She's Got a Way (Echo Lake #3) - Maggie McGinnis Page 0,4
we’re not being pranked? Not about to be the victims of some new reality show where they send mini-princesses into the wilderness to see who lives through the summer?”
“At this point, I’d believe just about anything.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this—if that Briarwood limo pulls in here with a camera van in tow, I’m outta here.”
“Fair enough.” Oliver shook his head. “But you’re gonna have to move pretty fast to beat me out the gate.”
Chapter 2
A week later, Luke strode into the dining hall, two fur balls at his heels, annoyance speeding his steps.
Piper Bellini, temporary camp cook, popped her head up from among a pile of boxes in the kitchen, took one look at his face, and slid back down behind them.
He rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Piper.”
She popped back up. “I didn’t say anything!”
“You didn’t have to.”
“So you already know you look like you’re about to kill somebody?” She pointed at the dogs. “Health department will freak if they know you let them in here, you know.”
Luke looked down at the pups circling his feet, still not quite sure how he’d ended up with them. Six months ago, he’d had an old black Lab who’d followed him everywhere, but a month after Duke had died in his sleep, these little puffballs posing as dogs had shown up on his porch.
Piper reached down to pick up one of them, motioning Luke and the other one out of the kitchen area. “Is this Thing 1? Or Thing 2? And also, when do they get their real names?”
“I’ve been thinking, okay? How about Ding and Dong?”
She laughed as she covered the dog’s little ears. “Not nice.”
“Ping and Pong? Riff and Raff?”
“Wow. You really are in a mood.” Piper set the dog down and motioned for Luke to sit down at one of the long indoor picnic tables she’d painted last weekend. She was an art therapist by day, waitress in her family’s restaurant by night, and wielded a mean paintbrush when she wasn’t doing the other things. When Luke had called her last Friday about doing some emergency spiff-ups, she’d arrived within an hour, her fiancé Noah’s truck loaded with a rainbow of paint cans.
She picked up the other dog and cuddled it under her chin. “So when are the preppy chicks arriving?”
He rolled his eyes. “Four hours.”
“You have tents ready?”
“I’ve got a tent ready. But they’re going to have to put it up.”
Piper smiled widely. “That ought to be fun to watch. How about a bathroom and shower?”
“We have a perfectly good outhouse. And a lake. If they want a bathroom, then they can build a damn bathroom. It’s on the project list, anyway.”
Piper stopped petting the dog. “It’s good that you’re not at all bitter here.”
“Oh, I passed bitter just about the time Oliver had to sign the sale papers, Piper. This place should be busting at the seams with obnoxious boys right now.”
“Is there any hope that you’re—you know—wrong? That maybe Briarwood really is planning to keep this place running as a boys’ camp after it’s brought back up to code?”
Luke pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of his back pocket and spread it out. “I’ll let the project list answer that for me.”
Piper took the piece of paper and scanned it quickly. He knew she was seeing shower stalls, a TV lounge, and cabins with central air. Camp Echo would no longer be a rustic camp on the shores of a quiet, beautiful lake. No—it was going to join the ranks of a million other lakefront properties that called themselves camps … but were really just glorified boarding schools. Hundreds of girls who needed … well, nothing … would cycle through here starting next summer, he’d bet his left foot.
Meanwhile, hundreds of boys who needed everything would be out of luck.
“Fine.” She pushed the list back toward him. “I see what you mean. So what are you going to do with the little princesses? Got your programs all worked out?”
Luke shook his head. “No programs. Oliver wants to let them figure things out themselves, and I wholeheartedly agree.”
“Really.”
“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Piper. Yes, really.”
“And you’re not at all concerned about how that might work out?”
“Oh, I’m completely concerned.” Luke sighed. “Oliver’s plan, as of this morning, is to give them a week and send them home. My plan is to make like a lynx and disappear as soon as they arrive.”
“Now that’s the big, brave Luke I know.” Piper patted his sleeve.