Coming Home(81)

Leah pressed her lips together as Danny shrugged. “Who knows. Maybe the man was more for her than it was for us anyway. God knows she must have needed the validation.”

“That’s really sad,” Leah said softly, and he nodded.

“I know. So I don’t resent her. But I was left by myself most of the time because of it.”

“What about your sister?”

“My sister was older than me. She stayed away from the house most of the time because she could. And as soon as she became a teenager, I was lucky if I saw her twice a week.” Danny’s hand moved from the bottle of water to the cardboard container in front of him, fiddling with the lid as he said, “I don’t blame her either. I mean, I got out of there as soon as I could too.”

Leah nodded, and he said, “Things got better when I was in second grade. That’s when I met Bryan, and after that I spent pretty much all my time with him. He lived with his grandmother a few blocks over.”

“Catherine,” Leah said, and Danny nodded.

“Yeah. His mom had him young too. Younger than my mother was. So Gram was the one who raised him so his mom could finish school.”

Leah dropped her eyes and swallowed. So, Catherine didn’t lose a grandson.

She lost a son.

“I’d come home from school and go to Bryan’s house instead of my own. And Gram would feed us, help us with our homework, tell us to wash our faces. You know, normal mom shit.”

“She calls you her boy,” Leah said, and Danny smiled.

“She called us both that.” He looked down, poking at his food with the end of his chopsticks. “That’s how I got into cars, you know. Bryan’s grandfather was amazing with them. He was always messing with something in his car, even when it wasn’t broken. It drove Gram crazy,” he said with a laugh.

Leah smiled, and he said, “When we were older, we used to wait for him to get home from work so we could watch him mess around with the car. Eventually, he started letting us work on it too.”

He picked up his drink, taking a quick sip before he said, “When he died, Gram put away his life insurance policy. She always said she was saving it for a rainy day. But when Bryan and I decided to open our shop, she ended up giving us that money and then some so we could make it happen. Pretty much cleaned out her bank account for us.”

“Wow,” Leah said softly, trying to fathom how much she loved these two boys. “So it was Bryan’s shop too?”

Danny nodded. “D&B Automotive.”

“Danny and Bryan,” Leah said.

“Danny and Bryan,” he repeated. “He always complained that he should get a higher cut of the profits since I got to have my initial first.” He smiled at her before he said, “I still cut the profits fifty-fifty. I give Bryan’s share to Gram. She wouldn’t take it at first, so I used to just hide bits and pieces of it around the house, thinking I was slick. She was on to me, though.”

Leah smiled sadly. “You take such good care of her.”

“She deserves it,” Danny said. “I would do more if I could.”

Leah nodded, and it was quiet for a minute as the two of them fiddled with the food in front of them. Suddenly Danny cleared his throat as he shifted in his seat, and she knew this conversation was over.

“So,” he said, taking another bite of food. “Is your brother older or younger?”

“Older,” she said. “He’s twenty-nine.”

Danny nodded. “Does he make your boyfriends run the gauntlet now?”