Coming Home(49)

“You need a drink, Leah?” Holly asked.

“Um, yeah. I’ll take a margarita.”

“Danny, what about you?”

“I’m good, thanks,” he said.

He watched Holly and Tommy make their way downstairs before he turned to see Leah watching him.

“You’re not gonna get anything?”

“I don’t drink.”

She lifted her brow. “But you just took a shot.”

“Well then, I’m already past my quota.”

She laughed then, shaking her head. “I’m glad you came out tonight.”

If there was any lingering doubt over his decision to approach her, it dissipated with those six words.

“Me too,” he said. “So, did Jake behave himself while I was gone?”

“He asked us what we thought of the girl in the orange halter.”

Danny chuckled. “And what did you tell him?”

“I didn’t tell him anything,” she said with a laugh. “Holly said, and I quote, ‘It’s gonna be an expensive evening for you. First, all the drinks you’ll have to buy her, and then the next forty years’ worth of Valtrex prescriptions.’”

Danny threw his head back and laughed. “Oh my God,” he said when he’d gotten himself under control. “I love her already.”

“Yeah, well, she’s certainly one of a kind,” Leah said with a smile as Holly approached the table with her drink.

“Here you go, chick,” she said, handing her the margarita. “Danny, are you sure you don’t want anything?”

Before he could answer, Leah said, “Yeah, you’re really not gonna have a drink with me?” Danny turned in her direction, his brow lifted, and she shrugged. “Just one drink? You already had a shot.”

Danny looked back and forth between them. “I feel like I’m on an after-school special.”

Leah laughed as she placed her drink on the table, and he turned back to Holly and Tommy. “Alright, I’ll take a beer,” he said, and Tommy turned to gesture over the railing.

“There,” he said, turning back to Leah. “One drink.”

“You make me feel like some sort of depraved villain,” she said, bringing her margarita to her lips and licking the salt off the rim where she was about to take a sip.

His eye was immediately drawn to her mouth, and he felt a jolt go through his stomach and straight between his legs.

“So, Leah,” Tommy said as he slid back into the booth, and Danny took advantage of the respite to try and regain his composure. “How do you know Danny?”

“Well, long story short, I lost a bracelet the last time I was in the city, and he helped me find it.”

“Yeah, sounds like Danny,” Jake chimed in. “Did he help you before or after he saved a kitten from a tree and assisted an elderly woman across the street?”

Before Danny could respond, Leah leaned over to him.

“He’s good,” she whispered.

“Who’s good?” Danny asked, leaning into their private conversation.

“Jake. He’s a good wingman. Make sure you tip him well tonight.”

Danny scoffed, looking at her in feigned offense. “If Jake’s getting anything from me tonight, it’s a foot in his ass. And what do you mean he’s good? You don’t think I’m the kitten-saving, granny-assisting type?”

Leah sat back a little, looking him up and down as she pretended to assess him. “Hmm. I guess I can see it. Although you’d probably frighten the kitten and offend the granny with your horrible language.”