“We haven’t even nailed down the final title for it, so it’ll be a while. We did have a conference call about the cover, but I haven’t heard what they’re going with yet.”
He talked about the publishing part of the process for a while, which Kenzie found interesting. And the more he talked about books, the less silence there was to stretch on and grow awkward.
Then a pickup passed them on a double yellow, flipping them off, and Kenzie laughed. “I was waiting for that. You do realize you’re going under the speed limit, right?”
He smiled sheepishly as the tips of his ears turned pink. “The slower I drive, the longer it takes.”
“It’s not like you’ll never see me again,” she said lightly, even though she knew exactly what he’d meant by the comment. “That’s one of the perks of owning the only restaurant in town—eventually everybody gets a craving for fries or a slice of pie and comes to see me.”
Keeping it light was all she could do. If she tried to talk about what they were both thinking—they didn’t want this to end, but neither could see a way for it to work—she might break down crying. She didn’t want to part that way.
They were both quiet when he turned onto her road, and she found herself trying to find a way to prolong their time together, even though it was a bad idea. She could invite him in and give him a tour of the house. They could have coffee on her front porch, which wasn’t quite as nice as his back porch, but it was nice.
Then Danny turned into her driveway, and she saw the two trucks parked behind her dad’s and her heart sank. One belonged to her uncle and the other to a friend of her dad’s, and that meant not only was Frank home, but they were probably sitting in the backyard. They’d be drinking beer and reliving every moment of the trip they’d just taken. And as soon as they saw her, they’d start over with the stories.
“Looks like a crowd,” Danny said as he put the truck in Park. “Should I come say hi?”
After thinking about it for a minute, she shook her head. “I mean, you can if you want to, but considering the situation, they might all try to intimidate you and make comments about your intentions and stuff.”
“I’m not easily intimidated,” he said. “But if you don’t want to deal with that, I understand.”
“I’ll just grab my stuff and go in.” Tears threatened, and she willed them away. “I had an amazing time, though. Thank you.”
He reached across the console and took her hand. “So the time-out is over, then?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. After squeezing his hand, she climbed out of the truck and grabbed her bag from the back seat, along with the bag from the bookstore. “Bye, Danny.”
“Bye, Kenzie,” he said softly, and then she closed the back door and walked up the driveway.
She turned as he backed out and pointed his truck back toward the main road. When he smiled and waved, she lifted her hand quickly before turning around again because tears were spilling onto her cheeks and she didn’t want him to see them.
Kenzie went straight upstairs, and, after leaving her bags in her room, went to the bathroom to pee and wash her face. Luckily the few tears that had gotten away from her didn’t leave much of a trace, so some cold water and deep breaths did the trick.
When she stepped into the backyard, she found the guys sitting in lawn chairs, just as she’d thought. They stopped talking when they saw her, and she didn’t miss the way Frank’s gaze went past her as if looking for Danny to follow her out. Then he gave her a searching look, but she just grinned and grabbed a cold beer from the open cooler.
“Okay, guys, who caught the biggest fish?”
* * *
The tears had almost been his undoing. Kenzie had waved quickly and then spun away, obviously trying to hide them, but the sun had hit just right and Danny had seen the tear tracing a shiny line down her cheek.
He’d been about to hit the brakes because he couldn’t leave her like that, but it was obvious she didn’t want him to see the tears. She didn’t want his comfort, or perhaps she knew—as he did—that there was no result that wasn’t going to hurt. A little hurt now or a lot of hurt later were the only options.
So he drove back to the campground, telling himself to focus on what a great time they’d had together and not the shaky way they’d had to say goodbye. After parking next to Rob’s truck, he grabbed the bag he’d repacked for the night and went inside.
Hannah was in the living room, curled up on the couch with a notebook. She closed it when she saw him, clipping the pen to the cover. “Hey, welcome back. How did it go?”
“We had a great time. We hit up the bookstore and then had pizza delivered.”
“What happened to the fancy restaurant?”
He chuckled. “Not really her vibe. She wanted to have pizza delivered and eat it on the back porch.”
She nodded. “You do have a great back porch.”
“Where’s Rob?”
“He’s on his way back from helping fill a washout that popped up over the last rain. Then he’s going to take a shower and we’re heading to Lancaster to grab some dinner before things get hectic for the summer. Do you want to join us?”
