Chapter Twenty-Two
Ten minutes into the traditional Father’s Day brunch, Kenzie knew having her entire family in the restaurant—watching her and whispering to each other—was a whole new level of misery.
Between Rhylee and Frank, it seemed as if the story of Kenzie and her writer had spread to her aunt, uncle and cousins. But not the whole story, or they wouldn’t be looking at her and then talking to each other in hushed voices when they thought she wasn’t looking.
“You should go sit with your family,” Abby told her. “I’ve got this.”
The teenager was one of the best summer servers Kenzie had ever hired, and she could absolutely handle the dining room.
Her mother’s family deliberately timed their arrival in the slow period between the breakfast and lunch rushes—calling it brunch because it sounded more special—so Frank and Kenzie could sit and share a meal with them.
Usually Kenzie enjoyed the Father’s Day brunch, but she wasn’t usually the topic of conversation.
“I’ll help bring the plates out, and then I’ll sit,” Kenzie promised. Maybe they’d have the gossip out of their systems by then.
After she’d helped Abby bring out all of the plates as Nathan put them in the window, Kenzie couldn’t put it off anymore. She sat in the empty chair at the tables they’d pushed together and forced herself to smile.
“Does everybody have everything they need?” she asked brightly. “Abby’s going to refill the coffee carafes as soon as the new pot’s done brewing.”
Most of them dug into their breakfasts, so she thought she’d get a reprieve. They couldn’t talk if they were chewing. But her aunt was slow to pick up her fork. “Kenzie, I hear you’re going to start being closed on Tuesdays. How’s it going to feel to have a day off every week?”
Like she would have an empty day with nothing to distract her from thinking about Danny, she thought, but she didn’t let her fake smile slip. “I’m excited to learn how to sleep in a little bit.”
“And you and Rhylee can go out on Monday nights. I know it’s not the most exciting night to go out on the town—not this town, obviously, but you could go south a bit—and see movies or go… I don’t know. I have no idea what people do for fun.”
Everybody laughed, saving Kenzie from having to pretend she’d love to go to a movie theater on a Monday night. Rhylee rolled her eyes at her, knowing that wasn’t Kenzie’s idea of a good time, but nobody else seemed to notice.
“Maybe you can start dating,” Karen continued, and was it Kenzie’s imagination or did they all get quiet and stop chewing? “I’m sure you can find a nice guy who doesn’t mind date nights on Mondays.”
“Maybe,” Kenzie managed to say before filling her mouth with so much pancake, she’d still be trying to chew and swallow it when everybody else was done.
“I want to hear more about the big fishing trip,” Rhylee said loudly, and she gave Kenzie a wink. “What kind of boat was it?”
She’d never loved her cousin more, she thought as she tried to get the pancake down with a big sip of water and hoped she wouldn’t choke and bring everybody’s attention back to her.
Luckily, most of the people around the table were obsessed with fishing, so even though they’d heard about the fishing trip already, they were happy to hear the stories again. It got them through the rest of the meal, but all the male voices and laughter grated on her raw nerves.
It was too easy to imagine Danny at this brunch with her family, his laughter mingling with that of the other men Kenzie loved. He’d fit in well with them, and the emptiness where he was missing was loud and impossible for her to ignore.
The pain of wishing he was with her also made it impossible for her to ignore how that would feel for him.
If they were together, would he have skipped spending Father’s Day with his dad to come to this brunch?
Maybe, in a world where they worked, they could have had brunch with Frank and then drive south to have dinner or a cookout with Mike and the rest of his family.
But this was a world where they didn’t work, so he could have had brunch with her family, but he would have driven to his dad’s alone because Kenzie couldn’t go with him. There were very few holidays Corinne’s Kitchen was closed, so for family events, he’d be there without her.
She couldn’t do this anymore. If she sat at the table any longer, she was going to burst into tears, and she did not need her entire family trying to make her feel better. A few customers had come in for an early lunch, giving her an excuse to get up and help Abby clear the dishes away.
After depositing the last bus pan in the dishwashing area, she felt the tears building up, needing escape. Being out back wasn’t enough, so she kept going, right out the back door of the kitchen into the sun. She inhaled the humid fresh air, hoping it would clear away the pressure of unshed tears.
“Hey.”
Kenzie closed her eyes, wishing Rhylee could have given her another minute or two before following her out. “I’m okay. I just wanted some fresh air.”
“Do you want me to leave you alone?”
She was about to nod, but then she shook her head. “Am I wrong?”
Rhylee stepped next to her, turned so she could see her face. “I don’t think there is a right or wrong here. I wish there was because I think it would be easier to know what I can say to help you.”
“As not only my cousin, but my best friend, aren’t you supposed to call him horrible names and convince me he’s the worst guy ever?”
She chuckled. “I think so, but…he’s kinda not the worst guy ever? And with the disclaimer that I love you completely, how often do we get to do something that’s not our Monday shopping trip? When’s the last time we had a girls’ night?”
“I know,” she said quietly, guilt making her sigh. “But if Danny and I lived together, it would be different.”
“Would it, though? I mean, if you and I were roomies now, I’d get to see you for a little while after you got home, but then you’d go to bed early and be gone before I got up in the morning. We’d have almost the same relationship we have now.”
“So what you’re saying is that I am wrong.”
“No. You’re not wrong because this is your life and it’s better to make decisions based on your reality. I guess what I’m saying is that maybe he’s not wrong, either.”
Tears slid over Kenzie’s cheeks, and she tried to swipe them away, but they kept coming. “I wish I’d never met him. Maybe I wasn’t super happy, but at least I was content.”
Rhylee pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m sorry. Now that he’s gone, maybe you’ll get back there again. Not quite as content as you were—but maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe he’s not the one for you, but he’s a good reminder to everybody who loves you that you deserve a life of your own.”
Kenzie nodded against her cousin’s shoulder because she didn’t have the strength to tell Rhylee she was wrong.
Danny Kowalski was the one for her. He was her Mr. Right. He’d just come into her life at the wrong time.
* * *
Danny might be the worst liar in the family, but he felt like he was doing a pretty good job of pretending he was happy to be gathered with his family in his grandparents’ backyard.
He could have used more time before dragging himself out of his house into the sunshine and fresh air.
It had only been a week and a half since he’d left the campground—and Kenzie—for what was going to be the last time this summer.
But a Father’s Day barbecue was planned in the family group chat, and his mother made him confirm in a one-on-one text message that he’d seen those plans. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t know.
Amid the laughter and conversation surrounding him, Danny did his best to fill the emptiness inside of him with burgers, dogs, two kinds of potato salad and a lot of watermelon.
“I wish your brother was here,” his mother said when they reached the dessert table at the same time.
Rob and Hannah had stayed at the campground and were going to come down for a belated Father’s Day dinner with Mike and Lisa midweek.
There had been a conversation about just putting a closed sign on the office door for the day, but the campground was full and they hadn’t wanted to leave it unattended.
Since Joey and Brian both had kids, Rob had volunteered to sit this barbecue out.
Nobody had asked Danny, of course. He wasn’t sure if they were back to not involving him in the day-to-day running of the campground, or if they didn’t want to offer him the excuse to see Kenzie again so soon.
“You’ll have a nice dinner with them, though,” Danny said when he realized his mother was looking at him, waiting for him to say something. “One with no cooking or cleaning or sunscreen, too.”
She laughed, nodding. “I love our big barbecues, but I also like a nice dinner out, so I guess this worked out well for me after all.”
“We’ll figure it out in the future. This is the second year, but they’re getting to know a lot of the seasonal campers. There’s a guy that Brian said might be able to watch over the place a few weekends a year, but it’s early for that yet.”
“We thought about taking this barbecue up to the campground, but it’s a lot for a day trip. It would be hard on your grandparents and the little ones.”
It would have been hard on Danny, too, being right down the road from Kenzie and not being able to see her, but he only nodded and kept his mouth shut.
After grabbing a blond brownie, he left Lisa to manage the kids who’d wandered over, looking for yet another helping of sugar, and headed for shade.
There were a couple of folding camp chairs under a tree toward the back of the yard, as far from the rest of the adults as he could get without actually leaving, and he made his way there to eat his brownie in peace.