Chapter Eighteen
Kenzie wasn’t surprised Danny seemed a little subdued on the drive north. She wasn’t feeling super chatty herself.
They’d talked and laughed through an exceptional breakfast—he had excellent taste in restaurants—but it wasn’t as easy between them as usual. Clearly neither of them wanted this trip to end, probably because there was a strong sense of the actual end about it. They were just friends again.
In the ten years since her mother passed away, she would occasionally feel resentment toward Corinne’s Kitchen. Every once in a while, it would flare into actual anger. But she’d never truly been torn between the restaurant and her own desires until now.
Spending time with Danny in his home had triggered a deeper understanding of his life. It wasn’t just a house, but the perfect refuge for him—a part of him, almost. He was genuinely content there, and most of his family lived close enough to drop by.
It was a lot to ask a man to give up when she couldn’t do the same for him.
If it was just the restaurant, she would seriously consider it.
But even if her dad could keep Corinne’s Kitchen going without her, it would be a daily struggle he probably wouldn’t win in the end.
He was too young to retire, but too old to easily find a job in their part of the state.
If it was the possibility of a future with Danny versus the restaurant, he would probably win. But Danny versus her father? That was a battle everybody would lose.
“You’re being very quiet,” Danny said, jerking her out of her depressing thoughts.
“Just watching the scenery go by,” she said, lifting her coffee cup out of the console’s cup holder.
They’d stopped along the way to grab more caffeine before hitting the stretch of road that didn’t offer much in the way of food and gas.
“So I forgot to ask earlier—are you totally done with your book now?”
He laughed. “Mostly. We hit the big stuff on the first round of edits, but she’ll probably have me do another pass to smooth stuff out.
Then a copy editor will go through it and we’ll do battle over Oxford commas and dangling participles.
Then I’ll read it again once that’s all done to try to catch anything that was missed in all the previous passes. ”
“Gee, that sounds super fun.” He snorted, amusing her. “When will you get to see the cover?”
“We haven’t even nailed down the final title for it, so it’ll be a while. We did have a conference call about the cover, but I haven’t heard what they’re going with yet.”
He talked about the publishing part of the process for a while, which Kenzie found interesting. And the more he talked about books, the less silence there was to stretch on and grow awkward.
Then a pickup passed them on a double yellow, flipping them off, and Kenzie laughed. “I was waiting for that. You do realize you’re going under the speed limit, right?”
He smiled sheepishly as the tips of his ears turned pink. “The slower I drive, the longer it takes.”
“It’s not like you’ll never see me again,” she said lightly, even though she knew exactly what he’d meant by the comment. “That’s one of the perks of owning the only restaurant in town—eventually everybody gets a craving for fries or a slice of pie and comes to see me.”
Keeping it light was all she could do. If she tried to talk about what they were both thinking—they didn’t want this to end, but neither could see a way for it to work—she might break down crying. She didn’t want to part that way.
They were both quiet when he turned onto her road, and she found herself trying to find a way to prolong their time together, even though it was a bad idea.
She could invite him in and give him a tour of the house.
They could have coffee on her front porch, which wasn’t quite as nice as his back porch, but it was nice.
Then Danny turned into her driveway, and she saw the two trucks parked behind her dad’s and her heart sank.
One belonged to her uncle and the other to a friend of her dad’s, and that meant not only was Frank home, but they were probably sitting in the backyard.
They’d be drinking beer and reliving every moment of the trip they’d just taken.
And as soon as they saw her, they’d start over with the stories.
“Looks like a crowd,” Danny said as he put the truck in Park. “Should I come say hi?”
After thinking about it for a minute, she shook her head. “I mean, you can if you want to, but considering the situation, they might all try to intimidate you and make comments about your intentions and stuff.”
“I’m not easily intimidated,” he said. “But if you don’t want to deal with that, I understand.”
“I’ll just grab my stuff and go in.” Tears threatened, and she willed them away. “I had an amazing time, though. Thank you.”
He reached across the console and took her hand. “So the time-out is over, then?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. After squeezing his hand, she climbed out of the truck and grabbed her bag from the back seat, along with the bag from the bookstore. “Bye, Danny.”
“Bye, Kenzie,” he said softly, and then she closed the back door and walked up the driveway.
She turned as he backed out and pointed his truck back toward the main road. When he smiled and waved, she lifted her hand quickly before turning around again because tears were spilling onto her cheeks and she didn’t want him to see them.
Kenzie went straight upstairs, and, after leaving her bags in her room, went to the bathroom to pee and wash her face. Luckily the few tears that had gotten away from her didn’t leave much of a trace, so some cold water and deep breaths did the trick.
When she stepped into the backyard, she found the guys sitting in lawn chairs, just as she’d thought.
They stopped talking when they saw her, and she didn’t miss the way Frank’s gaze went past her as if looking for Danny to follow her out.
Then he gave her a searching look, but she just grinned and grabbed a cold beer from the open cooler.
“Okay, guys, who caught the biggest fish?”
* * *
The tears had almost been his undoing. Kenzie had waved quickly and then spun away, obviously trying to hide them, but the sun had hit just right and Danny had seen the tear tracing a shiny line down her cheek.
He’d been about to hit the brakes because he couldn’t leave her like that, but it was obvious she didn’t want him to see the tears.
She didn’t want his comfort, or perhaps she knew—as he did—that there was no result that wasn’t going to hurt.
A little hurt now or a lot of hurt later were the only options.
So he drove back to the campground, telling himself to focus on what a great time they’d had together and not the shaky way they’d had to say goodbye. After parking next to Rob’s truck, he grabbed the bag he’d repacked for the night and went inside.
Hannah was in the living room, curled up on the couch with a notebook. She closed it when she saw him, clipping the pen to the cover. “Hey, welcome back. How did it go?”
“We had a great time. We hit up the bookstore and then had pizza delivered.”
“What happened to the fancy restaurant?”
He chuckled. “Not really her vibe. She wanted to have pizza delivered and eat it on the back porch.”
She nodded. “You do have a great back porch.”
“Where’s Rob?”
“He’s on his way back from helping fill a washout that popped up over the last rain. Then he’s going to take a shower and we’re heading to Lancaster to grab some dinner before things get hectic for the summer. Do you want to join us?”
Spending the evening with them would probably be a good way to get out of his own head, but he didn’t want to be a third wheel on their date night. “I’m good. I’ll probably just catch up on some admin work.”
He could tell by the way she was looking at him that Hannah wanted to ask more questions about his time with Kenzie, but thankfully she restrained herself. She’d probably get the details from Kenzie later, but he’d be gone by then and wouldn’t have to hear about it.
When Rob showed up, they went through the entire thing again. The invite to dinner. The questions about his trip south that danced around the questions they really wanted to ask. His insistence he just wanted to be left alone to catch up on work.
After a restless night’s sleep, he was awakened early Thursday morning by the smell of bacon. It was a relief because he’d been worried they’d head to Corinne’s Kitchen to fuel up on a big breakfast and some gossip.
With a hefty to-do list for the day, most of the conversation at the table was centered around who was doing what.
There were a lot of nitpicky tasks outside—a final check of the pool, using the weed trimmer to do a last minute sprucing of the sites, bundling wood and the like—that both Rob and Hannah seemed inclined to do.
It didn’t bother Danny at all to volunteer to finish up in the store. Being alone suited his current mood.
He’d signed for the frozen foods delivery and was in the process of putting it away when the door opened and Stella trotted in with Brian right behind her.
Danny’s spirits were instantly lifted by the very enthusiastic greeting from the dog, and then he took his brother’s hand, pulling him close for a half hug, half backslapping.
“How’s Siobhan?” was his first question.
Brian beamed. “She’s great. The morning sickness has mostly gone away, and everything looks great with the baby.”
“That’s great news. And Oliver?”
“Also great.” Brian chuckled. “Waiting’s not his strong suit, so he started out really excited to be a big brother, but now he’s a little bored with the process.”
“Once it gets closer, he’ll get excited again.”
“So.” It was only one word, but Danny knew from the way Brian said it, and the way he leaned against the refrigerated case with his arms folded, what was coming. “Rumor has it Mom and Dad met Kenzie.”
“Of course,” he said dryly. Once three of them had found love, they’d all turned their “you need to settle down” energy Danny’s way, so finding a woman in his house was going to make the rounds.
But he really hoped they hadn’t been too detailed about it.
“I took her down there to thank her for her help with the book. We went to the bookstore and had dinner and all that. Just a quick getaway.”
“Sure.” Brian didn’t look convinced that was the entire story. “How much does Kenzie factor into how willing you were to come up here and cover for me?”
“Kenzie had nothing to do with my decision to come up here in your place,” he said honestly. He would have had Brian’s back no matter what. “But it was nice to get to see her whenever she was free.”
Brian nodded. “She’s not free very often. I don’t think I’ve ever met somebody who works as many hours as she does.”
That was certainly the truth. “Speaking of work, I need to finish loading this freezer.”
His brother looked into the freezer case that had held ice cream last year. It still did, but there was also a pile of frozen microwave pizzas. “Wait. Frozen pizzas? When did that happen?”
Danny nodded toward the microwave they’d put on a stand next to the coffee machine. “Testing out offering them to campers who don’t want to grill in the rain, or riders who stop by off the trails and just want a snack. As long as you and Rob don’t eat them, there’s a decent markup, so why not?”
“Interesting. I haven’t seen Rob yet, so I’ll run him down and let him know I’m here.”
“After I finish this up, I’ll probably grab my stuff and hit the road.”
Once he’d found a way to fit the stack of frozen pizzas next to the various ice cream products—from popsicles, ice cream sandwiches and Hoodsie Cups to those premade sundae cones—in such a way kids wouldn’t have to rummage around and make a mess, he was sick of frozen products.
The cold drinks were already in the refrigerated case, and the coffee station was stocked.
There wasn’t much else he could do in the store, so he went back to the house and packed his bag. It didn’t take long, and when he was done, he found the other three out on the playground, cleaning the equipment.
“I’m headed out,” he said after giving Stella a thorough tousling. “I think everything’s good to go in the store.”
“I appreciate it,” Brian said. “More than I can say.”
“We all do.” Hannah hugged him, and then they all laughed when Stella tried to wiggle her way between them. Any affection was meant for her.
Rob shook his hand. “You know if you get writer’s block again, there’s still some wood to split. Not a lot because you really worked through some issues up in the pit, but some.”
Danny laughed. “I think I’ll stick to my treadmill.”
He gave Stella a final belly rub and then left them to washing the swings and climbed into his truck. After adjusting the temperature controls because it was a warm day, he pulled to the end of the campground drive and sat there for a minute.
He was tempted to turn right. Corinne’s Kitchen wasn’t too far up the road, so he could run up there and see Kenzie one more time.
But then he remembered that tear glistening on her cheek when he dropped her off yesterday. He couldn’t do that to her again, especially when she was at work.
His heart heavy with regret, he made a slow left turn out of the campground and headed toward home.