Coming Home(100)

Her father smiled before he dropped his eyes, and Leah reached across the table, giving his hand a squeeze.

“And then when Christopher was around nine months old, she said she wanted to have another one. I couldn’t believe it. I figured after everything she’d gone through, we wouldn’t be having any more children. I mean, I was thrilled she wanted more. I just couldn’t believe she did.”

He looked up at Leah. “So I asked her, ‘Dee, are you sure you wanna go through all that again?’ And you know what she said to me?”

“What?”

He looked her in the eyes. “She said the reward more than made up for the suffering.”

Leah swallowed hard as she felt the sting of tears pricking her eyes, and he placed his hand on hers. “So if something seems too hard, princess, before you throw in the towel, you should always ask yourself, ‘Will the reward be worth the suffering?’”

He gave her hand a quick squeeze before he picked up his fork and resumed eating.

Leah sat there, unmoving, allowing the weight of her father’s words to sink in. After what seemed like forever, she glanced up to see him watching her, and a slow smile curved her lips.

“Whenever I get to meet this guy, you have to remind me to thank him.”

“For what?” she asked.

He gestured toward her with his beer bottle. “For giving me back that smile.”



Leah lay in her bed, holding her cell phone against her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling. The more defined her plans became, the faster her heart pounded in her chest. She had thought about it the whole way home from her father’s house; after spending the week isolated from Danny, she knew she still wanted him in her life; she just wasn’t sure in what capacity. Could she begin a relationship with him, knowing what was at stake? Or would it make more sense to remain his friend?

Would she even be able to draw the line at friendship, if that’s what she decided?

The only way she was going to figure that out would be to spend time with him.

She didn’t trust herself alone with him. Not yet. Not with the unresolved sexual tension still raging between them every time they were in the same room together. But this weekend would be the perfect chance to see him again—and to let the people who mattered to her get acquainted with him.

Before she had even made the conscious decision to do so, she was scrolling through her contacts. Her thumb hovered over the call button for just a second, and then she closed her eyes and tapped it before bringing the phone to her ear.

He answered after the first ring.

“Hello?”

Butterflies fluttered through her stomach at the familiar sound of his voice, and she smiled. “Hi.”

“Leah,” he said softly. He cleared his throat before he said, “How are you?”

“I’m doing okay. You?”

“Not too bad.”

A pregnant silence filled the space between them, and Leah chewed on her bottom lip as she twirled the ends of her hair between her fingers. “So, I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?”

She released her lip before she said, “Do you want to have dinner this weekend?”

When he didn’t respond right away, she said, “Robyn gets back from her honeymoon tomorrow, so me and Holly and her boyfriend are going over there Saturday night as sort of a ‘welcome home’ thing.”

It took him a few seconds to respond, and when he finally spoke, he seemed taken aback. “And you want me to go with you?”