Coming Home (29 page)

He laughed, lifting his eyes to hers, and she smiled, reaching up and running her thumb over his cheek.

“
He’s out
!” Tommy yelled. “
Done
!”

Leah and Danny whipped their heads in Tommy’s direction to see Jake with his head thrown back, chugging a glass of water so quickly that two streams were running out of the corners of his mouth and down his chin.

“No, no!” Leah laughed. “Not water!”

“Fuck,” Jake said as he slammed the glass down on the table with tears pouring down his face. “What are you, superhuman? I’m on fucking fire!” he wailed, reaching for Leah’s water.

She grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “Not water,” she said through her laughter. “Here.” She grabbed his spoon and scooped up a heap of sour cream, handing it to him.

Danny watched Jake shove it in his mouth with a groan, and suddenly spoons and sour cream became a lot less erotic.

“Fuck,” he mumbled around the spoon. “Fuck, that’s better.” He pulled it out of his mouth and took another scoop of it before shoveling it back in.

After one more spoonful, Jake wiped his eyes on his sleeve and looked at Leah. “How did you know that would work?”

“You’re never supposed to use water if you eat something spicy. Capsaicin is the chemical that burns in spicy foods, and the only thing that disengages it is the chemical casein. You can find it in most dairy products, like milk, or yogurt. Or sour cream,” she said with a smile. “But there’s nothing in water. It just spreads the oils around your mouth and makes it worse.”

The entire table stared at her.

“Are you some kind of evil genius?” Jake asked, and Danny laughed before looking down at Leah. He loved that she was smart—in fact, it was one of the things that turned him on the most about her—but when she used that intelligence to shut Jake down?

It was one of the sexiest things he’d ever seen.

“So that’s what you did? You ate sour cream right after?” Jake asked, and Leah shrugged.

“You said no drinking. You didn’t say anything about sour cream.”

Tommy burst out laughing before he said, “Holy shit, she
is
an evil genius! I fucking love this girl!”

Leah laughed, resting her head on Danny’s shoulder, and he put his arm around her again.

Me too,
he thought, rubbing his hand up and down her arm as she played with the hem of his shirt.

As Danny turned into Leah’s apartment complex, she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “Thanks for inviting me out tonight. I had a lot of fun.”

He smiled. “It wouldn’t have been half as fun without you there, so thank
you
. Hearing Jake scream like a girl inside that game was the best birthday present anyone could have ever given me.”

Leah covered her mouth, laughing at the memory. After Jake lost the bet, the four of them walked over to Dark Escape 4D so Jake could pay up, and the shrieks and squeals coming out of the booth had all three of them leaning on one another for support while they cracked up. Her stomach muscles still felt sore from it.

In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she laughed as much as she did tonight. She and Danny had played a game of Nothing But Net, where they went head-to-head with each other to see who could make the most baskets before the clock ran out, and they spent more time trying to distract each other from shooting than they did trying to make their own baskets.

Then there was the Skee-Ball incident; Leah had tried to show Danny how to flick his wrist so he could get the high score every time, and he ended up accidentally flinging the ball into the lane two down from them and scaring the hell out of the teenager playing there.

And when the four of them played Dance Dance Revolution against one another, Leah thought she might pee her pants from laughing so hard.

She loved his friends. And she loved spending time with him. She loved flirting with him and touching him and talking to him and being with him.

She loved the way he rubbed the back of her neck whenever he thought she was uneasy. She loved how he smiled at her when he didn’t think she could see him.

And she loved that, despite the palpable sexual tension between them, he had been a perfect gentleman all night.

Danny pulled the car into an empty space in front of her apartment, and before he could say anything, Leah turned to him.

“Do you want to come in for a little while?”

He turned to look at her. “Um…yeah. Okay.”

“Okay,” she said before undoing her seat belt, and Danny cut the engine as she exited the car.

They walked up the path to her door in silence, and once they were inside, Leah took his coat, hanging it beside hers in the closet. She closed her eyes, taking a small, steadying breath before she righted her expression and turned to face him. He was standing by the door, his hands shoved in his pockets.

“So,” he said, rolling up on the balls of his feet.

“So.”

His eyes met hers, and the way he was looking at her made her want to pin him up against the door.

Instead, she cleared her throat and said, “I have something for you.”

“You do?”

She nodded. “Don’t get excited though. It’s not a big deal. Actually, it’s kind of silly.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and Leah felt her stomach flutter as a slow smile curved his lips.

“So…can I have it?” he asked through a laugh.

“It’s in the kitchen,” she replied, turning in that direction.

“Did you get me a Slap Chop?”

“
What
?” she laughed. “Why would you guess
that
?”

“I don’t know. You said it was in the kitchen and it was silly.”

“Okay, let’s get one thing straight. The Slap Chop is not silly. It’s a stroke of genius,” she said as they turned into the kitchen.

“A guy chopping a handful of almonds while telling the audience, ‘Wait until you see my nuts’ is a stroke of genius?”

She turned toward him, fighting a laugh. “You watch too much TV.”

“Said the girl who owns the Slap Chop.”

She laughed then, taking the plate off the counter before she turned and held it out to him.

“It’s no roulette table with a functioning wheel, but I tried.”

The smile on his face dropped. “You
made
this?”

“Mm-hm,” Leah said, placing it on the counter in front of him. “Well, not the cars, obviously.”

She looked up at him, but he was staring down at the cake in awe. It was a typical square cake, but the entire bottom half was made to look like a road with two cars driving across it. On the top half of the cake was a sign that matched the shape and typography of the sign for Danny’s shop, where the words
Happy Birthday Danny
were written
.

“It’s all fondant. The road, the sign. So you can eat everything. I tried to make the cars out of fondant, but they looked like mutant insects, so I cheated and used toys.”

He spun the plate slowly, looking at it from all sides, and then he looked up at her. “I can’t believe you did this.”

She shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal. It was fun.”

“And time-consuming. And incredibly thoughtful.”

She smiled up at him, and he shook his head before looking back down at the plate. “I can’t remember the last time I had a birthday cake.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I mean, once you pass ten, it kind of loses its grandeur, don’t you think?”

“No way! What about making your birthday wish, then?”

He shrugged, and she shook her head in disbelief.

“Well, let it be known that on
my
birthday, this girl needs her cake and her birthday wish. No exceptions.”

He smiled. “When’s your birthday?”

“May third.”

“Noted,” he said. “Wait, do I have to make one myself?”

“Tell you what,” she said. “You can buy one and tell me you made it, and I’ll pretend to believe it.”

He laughed before he put his arm around her and pulled her into his side. “Thank you. I love it,” he said against the top of her head before he kissed her there. The flutters in her belly scattered up through her chest, and she closed her eyes, resting her hand on his stomach.

“This kitchen is incredible, by the way.”

“I know,” she said, her head still resting on his shoulder. “It was the thing that sold me on getting this apartment. That, and the bathroom.”

“What’s so special about the bathroom?”

Leah smiled. “Do you want a tour?”

He unwrapped his arm from around her and gestured grandly. “After you.”

Leah walked out of the kitchen with Danny behind her, and she nodded to the right. “Living room, but you saw that last time you were here.” She turned and walked a few steps to the left and said, “The formal dining room.”

Danny smiled at the little nook off the kitchen area that was just large enough to fit a small table and four chairs.

“Spare bedroom,” she said, waving her arm like a
Price Is Right
girl at the doorway to their left. Danny popped his head in for a second before he nodded his approval, and Leah smiled.

“Brace yourself,” she said, reaching her hand into the next room and turning on the lights.

Danny moved to stand in the doorway beside her, his eyes combing the room. “Holy shit,” he said. “That’s the biggest tub I’ve ever seen.”

“Right? It’s a spa tub. Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“If a tub could be gorgeous, I guess this one would be. I’m more concerned with that shower, though. Why are there forty-seven showerheads in it?”

Leah laughed. “The guy who lived here before me worked for Kohler. He designed bathrooms for a living.”

Danny nodded, his eyes roving the room, and Leah huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re supposed to be making a bigger deal than this.”

“
Oh my God
!” he said, rubbing his eyes before widening them. “Is this real? I have to be hallucinating. This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in my life! I’m ruined for all other bathrooms now!”

She stared up at him, completely expressionless, and when she saw the first signs of his dimples, she pushed his chest before stepping back out into the hall.

“You suck,” she said, and he laughed, switching off the light in the bathroom.

He stepped back into the hall with her, and she pointed to the last doorway. “And that’s my room.”

Danny walked over to the door, turning on the light before he took a few steps into the room, and Leah stood behind him, trying to imagine seeing it for the first time like he was.

The walls were a warm terra-cotta color, the floor cherry hardwood. Her bed was up against the wall to the right, covered in a puffy cream-colored comforter and several oversized throw pillows. Up against the wall to the left was her dresser with her stereo and a few pictures on top. A flat-screen TV hung on the wall above it.

The far wall was made up entirely of floor-to-ceiling shelves; along the top, there were vases of flowers and a few scented candles. The shelves on the bottom were full of books. And the ones in the center consisted of row after row of Leah’s CDs.

Danny looked over his shoulder at her. “Can I?” he asked, gesturing to the shelves, and she nodded.

Leah leaned up against the doorframe, folding her arms as she watched him approach the wall. He crouched down, checking out the neatly lined-up books on the bottom.

After a minute he straightened, looking over the shelves with her music. “I don’t think I know anyone who still has CDs,” he said with his back to her as he pulled one of them out, glancing at the cover before sliding it back in its place.

“I love my CDs. All that music is on my computer and my iPod. I just…”

Danny glanced back over his shoulder. “You’re just a packrat?” he said with a smirk.

“The politically correct term would be
sentimental
,” she said, and she heard him laugh softly. “But yeah…I guess I can be a packrat. But only with things that mean something.”

“All these mean something?” he asked, ducking his head to look at the second row.

“In some way, yeah. It might be a song that means something, or in some cases it’s the whole album that reminds me of a certain time in my life. In others, it’s just the memory of buying the CD itself—who I was with, or what was happening when I bought it.” She shrugged, even though he wasn’t looking at her.

Danny nodded absently, taking a step to the right and leaning in as he read the album titles, and Leah pushed off the doorframe and walked into the room, her eyes on him as she sat on the edge of her bed.

She felt slightly unnerved, almost as if she were watching him read her diary. She had always believed the type of music a person listened to was a fairly accurate portrayal of who they were, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he was surmising about her as he studied the shelves.

Danny slowly ran his finger along the cases; there was something almost sensual about the way he did it, and out of nowhere, she imagined him repeating the movement, this time along the skin of her inner thigh, and she swallowed hard.

Danny’s finger stopped abruptly, and then he pulled one of the cases out and turned around, holding it up for her.