“Is that true?”
“No, but I’ll say it anyway.”
“Do you have popcorn chicken?” When Rob shook his head, Danny blew out an aggrieved breath. “Damn. I guess I’ll have to go up the road to find some, then.”
“I thought so. Tell her we said hey.”
Danny started to get back in his truck, but paused. “Hey, how’s the side-by-side running?”
They’d bought a used four-seater side-by-side from the Maine branch of the Kowalski family last year. He knew it hadn’t gone out on the trails just for fun nearly as often as they thought it would when they bought it.
“It’s good. Are you planning to take it out for a spin?”
“Maybe tomorrow afternoon.” Rob snorted and waved before walking away.
Danny carried his bag and travel mug into the house and, after a quick trip to the bathroom, climbed back into his truck. The closer he got to the restaurant, the more he worried Kenzie wouldn’t be happy to see him, though. That tear on her cheek still haunted him, and he’d been torn. Would seeing him again make it harder? Or would it help them get back to being easy, happy friends?
The parking lot was almost empty, much to his relief, but he found himself holding his breath as he walked through the door. Then she turned and saw him, and her face lit up with that smile he couldn’t get enough of.
“You’re backagain?” she asked as he took a seat at the counter.
“Just for a couple of days. Brian comes up on the weekends, but he doesn’t want to be away from Siobhan and Oliver all week, every week for the entire summer.”
She laughed and folded her arms. “And Birch Brook Campground hassomany campers there on weekdays, Rob and Hannah can’t keep up?”
“Just because they can doesn’t mean they should have to, right?” When her eyebrow arched, he gave her a sheepish grin. “Also, it’s a good excuse to see you.”
“I thought we agreed—” The words cut off as she looked over her shoulder, probably checking to see if her dad was in the window, eavesdropping on their conversation. “We talked about this.”
She was trying hard to look annoyed, but the corners of her mouth kept twitching. It was an expression all Kowalski men were very familiar with. “Yes, it was a time-out. But you know, teams get multiple time-outs for every game.”
“This definitely isn’t a game,” she said, her amusement instantly gone.
He’d tried, but he wouldn’t push. “You said we can be friends. I like to see my friends sometimes.”
She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine. I like to see my friends sometimes, too.”
“Unless you’re out of popcorn chicken, in which case I’m leaving now.”
“What is it with your family and popcorn chicken?” She pulled the order pad from her apron pocket to write it down without even asking if he wanted fries. Of course he did. “Do you want coffee?”
“Desperately.”
After clipping the order in the window and calling to her dad to let him know it was there, she went to the coffee brewer. Danny tried not to watch her moving around, but it wasn’t easy because she was in his line of sight.
Then Frank was in the window, reaching up to grab the slip of paper. He read it and then looked at Danny through the pass-through. “This yours?”
He was almost afraid to answer. Why did he want to know? Was he going to slip something into it because Danny had made his daughter cry? “Yeah.”
Frank laughed, then shook his head. “What is it with your family and popcorn chicken?”
Kenzie was also laughing when she set down the coffee. “On the plus side, we don’t have to wash a lot of silverware after a Kowalski eats here.”
“We go through more napkins, though,” Frank called back.
“Ouch.” Laughing, Danny covered his heart with his hand. “Rough crowd today.”
Kenzie cashed out a party of three, and then refilled coffees for the remaining table before returning to lean her hip against the counter, arms folded. “So what really brings you back this time?”
