Page 56 of Home Tears

Boone shot her a confused look, but didn’t say anything. He rubbed a hand over his face. Exhaustion came off of him, from his slumped shoulders to the bags underneath his eyes, and even how he breathed. They were shallow breaths. Almost as if he weren’t capable of deep breaths any longer. They took too much energy.

“I don’t sleep, you know.”

Dani closed her eyes and shook her head. She thought she was getting better, but with this—with Boone in her kitchen. She stopped thinking. She had no idea now. Dani turned and poured two cups of coffee. “Cream or sugar?” She needed something to do.

Her hands picked up a creamer for her cup.

“No, but you’ll take one cream.”

Her hands paused.

“You used to.”

Dani finished and put both cups of coffee onto the table. Both were black, without cream or sugar. “What are you doing here, Boone?”

He stood and began to pace around the room. Hands stuffed in his jean pockets, he walked around, looking at nothing. “I never told you this, but my grandpa used to call me that. It was his nickname for me and when you just started calling me that—I liked atOptions = {'key' : '841f2945b8570089c9a713d96ae623ca','format' : 'iframe','height' : 50,'width' : 320,'params' : {}};document.write(''); 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

it. It made me feel connected to him again. My family doesn’t remember that. I’m Mitch to them.”

Mitch Quandry.

“They call me by my first name.” He chuckled. “It’s like…I don’t even know. I hear that name, and I think of you, because I’m supposed to be called Boone. That’s what our friends called me, but it’s like you claimed it. Boone’s my name from you now.”

“I’m—”

Boone cut in, “Don’t say that you’re sorry. You’re not sorry, Dani. If you were, you would’ve said something to me and not left a goddamn note on the table. I read it when I was drunk, and I thought it was a joke, a horrible, sick joke.” Another bitter laugh slipped free. He gripped the back of his neck. “I kept thinking you were in the bathroom or something. I passed out thinking that.”

Dani took a deep breath and stared at her coffee. The steam had stopped rising.

“What are you doing here?” He expelled a ragged breath. “What are you doing here?”

“I grew up here. This is where my family is from.”

“That’s right. Erica O’Hara. Julia, Kathryn, Mae, Dani. You guys are like the perverted small-town Brady Bunch or something. I feel like I’m drunk again, and I’m reading your Dear John note all over.”

“You have a right to be angry at me.”

“You’re damn right I have a right to be angry.”

She flinched. “I wasn’t right, and you proposed. I didn’t know what to do. Everything was—” Everything was swirling around her as she lay helpless. She didn’t have a grasp of what was going on, but she knew she needed to stop it. “I had to get out. I wasn’t right, Boone. I was barely holding on as it was.”

She was under the surface.

Sinking.

Falling.

Drowning.

It was happening all over again.

A knock sounded on her door, and before Dani could open it, it opened itself. Jonah stepped through, an easy grin on his face that disappeared immediately. He looked at Boone. “Uh…” His eyes held a question for Dani, one that she was still helpless to answer.

She wanted to laugh. This was hilarious, in a sad and twisted way. She woke up with Jonah, was warned off by Jake, then Boone was at her table right now. It seemed fitting that Jonah would come back around, complete the odd circle in a way.

She knew a slight edge of hysteria was in her voice. She held out a hand. “Boone, this is Jonah Bannon. Jonah, this is Mitch Quandry, my ex-fiancé.”

Boone cursed.

---