Danny furrowed his brow, and Leah took a small breath before she said, “I haven’t had a boyfriend since Scott.”
“None?” he asked, unable to hide his surprise.
Leah felt warmth in her cheeks, and the knowledge that she was blushing only caused her to blush more deeply.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said gently. “I’m just surprised. No one’s approached you in two years?”
“No, I was approached. I just…” She trailed off with a shrug.
“Didn’t trust anyone?”
“I didn’t trust myself. I spent years thinking Scott was this amazing person. I would have sworn to it. I turned my back on people because of it. And it just messed with my head that I had been so wrong. After that I just didn’t trust my own judgment anymore.” She shrugged. “Besides, my dad needed to be taken care of for a while after that, and I just threw myself into that because…”
“Because it was like your penance.”
It wasn’t a question, and she didn’t answer. She didn’t need to.
“So you haven’t dated anyone in two years?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“What about…” He trailed off, running his hand through his hair. “Have you been with anyone since Scott?”
She shook her head again, and she saw him fall back against his chair with his brow raised. “Whoa,” he said so softly, she couldn’t even be sure he’d said it.
She needed to change the subject.
“So what did you want to show me?”
He smiled softly, seeing right through what she was doing, but he played along.
“Do you want to see it now?”
“Sure,” she said, and he nodded, pushing his chair back from the table before he stood. He motioned with his head for her to follow him as he made his way toward the door.
“Are we leaving?” she asked.
“No, it’s in the building, it’s just not up here,” he said, grabbing his keys off the small table in the entryway. He held the door open and allowed her to step outside before he closed the door behind them and locked it.
They walked to the elevator in silence, and every few seconds he would glance over at her. He seemed nervous, although Leah was aware that she might just be projecting her own anxiety on to him.
As they stepped inside the elevator, Danny pushed the button for the basement.
“The basement?” she asked.
“It’s in storage,” he said simply as he looked up to watch the lighted numbers go out one by one as they descended the floors.
With one final ding, the doors opened, and Danny stepped off the elevator, turning back when Leah didn’t follow.
She stood there, wide-eyed and completely immobilized.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, and she shook her head slightly. He stared at her until understanding washed over his face, followed by a slow smile, and then he reached down and clasped her hand, intertwining their fingers.
“Come on,” he said. “I know my way around down here.”
He stepped out of the elevator, pulling Leah behind him into the darkness of the basement. It was a long corridor, nearly pitch black except for two exit signs at each end of the hallway, which only served to cast an eerie red light in each direction.
Leah inhaled a deep breath, and he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
“You’re fine,” he said through a tiny laugh just before a loud metallic banging gave way to a creepy humming noise. Leah yelped, tugging on his hand so that he stumbled back into her.
“It’s just the heat kicking on,” he said with a laugh. “We’re almost there.”
After a few more steps Danny stopped walking, and Leah could hear the jingling of his keys as her eyes began adjusting to the darkness. She could just make out the outline of a door before them, and then she heard it swing open as Danny took a step inside and reached above him, pulling a string that illuminated a tiny dim light in the room.
It was a small space, about the size of a walk-in closet, filled with boxes and crates and plastic bins. Danny walked farther into the room and Leah followed, still gripping his hand.
“Can I have my hand back for a sec?” he said through a barely contained smile. “I need to move some stuff.” Leah nodded before she released him, crossing her arms over her chest as her eyes combed the tiny space.
“Can we hurry? I really don’t like it down here.”
He laughed as he turned from her, lifting a box off one of the piles before moving it to the other side. Leah watched him move two more boxes before he stepped back, wiping his hands down the sides of his jeans.
“Okay,” he said, turning to her as he held out his hand, and she took it as he pulled her gently toward him.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and moved her so that she was standing in front of him. Leah’s eyes scanned the area before them. At first all she could see was a few crates full of books and what looked like old car magazines.
And then she saw it.
She gasped loudly as both hands flew to her mouth, and she felt his hands slide down from her shoulders and rub the tops of her arms.
“I hope this was worth the trek down here,” he whispered.
She turned her head to look up at him, her eyes wide with shock and her hands still clamped over her mouth. He smiled gently before urging her forward, and she turned back around and dropped to her knees, her hands falling from her mouth as she ran them over the rough concrete.
She dragged them over the jagged LM that had been etched in the stone. She used her fingertip to trace the CM and SM next to it.
And then she reached the DM.
She didn’t trace it. Instead, she just pressed the pads of her fingers into the grooves, as if she could somehow embed the initials into her skin. Leah carefully slid her hand up until it sank into the indentation of her mother’s handprint.
It was a perfect fit now.
A soft sob fell from her lips, and she was suddenly aware of his hand on her back, rubbing gently as he crouched behind her.
“I repaved that yard last fall because some of the blocks sank in, and there were raised edges all over the place. I was afraid Gram was gonna trip over one.” He continued rubbing up and down her back, his voice a soothing murmur as he said, “I spent the entire day breaking up the concrete in the yard, but I couldn’t do it to this one. The little handprints, with the big one…”
He trailed off, and Leah felt him run his hand over the back of her hair. “It just hit a nerve with me. So I got a crowbar, and I pried it up. I didn’t know what to do with it, but I just couldn’t junk it. I ended up burying it under some stuff in Gram’s basement. She never even knew I did it.”
Leah hiccupped on another sob, and he ran his hand down her hair again. “When you told me about this at The Cheesecake Factory, I wanted to tell you. I really did. But I wasn’t sure it was still there, or if it was still in one piece, and I just wanted to make sure before I got your hopes up. I went down to Gram’s and brought it up here while you were at the wedding this weekend.”
Leah stared at her hand resting in the imprint of her mother’s, and she said the only thing she could think of to say, even though it didn’t come close to expressing what she was feeling.
“Thank you,” she whispered as two more tears rolled over her cheeks.
“You’re welcome,” he said, his voice soft, and then she felt him press his lips to her temple before he stood. “I’ll bring this up to you whenever you want it.”
Leah sat there for another few minutes, letting her fingers meander over every dip, every bump, every line. Danny stood behind her, allowing her the silence and time she needed.
Finally she stood, turning to look at him for the first time, and his eyes met hers as he ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek, wiping away the remnants of her tears.
“Are you ready to go back upstairs?”
She nodded, and he held his hand out for her to take. “It’s gonna be really dark out there again because your eyes are used to the light. Just hold my hand. We’ll walk quick, okay?”