April 10th 2024

Chapter 101
The Night For Campfires

When Lucas got the call to go down to the ranch and see to something urgent about the camper house, he didn't know what to expect. It didn't help that he had been up most of the night with the baby, after insisting that he'd see to him in every way he could while Maya got some rest. MJ offered to go with him, so he wouldn't have to drive, knowing full well his stance on sleepy drivers. He had not yet been born when his brother-in-law and his sister had their accident, but he and all his siblings had been told about it again and again over the years, their parents using it as their great cautionary tale. They never forgot to mention the part where Lucas had been inadvertently drugged by a guy who'd meant the drink for Maya either, as much to exonerate Lucas as to warn them on that danger as well.

Much as everyone would insist that this wasn't on him, when Lucas would get to the camper house and be told what was happening, he would feel responsible. A lot of the later work on the house had coincided with the late stages of Maya's pregnancy, where he had been very caught up in the memories of what had happened to his wife at their Aubrey's birth. And then the work had continued on in the last week, while he'd been neck deep in newborn territory, constantly fighting insomnia… He hadn't been as involved as he should have been on the construction, and for that he had failed to notice the major problem that was building up around them. Now it had been found, and the potential results left him feeling that much more deflated.

Rafa came along, having spotted them from his room in the Bed and Breakfast. He'd been waiting on Lucas to come, to tell him what he knew. He had been the one to start and notice the problem, to eventually point it out. Living so close to the site as he did, one of the few who might have been in a position to do so, he had taken every opportunity he could to get close and observe, both with the crew's permission and sometimes without, as though no one had seen him sneaking about. He was curious, but most importantly he was cautious and never did anything reckless, so they had been able to let it go.

Now, it would be hard not to be thankful for his explorations. It was the kind of thing that could very well have gone unnoticed until it was too late, especially once they really got into the decorating phase. And if they didn't notice, if they had brought all those kids in and then… The thought of it left Lucas feeling dizzy, and after MJ and Rafa started to look at him like they were seeing it, too, he excused himself to go check on their options back in his office.

He plopped down on the couch in the corner, staring at the ceiling for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut, breathing… They were so close, just a few months away, and this could well set them back too much to have the summer they had set out to have. Would he need to bring down the number of campers? If they couldn't stay in the house yet, they would need somewhere else to go. Cristina had the whole of the B&B booked through the summer already, the first time she didn't have to share the season with the campers. He couldn't possibly ask her to cancel on all those people. What would this do to all of them?

He didn't want to disappoint anyone, not the guests, not the campers either. But what were they supposed to do? They couldn't well put them all in tents for the weeks they'd spend out here. Maybe rent some mobile camper units? That didn't feel right either. That wasn't what they had all signed up for. And then the house… He had to figure out what they would do about that, too, maybe most of all right now. Before he could decide anything with the kids, he had to fix this problem.

On his desk, when he finally went over to his chair, he could see his files on the new XCs coming through at the end of summer. They were still in the process of confirming everything, as much on the side of the exchange campers as with the hosts that would welcome them, but they had for the most part locked in their slate for the coming year. A lot of it was shaping up in a similar way to what they'd had this year, with three girls, one boy, two in high school to one each in middle and elementary. It hadn't been done on purpose, but those had been the one to be selected, and they felt like a good bunch. Their American exchange campers for the year were not too far off from one another geographically already. Natalia Zimansky, who would be starting out the ninth grade in the fall, came from New Jersey, while soon-to-be eight-grader Joe Brancusi hailed from New York.

The former was being paired, of all people, to someone who would be new to that school, naturally, as she'd be a freshman, too, but also to Austin. As it happened, her parents were joining the series filmed right here at Sullivan Stables in the coming seasons, and the match had been established to help the transition go just a bit smoother when Lucas had met the couple and found himself discussing the XC program. In a way, he had enabled the match for their New Yorker, too, as he would be taken on at his teammate's house, paired to the youngest of the Bennett children. Sydney had figured it might be a good thing for her Marco to have this experience for himself.

Meanwhile, they had their two international campers. They would have Holly Dickinson joining the seniors this year, which fully reminded Lucas that the Australian girl had applied more than once in the past, never making it up to actually being picked. It wasn't as though he'd picked her this time solely because it was her last opportunity, but still when everything had lined up for her and he'd been able to tell her she'd be flying to Austin in late summer, she'd been so deeply excited, while he had just been relieved. She was to be hosted at the Monterey house, with Quinn and his father, which might not have been a match so easily made, except that Quinn's mother had been Holly's mother's childhood friend, in their native Sydney, and the two teens had known each other all their lives.

On the flipside, the year's youngest XC was to join Sammie Kendall in the fourth grade. Eliana Pineda had been born in France and lived there for the first four years of her life before her family had relocated to Madrid, where her mother's family was from. Sammie was very excited to get to be a host, as she'd told the Friars even before it had been anywhere near decided. The current year hadn't been so easy for Kacey's best friend, with her injury, so having Eliana's arrival to look forward to was like getting to wipe the slate clean and begin again. Plus, she and older sister Susan had grown up never really picking up much Spanish, something their mother's side of the family often lamented, so she saw it as a chance to maybe finally change that… maybe… Her sister didn't seem so sure it was possible, but Sammie was very optimistic.

It wasn't so long ago that he was looking at another set of files, for the kids they had been hosting all of this year. Now they were… still months from leaving, yes, but they had been with them longer than what they had left before they all returned home, and nothing made it so clear as when they started gearing up to receive the next group every year. Maybe it was because he was always so busy now with his own kids, and his job, but more and more it felt like, for as much as he would do to be involved with these kids, when he would get to the point where he knew they'd be leaving sooner than later, there would be this feeling like it had all gone by so fast and he hadn't seen any of it happen, hadn't gotten to know them nearly as much as he should have, as he used to do. He knew it wasn't as true as he might think, and he also knew that this would usually be for a valid reason, but even so he would become more determined than ever to make sure that they all made the most of the time they had left.

Making it far easier for him that day, they all showed up together, striding right into his office to ask if they were really tearing down the camper house and demanding that they change their mind.

"Alright, first off, we're not tearing down anything," he held up his hands to calm them down, which he succeeded to do. "Second, where did you guys hear that?"

They all spoke over one another, sharing how they had seen everyone out there, talking about the house, and that was what it sounded like. With a sigh, he assured them once again that the house would not be torn down, though he also had to be honest and tell them that a problem had been discovered, one that would very likely change things a bit as far as when and how they would receive campers in there. It was reassuring, to a certain point, though not so much that they went away with their minds fully at ease. It was a big disappointment for them, too, with how much they had gotten themselves involved in the process, and he knew how it all felt.

Knowing he would face a similar scene when the news reached the girls back home, Lucas did not make his way there until he knew for sure what they would be doing, and unfortunately he really saw no other option than the one he had hoped to avoid. After considering everything that would have to be done before they fixed the problem and then got everything ready for their campers, he knew it would not be possible for them to be done by the start of summer. It could well take them all summer. The inaugural camper house summer would have to be the following year, and in the meantime they had to figure out what they would do about the campers who had registered. The bed and breakfast was out, that was also for sure. Maybe they could manage to shrink back on the number of campers, but he didn't want to go that way unless there was really no other option. They were going to have to find that answer as soon as possible, to give everyone the chance to pivot if they had to.

"That's not a happy face," Maya declared when she saw him, a statement that became almost immediately false as his features melted into a full smile, seeing her on the couch with Colby in her arms, their little Huck fully awake. He went and sat with her, and she passed the baby over. Lucas held his little son and felt peace wash over him.

"I'll tell you about it in a minute," he promised, his attention on the baby, who looked so deeply content at feeling his father's hand lightly brushing at the fine blond hair on his head. Maya didn't argue this request, instead leaning her head to his shoulder, knowing that whatever had called him away, her presence would be comforting, too.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners