It felt so perfect to be lying with him this way, like they had done it a million times before. And she knew she would crave it now, like an addiction that weakened her until it was fed.
Leah sighed softly as she curled her fingers into his shirt, and she felt him kiss the top of her head as he continued playing with her hair.
She didn’t have all her answers yet, but she would. And it was enough to know that for now—to believe that whatever he had to tell her wouldn’t be significant enough to change what was happening between them.
Because she didn’t want to have to walk away from him now.
“How’s that working out for you?”
Danny kept the wad of food tucked in the side of his cheek as he glanced over to where Leah was leaning against his counter, her arms crossed over her chest, fighting a smile.
He brought his fist to his mouth. “S’good,” he mumbled.
Leah chuckled as she pushed off the counter and reached above the refrigerator for the bread, and Danny slid his plate away with a sigh. “Alright. You can say it.”
Her smile broadened as she turned and took the dish from him. “Say what? I told you so?” she asked, dumping the contents in the trash. “I would never.”
He brought his fist back to his mouth and closed his eyes, and she laughed again, giving him a gentle nudge. “Go lie down. Give me five minutes to work my magic,” she said, coming back to the counter and pulling a slice of bread from the bag.
Danny stood quickly and walked toward his bedroom, thankful to get away from the smell of his attempted breakfast. It had been a tried and true hangover cure that he and Bryan accidentally discovered when they were teenagers after drinking themselves sick off a bottle of rum they’d found in the back of Gram’s cabinet. The following morning, Bryan made them each a bacon, egg, and cheese Hot Pocket, figuring if they could get themselves to vomit, they would feel better. Instead, they were miraculously cured after eating them. It was a trick they’d used for years after that.
Danny crawled into his bed and dropped onto his stomach with a huff. He knew it wasn’t going to work, even before he pulled one out of the freezer and Leah looked at him like he’d lost his mind. He’d barely even touched alcohol in the past twelve months, and it had been years since he’d been as drunk as he was last night, so he knew it was going to take more than a Hot Pocket to get him straight again. But he was really hoping it might work. And not just because he felt like shit.
He just wanted that memory to be real.
Bryan was disappearing. Every day he slipped a little further away. He was there in pictures and in stories, but he wasn’t real anymore.
Danny just wanted something tangible. Something that would prove Bryan had actually existed.
He rolled over and flung his forearm over his eyes as another wave of nausea swept over him. He could hear her in the kitchen, the clinking of silverware and the opening and closing of cabinets as she busied herself, and he wished for the hundredth time that he hadn’t consumed his body weight in liquor last night, because he wanted to be enjoying this.
Leah, in his apartment. In his kitchen, making him breakfast like it was the most natural thing in the world.
She told him he could have whatever time he needed to get his thoughts together, but Danny knew she wasn’t going to wait forever. He also knew that as soon as he explained everything to her, whatever this was would be over. His window of time with her was closing, and he wanted to soak up every second of it before she walked away for good.
And when she left him, he was going to feel it. There was no doubt about that now. In the past few hours, she had managed to slip through the last of his defenses and stake her claim on a piece of his heart. Not because she had helped him get home last night, or because she granted him the extra time he needed to explain himself. Not even because she had stayed to help nurse his hangover.
No, what had completely won him over was the way she tried to absolve him of whatever sin he’d committed by offering up her own transgressions. She laid her shame down at his feet without a second thought—for the sole purpose of easing his suffering.
It had been a long time since he’d seen that level of bravery and selflessness in anyone.
And just like that, his world shifted. It had been such a quiet moment of transformation, nothing like the earth-shattering explosions that had changed the course of his life over the past year, but in its tranquility, it was just as powerful. With that one altruistic move, she had managed to become the measure of what a person should be in his eyes, the standard any woman would have to meet if she had even the slightest chance of winning his heart.
Danny heard her coming down the hall, and he sat up slightly, resting his weight on his elbows as she turned the corner into his bedroom with a plate in one hand and a mug in the other.
“You can quit playing sick now,” she said. “I already cleaned up the coffee.”
He smiled as he sat up further and reached for the plate she offered him. “Jesus. How about a little sympathy? I’m dying over here.”
“Oh, you poor baby,” she crooned as she sat on the edge of his bed, tucking her leg beneath her and resting the mug on her knee. She had twisted her hair up into some kind of messy knot that managed to be both adorable and sexy at the same time; it made him want to toss the plate over the side of the bed and pull her down to the mattress so he could cover her body with his.
Instead, he took a breath and sat up fully, balancing the plate on his thigh as he looked down at what she’d made for him.
“What the hell did you put on this toast?”
“My magic cure.”
Danny lifted his eyes. “It looks like cat puke.”
Leah laughed as she pulled her other leg up onto the bed to face him fully. “It’s mashed banana with a little bit of butter. The salt in the butter will help you retain water, and the bananas have potassium and electrolytes, which you really need right now. Think of it as a sports drink, only without all the sugar that messes with your stomach. Plus, solid food is always a little easier to keep down anyway.”
Danny quirked his brow as she held out the mug. “And this is hot water with lemon juice. Ideally, there should be honey in here too, but you didn’t have any.” He took the mug from her as she said, “The lemon will help settle your stomach. Plus, it’ll give you a little boost of vitamin C.”
“Wow,” he said with a nod before he looked up at her. “So, are you a raging alcoholic?”
Leah huffed as she grabbed a pillow and propped it up against his headboard. “I should’ve let you suffer through the Hot Pocket, you ingrate.”
Danny laughed as she sat back against the pillow and pulled her knees into her chest. “I have an older brother who used to party a lot when we were in high school,” she said. “It was sort of my job on weekend mornings to make him presentable before my father saw him and kicked his ass.”
“But how did you know this stuff would work?” he asked before lifting the mug and taking a careful sip, the hot liquid instantly soothing him.
“I didn’t,” she said with a shrug. “It was a lot of trial and error. There were quite a few nasty concoctions before I found this, so you should thank your lucky stars you’re getting me as a seasoned veteran.”
Danny smiled as he moved to sit back against the headboard beside her, taking a bite of the toast and chewing slowly. “It’s not bad,” he said. “Shouldn’t be too rough when it comes back up.”
Leah shook her head as she grabbed the remote from his nightstand and turned the TV on. “When you’re finished, I’ll accept your apology in the form of jewelry or designer shoes,” she said, and he laughed around his mouthful of food.