Chapter Thirteen
Four nights. Kenzie spent four long nights tossing and turning, watching for his truck to pull into the parking lot in vain each day, before she heard from Danny again.
She’d begun to think maybe she wasn’t going to. After the most amazing kiss of her life, she’d basically told him there wouldn’t be any more of them. And then she’d avoided being alone with him—or even near him—for the entirety of the cookout.
When her phone lit up with a message from him on Wednesday morning, during the lull between breakfast and lunch because he was thoughtful like that, she was relieved. Maybe she couldn’t have him, but she also didn’t want to give him up.
Are you up for a walk today? I’m going up to the pond again at three for some fresh air. Hoping you can join me.
Kenzie didn’t let herself overthink it. I’ll be there.
She did overthink it, though, from the time she hit Send to the moment she pulled her car next to Danny’s truck and turned it off.
It was going to be hard, being alone with him in the woods without thinking about the last time they were alone.
That kiss would stay with her forever. But if their friendship was going to continue—and she wanted it to—they had to get over it and move on.
Maybe his face didn’t light up quite as much as usual when he saw her, but they’d push through it.
He was leaning against his truck, hands in his pockets.
Kenzie got out, trying not to notice the way the Henley shirt and old jeans hugged his body, or the way his thick hair was definitely in need of a trim.
And she also tried not to notice the extra distance he left between them as he fell into step beside her.
“So are you stuck on your edits?” she asked as they hit the division between the parking area and the walking trail.
He looked over at her, confusion furrowing his brow. “What do you mean?”
“You wanted to go for a walk, so I assumed you needed to knock a problem around.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I turned the book in last night.”
“Congratulations! I’m so happy for you.” That was an understatement. “That wasn’t even two weeks, was it?”
“I did about at least two weeks’ worth of work in the last few days, so it probably averages out to a month.”
“Definitely time to breathe some fresh air and remind your body how to walk upright,” she said, and he chuckled.
After a moment, he sighed. “I just wanted to go for a walk with you.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what to make of that. “I’m glad you did. It’s a beautiful day for it.”
“Maybe you’re sure we can’t be more than friends, but I’m absolutely sure I want us to remain friends. And things are changing again, so it’s a good time for an update, I guess.”
For one foolish, heart-stopping moment, Kenzie thought he was about to tell her he was staying at the campground for the whole season—maybe so they could test just how sure she was they couldn’t be more than friends.
But then that hell, no echoed through her mind again and she stomped hard on that anticipation.
“Brian’s coming up for the long weekend. He said he’ll be able to be on hand for weekends again.” He sounded almost sad about it, but then he smiled. “I guess I can tell you, since that means she’s out of her first trimester, but Siobhan’s pregnant.”
Kenzie stopped, clutching his upper arm. “Really? That’s wonderful! I’m so excited for them.”
“We all are. Especially Oliver, from what Brian says. He can’t wait to be a big brother.”
She let go of his arm, and they started walking again. “That must be fun. At his age, he doesn’t really have a concept of how long that bun has to be in the oven. Does he ask them how much longer every day?”
“Yes. My mom made him a little calendar with her due date circled, and every morning he crosses off another day, and I guess that helps. He’ll probably get bored with it at some point.”
“And your other brother has a new baby, so they won’t be too far apart in age. That’s kind of perfect.”
“They’ll be close. All of them will, even though Nora’s a few years older. Our mom said she’ll probably do playdates at her house in the future, so they’re all together at least once a month.”
“That sounds amazing. Rhylee’s like a sister to me, and her brothers would step in as brothers when I needed one, so I’m certainly a fan of cousins being close.
” She couldn’t stop her next question, even though she didn’t particularly want to hear about Danny’s future dreams that wouldn’t include her.
“What about you? Are you hoping to throw some grandchildren your mom’s way in the future? ”
Danny made a sound low in his throat, and it sounded more uncertain than negative. “I don’t know. I mean I’m not against having kids, but they’re a lot of work and… Well, I know myself, and there would be chunks of time their mother would be pulling all the weight, and that doesn’t seem fair.”
“No, it doesn’t. But there would also be times you could pull more of the weight, and maybe their hypothetical mother would understand that give-and-take.”
“Maybe.” He nudged her with his elbow. “What about you? Kids someday?”
She snorted. “It doesn’t seem likely. Even if I bumped into a guy who didn’t mind living with his father-in-law and didn’t care if his wife was gone at dark o’clock in the morning and didn’t come home until almost nine at night, smelling of french fry grease, the cost of day care would be more than I make. ”
“You’d still live with Frank?” he asked, and she found it interesting that’s what he took from a conversation that had started with their feelings about parenthood.
“I don’t know. Maybe not, I guess. It’s hard to imagine him on his own and…
I don’t know.” She didn’t really want to go any further down the depressing road of her not having the financial means to pay half the rent or mortgage somewhere else, so she veered back to the original subject.
“So if Brian’s coming back, does that mean you’ll be going home? ”
“Probably. We don’t really need three of us here. And all of the cabins are rented into late July already, which is great for us as a business, but it would mean Brian, Stella and I all sharing a small bedroom.”
And there it was. The end.
Not the end of their friendship. He’d be back every once in a while, and he would undoubtedly stop by the restaurant so they could catch up. They’d text each other birthday and Christmas wishes.
But it was the end of her being able to pretend they were both living this life. Danny was just visiting.
And with that certainty settling in, Kenzie decided it was time to steer them back to the topic that had brought them together, and which wasn’t fraught with emotional tension for her.
“So tell me how you ended the book.”
He laughed, the sound startling birds out of a nearby tree. “Kenzie Pelletier, are you trying to get spoilers out of me?”
* * *
Danny started to pull open the door of Corinne’s Kitchen the following day, his mind on Kenzie and popcorn chicken—he was craving both—but he stopped when he saw the handwritten sign taped to the glass.
They would be closed for three days next week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with no explanation for why.
His first thought was to hope everything was okay. His second was to wonder if Kenzie had plans for those days off. If it was Frank who had something going on, maybe she was free. Maybe he could actually take her out on something like a real date.
No, not a date. A friendly outing.
The responsible adult portion of his brain reminded him he had that dental appointment early Tuesday afternoon.
It had been made before he knew he’d be coming back up here, and it had already been rescheduled once during the darkest days of his writer’s block.
He’d been planning to go down and back the same day because he couldn’t put it off.
The restaurant was busier than he expected, so he took a seat at the far end of the counter—the seat least visible from the pass-through window—and pulled out his phone to skim through the various family group chats to make sure he hadn’t missed anything he needed to respond to.
There were a few different group chats, in various configurations.
One with just his brothers. One with his parents and his brothers that Ellie, Hannah, and Siobhan had been added to.
One that was all of the family in New Hampshire.
There was an extended Family Group Chat of Doom that was all of them, plus all of the family in Maine.
And then one limited to the family members into snowmobiling, which was fairly quiet this time of year.
He usually kept the notifications for all of them except the one with only his brothers muted, unless something big was going on, and he’d scroll through them while he ate or waited in a drive-through line.
Usually, if there was something urgent, he’d get a separate message from one of his brothers or his mom.
So far today, everybody was sending heart emojis to respond to an adorable photo of little Nora reading a story to Ellie and baby Julia, both of whom were sound asleep.
“Are those your nieces?” Kenzie asked, and he looked up from his phone to see her setting a coffee in front of him.
“Yes.” He turned the phone so she could see it better. “That’s Joey’s wife, Ellie, and she’s holding Julia, who is a little over three months old, I guess. And Nora’s six or seven.”
“That’s a sweet picture.”
He dropped a heart emoji into the reply box and hit Send so he couldn’t forget, and then set his phone down.
“Joey and Ellie are trying to limit themselves to only the cutest ones now. Back in February, looking at baby pics on our phones became our full-time jobs, and it was a lot, but we actually loved it.”
“Wait until Brian and Siobhan’s baby comes along a month before Christmas.”
He laughed. “According to my dad, there have already been multiple discussions on how to stage Nora, Oliver and the babies for a Christmas photo.”
“Kenzie! Order up!”
“I’ll be back in a sec to grab your order.”
It was well more than a second, but Danny had a coffee and his phone, so he didn’t mind.
And by the time he got his popcorn chicken and fries—and took his time eating them—the crowd dwindled until she was free to pour herself a fresh cup of coffee and drink it standing up on her side of the counter.
“I saw the sign.” He nodded his head toward the door. “I guess I’ve been warned.”
She laughed. “Duly notified. My dad’s turning sixty, and his friends booked a deep-sea fishing trip over on the coast.”
“Wow. That’s a pretty sweet birthday gift.”
“It is. He’s always wanted to try it, so when they reached out to me, I told them it was definitely worth closing the restaurant for. I kept it a secret as long as I could, but when we were placing orders with our suppliers, I had to tell him we’d be closed for three days.”
“What about you? Do you have any fun plans for the time off?”
She laughed. “Not really. Sleeping? Reading a book, maybe.”
The wheels that had started spinning when he saw the sign kicked into four-wheel drive.
“Come home with me. You can spend a couple days hanging out in the city. You can watch shows on my wicked fast internet. Get food delivered to the doorstep. It’ll be fun, except for the quick dentist appointment I have early Tuesday afternoon. ”
“I’m sorry, what? You want me to go home with you?”
“No strings. No expectations. Just a little vacation.”
“It sounded like you invited me to Netflix and chill while my dad’s away.”
His face heated. “I—”
Kenzie laughed. “I’m kidding. But Monday, Nathan and I are deep cleaning the kitchen while we have the chance. It’s a nasty, exhausting job, but somebody has to do it, and he won’t lose that day’s pay. That means I really only have Tuesday and Wednesday off.”
“So we can drive down Tuesday morning. After my appointment, we can find something to do and then we’ll go to a fancy restaurant, my treat to thank you for all the great meals you’ve provided for me.”
“You paid for those meals.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them. Or you,” he said. “You can stay in my very boring guest room before we hit up my second favorite restaurant for breakfast, and take our time driving back.”
“You’ll take me to your second favorite restaurant?”
He grinned. “My first favorite will be closed that day.”
“I don’t know,” she said, even though he could tell she was wavering. “After we—I think we have a hard enough time being just friends as it is, Danny.”
Hearing that gutted him because it was actually damn near impossible, but he really wanted to sit on his back porch with her. He leaned forward, giving her the Kowalski grin that was allegedly impossible to resist. “I’ll show you my whiteboard.”
She laughed so loudly, he saw Nathan peek through the swinging door to see who she was talking to before he disappeared again. “Do you think that line’s actually going to work?”
“You tell me.”
“Yes, it worked.” She pointed at him, her expression stern. “Just friends.”
“Just friends,” he echoed, even though he knew deep down inside both of them were lying.