Coming Home(157)

Plus, if she were being honest with herself, she didn’t want to discuss it with anyone. Discussing it made it real, and she was enjoying the fantasy world she and Danny had created for themselves—one where there was no looming future, just them in the present, crossing things off their wish lists and enjoying each other.

At first Danny had been lenient with her when she’d come up with excuses as to why she didn’t get around to telling them, but last weekend he finally put his foot down.

“I know it’s not a conversation you’re looking forward to,” he had said to her. “But it needs to be done. And it needs to be done before I go to court. I don’t want them finding out after the fact; that’s f*cking spineless, and they deserve more respect than that. So if you can’t do it, then I’m going to. But it needs to happen before this week is over. We’ve put it off long enough.”

So that morning, before she headed down to Danny’s apartment to finish cleaning, she took her family out to breakfast, and she told them. Surprisingly, she didn’t cry. She was so nervous that she was incapable of doing anything except reciting the words she had practiced a million times the night before.

She should have known how they would react. If there was one thing her family was good at, it was pulling together and supporting one another in a crisis.

Rather than being horrified or disgusted or angry, they were sad—for her and for Danny.

“Don’t hate him,” she had quietly implored them. “The Danny you know…that’s the real him. He’s not a bad person. He didn’t intend for any of this to happen.”

And Leah’s father had taken her hand and said, “You don’t have to defend him, Leah. You don’t think I understand the feeling of being ferociously protective of your family? He’s a good kid who made a big mistake. And now he’s going to pay for it. It’s going to be hard. For both of you. But if he’s what you want, princess, then I’ll do whatever I can to make this a little easier for you. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy.”

Danny ran his hand through Leah’s hair, pulling her from her musings, and she looked down in time to see his throat bob as he swallowed nervously.

“So what did your dad say?” he asked.

She shifted so that she was lying fully on top of him, and his hands slipped under her shirt, holding her waist gently as he looked up at her.

“He asked if you would bring some cannoli from Giovanni’s to Easter dinner this Sunday.”

Danny stared up at her for a second, and when his dimples began to appear, Leah laughed softly, slipping her hand behind his neck and pulling him up for a kiss.

The hurt will be temporary, she reminded herself as his lips moved against hers.

This is the forever.





Leah sat in the driver’s seat, her heart sinking as the call went to voice mail.

It was already four thirty; she’d been forced to spend the entire day without him, and it induced a level of anxiety in her she didn’t know existed. The showing at the ASH program that afternoon had been one of the largest of the school year, what with finals on the horizon, so canceling would have been in poor form. Plus, Leah had already taken off the following day to be at court with Danny, and the day after that as well, just in case things didn’t go well. Bailing on the program had been out of the question.

But sitting in a room full of students for two and a half extra hours on the last day before Danny went to court was nothing short of torture.

When the program ended, she’d raced out of the building, calling him as she made her way to her car. He was spending the day finalizing some things at the shop and told her to let him know when she was leaving so he could meet her at her apartment.