Coming Home(133)

“It’s on a weekday, though.”

“So I’ll take the day off.”

Danny brought his lips to the crown of her head. “Thank you,” he said before kissing her there. “And I just want you to know that…I won’t do that again,” he added softly.

“Do what again?” she asked, trailing her fingertips over his waist, and she felt his stomach muscles twitch in response.

“I won’t lose it like that again. Tonight was…” He shook his head. “It’s out of my system.”

Leah lifted her head, resting her chin on his chest as she looked at him. “No, it’s not,” she said softly. “And you can’t expect it to be.”

Danny blinked up at the ceiling.

“I know what you meant before,” she said, laying her head back down on his chest as she played with his fingers. “That you don’t want to live the next two months under a cloud of dread. And I agree. We should try to enjoy as much of it as we can. But there will be days when we can’t ignore it. And that’s okay, Danny. It’s okay to need a time-out.” She pressed her lips to his chest. “Tonight was just one of those nights.”

Danny slid his hands under her arms and pulled her up the front of his body so that she was lying on top of him. He reached up, scooping her hair back into a ponytail and holding it there with one hand as he brought the other to her face.

“You are incredible,” he said tenderly, running his thumb over her lips, and she kissed the pad of it. “You are beautiful, and smart, and thoughtful, and perfect, and I don’t deserve you.”

“Well, that’s too bad, because you’re stuck with me,” she said, and he smiled up at her, using his hand in her hair to pull her mouth down to his.

The sound of her phone beeping with a text message interrupted the silence, and Leah lifted her head, breaking their kiss.

“That’s probably Sarah checking up on us,” she said, leaning over the side of the bed and swiping her phone from the nightstand. She lay back down on him, and he kept his hands on her waist as she opened the text.

And then she gasped loudly, shooting straight up in bed, and Danny bolted upright beside her.

“What is it? What happened?”

“Alexis is in labor!” she squealed, dropping the phone and clapping her hands quickly like a child.

Danny exhaled in a rush, running his hand down his face. “Jesus, you just scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry,” she said, throwing herself forward and knocking him back onto the bed. She held her weight in her arms as she grinned down at him, and he laughed lightly, looking up at her.

“I’m gonna be an aunt!” she squeaked.

“You’re gonna be an aunt,” he repeated, tucking her hair behind her ear.

She sighed, lying down on his chest, and his hand came to her hair again, lazily running his fingers through it.

They lay there quietly for a while, and Leah listened to the rhythmic beating of Danny’s heart, letting it lull her into a state of serenity. Eventually the rise and fall of his chest evened out and became regular, and Leah assumed he had fallen asleep until his voice broke the silence.

“Do you ever think about having kids?”

Leah nuzzled his chest, relishing the gentle vibrations that rumbled through it as he spoke. “I do,” she said.

It was quiet for a beat before he said, “I remember being young, like twelve years old, and thinking about what a good dad I would be. I think it was because my dad was such a worthless bastard. Like, in a way, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do what he couldn’t.”