing maintenance. Just the big spring and early summer projects, so he’ll be up by the end of May or early June.”
“Hannah,” Frank yelled, and they both jumped because they were standingright there. “Order up.”
“Thank you,” she yelled back, matching his volume, and everybody laughed.
After they set the burgers in front of the guys, Kenzie turned to Hannah. “Do you want to grab something? I can finish up so you can eat with them.”
“Oh, I’m good. Frankaccidentallymade an extra salad a little while ago, and he told me either I ate it or he’d have to throw it away.” She smiled. “Funny how he accidentally made it with extra tomatoes and no olives or green peppers.”
Kenzie sent an affectionate look her father’s way, but he turned away from the window, pretending not to hear them. He was such a good, caring man, and it was moments like these that reminded her why she did this day after day. He loved this restaurant and he couldn’t do it without her.
Once Hannah had closed out her open tickets, she took off her apron and stuck it in the bin under the counter where Kenzie kept them to wash. The guys were done with their lunch, despite having a pretty in-depth conversation about the campground’s water system while they ate.
They were on their way out when Danny turned around and returned to the counter. “You close in a little over an hour. Do you have plans for the rest of the afternoon?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be taking the cover off the pool and wielding a chainsaw?”
He grinned. “The cover won’t take long and the wood’s not going anywhere.”
Whatever it was he had in mind—probably a long walk in the woods—she definitely wanted in on.
But she wasn’t going to. There was really no sense in torturing herself with something she couldn’t have. Thathell, nowas still bouncing around her mind, and it was a good reminder that no matter how often he looked at her as though she was the most important thing in his world, she actually wasn’t.
“I have some stuff I have to do today,” she said, wishing the disappointment didn’t dim his smile so much. “I can’t get out of it.”
“Sure,” he said, nodding. “Maybe another time. I’ll see you around.”
It took every ounce of her considerable willpower to watch him walk out the door without calling him back and telling him she’d changed her mind.
Chapter Ten
Danny found it was different being back at Birch Brook Campground when he wasn’t there out of desperation and looking for a place to hide. Without the pressure of finishing the manuscript weighing him down, he was free to really appreciate what he and his brothers were building here.
He walked the property every day, not only to make a note of anything they needed to address before opening for the season, but to reward his body for months of stress and bad posture with fresh air and movement. And every time he walked through the campground, he felt a shot of pride in his brothers.
He’d come up with them for a day trip, back when they were trying to convince him to invest in the property. It had been a mess, neglected and badly in need of repairs and upgrades. Barely recognizable as the place so many of their best childhood memories had been made, so his head had told him absolutely not. But he’d followed his heart and invested not so much in the business as in his brothers.
Now they were only a few days away from welcoming back their seasonal campers, and less than a month from being fully open for business, and Danny could tell by conversations—mostly by text message—that all four of them were feeling the pressure. Last year had been a learning curve, with a lot of money and even more physical labor dumped into the campground. Even with advice and a handbook, so to speak, from the previous owners, they’d had to learn a lot on the fly.
But this season would be a much more accurate indicator of whether or not Birch Brook Campground was a viable business in the long term.
He was in the campground store, in the area behind the counter that doubled as the office, when Rob walked in. His brother had been working on the pool, which had proven to be a pleasant surprise when they uncovered it last week. Danny didn’t know a lot about pools, but he knew the water didn’t look too bad.
“How’s it going?” he asked his brother, who grabbed his water tumbler off the counter and plopped into one of the comfortable chairs in the seating area for campers who liked to pop in and visit. By the end of the previous season, Brian wanted to set them on fire to discourage those visits, but cooler heads had prevailed.
“It’s going to be perfect by Memorial Day,” Rob said after taking a long swig of water. “What are you up to?”
