Coming Home(197)

“Danny?” she called, trying to keep the panic out of her voice as she swung the door open and flew back out to the bedroom.

“Yeah?”

“Did you move my necklace?” she asked, frantically shaking out the balled-up towel from her shower.

“Yeah. I saw it on the hook and was afraid it was gonna get swept up with the towels. I put it in your jewelry box.”

The towel dropped to the floor as Leah’s hand fell limply to her side, and she pressed her other hand to her forehead.

“Can you tell me the next time you do that, please? I just almost had a heart attack.” She crossed the room to where her jewelry box sat on her dresser.

“Sorry,” he called sheepishly from the closet.

She approached the box and flipped it open with hands that were still shaking.

And then she froze.

The box was completely empty, save for one glittering diamond right in the center.

But it wasn’t her necklace.

It took her a second to register what she was looking at, and when it finally clicked, she whirled around.

Her eyes landed on Danny, dressed in his suit, his expression tentative as he stood before her.

All at once her legs felt too feeble to support the weight of her body, and Leah reached behind her and gripped the edge of the dresser, trying to keep herself steady.

Danny wet his lips, glancing down for a moment before he lifted his eyes back to hers, and this time they were unwavering.

“I spent sixteen months away from you, Leah,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “And I don’t ever want to be without you again.”

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she should be taking it all in, memorizing every last detail of what was happening: how gorgeous he looked in his suit, the way his tousled black hair adorned the blue of his eyes, the way his lip trembled ever so slightly with the effort to contain his nerves, or his emotion, or both.

There was a strange pressure building in her chest, making her feel like she was about to laugh hysterically or burst into tears.

Danny slowly lowered himself to the floor so that he was kneeling before her. “I love you,” he said, his voice gentle but sure. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life loving you. Marry me, Leah.”

She dropped to her knees then. Not just because her legs had given up on supporting her, but because she needed to be as close to him as possible.

“Yes,” she said through a tearful laugh. “Yes yes yes yes yes.”

She took his face in her hands and pulled his mouth to hers, and his arms slipped around her waist, drawing her against his body.

“Yes,” she kept whispering between kisses, and she felt his lips curve into a smile against hers.

He broke the kiss and reached up onto her dresser, pulling the ring from the box before he turned back toward her. Leah watched as he lifted her hand and slid it onto her finger.

She stared at the ring—his ring—on her hand, and a wide grin broke out over her face as she lifted her eyes to his. Danny smiled as he brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek, and only then did she realize she was crying.

“Oh no,” she breathed, her eyes growing wide as she patted the pads of her fingers beneath them. “How bad is it?”

Danny brushed the hair away from her face. “You look perfect,” he said. “This party has a Gothic theme, right?”

She dropped her head with a huff, and Danny laughed as he gripped her hands and pulled her up to stand in front of him.

She could feel the diamond pressing into the skin of her pinky as he held her hand, and a smile lit her face again, ruined makeup be damned.