Charles swung himself up onto the driver’s seat. “There’s a bathroom back there if you need it, and I’ve stocked up on food for the weekend, too.”
“Seems like you’ve thought of everything,” I said as I settled into my seat and drew the safety belt across my lap.
“Nan and I planned the whole thing together last night while you dozed on the couch,” he admitted with a sheepish grin.
“If you would have told me, I could have—”
“If I would have told you, you’d have found a reason not to go,” Charles interrupted, which was fine. I hadn’t really known where I was going with that statement, anyway.
“Fair, but you realize Nan could have packed my suitcase with nothing but evening gowns or pajama bottoms with silk blouses, or only old Halloween costumes.”
A look of mock horror flashed across Charles’s face, but then he shook his head and turned on the mega-watt smile again. “Nah, she knew where we were headed.”
“Since when has that mattered to my nan?” I asked with an admittedly nervous laugh as Charles turned the key over in the ignition and slowly navigated the camper down the rest of the driveway.
“Not knowing what to expect is part of the fun. Right?” He stopped and shot me a quick glance before pulling carefully out onto the main road.
“Oh, I know exactly what to expect,” I countered. “Complete and utter chaos. You know, you could have at least let me change out of my bathrobe before we left.”
Charles tapped his bare wrist while keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead.“We have a very tight schedule to keep.”
I tilted my head to the side and considered this.“But I thought this weekend was all about relaxing?”
“It is. Just within the parameters of our schedule. Besides, I have something special planned for later.”
“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what that is.”
“Oh, my sweet, sweet Angie, why won’t you let me surprise you every once in a while? It’s part of the fun in being your boyfriend, getting to spoil you when you least expect it.”
“I’ve dealt with too many murders, kidnappings, and thefts to ever fully let my guard down,” I admitted, then chewed on my lip as a fresh wave of anxiety washed over me.
Charles either didn’t notice my uncertainty or didn’t mind. “And that’s precisely why we need this weekend away,” he said. “Now sit back and relax. Here, this should help.”
He plugged his phone into the vehicle’s dash with a USB cable, then turned the radio on. Immediately upbeat percussion mixed with the cheerful tune of a whistle. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
“Bob Marley?” I asked with a laugh.
“It’s your Don’t Worry, Be Happy mix. Made sense to kick it off with the title jam. Now seriously, it’s time for you to chillax.” He was so cute when he tried to use slang. Not only was his vocab severely outdated, it was also from the wrong region. He’d grown up in California, which was just about as far from Maine as one could get.
“And I suppose Nan helped you with this, too?”
“Let’s just say there’s more Sinatra than I might have otherwise chosen.”
“Not necessarily a bad thing,” I said, then held my hand over my mouth in a weak attempt to hide the yawn that followed.
“See, your body wants to chillax. Let your mind follow,” Charles said in a woo-woo voice like the people at the massage place in Dewdrop Springs liked to affect.
“Yeah, I’m wicked tired,” I said, eliciting a groan from Charles. He’d once told me that no matter how long he lived in Blueberry Bay, he would never ever use the term “wicked” to refer to anything other than a warty green witch.
I smiled at the memory, then closed my eyes. I must have nodded off, because the next thing I knew, a sudden crash in the back of the RV startled me awake.
“What was that?” I shouted, jumping in my seat, only to be forced back down when the seatbelt jerked tight against my chest. It took me a moment to remember where I was and why.
“We’re almost there, but I’ll pull over at the next exit so we can investigate,” Charles said from beside me.
I shook my head.“No, don’t do that. I can go check it out.”
Before he had the chance to argue, I unbuckled my seatbelt and stood on shaky feet, keeping my hands out to either side for balance. It took me a moment to locate the source of the crash, mostly because everything looked exactly the same as it had when I’d first taken stock of the living space.
I carefully made my way through the kitchen and dining space and back to the bedroom, but it was completely undisturbed.
At last, I yanked open the door to the tiny bathroom and discovered exactly what I’d been searching for. Assorted toiletries covered the floor and the handheld shower head had come loose and was dangling toward the ground.
“Everything okay back there?” Charles called.
“Yeah. Just some stuff that fell over in the bathroom,” I yelled back.
“Ouch, my ears,” came a familiar voice, one I definitely hadn’t expected to hear in that moment.
I followed the sound and spotted Pringle sitting on the floor beside the toilet.“Pringle, what are you doing here?” I shouted in disbelief. He was the very last creature I needed along for my relaxing weekend.
“We stowed away,” the raccoon announced with a smile on his snout.
Horror knotted in my gut.“We?”
“Why didn’t you let us out of here sooner? It’s not at all comfortable in this cramped little bathroom,” Octo-Cat whined, emerging from the narrow cabinet beneath the sink.
I balked.“Seriously, you’re mad at me right now? You’re not even supposed to be here!”
“We figured it was an oversight that you didn’t invite us, so we invited ourselves,” the irksome trash panda said matter-of-factly.
Blood flew through my veins and my heart whomped at an accelerated pace.“How?” I managed through gritted teeth.
Pringle pointed toward the ceiling, drawing my eyes to an air vent that sat propped open, providing more than enough space for two mischievous creatures to climb inside.
“Charles,” I called, still staring at the open hatch above. “We have a bit of a problem back here!”
Chapter Five
By the time Charles and I discovered our two furry stowaways we were less than a half hour from our destination, which put us in quite the pickle.
“Obviously we have to take them back,” I tried to reason.
But he insisted that we stick to the schedule he’d already laid out, which meant we didn’t have the time to add a five-hour delay by circling back home to drop off Pringle and Octo-Cat.
“It will be fine,” he promised, even though I could tell that he, too, was unhappy about this particular turn of events. “They can hang back in the RV while we go do other things,” he added, then turned up the volume on our no-worries playlist. Frankly, I had lots of worries, but there was no point in hashing them out over and over again. Like Charles, I would just have to sweep my troubles to the back corner of my mind and do my best to have a good time.
We only had time to listen to a few more songs before we pulled into a little campground near the base of Mount Katahdin.
“Surprise!” Charles cried as he navigated to an open lot. Of course, I’d already figured out our destination a long time back but hadn’t let on.
“Mount Katahdin, the tallest mountain in the entire state. It’s supposed to be really beautiful here,” he continued. “The perfect place to kick back and relax, starting with a hike! After all, the name literally means, ‘The Greatest.’”