Coming Home(192)

But despite all that, Leah knew she was just going through the motions. That every smile and every laugh came with some level of fraudulence. There were little blips of happiness for her, but she knew she wouldn’t feel wholly content with anything in her life until he was home.

And every night, without fail, she cried.

It wasn’t even a conscious thing anymore, and she barely felt anything when she did. Like everything else, it had just become routine for her, like breathing or blinking. She would lie in bed, and as if on cue, the tears would come, trickling down her cheeks without warning, without permission, without feeling, as if she were literally leaking the sadness away.

The sound of her phone ringing on the passenger seat pulled her from her thoughts, and she sighed in relief, deciding she’d had enough thinking for one day. Leah reached to turn the radio back on before she swiped her phone off the passenger seat and brought it to her ear.

“Hello?”

“What the hell did you do to your car this time?”

Leah smiled. “Hey, Jake. And I didn’t do anything, I swear. It just started doing it on its own.”

“Well, I’m in your neck of the woods. You want me to swing by and check it out?”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I’m not home right now, but I’ll be there in like ten minutes.”

“Alright. Is it doing it right now?”

“Not really. It only does it at high speeds. It’s like this wobbly-shake thing.”

“Wobbly-shake,” he repeated. “Thanks. Your technical terminology will make this much easier for me to figure out.”

“You’re an idiot.”

He laughed loudly before he said, “See you in a few.”

“Bye,” Leah said with a laugh before she ended the call.

By the time she pulled into her development, Jake was parked in the space next to hers, leaning against his bumper with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Hey,” Leah said as she got out of the car, and he walked over to her, giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Alright, let’s take it for a spin and see what the hell is going on.”

“Okay,” she said, handing him her keys before she walked around to the passenger door.

Jake started the car and pulled out of the parking space, immediately accelerating through the lot, and her eyes grew wide as she grabbed the handle on the door.

“Jake! Jesus!”

“What?” he said innocently. “You said at high speeds.”

“Yeah, when you’re legally permitted to drive at high speeds!” she scolded, and he laughed just as the car began to shimmy.

“See? That!” she said pointing to the dashboard. “Feel the wobbly-shake?”

“I do,” he said, “although we usually refer to that as having unbalanced tires.”

“I like wobbly-shake better. Can you fix it?”

“Yeah,” he said, slowing down as he made the turn to bring them back to Leah’s. “But not here. You gotta bring it down to the shop. And sooner rather than later. You really shouldn’t be driving around like this.”

“Okay. When do you have openings this week?”

Jake blew a raspberry with his lips. “Are you kidding me? Bring it down whenever you want. We’ll take care of you.”

“Thanks,” she said softly as he pulled into her parking space and cut the engine.

“So…” His expression turned serious as he shifted to face her. “How are you doing?”