The relief that softened his expression and let his shoulders drop surprised her. There was no reason for him to think she was in any way qualified to offer any writer advice, never mind one as accomplished as him. They’d had fun knocking some ideas around last year, but this felt bigger than that.
“I appreciate it.” When she scribbled her email address and cell number on an order slip and slid it to him, he covered it with his hand for a moment before taking out his phone. After he typed something out, her phone buzzed in her pocket. “I’ll email you the document when I get set up at the house, but I sent a text so you’d have my number. And don’t expect much, okay? I mean, it’s a first draft. It’s not perfect.”
“I’ll read it for the story, not for counting commas or catching dangling… I forget which part of speech dangles.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Me, too. That’s just one of the reasons copy editors are my favorite people.”
“Order up,” Frank called, his deep voice carrying into the dining room.
“Thanks again,” he said, standing and sliding cash under the edge of his plate. “I’ll email you later. I really think you and I will be great together.”
“Looking forward to it,” she said, and then she turned to get the plates out of the window, thankful for the distraction that would keep her from watching him walk out—especially since the customers would probably be watching her stare at his butt.
It was another hour before she had time to pull her phone out of her back pocket, wanting to save Danny’s contact info before he got lost in the sea of vendors, customers, family members and scammers that lit up her phone on a regular basis. The text message only had his name, but the words he said before he left echoed in her mind.
I really think you and I will be great together.
She didn’t think he’d done it deliberately—he had to be talking about the book, of course—but Kenzie knew she had another night of tossing and turning in front of her.
* * *
There were no lights on in the combination campground office and store, so Danny pulled past it and into the driveway area for the house that had come with the campground. The entire property had been in rough shape when they bought it, the previous owners having let some of the upkeep go due to age, but the house had been most in need in of updating.
Unfortunately, when one part of the property generated income and the other was an expense, where to allocate the money and energy they could scrape up wasn’t much of a decision.
Once the campground closed for the season, though, Rob and Hannah had thrown themselves into DIY renovations on the house. Nothing fancy, according to them, because money was tight. But Danny also knew the rest of the family had helped as much as possible—especially their dad’s cousin Sean, who was a builder. While Danny had been pacing his office, trying to turn copious amounts of coffee into words, they’d made some changes, and he was eager to see them.
He’d parked and was walking around to the passenger side to grab a few things when his brother walked out to greet him.
“I appreciate you guys letting me come up here,” Danny said.
Rob laughed. “Can’t really stop you since you also own it.”
“You know what I mean. You and Hannah are trying to get stuff done, and I’ll do my best not to get in the way.”
“How’s Kenzie doing?” Rob asked, and when Danny froze in the process of grabbing his laptop bag from the passenger seat, he laughed. “I saw a truck that looked like yours go by, but I wasn’t sure it was you. But then—after about the amount of time it takes to have lunch and some conversation—here you are, turning left onto the property because you were coming from that direction.”
“Maybe you should stop playing with that camera, little brother, and write a detective novel.”
“I could start now and still be done before you finishyourbook,” Rob shot back. Danny forced a chuckle because it wasn’t his brother’s fault the sibling trash-talking had hit a nerve. He must not have covered well, though, because Rob gripped his upper arm. “Bad joke. You’re going to finish it this month. Hannah and I are going to do our best to support that. She descaled the Keurig to get it ready for you, and if I have to feed you like you’re a toddler so you can keep typing, I’ll do it.”
Danny laughed, some of the tension easing away. If there was one thing he could always count on, it was his family having his back. His brothers might tease him and poke at his weak spotswhilehaving his back, but they wouldn’t let him down.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a matter of having the time and opportunity to type. Sitting in front of the keyboard with a fresh coffee and a silenced phone did no good if his brain refused to cough up anything to actually type into the document. It was the thinking that was the problem, and not the desk time.
He was saved from further discussion about his inability to do his job by his future sister-in-law stepping out of the house. “Danny!”
“Hey, Hannah.” He pulled her into a hug, genuinely thrilled to see her. Somehow the perfect woman for his brother had chosen their campground to roll into last spring, and Rob had been smart enough not to let her go.
“We got the second bedroom done just in time,” she said. “Right now the windows are open, so it’s a little chilly in there, but it was a choice between chilly and paint fumes. Let’s get your stuff and you can see it.”
They each took a bag and went inside, though Danny didn’t get very far before he stopped. “Wow.”
Rob looked around the living room as though trying to see it through his brother’s eyes. “It’s mostly cosmetic, but we also did some insulating and replaced the two windows in here so we can put in a decent air conditioning unit. The dream is central air someday, of course, but for now we just want to not be dying in July and August. And just some paint and taking out all that old, dark wood trim helped make it look bigger. And the floors.”
“We started the floors the day after the campground officially closed for the season,” Hannah said. “While it was stillmostlywarm enough for us to stay in the camper. That meant we could rip up all of that old carpeting and linoleum, and let me tell you, refinishing hardwood floors yourself is a workout. But we got it all done before it got so cold we had to move back into the house.”
“It looks amazing,” he said. It wasn’t perfect, of course. They didn’t have the money for a proper remodeling. But it felt more like a home and less like a place for the brothers to hang out when they weren’t outside or in the store.
