The Great Peach Experiment 1, Erin Downing [books to read romance .TXT] 📗

the air was warm enough that she knew it wouldn’t matter. “But I’m willing to risk it.”

Herb was the only one who didn’t seem at all fazed by the size of the pool. It was wider and deeper than a bathtub, and he didn’t have to wash his hair while he played. Lucy knew that was all that mattered to him. “Incoming!” he howled, cannonballing in. Water sprayed in all directions, soaking his siblings. Herb bounced to the surface of the water, then bobbed up and down in the middle of the pool. If he reached his arms out as wide as they would go, he could almost touch both sides.

But a pool was a pool, and within just a few minutes, all three kids were floating and splashing and had made up a game involving a found Ping-Pong ball and one of Herb’s life jacket straps. They could have played for hours, but not long after they got in, Dad appeared at the gate and told them it was time to hit the road.

“Just a few more minutes?” Herb begged. “Come in with us! It’s fun.”

Dad shook his head. “Time to go. There are people in Chicago who are waiting for pie, and we can’t afford to dillydally!”

Freddy hopped out and shook the water out of his hair. A few seconds later, the other two dragged themselves out of the water and wrapped up in towels. Herb shuffled his feet as they followed their dad back to the campsite, his toes growing dustier and dirtier with each step.

“We’ll swim again soon,” Lucy whispered to him.

“Tomorrow for sure,” Herb whispered back. “Dad promised we could swim every day. And a promise is a promise.”

Lucy wrapped his little hand in hers. Dad’s promises didn’t always mean much. “I hope so.” What she didn’t want to tell her brother is that they would be driving right by Wisconsin Dells that very morning. Wisconsin Dells was, according to its website, “The Waterpark Capital of the World”—and it was also Herb’s dream vacation destination.

The previous afternoon, when she and her dad were out of her brothers’ earshot, Lucy had suggested that perhaps they could stop at the Dells as a special treat. “We’re really not in any rush,” she reminded him. “It would be a bonus adventure. Something fun for us to do along the way. Isn’t that an important part of this family experiment?”

“Nonsense,” Dad had said, adjusting the brim of his big, dorky hat. “We have a schedule, and a game plan, and there simply isn’t time to make day-long stops just on a whim. For an experiment to succeed, Lucy, you can’t just drop everything willy-nilly when something better comes along. You’ve got to focus.” He nodded resolutely. “We’re trying to make a go of this food truck business, and we need to keep our eyes on the prize. We have a lot of work to do to prepare and perfect our business model if we’re going to be ready for the Food Truck Festival in Ohio.”

So Lucy dropped it. Though there had been a few moments during the past few days when Lucy had begun to wonder if maybe her dad could change and help figure out a new way to be as a family, conversations like this always reminded her of why she’d stopped trusting him several years ago. He could never be the parent her brothers so desperately wanted him to be, and it was her job to manage their expectations.

But then, just as they were loading up the last of their stuff and climbing into the truck to hit the road, Dad informed them that their route had changed. “I have a fun surprise,” he said cheerily. Lucy felt a glimmer of hope. Dad went on, “We’re going to be making a bonus stop on our route.”

Did Dad have a change of heart? she wondered. Is he actually making an effort to stop and do something fun as a family? Lucy glanced at Herb; she was excited to see his reaction when he found out they’d be stopping at Wisconsin Dells to swim and ride waterslides all day. Maybe there was hope for this trip after all!

Dad went on, “I was able to pull some strings, and I have very good news. We are taking a detour, kids. Hold on to your hats, because we’re going to be stopping for a few nights to sell some of our delicious pies in exciting, fun-filled Madison, Wisconsin!”

Herb—who’d been looking up at Dad like he was some kind of hero—cheered loudly at this news.

“Wait a second. We have time to take an unplanned detour because you want to,” Lucy cried, lifting her eyebrows. “But not for us, for fun?” As far as she could tell, this detour did not sound exciting.

“What’s so fun about Madison?” Herb asked hopefully, before Dad could answer Lucy’s question.

Dad cleared his throat, and said proudly, “Good ol’ Madison just so happens to be the city where I finished my undergraduate degree in geochemistry!”

Herb blinked. “Oh.”

Lucy wanted to say, “See? Not exciting,” but she held her tongue.

“It’s also the second-largest city in Wisconsin,” Freddy offered with a weak smile. “And I guess this is kind of an exciting fact: Madison’s official city bird is a plastic pink flamingo. So, um…yay?”

Dad clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit, Freddy-boy. That’s. The. Spirit.”

From the Sketchbook of Freddy Peach:

HOW TO SPEND A MILLION DOLLARS

When I sell some of my art to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, I’m going to buy a private island and fill it with roller coasters, waterslides, hidden tunnels, and a bunch of weird, random sculptures: messy piles of socks, empty food boxes stacked up so they look like a massive Yoda, statues made out of dirty cans. Stuff like that.

Dear Aunt Lucinda,

Today we drove past Wisconsin Dells and Dad didn’t stop. You can see EVERYTHING from the highway—waterslides, fountains, pools. It was torture. I tried to keep