Coming Home(141)

Danny’s eyes softened as he looked at her, and she smiled.

“You know, I don’t think I ever fully understood what he meant until just now. It won’t be a man I’ll be needing when you’re gone. It won’t even be companionship. It will be you.”

The way Danny was looking at her caused a faint tingling over her skin, and she found his hand under the water, twining their fingers together.

“And I’m lucky, Danny. Really, I am. Because my dad…all he wants is her. And he’ll never have that. But you,” she said, placing her hand over his heart, “you’re coming back to me. I know it’s not forever. So I can wait.”

Danny’s eyes fell closed, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. When he opened them, he shook his head slightly.

“Do you have any idea how perfect you are?” he whispered.

Leah dropped her eyes. “I’m far from perfect.”

She felt his fingers under her chin, lifting her gaze back to his.

“You’re perfect for me,” he amended.

And when he leaned forward and brought his mouth to hers, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind it was true.





“Here, have a little more,” Gram said, leaning over to put another slab of corned beef on Danny’s plate, and he shook his head, using his hand to deflect it as he chewed.

“Nuh-uh,” he said around his mouthful of food. “I’m tapping out.”

“Oh, come on now,” she said, swatting his hand away before dropping the piece of meat on his plate. “I’ve seen you eat more than this.”

“Gram, I’m seriously gonna puke,” he said, sitting back and holding both hands over his stomach.

“It’s a holiday, Daniel. You’re supposed to stuff yourself with good food on a holiday.”

Danny laughed, tossing his napkin onto the table. “I’ve never met a Sicilian woman so enamored with Saint Patrick’s Day. Aren’t you supposed to be wandering around the house mumbling something about ‘those damn Irish’?”

“Oh hush,” she said, taking her seat on the other side of the table. “Besides, it’s a holiday that involves cooking large amounts of food. That’s good enough for me.”

“You know, you’re only supposed to cook large amounts of food when you have a large amount of people who are going to eat it. This,” he said, gesturing to the spread on the table, “was a bit of an overshoot for two people, don’t you think?”

Gram shrugged. “I don’t know how to cook for only two people.”

Danny burst out laughing as he stood, grabbing his plate and hers. “This is true. I should be morbidly obese by now.”

Gram chuckled as he rinsed off their plates before putting them in the dishwasher, and then he did the same with the pans on the stove before he grabbed a few plastic containers and brought them back to the table so Gram could start packing up the leftovers.

“Here,” he said, handing one to Gram before he started to fill the other. “Do you want to save the cabbage, or will that go bad?”

“Daniel, we need to talk about something.”

“About what?” he said, piling the slices of corned beef into the container.

Gram placed her empty tupperware on the table. “Can you sit down first?”

Danny froze with his hand on the platter before he lifted his eyes to hers. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she stated simply.

He stood there for a few seconds, studying her expression, trying to assess her honesty.