“I will,” he said, thankful for the excuse to contact her. “I can’t thank you enough for your help. I mean that.”
“It was a nice break from the usual routine.”
There was a pause he felt compelled to fill, but he wasn’t sure how, so he put out his hand as if to shake hers. She laughed and put out her arms for a goodbye hug.
Not hauling her up against his body and burying his face in her neck was one of the hardest things Danny had ever done. But he kept it casual and friendly, trying not to focus on the feel of her.
All too soon, she pulled back. “Drive safe, okay?”
“You, too.”
And then she was in the car, door closed, and all he could do was give her a little wave before he walked back to the fire where Rob was adding another log.
“I hope you marked that wood down in the ledger,” he griped, plopping into his chair.
Rob snorted. “I knew you’d be in a worse mood after she left. Did you kiss her goodbye?”
Danny’s temper flared, but he shoved it down. He wasn’t going to let his little brother push his buttons so easily. “No, I didn’t. We’re friends. Didyoukiss her goodbye? No. Because friends don’t do that.”
“Sure.”
“Seriously, leave it alone, Bobby.” Danny gave his brother a dark look, deliberately using his childhood nickname. “Talk about something else.”
Rob shrugged. “Did I tell you I signed up a new seasonal camper this morning?”
Chapter Eight
April was the most boring month of the year, as far as Kenzie was concerned. The promise of summer was in the air, but it was still cold at night—and raw on many of the days—so it was too early to plant anything. The ATV trails were still closed, and even the walking trails were a mess. In the spots at higher elevation, there was still crusty snow, and in the lower elevations, there was so much mud.
Business was slow, and with nothing more pressing to occupy her time, Kenzie spent most of her days thinking about Danny. She’d heard from him once, about ten days after he left, letting her know he still hadn’t heard anything because his editor was giving it a second read before typing up notes. When she asked him if that was a good sign or bad, he said he didn’t know. After she’d wished him luck and reminded him to keep her in the loop, he said he would and that was it.
“You’re doing it again,” Rhylee said, nudging her with her arm.
They were doing their Monday shopping, and Kenzie realized she’d been staring at the canned soups without moving while thinking about Danny.
“Look at them all,” Kenzie said, waving her hand at the wall of soups. “Give me a minute to make a decision.”
Her cousin snorted. “You’ve been buying the same three soups for as long as we’ve shopped together. Tomato, because it’s easy to heat up with a sandwich when you’re tired. Cream of chicken because, as you’ve pointed out many times, it’s versatile. It can be soup or gravy or sauce or whatever. And chicken noodle just because who doesn’t have chicken noodle soup in the house?”
After rolling her eyes, Kenzie put those soups in her cart, and then she grabbed a can of minestrone just to prove Rhylee wrong. It was ridiculous to buy soup at all, she knew, since she could grab a to-go container of whatever they were serving at the restaurant that day. It was a stubborn quirk she wouldn’t let go of, as though being able to dump a can of soup into a saucepan whenever she wanted proved Corinne’s Kitchen hadn’t totally taken over her life.
“You’ve been like this since that writer left,” Rhylee said as they moved on to the next aisle. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that bit of timing.”
“Did your keen sense of timing also pick up on the fact it’s April and it’s the mostblahmonth of the year?” she deflected. “And speaking ofblah, did you go on another date with that guy who bought the Wilson camp?”
In January, the town clerk had retired, and Rhylee had been a shoo-in for the job. It didn’t pay a lot, but she didn’t spend a lot and she liked the work. And that’s how she’d met a new prospective boyfriend.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Rhylee said, wrinkling her nose. “It was so exciting to have a hot new guy in town, but he was so boring.Soboring. I wish there were more of those Kowalski brothers, you know, but they’re all taken. Two are married, one’s engaged, and you’ve got dibs on the last one standing.”
“I don’t have dibs,” Kenzie hissed, stopping short so she didn’t run her cart into the man in front of her.
“So I can date him?”
Kenzie’s fingers tightened on the handle of her shopping cart, but she forced a smile. “I don’t care who he dates.”
Rhylee laughed. “Sure.”
When her phone buzzed in her back pocket, Kenzie actually hoped itwasn’tDanny for once, because she’d never hear the end of that from her cousin. But it was from Frank.
