“What can I do?” she asks after a beat.
“Help me show her that she’s alive.”
“I’m not sure that’s something that can be shown so easily, Lee.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I tell her and feel that flicker of hope start to burn a little brighter when my plan starts to take form. “Tomorrow, meet me at the house for lunch? I’ve got something I need to take care of in the morning, then . . . then we plan.”
She laughs and agrees, not before telling me I’m crazy. When we get off the phone I take a deep breath and let the surge of excitement that this plan gives me, to douse that flicker of hope until it’s a full on burning inferno.
Luckily I have the day off. Last night I had been coming off a two-day run of ten-hour shifts, giving me the next two days free. When I pull up to my house at eleven thirty, Dani’s SUV was sitting in the drive. My sweaty skin sticks to the leather seat when I pull my body out of my truck. I reach in and grab my sweat-drenched shirt that I had tossed on the floor earlier and make my way up the walkway to the front door.
“Dani?” I yell into the house.
“Back here in the kitchen. I think something’s dead in here.”
I smile at her words and make my way toward her voice.
“Yeah, might be last week’s Chinese. Or maybe that was two weeks ago.”
I turn the corner into my kitchen and see her with half her body in the fridge and two full garbage bags at her feet.
“Christ, how long have you been here?”
“You’re lucky I’m not your mom. She would kick your ass for letting things get this gross.”
She pulls herself out of the fridge and turns toward me right when I’m about to give her a hug. “Don’t you dare come near me when you’re wet with sweat, Liam Beckett!” She backs up when I smile and go to do just that. “Hell no, you nasty pig!” She laughs and jumps over the trash bag she had been working on filling up and holds her hands up. “Do it and I tell Cohen you touched my boob!”
That stops me in my tracks.
“First, uh no. Second, not funny. The last time you pulled that shit I had a black eye for two weeks. And I’ll add that I didn’t even touch your tit, my shoulder brushed against it when we were stuck playing drunk twister.”
“Whatever,” she smiles.
“Yeah, whatever my ass. You didn’t get the black eye AND you spent an hour after it laughing your ass off.”
I reach past her and grab a bottle of water out of the fridge. Turning to look at her again.
“Why is there only water in here?”
“You should be thankful I considered that was safe enough to stay. I figured with them being in sealed bottles they could stick around. I thought about calling the CDC in to make sure there wasn’t something dangerous living in that fridge!” She throws the towel she had been wiping the fridge out with and I just barely move out of the way.
“So, I’ve been busy.”
“You work too much,” she says, changing the subject and grabbing a water of her own before heading to the sink to wash her hands.
“So you’ve told me, Mom.” I sigh.
She sticks her tongue out at me, same old Dani, when she can’t think of an insult back, out comes the tongue.
“I have my mom’s lasagna cooking and it should be ready by the time you hose your nasty smelling ass off. Then you can clue me in to why I left my family to come over here.” She smiles and I know she doesn’t mean it, but I feel guilty for pulling her away.
“Sorry, Dani. I could have waited a day or two.”
“Don’t be sorry, Lee. You know I’m joking. Plus, when I left my boys were watching a baseball game. They probably won’t even notice that I’m gone.”
I tip up the water and down the whole bottle in one go. I should have thought to bring water with me earlier, but I was in a hurry to get everything done.
“Where have you been anyway?” Dani asks before lifting her own water to her lips.
“Megan’s. Mowed her yard, weeded the flowerbeds and fixed up a few boards that had started to warp on her fence. Stuff like that.”
I turn and walk out of the room leaving a shocked face Dani with water dribbling out of her open mouth.
“Jumping in the shower!” I call over my shoulder and head off to get cleaned up.
Twenty minutes later I walk back in to my now sparkling kitchen to find Dani impatiently tapping her foot with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Tell me all of it. Now.” She demands with a smile.
“What do you want to know?” I ask, pretending I have no idea what she wants.
“You can’t drop a bomb like that and just walk away, Lee!”