Page 26 of Bear's Midlife Bridesmaid
“No, not that I can think of. Except for the fact that visiting my brother at his campground probably isn’t at the top of your list.” Jace slowed down at the intersection and turned the car.
“This area is beautiful, and it’s nice to get to see it. Especially with you.” She put her hand on his thigh.
“I’ve turned on the charm so much that you’re even willing to go look at a bunch of old RVs just to spend time with me.” Jace stretched his arm and scratched his chest, doing his best impression of thenonchalant but arrogant male. “Sounds about right. I knew I just had to get you alone with me, and you’d be done for.”
She batted her lashes and tucked her face into her shoulder. “How could I resist?”
“You can’t. Simple as that. Neither can I.” He put his hand on top of hers as he continued to drive. He was truly enjoying his time with her. She was fun to be with, and he’d never felt more comfortable with anyone in his life.
But his conversation with Ian the day before really had him thinking. If he wanted to make Erin a part of his life—and he did—he needed her to get to know the rest of his clan. Jace had been keeping her to himself up until now, and he could happily do nothing but lay in bed with her all day. Their little utopia could only last so long, though. He wanted her to be a part of his life, and his family was a big part of that.
He turned again when he saw the big sign for Camp Brigham. It’d been designed in a traditional style, with a silhouette of tents and a tree. Jace slowed down, obeying the signs about speed limits. Flying through a place like this was a bad idea when there could be kids running around or someone trying to back a camper into a site.
“This is really nice,” Erin said as she took in the neat rows of campers, carefully placed with pine trees and picnic tables between each one. “Oh, and look at those over there! You don’t see campers like that anymore.”
Jace turned to look. Sleek aluminum trailers were snuggled in next to boxier models that reminded him of food trucks. The paint job on a round model with a flat side was split between white and red on the top and bottom, and it looked like something out of a cartoon. “Dex has told me about them. A vintage camper club gets together at different places around the country throughout the year. Looks like it’s their turn to be here.”
He pulled into a parking lot next to a small building at the center of the campground. Jace brought Erin inside, stepping into a little shop that held a bit of everything. Food and drinks took up about half of the floor space. Other necessities occupied the remaining half, everything from toilet paper and shampoo to hoses and filters. A wall displayed Camp Brigham t-shirts in the same design as the sign. The man behind the counter was wearing one of them.
“Jace! There you are. I almost forgot you were coming by today.” Dex stepped out from behind thecounter, carrying a clipboard in his hand. All of the Brigham brothers resembled each other, each a good mix of their parents. Dex leaned perhaps a bit more toward Barbara’s look, with a narrower face, but Jace still saw much of himself in his next oldest brother.
“Is this a bad time?” Jace asked.
“No, no. There was just a bit of a mix-up with my online booking platform. A glitch on their end meant two people booked the same site, and they both showed up at the same time. Fortunately, one of our other travelers had to go home early, so I still had a spot for everyone. But you don’t want to hear about all of that.”
“Nope,” Jace answered with a grin. “This is Erin O’Leary. Erin, this is my brother, Dex.”
Dex flicked a quick eyebrow at Jace before extending his hand. “It’s very nice to meet you.”
“You, too.”
“Erin’s in town for a few days, and I wanted to show her around Truro,” Jace explained. “I thought we’d hit the trails.”
“So he decided to bore you with my place. How kind of him,” Dex said, smiling at Erin.
“It’s not boring at all,” Erin insisted. “It’s beautiful. I can see why people want to stay here.”
“Then why not let me bore you a little more andgive you a tour of the place? It’s not exactly an amusement park, but I’m pretty proud of it.”
When Erin agreed, Dex opened the door and held it for her. He gave Jace a meaningful look, and Jace nodded. It didn’t take any more communication than that for Jace to let his brother know just what Erin was to him.
“You’ve already seen all the excitement and wonder that is the office and the store,” Dex began, indicating the building they’d just left. “I try to keep a bit of everything in there so that none of my guests have to worry about the essentials if anything comes up. On the back is a shower house and public bathroom for anyone who’s camping rough.”
“They look much nicer than what I would normally think of as a shower house,” Erin commented. She slipped her hand into Jace’s.
“That’s because they are,” Dex replied simply. “This place had been abandoned for several years when I bought it. The previous owner had run it until he passed away. His kids didn’t have any interest in taking over, and there weren’t any buyers. It was in pretty bad shape, and those shower houses were kind of a nightmare.”
“I remember that,” Jace added. “The first thingwe did after cutting down all the weeds was to tear those down.”
Dex nodded as he raised his hand to wave to someone sitting outside his camper. “I had a lot of people who said I was crazy for wanting to fix up a place like this. They said no one camped anymore and I’d never make my money back on the purchase price, much less the improvements I wanted to make. But the thing is, people started coming in as soon as it was open, before I even had it all set up. They had a good relationship with the former owner, and they would come year after year. Now they can again.”
“Like the ones with the vintage campers?” Erin asked.
“Them, and others, too. Do you see that big RV right over there?” Dex pointed to a massive motor home with several slide-outs taking up the corner space. “It’s an older couple. The husband used to come here as a little kid with his grandparents. Now he brings his own grandkids here.”
Despite Dex’s insistence that Camp Brigham was boring, Erin was smiling. “That’s so sweet.”
“I think so. I’ve tried to keep up as many of the old guy’s traditions as possible while still keeping things modern. So we still have bonfires right overhere for all the campers to attend on Friday nights, but we also have Wi-Fi.” Dex walked past a large patch of grass with a bonfire pit in the middle. “One of the trails starts right over there.”
