Coming Home(105)

“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 f*cking 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 f*cking 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.