Sighing, Rhylee laid back down, but with her head on Kenzie’s pillow so their hair was touching. “You really don’t think he’d move up here?”
“He’s pretty consistent with thehell, no,” she said sadly.
“That sucks.” She sighed. “You quote your mom a lot. Can I quotemymom?”
“I’d rather you didn’t because it won’t help.”
Karen never really said anything to Frank or Kenzie, but she knew her aunt was of the opinion that her sister-in-law’s widower was a grown man who should recognize that he was robbing Kenzie of a life of her own and do something about it. She wasn’t wrong. Kenzie knew that.
Maybe if either of them had been stronger after losing Corinne so suddenly, they would have sold the place and moved on. Or Kenzie would have moved on and Frank would have either made a go of it with hired help or sold it later down the line. Instead, they’d leaned on each other and thrown themselves into Corinne’s legacy, and now it felt too late in her dad’s life to start all over again.
“If it was just me,” she said, “I’d go. For Danny, I’d slap a For Sale sign outside and pack up my stuff. But it’s not just me and he’s my dad. I’m all he has—me and the restaurant.”
“Have you ever actually talked to Frank about it?”
“No. I think he’d pretend to be okay, but I know him. He’d be lost, and yes, I know he’s a grown man and it’s up to him to find his own way, but I also know I just can’t abandon him like that.”
“Maybe Uncle Frank thinks the same thing about you,” Rhylee said softly. “And what if this is your one shot at love? I don’t want to see you lose it.”
Kenzie shook her head. “I can’t blow up my lifeandmy dad’s, too, for a man who’s dead set against living up here. And I can’t let myself try because I’ve been through this already. I walked away from a man I loved and a future I wanted to take care of the restaurant and my dad, and I can’t do it again, Rhy. Sometimes I resent it all, and if I started making a life with Danny and then had to givehimup, I’m afraid that resentment would be hate, and I can’t risk that. I can’t.”
“I don’t think you’re giving Uncle Frank enough credit.”
“I know he’d figure it out. I just don’t want him to have to. And it’s my restaurant. It was my grandmother’s, then my mother’s, and now it’s mine. That means something to me.” Kenzie blew out a breath. “It’s not just about my dad.”
“I don’t know the right answer, Kenzie, but you know I’m here for you, whatever you need.”
“What we need is to get up and go to the store or we’ll never get the shopping done.”
“Okay, fine. But I’m putting ice in the cooler because we’re going to need ice cream.”
“Lots of ice cream.”
* * *
He made it two weeks.
The two weeks with no Kenzie in them felt more like two months, until finally he couldn’t take it anymore. He packed a bag, got in his truck and headed north.
He was already on the road when he thought to call and tell them he was on his way. His brother didn’t answer, so he left a voicemail and kept driving. Rob must have listened to it at some point, because he didn’t look surprised when Danny’s truck pulled up to the house.
“Hey,” Rob said when he climbed out of the seat. “I owe Hannah twenty bucks now, and I think you should pay it.”
“What was the bet?”
“I said you wouldn’t come back and she said you wouldn’t make it to the end of June.”
He didn’t love his inability to stay away being the topic of conversation in the family, but he knew before he got in his truck that it would be the price he had to pay to see Kenzie again. “I like it up here. There are a lot of good places to walk and walking helps me think.”
“Sure,” Rob said, clearly not believing him.
“Where’s Hannah?” he asked, looking to change the subject. “I didn’t see her car.”
“She went to the town hall justreally quickto look something up in the archives, but digging through musty old boxes is one of her favorite things, so she probably won’t leave until they close. And then she and Rhylee will stand around for who knows how long in the parking lot talking.”
Danny laughed, Rob joining in. Their dad was a talker, and he couldn’t even count how many times he and his brothers had sat in the car, waiting for Mike to finish his parking lot conversations.
“I was just going to make myself a sandwich,” Rob said. “Should I save you the awkwardness of trying to get out of eating lunch with me while also being hungry enough to go to the Kitchen and tell you there’s only enough lunch meat for one sandwich?”
