That didn’t take long. And the fact Rhylee waited until she was strapped into a moving vehicle and couldn’t escape the conversation wasn’t lost on her. “I served him a turkey sandwich and some soup yesterday.”
“Don’t even try that with me. Uncle Frank told my dad he hasn’t seen you so interested in a man since high school.”
“Sure, because my dad’s an expert in flirting. And I suppose your dad told your mom, who then told you?”
“No, I was in the pantry trying to steal some baking powder from my mom’s stash, and my dad walked into the kitchen talking to your dad on speakerphone, so I hid and eavesdropped.” Rhylee nudged Kenzie’s arm with her elbow. “Uncle Frank thinks you might be a thing.”
She snorted. “I’m not sure which is more ridiculous—you hiding in the pantry, eavesdropping on our dads, ormydad thinking Danny Kowalski wants tobe a thingwith a woman who lives and works with her father and has about four free hours per week.”
“I think your dad picking up on it means there actually has to be something there. He might be into you, Kenz.”
Kenzie rolled her eyes and changed the subject to which store they were hitting first because she couldn’t tell her cousin the truth. Danny Kowalskiwasinto her, but not the way she thought.
He was into her being a sounding board. And that was all.
* * *
Danny dreamed of Kenzie. He woke sweaty and aching and desperately trying to hold on to the incredibly sexy naked woman already fading from his memory like wisps of smoke.
He closed his eyes again, but she was gone, leaving behind nothing but a lingering frustration. This book had kept him tied up in knots for so long, he’d been neglecting other parts of his life, and now wasnota good time for that neglected sex drive to come roaring back to life.
It was a stress dream, he told himself. Maybetechnicallyit was a sex dream, but it was easier to tell himself it was a stress dream that tried to work itself out in a particularly steamy way. Kenzie had his manuscript and he was obsessing about it. Dreaming about her made perfect sense.
Her being naked? Not so much. But maybe it was some kind of allegory for how naked he felt with his unfinished pages exposed to her.
Then he smelled the bacon and stopped worrying about it—at least for now.
By the time he walked into the kitchen, Rob was dumping a bowl of scrambled eggs into a coating of hot bacon grease in the pan, while Hannah buttered toast. She smiled when she saw him. “Just in time. Pour yourself a coffee and have a seat.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t get up in time to help. I don’t expect you to cook for me or anything.”
“You can clean up,” she said easily, putting the stack of buttered toast on the table. “Don’t forget you have to sweep the floor, too, since Stella’s not here.”
He chuckled while pouring coffee into a mug. The yellow Lab was Brian’s dog, but they all loved having her around.
Once the eggs were scrambled, they sat at the table and ate together. Danny was quiet for the most part, while Rob and Hannah talked about their plans for the day.
“I want to record for a little while,” Hannah said. “I’m not sure if it’ll be for the podcast or just voice notes to myself, but I’ll probably be in the cabin for a couple of hours.”
Rob looked at Danny. “We haven’t really figured out the best way for Hannah to record yet. There’s too much traffic noise from the road to do it in the house or the store. She tried the basement, but it’s dark and not comfortable at all. So over the winter she’s been using the cabin out back because it’s quiet. Then she edits it in the house before sending it to her producer.”
Hannah chuckled. “And I get it done faster because the water’s off to the rest of the campground, so I have to come all the way back to the house to pee.”
“I’ll probably walk the campground and see if we need to call in a tree service, or if we can just handle any winter damage ourselves,” Rob said.
“I can help with that,” Danny offered.
“No,” Rob and Hannah said at the same time.
“You’re here to finish your book,” she said. “You’ve said it before, but then the campground—and us and everybody else—has let you distract yourself.”
“The campground’s not open,” Rob continued. “We’ve got our own things to do. You’re in a bubble now, and we’re not going to let anybody pop it, even if it’syoutrying. Except for talking with Kenzie, because I know she’s good at helping you, you’re only doing what you need to do to get words on the page.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” Danny said, throwing his youngest brother’s childhood rant back at him, and they all laughed.
“I’m going up to the cabin for a bit,” Hannah said, and then she kissed Rob’s cheek. “Try not to get into a food fight or anything.”
Not even a minute after she walked out the door, Danny’s phone chimed. He flipped it over to see a text message from Kenzie.
