“I brought the water, but I’ll probably have another beer. Do you want one?”
“Sure. It’s a nice night to sit out here and relax.”
Once she’d gone upstairs, he wiped down the tables and put them back where they belonged. Each of the chairs had a side table to set their bottles on. After a moment of hesitation, he pushed the chairs a little closer to each other. Then he had to move the side tables again because it was obvious the chairs had been moved.
He was being ridiculous, he told himself. It didn’t matter how close he sat to her because the night was going to end with him alone in his bed, staring at the ceiling and trying not to think about Kenzie being right across the hall.
She’d made it clear they were just friends, and he’d agreed to those conditions. It didn’t matter if his body ached with need or he had to keep something in his hands, whether a drink or his phone, at all times to stop himself from reaching for her.
He was going to keep his word.
Chapter Seventeen
By the time Kenzie had changed into a clean T-shirt and brushed her teeth so she wouldn’t have fungus breath, she was sure of two things. One, she was never going to get the pizza sauce out of her sweater.
And, two, Danny’s guest room was lovely, but she didn’t want to sleep in it.
The only thing shedidn’tknow for sure was what she was going to do about it. Sleeping with Danny wasn’t going to make it any easier when they parted ways. And theywouldpart ways.
But it was going to hurt anyway. When he said goodbye to the campground she would have to do the same to him with a smile on her face because they werejust friends, and that would be painful.
Why not give herself a happy memory to savor during the loneliness that stretched out in front of her? A fun trip to the bookstore, delicious pizza and one night in Danny’s bed.
When she went downstairs, she found Danny on the porch, beer to his lips and his eyes on the river. She paused with her hand on the slider, watching him. Other than his throat working as he swallowed the beer, he seemed unusually still, as if he was lost in thought.
Then he turned, his gaze finding hers and holding it. Time seemed to slow, marked only by the steady pulse of her heart beating, until his mouth curved into a warm smile. It didn’t quite reach his eyes, though, and she took a deep breath as she pulled the sliding glass door open.
“How’s the sweater?”
She shrugged. “Too soon to tell.”
“Do you want to run it through my washer?”
One thingnoton her list of things she wanted to do with Danny tonight was a load of laundry. “Thanks, but we’ve got some really good stuff at home we use because, believe it or not, we deal with stains on a pretty regular basis.”
He laughed as she sat down and picked up her beer. “I can imagine.”
“It’s so peaceful here,” she said, settling into the comfortable cushion. The man knew how to pick outdoor furniture. “It’s like a dream vacation spot—like if it was an Airbnb and I was looking, I’d pick this one—but it’s your home. You get to live here.”
“I got really lucky. I could afford it when it went on the market because it was badly in need of updating but the owners didn’t want to do it, so they let it go as is. And having a big family with a lot of DIY skills didn’t hurt.”
“Do you get wildlife out here?”
“I get deer a lot. Birds, though I don’t know what kind even though my grandmother has told me several times. Only one bear, though. It eventually wandered too close to town, so the conservation officers relocated it.”
They were making too-polite small talk. Something had changed while she was upstairs and it wasn’t just her, Kenzie thought. They were both aware there was nothing in front of them but killing time until they went upstairs to separate bedrooms, where both of them would lie awake wishing they weren’t in separate beds.
“Danny?” She waited until he turned to look at her before continuing. “Why did you kiss me before you left for the dentist?”
He sucked in a breath, a flush spreading over his neck. “I’m sorry about that. It just felt—look, it’s no secret I want to kiss you again. Just because it’s a bad idea doesn’t mean the urge magically goes away.”
“I feel like we’re in some alternative timeline right now. Like a time-out from our regular lives. And I have bad ideas sometimes, too, Danny.”
Heat flared in his eyes, making her shiver. “A time-out from reality. I like that.”
“It won’t make it any easier to go back to being just friends tomorrow.”
“It’s already hard.” His mouth curved into a wicked grin. “That’s what makes it a bad idea.”
