She snorted and put the last dish in the drying rack before pulling the plug. “The question is simple, but the answer is absolutelynot, and you’re the only person who can answer it. Now, since I don’t want to talk about this anymore—with either of you—I’m going to go find something else to do. The nice thing about living here is there’s always something.”
He managed a chuckle. “On the flipside, there’s always something.”
When Hannah went off in search of something to do that didn’t involve talking to him, Danny let her go. He’d caught that she stressed she didn’t want to talk toeitherof them, which meant she’d had a conversation with Kenzie. He was afraid if he tried to continue the conversation, he’d push to find out what they’d talked about, and Hannah had made her feelings about being in the middle very clear.
Because he’d had a rough night for obvious reasons, Danny brewed himself another cup of coffee and sat at the table with it. He’d hit the road soon—there was no point in staying at the campground any longer—but he wanted more caffeine in his system first.
Maybe twenty minutes later, his brother came through the back door, interrupting his brooding. One of the best parts of living alone was being able to stare dejectedly into his coffee in peace.
“I just came in to grab a water,” Rob said. “You heading out soon?”
“Very soon. And I probably won’t be back up this summer. If you need a hand getting it closed up for the winter or the end of the season paperwork or whatever, just let me know.”
His brother looked at him for a noticeably long time before opening the fridge. “Joey’s always been the one who slapped you upside the head when you needed it, but he’s not around, so I guess I’ll have to give it a shot.”
“I hope you mean metaphorically because you might be rugged, but I’m smarter and I can still take you.”
Rob laughed. “You are not smarter than me. You just spell better. But back to the point, what the hell are you doing?”
“I’m going home,” Danny replied, still hoping he could bluff his way out of this conversation. “I came up, took the side-by-side out on the trails, and now I’m going home. As planned.”
“You may not be smarter than me, but you’re too smart to play like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” He flipped up the straw on his tumbler to take a drink. They kept prefilled reusable tumblers in the fridge these days to lessen the temptation to just grab a bottle from the store’s stock.
Danny didn’t have the strength to go through it all again. Maybe if he kept the focus off the restaurant and his fears he’d eventually come to resent Kenzie’s schedule, and instead focused on whyhewas no good forher, his brother would agree with him and let it go. And at some point, he’d probably get a more accurate version from Hannah, but Danny intended to be gone by then.
“Listen, Rob, you of all people know how I am. Sometimes I’m fine, and then sometimes it’s two in the morning and I’m smearing chocolate on my keyboard from my fingers and I don’t even know what day it is.”
“I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about this before, so I’ll just repeat the part about a ton of authors having spouses and kids. You’re just notthatspecial.”
“It wouldn’t be fair to Kenzie.”
Rob frowned, shaking his head. “I think you’re holding some kind of caricature version of yourself in your head. I’m not surewhyyou are, but I can tell you the various people who’ve shared living space with you over the years can attest to you being a fully functional adult.”
Danny knew continuing to argue with Rob was pointless. Even though forming words into coherent sentences was his job, he couldn’t think of a way to articulate his fear when it came to Kenzie.
Not only did he not want to compete with the restaurant, but he didn’t want to be another person she had to take care of. Yes, he was a fully functioning adult. He knew that. But he also knew he tended to be high-maintenance at times.
Not that it would really matter, because Kenzie would rarely be around, anyway. The more he turned it over in his mind, the more he was convinced she was right when she said it was impossible for them to be more than friends.
Of course, now he’d ruined the friendship, so he had nothing.
“Look,” Rob said as he opened the door. “You’re telling yourself you’re a bad bet because it saves you from the fear of figuring out if what you have with Kenzie is real enough for the sacrifices you’d have to make in order to find out,andyou get to tell yourself you’re doing itforher. But it’s bullshit.”
He was gone, the door closed firmly behind him, before Danny could think of a response other than flipping off the space where his youngest brother had been standing.
But as he went through the house, making sure he’d gotten everything that belonged to him, it was Hannah’s words that kept running through his mind, burrowing in and taking root.
Could he be happy without Kenzie in his life?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ten minutes into the traditional Father’s Day brunch, Kenzie knew having her entire family in the restaurant—watching her and whispering to each other—was a whole new level of misery.
Between Rhylee and Frank, it seemed as if the story of Kenzie and her writer had spread to her aunt, uncle and cousins. But not the whole story, or they wouldn’t be looking at her and then talking to each other in hushed voices when they thought she wasn’t looking.
“You should go sit with your family,” Abby told her. “I’ve got this.”
The teenager was one of the best summer servers Kenzie had ever hired, and she could absolutely handle the dining room. Her mother’s family deliberately timed their arrival in the slow period between the breakfast and lunch rushes—calling it brunch because it sounded more special—so Frank and Kenzie could sit and share a meal with them.
