“We promise the camp will be fun,” Lucky assured him. She jumped down from Spirit’s back, put away the tacks, and moved over to a table in the street. Pru had borrowed the small table from her dad, along with three chairs for them to sit at it.
“I agree with Snips,” a low voice said, coming from behind Lucky. “You shouldn’t promise fun.”
Lucky hadn’t leaned back yet in her chair when she popped upright again. She knew that voice… but there was no way. Her cousin was at boarding school, wasn’t he?
“Hello, RF,” Julian greeted with a low bow.
“Julian?” Lucky greeted, sounding a little confused. “What are you doing here?!” It wasn’t the nicest greeting, but she was surprised to see him.
“Nice to see you, too,” Julian said with a laugh. “Don’t worry, RF. I’m just here to visit Aunt Cora. I’m planning a great summer. Don’t you want to have a great summer, too, like me?”
Lucky liked her cousin well enough, but he was so tricky. She reminded herself to tread cautiously where Julian was concerned. Whenever he came to town, he’d cause a big mess. He was a true-born con man—or rather, con boy as the PALs liked to say. She still wasn’t completely over the first time he’d visited Miradero and conned all the local kids into giving him their money to build a super-fast roller coaster… which just turned out to be a regular old mine cart.
Still, family was family, and Lucky knew she should give him a chance. She wrapped her arm around him in a cautious hug. “That’s true. It’ll be nice to have you here… maybe.”
“That’s better,” he said, gently pushing her back and greeting her friends. “Nice to see Lucky’s marvelous friends, too.”
Pru and Abigail were a lot more welcoming. Especially Abigail, who didn’t always have the same suspicions about Julian’s motives.
“Speaking of great summers, it looks as if things are busy here in Miradero. Whatcha up to?” Julian asked, looking at the table. “What’s this fun camp all about, RF?”
Lucky exhaled sharply. She’d asked him a million times not to call her RF. Julian thought it was funny. Rabbits’ feet were supposed to be lucky, so he made that her nickname. Ugh.
“We…” she began slowly.
“We’re having a summer camp for the kids of Miradero,” Abigail blurted out, and before Pru or Lucky could stop her, she added, “Lucky needs to earn some money to buy a crystal bottle for—”
Lucky grabbed Abigail’s arm and tugged her back. She and Pru led her a few steps away from Julian. “Don’t tell him so much,” Lucky cautioned. “He’s still a con boy!”
“Got it,” Abigail said, and sauntered back toward Julian. She whistled while her hands swung casually by her side.
“So, you were explaining, Abigail, why does Lucky need the money?” Julian asked when the girls got back by the table.
“’Cause she”—Abigail paused, looking over at Pru and Lucky—“needs it.”
“You said she wanted to buy something,” Julian asked. “What?”
“Don’t we all want to buy things?” Abigail responded. “Shoes, coats, hats, horse blankets, crystal bott—” She stopped herself again, then asked, “What do you want to buy, Julian?” Abigail tipped her ear to listen.
“I’m not shopping,” Julian answered. “And yet, like you, I need to make some money this summer. When I got permission to come to Miradero for the summer, I had to promise my mother that I’d get a job. If I don’t find a job, she’ll make me come back home and work at our neighbor’s insurance office.” To show what he thought of that job, he yawned.
“Sounds as if you’ll be an insurance man, then.” Lucky snorted. “I’ve asked everyone in town. No one is hiring.”
“I heard about that,” Julian said, leaving Lucky to wonder if Aunt Cora had told him her woes. “I’m not going to break my promise to my mom. I have a plan.” He picked up the PALs’ camp sign-up form and began reading the names and addresses of their new campers, before Lucky swooped it right out of his hands. Smiling at Lucky’s dramatic dive for the sign-up sheet, Julian said, “I believe I have something that can help you with your camp. I saw you only have seven kids.”
“Well, six, actually,” Abigail corrected. “We have Snips, Bianca, and her twin sister, Mary Pat. And then we have some new kids in town whose parents work for the railroad: Lilly and Lester. And then there’s Maricela’s little cousin, Stella.”
“And Turo is coming to help!” added Pru, before giving Lucky a bashful glance. Turo was too old to be a camper, but he wanted to help out his friends, so he signed up.
Now, including the information that Turo wasn’t paying, Julian did the math. “It would be better if you didn’t have to split your earnings, because once you divide the money… you each won’t earn very much, will you?”
This wasn’t news. Lucky was aware that they needed at least two more kids if she wanted to get the bottle for Aunt Cora, fill it, and have a little money left over. She didn’t reveal that, but Abigail did.
“We need to raise two more dollars,” she said. Then, realizing she was once again oversharing with Julian, she put a hand over her own mouth and muttered, “Darn it.”
“I see…” Julian said, glancing over his shoulder toward the ice cream parlor. “Do you want help from your old cousin Julian?”
At first, Lucky thought he wanted to be a counselor, too, but he assured them he felt that Lucky, Pru, and Abigail would be much better counselors than he ever could be. “Plus, I wouldn’t want to ask you all to split your profits!” Julian added. “No, no… I’ll find my own job for the summer.…”
Lucky wanted to know what Julian was up to. “Then what do you have in mind?” she asked, slowly eyeing him for any funny
