“I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, and her gaze flicked to Ben, whose eyes were fixed on his brother, and then back.
“Not much to tell yet,” she said. “I haven’t been here very long.”
“I’m surprised to see you guys in town on a Saturday evening,” Ben said.
“Josh and Andy are holding down the fort,” Laney said.
“I’ve been trying to do some planning for the family vacation and I can’t get two minutes to think in that place,” Rosie said. “Katie came home, and then Drew and Liz were there and I decided if they were all going to hang out there, I’d just leave. And I made Laney come with me so she could drive and help me make lists.”
When Laney looked back at Ben, she wondered if the day had been harder than he’d let on. His eyes were tired and a little red, and they didn’t really crinkle when he smiled like they usually did.
But she knew from Andy that today’s injuries had been minor and they’d caught the drunk rider before he could hurt anybody else. So maybe he was just tired and hot. And hungry, since their silverware was still wrapped.
“We had to do some errands in town and you know how I love to talk. And then we went to the market and Fran talked Laney’s ear off.”
That had been both of them, not just Fran, but Laney hadn’t minded. The Whitford General Store and Service Station was owned by Butch and Fran Benoit, with Fran running the store and Butch taking care of the gas pumps and oil changes, along with the occasional tow. Laney had been in there several times, but it wasn’t until she went in with Rosie that she got to find out just how much Fran loved having company at the store during the day.
“You boys enjoy your dinner,” Rosie said, which was Laney’s cue they were going to start moving again.
“It was nice to meet you, Jimmy,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll run into you again soon, Ben.”
“Seems that way,” he said, and this time when he smiled it reached his eyes.
Laney was glad Rosie walked to the empty table farthest from Ben and his brother. She wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to concentrate on whatever lists she was supposed to be helping Rosie with if she could hear Ben’s voice. The problem, though, was that the booths made an L-shape following the coffee counter—except for an opening to the back dining room and restrooms—and she could see his back in her peripheral vision.
So she saw when Jimmy glanced at her and then leaned across the table with a grin on his face to say something to Ben. And she saw Ben try to cuff him upside the head, but his brother was too fast. And she heard them both laugh.
“I hope you don’t mind me dragging you all over town,” Rosie said after they’d ordered, which had taken longer than usual, since it required an introduction to Tori. She was married to Max, who she’d met at the ATV club meeting.
“Of course not. And you’re not exactly dragging me. It’s nice to get out and meet people sometimes. I’m not sure how much help I’ll be with your lists, though.”
That made Rosie laugh. “Oh, I don’t really need help with any lists.”
“Oh.” She was confused because, besides errands, working on the lists in peace and quiet was the excuse Rosie had given everybody for why they’d flown the coop.
“I just wanted to get away for a while and the easiest way to do that is to give them a believable reason. If I said I didn’t feel like making them supper and they could eat leftovers or sandwiches for a night, or that I wanted different walls to look at, they’d start wondering if I don’t feel well or if there’s something wrong.”
“That makes sense in a sneaky kind of way.”
“I’ve spent most of my life taking care of that house and the family in it but trust me, I know how to take care of me, too.” She paused and then gave a little shrug. “Okay, so I tried to hide pneumonia and I’m still adjusting to having you helping me, but I know how to get a night off.”
“Everybody needs a break now and then.”
“And that’s why you’re here with me. I get the sense you’re going to have trouble letting us know you want a day off or a few hours to yourself because there aren’t really any set hours. So I brought you with me to show you how it’s done.”
Laney laughed. “So if I tell you I need to find a place to work on some lists, you’ll know I’ve run off to have some fun.”
“Exactly.”
They did talk about Rosie’s lists while they ate cheeseburgers and fries, though. They went over where the family members would all be in the campground—who had campers, who would be in the cabins and the older kids in tents—which made Laney’s head spin. Some had babies and toddlers and they discussed the pros and cons of putting them near each other. On the one hand, their parents would be more tolerant of crying children. On the other, if the crying children got other children crying, it could be a mess.
“Maybe, other than need based on the size of the campers, we should let them figure that part out,” Laney suggested.
“I guess you’re right. But they’ll all be arriving at different times, so it would be so much easier if we already knew where everybody was going.”
“Have you talked to Mary about it?” Laney paused, frowning and reaching for the notebook so she could see the names. “That’s Josh’s aunt, right? The grandmother of all the babies?”
“Yes, that’s Mary. And don’t try to memorize this list ahead of time,” Rosie told her. “You’ll just give yourself a headache. It’ll be a lot easier when everybody’s here and you have faces, trust me. And not only have they been doing these annual camping trips for years, but they all feel right at home here, so those two weeks should actually be easier for you.”
“I don’t know if being in charge of the happiness of my boss’s entire family will be easy, but at least I shouldn’t have to help them hook up their sewer lines.” She gave an exaggerated shudder to make Rosie laugh, but Andy showing her how that was done hadn’t been one of her favorite days at the Northern Star.
“Honey, you’re working yourself up for nothing. We raised those kids right and there’s not one of them who can’t fend for themselves, and they know if anybody tries to throw their weight around with you because of the last name, they’ll get Mary’s wooden spoon upside the head.” Rosie nodded. “And yes, she keeps extras in her RV for these trips.”
Even as she smiled at the visual of a woman smacking a grown man with a wooden spoon, in her peripheral vision, Laney saw Ben and Jimmy sliding out of their booth. Ben, probably stiff after the day he’d had, stretched and her self-control failed her. She turned her head to watch him and all she could do was hope she made no audible sounds of appreciation as the muscles in his arms flexed.
He spoke to a couple of people on his way out, but right before he got to the door, he turned and looked back. His eyes met hers and he smiled before giving her a wave.
Laney waved back and then turned her attention back to her last few fries as he walked out the door, hoping Rosie wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it. Maybe older women in small towns all being obsessed with matchmaking was a stereotype and she wouldn’t have to explain to Rosie why she wasn’t going to date Ben or anybody else while she was in Whitford.
Rosie did give her a speculative look, but then she flipped to a clean sheet in her notebook. “I know Mary will make sure they all bring enough food for an army, but let’s make a list of extra supplies and staples we should have on hand. And maybe some activities for the younger kids.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Laney chewed on a french fry and tried to think of what little kids might want to do in a campground for two weeks.
* * *
Laney started her Sunday at five o’clock in the morning. She could have slept later, but she’d discovered that she liked making herself a cup of coffee and taking it back to bed. Curled up against a mountain of pillows, she�
��d sip her coffee and read until it was time to get dressed.
She’d tried taking her coffee and book outside to her pink chair one morning, but the mosquitoes were vicious in the early morning hours and she didn’t want to douse herself in bug spray while still in her pajamas. The bugs had even changed a lifelong habit of showering in the morning. Because it was almost impossible to be outside in the evening without bug spray, she’d started showering once she was in for the night and getting ready for bed. Sometimes that meant crazy hair in the morning, but that’s what ponytail holders were for.
At quarter of six, she got dressed and ate a banana before grabbing her keys to the supply closets and stepping out into the damp morning air. They were far enough north so it was still chilly that early in the day, but it would warm up quickly. Quietly, so as not to disturb the sleeping campers, she hit the big bathhouse. Cleaning bathrooms wasn’t her favorite part of the job, especially since dirty riders and water tended to make for muddy floors and sinks. But quickly and efficiently, she cleaned each bathroom and made sure the toilet paper, paper towels and soap were stocked. She’d go through them each a few times over the course of the day for quick problem checks, but she liked to do the thorough cleaning before anybody else was awake.
Next she unlocked the gate in the fence around the pool area and used the skimmer to scoop out a few leaves and some bugs that had drowned overnight. Like the bathhouse, she’d do a few checks on the pool over the course of the day.
Finally she did a quick stroll through the campground, avoiding the camper in the back with the dog so he wouldn’t bark, making sure everything was okay. Nothing had changed since she’d locked the pool and done her final walk-through the night before, making sure campers hadn’t left food or garbage out where bears might be tempted to help themselves and checking to make sure campfires abandoned by sleepy guests were burning down safely.
It was a long drive to Whitford from almost everywhere so Saturdays, people tended to get up earlier than they might normally on vacation in order to get on the trails in time for a full day of riding. On Sundays, it varied. Some got up even earlier so they could ride for several hours before checking out. Others slept in until it was time to pack up and leave.
Today there were a few early risers, so she left them to their coffee and walked to the lodge. Rosie always had muffins or banana bread or some other treat, along with a carafe of coffee, and Laney would have some breakfast and visit with her. Then the real work of the day started.
Guests at the lodge were told up front it wasn’t a hotel. Nobody was going to go in every morning and make their beds and pick their towels up off the floor. If they needed something, they could ask. Otherwise, there were fresh bedding and towels when they arrived and it was changed and the rooms cleaned after they checked out. They cleaned the shared bathrooms every morning, though, and the living spaces always needed picking up.
Today, Katie was in the kitchen with her mom, and she waved when Laney walked in. “Mom made apricot oatmeal bars and they go fast, so grab one.”
“Is that why you’re up so early?”
She snorted. “I had to pee. I’m only six months pregnant and Paige is seven, but I swear I have to pee twice as often as she does.”
“Or maybe it just seems that way because you complain every time you have to stop what you’re doing to pee and she doesn’t,” Rosie said, which startled Laney until she saw the affectionate smile. More teasing she wasn’t used to.
Her parents hadn’t been the teasing type, so if her mother had said those words, they would have been meant as a criticism. And with no siblings and a few cousins she didn’t like very much, she didn’t know what it was like to have that teasing relationship with another adult like she’d seen between Ben and his brother last night.
Laney poured herself a coffee and grabbed an apricot oatmeal bar. She’d never heard of such a thing, but she was a fast learner and one of the first things she’d learned was that if Rosie baked it, it was good.
A stitched sampler hanging on the wall caught her eye. Bless This Kitchen. “Did you make that, Rosie?”
The older woman looked where she was pointing, and then smiled. “No, Sarah did. Josh’s mom, back when Sean was just a baby.”
“Sean’s the brother who lives in New Hampshire?”
“Yeah, he’s the middle of the five. He never really loved this place and hated having strangers in his house. He went in the army and then, when he got out, he went to New Hampshire to see Leo and Mary and his cousins. Of course, he met Emma and stayed there, but he comes to visit now and then.”
“I can’t believe they’re all going to be here in a week and a half,” Katie said. “It’s going to be crazy. Plus, half the town will probably be here off and on to see them. Like Ben. He and Sean were good friends growing up.”
Laney was careful not to show any reaction to that statement, but uh-oh echoed through her mind. On the ride home from the diner, she’d told herself she needed to keep her distance—both mentally and physically—from Ben. She had books to read and movies to watch when she wasn’t working, and it shouldn’t be too hard to avoid running into him if she was actually trying. Sure, he was at the lodge sometimes, but she could find other things to be doing.
But if one of his childhood best friends was going to be staying in the campground for two weeks, he was probably going to be around more and not less.
Uh-oh, indeed.
Chapter Six
Sean
Sean Kowalski looked at the massive pile of what looked like everything they owned sitting on the front lawn and shook his head. “We can’t possibly need all this stuff.”
“We’re going for two weeks,” his wife replied. “We have a three-year-old.”
“People are going to think you got mad at me and threw all my stuff out the window.”
Emma gave him a sideways look. “They know better. If that was the case, the pile would be on fire.”
He laughed and stepped close enough to loop his arm around her waist and pull her up against him. “Good point. I hope you’ve talked to Cat and Russell and have some idea of where they are, because it’s supposed to rain later.”
“It’s not supposed to rain until much later, and they’ll be here anytime. She sent me a text about twenty minutes ago.”
Sean hoped the weather forecast was right, because given a choice between carrying that pile back inside only to carry it all out again or setting off on vacation tomorrow with wet belongings, he wasn’t sure which he’d choose. It was bad enough they were going to not only have to fit that entire pile into the camper, but make sure everything was stowed securely so they weren’t dodging projectiles like a bad arcade game going down the road tomorrow.
Emma’s grandmother and step-grandfather were taking two weeks off of their RV-ing-around-the-country life to house-sit for them, which Cat would love since it had been her home for most of her life and was the house that she’d raised Emma in. And he, Emma and Johnny would be taking their RV to Maine.
“How many texts have you gotten from Aunt Mary?” he asked.
“Sixteen.”
“This week?”
“Today.” She laughed. “And those are separate from the group text with all the women. I swear I’ve had to remind them that Maine has stores every day this week.”
“And Aunt Mary reminds you they only have a small market in town and—”
“I’ll pay twice as much than if I just buy it now and take it with me,” she finished for him.
“Plus, if I know Rosie, she’ll have been baking and cooking and we’re all going to have to eat so much food, we won’t be able to ride our four-wheelers. Or swim. We’ll just sink to the bottom of the pool.”
“I think I’ve gained weight just from thinking about spending two weeks with Mary and Rose.”
Sean bowed his head to kiss the side of her neck. “I’m sure we can come up with ways to burn off those extra calories.”
“There’s nothing sexier than being surrounded by your entire family.” She laughed when he nipped at her earlobe, but he winced when she yelled to Johnny. “Stop taking toys out of the pile or you won’t have them at Nana Rosie’s house!”
Johnny threw his favorite dump truck back in the pile and looked at them, scowling. “Put it in Daddy’s truck.”
“We’re not taking Daddy’s truck,” she said, and Sean guessed by her tone they’d already had this discussion a few times today. “Or Mommy’s. We’re taking Grammy’s camper, so when she and Papa get here, we’ll put your toys in the camper, okay?”
“He’s going to run himself ragged playing with his cousins,” Sean said. “We’ll be lucky if he can stay awake through supper.”
“I’m hoping a family-wide afternoon nap rule is put into effect. I think we’ll all have fun, though. It’ll be nice to relax. Did you finish up that job today?”
“All done.” They maintained separate businesses—the landscaping business Emma had established before they even met and his building business—but they often worked in conjunction. Since she specialized in low-maintenance landscaping for summer homes and camps, he offered decks, stairs and docks, and they were able to save clients money and aggravation by being a package deal. And they were able to coordinate their schedules so one of them was usually home with Johnny, though he’d visit Aunt Mary or one of his aunts if they were in a time crunch.
Emma’s phone chimed and she groaned, dropping her head against his shoulder. “You know that stretch of road on the way that has no cell phone reception? When you get there, drive really, really slow, okay?”
He laughed, but then his phone chimed, too. He pulled it out while Emma was typing out a reply on hers. “Crap. It’s Uncle Leo, making sure I packed all of Johnny’s riding gear. Is that somewhere in the pile?”
“Yes and, once again, he’s only three. His riding gear consists of a helmet and a pair of goggles.”
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