Coming Home(15)

Right. He was supposed to be inside. Having lunch.

He shrugged dismissively, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s fine.”

Leah tucked her chin into her scarf and looked up at him from under her lashes. “You’re taller than I remember.”

He smiled then. Not just because of how she looked staring up at him that way, but because of her comment. Like they were long-lost friends who had just been reunited.

There was something so damn charismatic about this girl. He’d spent barely five minutes with her that day at Gram’s, and yet she had managed to charm him. He liked that she wasn’t afraid to call him out on his shit; there was a confidence about her that not a lot of girls had—a toughness—but at the same time, she had been so incredibly compassionate and sweet when it came to Gram.

“So,” she said after few seconds of silence, bouncing up on her toes and looking at him expectantly.

“Oh shit. Sorry,” he said with a laugh, taking his hands out of his pockets and reaching inside his jacket. He pulled out the tiny sandwich bag with the bracelet inside, holding it out to her, and she unfolded her arms, ripping her gloves off and tucking them under her elbow as she took it from him.

She had the bracelet out in an instant, taking the sandwich bag between her teeth to free her hands as she held her forearm against her stomach, trying to close the clasp around her wrist.

The wind was relentless, blowing the plastic bag and strands of her dark, wavy hair into her face, and every few seconds, she would flick her head to the side, trying to clear her vision while her numb fingers struggled with the tiny clasp.

Danny pressed his lips together, fighting a smile as he watched her blow a raspberry with the bag still between her teeth, trying to get an errant strand out of her eyes. He reached down, taking the plastic between his fingers.

She jolted as her eyes flashed to his, and he quirked his brow, giving the bag a little tug.

Leah released it from between her teeth, and he crumpled the bag and shoved it back in his pocket. “Better?”

She smiled self-consciously. “Yeah, thanks,” she said, her eyes dropping back to the task at hand.

When she finally closed the clasp, Leah wrapped her hand around the bracelet, holding it against her skin and closing her eyes. She exhaled heavily as her entire body relaxed, almost as if she had just been relieved of some terrible pain.

She looked so vulnerable standing there like that, and Danny suddenly had the ridiculous urge to pull her against his chest and wrap his arms around her.

“Thank you,” she said as she put her gloves back on.

“You’re welcome.”

“Okay, so,” she exhaled, starting to walk backward. “I’ll let you get back to your friend.”

“Actually…he couldn’t make it.”

What the hell are you doing?

She stopped short, her shoulders dropping. “Oh. Well, now I feel bad.”

“Why do you feel bad?”

“Because you came up here for nothing.”

“No I didn’t. I came up here to give you back your bracelet.”

“You know what I mean,” she said with a huff, and Danny smiled.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I work near here. I was gonna stop in and check on some shit anyway.”

Yeah. That sounded good.

“Oh. Alright,” she said as she started to walk backward again. “Well, thanks again.”

With every click of her heel against the pavement as she walked away from him, his unintended resolution became stronger.