He cocked his head, assuming Kenzie had found her phone and was talking to somebody—maybe Rhylee or her dad, checking in with her. But it really sounded like there were two distinctive voices, and he took a step toward the door, listening harder.
Oh, shit.That was his mother’s voice.
After almost falling over yanking the sweatpants on, he sprinted for his bedroom door, barely managing to avoid busting his toes on the heavy maple dresser. Then he almost learned the hard way why you shouldn’t race down polished wooden steps.
When he reached the kitchen, heart racing and slightly out of breath, Kenzie was on one side of the island and his parents were on the other.
Since Kenzie’s hair had that freshly tousled look and she had her arms folded over her chest because she literally wasn’t wearing anything but his T-shirt, he wasn’t surprised her eyes were wide with panic when she looked at him.
“Danny. Your parents are here.”
“I… You…” He ran his hand over his jaw, waiting for his brain to start sending coherent signals to his mouth. “You didn’t text or call or anything.”
“When we saw your truck, we decided to come in and say hi, but we were really quiet in case you were asleep,” his mom said.
“Okay, but why are you here so early?”
Mike gave him a stern look, but the twitching at the corners of his mouth gave away his amusement. “It’s not that early. And maybe you remember asking us to stop by and check on the place while you were away. Idon’tremember you letting us know you were back.”
“This family sends an average of five hundred messages to the group chat every single day, but nobody mentioned I came home?”
“Maybe becauseyouwould have been the one mentioning it,” his mother pointed out.
That was a losing battle. “Whatever. Kenzie, these are my parents, Mike and Lisa Kowalski. This is Kenzie Pelletier.”
“Oh, we’ve met,” Kenzie said, her voice a little shaky. “About ten seconds after they walked through the door.”
There was no way for him to make this less awkward for her, but he could at least get her out of it as quickly as possible. He tried to give his parents a pointed look, but they were too busy smiling at Kenzie—no doubt thrilled their last single son might have a girlfriend—to notice him.
“How about you two turn around for a second?” he finally said, because they clearly weren’t going to get the hint. As soon as they faced away, Kenzie sprinted toward the stairs, and then he heard the guest bedroom door close with a lot of enthusiasm.
That was disappointing. Rather than running to his room and hiding under the covers to wait for him, she was getting dressed. He couldn’t really blame her, but a man could hope.
“Okay,” he said to his parents. “Do you want anything to drink or anything?”
“No, thank you,” Lisa said. “We can’t stay, actually. We just stopped in to check on the place—you know, like you asked us to.”
He forced a smile. “I appreciate it. I’m going back to the campground tomorrow, but then Brian will be going up for the long weekend, so I’ll probably come home Thursday night and then I’ll…be here, I guess.”
They both glanced toward the bedroom, and he could see the question forming on his mother’s lips.But where does that leave you and Kenzie?Thankfully, his dad nudged her foot with his and she didn’t ask it out loud.
“Since Siobhan’s not due until almost Thanksgiving,” Danny said to keep the conversation moving, “the campground will be buttoned-up for the winter and Brian will be home before it’s baby-watch time. Thanks for keeping an eye on the place, but I’m all set now.”
The words hung there in what Danny felt was an obvious sign they were free to go about their day. Of course they ignored it.
It didn’t matter at this point, anyway, he thought. His plan for Kenzie to slide back into his bed, wearing only his T-shirt, was already wrecked because she was absolutely dressed by now. Their time-out was coming to an end, and putting her clothes on was going to be part of the transition back tojust friends.
The least he could do was make her a coffee after all this, so he went to the Keurig and started brewing her a cup. It had just finished when she came down the stairs, fully dressed with her hair in a ponytail and her cheeks slightly more flushed than usual.
“Your coffee’s ready,” Danny said, holding it out so she’d have something to focus on besides hisveryannoying parents.
“Thank you.” She took a sip of it before leaning against the counter. “So, I guess that would be an Introduction of Doom?”
Everybody laughed, easing the awkward tension immediately, and Danny was so thankful for Kenzie. She’d known just the right thing to say. And then his mom came in with the diversion, as he’d hoped.
“Danny told us you helped him with his book,” she said. “He always hits a rough patch, but we were starting to worry he wouldn’t be able to write his way out of this one.”
“I enjoyed being a part of the process,” Kenzie said, and then she gave him a smile. “Probably because I didn’t have a legal contract promising the bad kind of doom if I didn’t figure it out.”
