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’reallgoing 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, butuh-ohechoed 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.
