But then he remembered that tear glistening on her cheek when he dropped her off yesterday. He couldn’t do that to her again, especially when she was at work.
His heart heavy with regret, he made a slow left turn out of the campground and headed toward home.
Chapter Nineteen
Due to the Memorial Day observances, Kenzie and Rhylee bumped their shopping trip to Tuesday. The restaurant closed at two and the town hall didn’t close until three, so Kenzie had a little time to kill.
Since she hadn’t been sleeping well, she left a note on the door for her cousin and went up to stretch out on her bed. Maybe she wouldn’t actually nap, but she’d close her eyes and rest for a few minutes.
The next thing she knew, she was being bounced awake by Rhylee flopping down on the bed next to her. After rubbing her gritty eyes, Kenzie started to sit up but then dropped back to her pillow.
“You’re being uncharacteristically lazy,” Rhylee said. “You’re not sick, are you? I probably should have asked thatbeforeI got this close to you.”
“I would have told you if I was sick because I’m not a jerk, thank you very much. The past few nights, I haven’t really slept great, so I laid down and I guess I fell asleep.”
“The past few nights? So basically since Danny Kowalski went home.”
“No.” But actually, yes.
“About that. You gave menothingin your texts, Kenzie. A famous writer sweeps you off for a night away, and all I get is that the pizza was good?”
“The pizzawasgood.”
“But it’s funny how I asked you if you actually spent the night in the guest room right as the restaurant gotsobusy, you couldn’t answer me.” Rhylee’s foot crossed the imaginary line down the center of the bed, nudging her ankle. “I know you didn’t, so tell me everything.”
And because it was what she’d done for literally as long as she could remember, Kenzie sat up and told her cousin everything. She held back on some of the more intimate details, but Rhylee was interested enough to listen to it all without interrupting.
Until she got to the part about Mike and Lisa Kowalski walking into their son’s house and finding her wearing just a T-shirt in his kitchen, and then Rhylee laughed so hard, she snorted.
Kenzie kicked her foot. “If you don’t stop laughing, I’m going to shove you off my bed, drag you down the stairs and out the front door, and then change the locks.”
Rhylee just laughed harder, waving her hand to indicate she was trying, but couldn’t help herself.
“I hope you get a wicked case of the hiccups,” Kenzie muttered.
It was at least another minute before her cousin calmed down enough to get words out. “Tell me the part about what you were wearing again?”
“No.” She swung her pillow, hitting Rhylee with a satisfying thump. “It was traumatic, thank you very much.”
“But worth it?”
She sighed and replaced her pillow so she could flop down without smacking her skull on the headboard. “So worth it.”
Rhylee sighed as if she was watching a rom-com and had just gotten to the swoony part. “I knew it.”
Kenzie stared at the ceiling, knowing Rhylee had her head turned on her pillow and was watching her. She blinked twice but couldn’t stop a tear from escaping and running down into her hair.
“Kenzie?” Rhylee rolled to her side, propping her head on her hand so she could look down at her.
“Remember when I told you I didn’t want to yearn for something I couldn’t have?”
“Yes, and I pointed out you were already yearning, and I was right.”
“You were right about the yearning, but it’s even worse. I love him.”
“Oh, that’s—” She stopped, and through the corner of her eye, Kenzie saw her frown. “Worse? That’s bad, isn’t it?”
“Since I can’t have him, yes. It’s pretty bad.”
