“Ready?” Leah asked, and Catherine nodded weakly.
They walked the block and a half down to the diner in relative silence. The interview with Eric had taken a lot out of her, and the last thing Leah wanted was to make her feel obligated to keep up some mindless small talk. So, she was going to follow her lead; if Catherine preferred to sit in reflective silence rather than talk, then that’s what they would do.
Once they were seated, they each ordered a cup of tea and a muffin, and as the waitress left their table, Catherine removed her coat.
“Funny, isn’t it?” she asked in her soft, raspy voice. “You and I having tea together again?”
Leah smiled. “I bet you didn’t think you’d be seeing me before next Christmas.”
“Actually, I had a feeling I’d be seeing you again.” She smiled genuinely for the first time that day as she said, “Old Italian ladies all have a sixth sense. We know everything.”
Leah laughed as the waitress approached the table with their tea and muffins, and it was quiet for a minute as they both fixed their tea.
“You know,” Catherine said, dunking her tea bag in the steaming mug, “when you left my house that day, Daniel took me out to dinner, and every few minutes, he’d find a way to turn the conversation back to you. ‘So, who was that?’ ‘Why did you invite her inside?’ ‘How long did she stay?’ ‘What were you talking about?’ I think he was trying to be casual.” She looked down with a smirk as she removed the tea bag, shaking her head. “Men are so transparent,” she chuckled softly, placing the used tea bag on the tiny saucer.
Catherine wrapped her frail hands around the warm mug. “I’ll admit that a little part of me wished I’d had some way to contact you. And then, wouldn’t you know it, we came home and found your note.” She smiled to herself. “And that’s when I knew I could relax, because there were higher powers on the job.”
She looked up at Leah with a tiny laugh. “The night he found your bracelet, he had this little glint in his eye. Like Christmas morning. Even better than finding it was finding his excuse to call.”
Leah’s stomach fluttered at the realization that he’d been interested in her, even back then.
“I do believe everything happens for a reason,” Catherine said, running her finger along the rim of her mug. “I’ve always believed that. I only had one child. My daughter. There were some complications during delivery, and I wasn’t able to have any more.”
“I’m sorry,” Leah said, and Catherine smiled sadly.
“Thank you. You know, I was okay with it, really. The only thing that made me sad was that I wasn’t able to provide my Louie with a son. He never said it, but I knew he wanted one.” She took a deep breath. “But God has a plan for everyone, and he works in mysterious ways. My daughter…she made some poor choices in her life. But those choices gave me Bryan.”
Catherine smiled, her eyes focused on her mug as if she were seeing something different than what was in front of her. “It wasn’t the way it should have gone, and it wasn’t the way I planned it, but it was wonderful all the same, raising that little boy.” She nodded slowly, and then her shoulders bounced with a quiet laugh. “And then along came Daniel. When I met him, he was six years old.”
She brought her delicate hand up to her chest, pressing it over her heart. “He was one of the kindest little things I’d ever met. He had a warmth in his heart, even back then.”
Leah looked down and smiled, imagining a six-year-old Danny—a sweet little boy with big blue eyes and messy black hair.
“What a pair they were,” Catherine said with a chuckle. “They certainly kept me on my toes. Such good boys. Thick as thieves. They would do anything for each other…” She trailed off, and her eyes welled with tears.
Leah reached across the table, placing her hand over Catherine’s, and for a minute they sat that way, neither of them speaking.
Eventually, Catherine grabbed her napkin with her free hand and dabbed at her eyes, taking a steadying breath.
“My sweet Daniel,” she said, more to herself than to Leah. “I wish they’d understand that losing Bryan has been punishment enough for him.”
There were no words to say. Leah knew what she was feeling. The sadness. The anger. The frustration. The overwhelming desire to convince the people who held Danny’s future in their hands what an amazing person he was, despite what he had done. And because she knew the feeling, she knew there was nothing anyone could say to alleviate it.
“You’re good for him, you know,” Catherine said.
Leah raised her eyes.
“And I know he’s my boy, and I’m a bit biased, but he’s good for you too, isn’t he?”
Leah nodded, her eyes beginning to sting, and Catherine reached over and patted her hand.
“He’ll take good care of you, sweetheart.”
The waitress approached the table then, asking how everything was and if they needed anything else. Once she left, Catherine changed the subject, asking her questions about her job, what made her want to be a teacher, what her favorite things to teach were.
A little while later, Leah got a text from Danny asking if they were still at the diner. She told him they were, and a few minutes later, he came through the door looking completely exhausted and ready to go home. Catherine insisted that he sit down and eat something since he hadn’t eaten anything all day, but he refused.
The drive home was once again quiet; Danny’s posture was rigid, but he managed to keep his face smooth the entire way back to Catherine’s. As soon as they’d dropped her off, though, he gave up the charade, and the tension began rolling off him in waves.
Leah sat quietly beside him, her hand clasping his on the console, drawing lazy, soothing patterns on the back of his hand with her thumb.
When they were a few minutes away from her apartment, Danny’s stomach growled loudly.
“You really haven’t eaten anything all day?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I haven’t been hungry all day. I could probably eat now, though.”
“Do you want me to make you something when we get back?”
“No, that’s okay. I’ll just grab a quick snack.”
“Okay,” she said, scooting over to rest her head on his shoulder.
Once they were back in Leah’s apartment, she headed to the bedroom to change as Danny went to the kitchen to find something to eat, and on her way back out of her room, an idea finally dawned on her.
All day long she’d been trying to come up with something that would make him feel better, and there was one thing that always helped her relax when she was stressed or upset. She knew the kind of worry Danny was dealing with far surpassed anything she’d experienced, but she hoped it still might take the edge off for him.
Leah turned into the bathroom and sat on the edge of her tub, leaning over to turn the faucet on. After adjusting the water to the right temperature, she plugged the drain and allowed the tub to fill, and then she turned and reached into the cabinet under the sink, pulling out the lavender orchid-scented bath gel.
Leah squeezed a generous amount of it under the running faucet, and almost instantly, the frothy bubbles appeared, slowly increasing in volume as they crept across the surface of the water. The scent of the gel permeated the air, increasing in potency as it mixed with the hot water.
As the tub continued to fill, she went back to the cabinet and grabbed some tea candles, lining them up along the back ledge of the tub up against the wall. By the time she was finished lighting them, the tub had filled completely, the glistening bubbles nearly spilling over the sides. She turned off the faucet and set the plush bath mat down on the floor before she dimmed the lights and surveyed the scene. And then she smiled to herself as she turned and headed out to the kitchen.
He was leaned up against the counter, an open bottle of water in one hand and a half-eaten granola bar in the other. When he heard her come into the room, he looked up and smiled weakly.
“You doing okay?” she asked softly, and he nodded.
“Just tired,” he said, taking the last bite of the granola bar.