DELETED SCENE FROM COMING HOME: GAME NIGHT

“Look at them,” Robyn said, nudging Leah with her elbow.
Leah looked up from where she stood at the sink, glancing over the half wall into Robyn and Rich’s living room. Danny, Evan, and Rich sat on the couch, inclined toward the television, and as if by signal they all erupted, throwing their hands in the air and shouting obscenities. Rich said something she didn’t understand, and Danny and Evan burst out laughing.
Leah smirked, shaking her head as she went back to washing the pan.
“I love how you can put boys in a room and turn on sports and they instantly become BFFs,” Holly said, putting a plate in the dishwasher.
“What are they even watching?” Leah asked, glancing up to see the three of them in a very animated discussion.
“Hockey I think. Or basketball? I don’t know,” Robyn said, putting the leftovers into plastic containers.
“What are the chances they’ll turn it off when we’re done in here?” Holly asked. “I hate hockey or basketball.”
“Oh, they have to turn it off. They can’t watch TV and play at the same time,” Robyn said.
“Play?” Leah asked, handing a dish to Holly.
Robyn put the leftovers in the fridge before she turned, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. “Gear up, ladies. It’s game night.”
“Oh God, I don’t know if I can handle game night,” Holly said, and Robyn held up her hands.
“I’ll be good, I swear,” she said. “Come on, it will be fun!”
Leah inclined her head toward Holly. “I bet watching hockey or basketball doesn’t sound too bad right now, does it?”
“Hey, I just said I’d be good, didn’t I? Besides, it’s my house, so I get to make the rules, and I say we’re gonna play a game,” Robyn said, sticking out her tongue before she turned to walk out of the kitchen.
“It’s Rich’s house too,” Holly said. “What if he overrules you?”
Robyn turned to look over her shoulder. “Please,” she said condescendingly before she left the kitchen.
“He won’t overrule her. You know that,” Leah said with a smile as she draped the dishtowel over the drain board.
“I know,” Holly sighed. “Maybe I can fake an injury and get out of here early.”
“You may not have to fake one. Once Robyn’s in game mode, there’s a pretty solid chance someone’s getting hurt.”
They both laughed as Robyn called, “I heard that!” from the hall closet.
“So,” Holly said softly. “How are you doing?”
Leah glanced over her shoulder to where Danny sat in the living room.
He looked incredible tonight—dark jeans with a wine colored V-neck sweater that was apparently created for the sole purpose of highlighting his chest. And his hair looked like someone had been running their fingers through it all night, which only made Leah want to do exactly that.
“I’m good,” she said. “It seems like he’s having fun, right?”
Holly nodded. “Definitely.”
It was quite for a moment before Holly said, “Did you guys bang in the car on the way here?”
“What?” Leah exclaimed through a laugh. “No!”
Holly tilted her head as she assessed him from the kitchen. “He’s got sex hair.”
“I know,” Leah sighed. “It always looks like that.”
Holly nodded, leaning on the half wall with her elbows. “It would be so much easier to make your decision if his face looked like someone dropped a pie.”
Leah burst out laughing before she said, “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“You know what I mean,” Holly said. “If he were just a little bit fugly—”
“Okay, enough,” Leah said through her laughter, and Holly smirked.
“All kidding aside, I know I’m probably not helping you out by saying this,” she said, her eyes on the boys in the living room, “but after tonight…I kind of heart him.”
Leah exhaled, leaning on the wall beside her friend. “I know.”
When Danny had arrived at Leah’s apartment earlier that night, things were somewhat awkward between them. It was as if they didn’t know how to act in this ‘in-between’ phase that had them both fighting all of their feelings for each other. But as soon as they arrived at Rich and Robyn’s apartment, things changed. Leah could feel herself begin to relax, and as a result, Danny instantly warmed up. The last time he’d hung out with the girls at The Rabbit Hole, and Holly and Robyn had both done their fair share of drinking, but tonight, with everyone sober, they got to spend some quality time with him.
It was obvious that by the time dinner was over, they were both completely smitten with him—but neither one of them would fully admit it while Leah was still trying to figure things out.
“Hey guys?” Holly said, leaning over the half wall. “You good on drinks?”
“Actually, could you grab us a couple of beers?”
Leah pushed off the half wall and opened the fridge. “You want one?” she asked Holly, grabbing a few bottles.
“Yeah, toss me one,” Holly said. “I’m not nearly drunk enough for game night yet.”
Leah laughed as she bumped the fridge shut with her hip, and by the time she and Holly had made it out to the living room, Robyn was already standing in front of the turned off TV, explaining the rules of the game to three very discontented boys.
“What are we playing?” Leah asked, sitting on the arm of the couch next to Danny. He glanced up at her and smiled, and she had the sudden urge to crawl into his lap and rest her head in the crook of his neck.
“Catch Phrase!” Robyn announced as if she were waiting for a round of applause, and then she pursed her lips at everyone’s lack of a response. “You know, I read somewhere that you can learn more about someone through playing a game than by going on several dates. And you can learn more about yourself by playing a game than you can from several therapy sessions.”
“It’s true,” Rich said, coming to his wife’s defense. “For example, the first time I played a game with her, I learned she might actually benefit from said therapy sessions.”
The whole room erupted in laughter before Evan clapped him on the back. “You want us to get off the couch so you can make yourself comfortable? ‘Cause I think your ass is out here tonight.”
“Okay, so everyone gets the gist, right?” Robyn said, completely unfazed. “You have to get your team to say the word or phrase on the display by giving clues. You can act it out or say whatever you want, but you can’t spell it, or say ‘it rhymes with’ or anything like that. And then once you get it, you pass to the other team, and they do the same thing. If your team is caught with the disc when the buzzer goes off, you lose an the other team gets the point.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Evan said.
“Okay, so we need to make two teams,” Robyn said.
“You want to just do guys versus girls?” Rich asked, and Holly laughed.
“You want to play against her? That means you have to throw the game, you know. You’re gonna be the one stuck with her when we go home tonight.”
Rich smiled. “You got it backwards, sweetheart. If she loses, she won’t be mad at me. She’ll be mad at her team for sucking.”
Holly and Leah glanced at each other, and he grinned triumphantly.
“Fine. Boys versus girls,” Robyn said dismissively. “It won’t matter anyway. We won’t lose.”
“And it begins,” Evan sighed.
Leah smiled as she leaned down toward Danny. “Robyn gets a little…competitive,” she said.
When he leaned in toward her, his scent made her stomach flip. “I picked up on that,” he said with a wink, and Leah felt her pulse instantly spike. She quickly turned her attention back to Robyn.
“Ready girls?” Robyn said.
“Yeah,” Leah said distractedly as she stood from the arm of the couch, taking a long sip of her beer before she sat on the floor near Robyn and Holly. Robyn handed Leah the disc and hit the button to start the timer and give her the first word.
“Okay…um, they come in a box.”
“Crackers!” shouted Robyn.
“It’s popcorn and nuts.”
“Crunch’n’Munch!” Holly said, and Leah shook her head.
“It’s like a staple at baseball fields.”
“Bat day?” Holly asked, and the guys started laughing. Robyn shot them a dirty look before whipping back toward Leah.
“Cracker Jacks!” she shrieked.
“Yes!” Leah said, and Robyn jumped up and grabbed the disc, tossing it to Rich as if it were poisonous. He fumbled with it for a second before turning to the guys.
“Ty Cobb has the highest one of all time,” he said calmly.
“Batting average,” Danny and Evan said in monotonous unison, and Rich turned, handing the disc to Robyn.
“Bastard,” Robyn said as she hopped up on her knees, leaning towards the girls. “Okay…it’s a house in the woods…”
“Cottage?” Leah asked, and Robyn shook her head furiously.
“No no no, the house is made of trees! Like, actual trees!”
“Tree house?” Holly said.
“Goddamn it, guys, it’s made of trees! Long, round tree trunks!”
Leah could hear the guys stifling their laughter as Robyn’s eyes widened in disbelief of their silence.
“Oh, oh!” Leah said, banging her hand on the coffee table. “A cabin?”
“YES!” Robyn screamed, and both Holly and Leah flinched at her ridiculous volume. She whipped around, flinging the disc at Danny, who caught it awkwardly in his hands.
“Stop throwing it,” Rich said sternly, and Leah tried to hide her laughter as she watched Danny spin the disc to read his clue.
“A hunter. Not prey, but…”
“Predator.”
Danny nodded, handing the disc to Holly.
Robyn threw her hands in the air. “Why are you guys getting all the easy ones!” she yelled, looking so genuinely appalled that Leah covered her mouth before she burst out laughing. As soon as she started, Holly joined her, struggling to give the clues through her cackling.
“You…use them…in science class—”
The beeping of the timer changed to the frantic, rapid beeping that signaled time was almost up, and Robyn jumped up, her eyes wide.
“Microscopes! Beakers! Graduated cylinders! TEST TUBES!”
The buzzer sounded and Robyn slammed her hand down on the coffee table. “Son of a bitch!”
Leah was laughing so hard her stomach hurt, and she looked over at Danny, one hand still covering her mouth and the other pressed to her abdomen. He was watching her with a smile on his face, and as soon as they made eye contact, he chuckled.
Her laughter gradually slowed, and Danny kept his eyes on hers, his expression both amused and doting.
And suddenly, she couldn’t stand not being close to him for another second.
Leah crawled the few feet over to where he was sitting, and he immediately moved his legs to make room for her. She sat with her back against the couch in between his legs, her shoulders brushing the insides of his knees, and he leaned over, sweeping her hair over her shoulder so he could see her face.
“You have the best laugh,” he said softly, so that only she heard.
Leah’s stomach fluttered as she turned her head to look up at him. “Are you trying to knock me off my game?” she asked, noticing how blue his eyes looked in the light of the living room. “Robyn will cut you if she finds out what you’re doing.”
Danny’s dimples appeared. “My compliment was sincere. It’s not my fault if you can’t think straight around me.”
She would have laughed, if his words hadn’t been irrefutably accurate.
“Okay ladies, we can still win this. We just have to focus!” Robyn said with a clap of her hands, and Leah turned away from Danny, breathing a tiny sigh of relief as the little spell between them broke as their eye contact did.
She watched as Evan reset the timer and handed the disc to Rich, and Leah could feel her skin tingling in awareness of Danny’s proximity—the humming undercurrent that always existed right before her body surrendered to goose bumps.
Maybe moving to be closer to him wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Danny shifted behind her, and she felt his hand brush the top of her arm as he reached for his drink.
The undercurrent broke like a cresting wave as goose bumps erupted over her skin, from the crown of her head to her toes. She shuddered slightly.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
She shook her head, her eyes still on Rich as her cheeks flooded with heat.
The game continued for the next half hour, and it seemed the more rounds they played, the funnier it became. Or rather, the funnier Robyn became. The beer only served to make her louder and more aggressive, and the girls’ team lost a lot of rounds due to the fact that Holly and Leah couldn’t give clues because they were laughing too hard.
The game finally ended when, in a fit of panic brought on by the rapid beeping of the timer, Robyn once again flung the disc at Rich in an attempt to get rid of it. Only this time, it hit him square in the mouth.
Rich brought his fingers to his lips as everyone froze, and then he dropped his hand and looked down at his fingertips—stained red with blood.
He glanced at his watch. “Well, we made it almost an hour before she drew blood this time. You’re getting much better, babe,” he said, wiping the blood from his lower lip.
Everyone laughed as Robyn went to him, sitting on his lap and taking his face in her hands. “Oh God, I am so, so, sorry,” she said through little horrified laughs, planting kisses along his cheek and jaw.
The boys unanimously declared that turning the TV back on was in everyone’s best interest, and for the next hour everyone lounged on Robyn’s couches, lost in conversation and laughter.
By the time Leah and Danny were leaving, the thought of ending the evening and walking into her house without him made Leah’s stomach twist unpleasantly. The intrinsic need to just be with him—to be close to him, to hear his voice, to make him laugh—had taken up residence in her body, swimming through her veins and burrowing further into her consciousness with each passing minute.
As they walked down the driveway to Danny’s car, Leah glanced over at him and smiled, bumping his shoulder with hers.
“So, you survived your first game night.”
He shook his head with a laugh. “You weren’t kidding. She does not fuck around.”
“Swear jar,” Leah said. “And that was actually pretty mild. There was a game of charades a few years back that ended with a trip to the ER and some stitches.”
Danny laughed as he opened the passenger door, and Leah slid inside before he closed it behind her. She could see that he was still smiling as he walked around the front of the car, and the sight of it caused a pinpoint of warmth to flicker in her chest.
Danny slipped into the driver’s seat and started the car. “You know, I knew Holly was a little off her rocker, but Robyn?”
“They’re both certifiable,” Leah said with a laugh. “Robyn’s just better at hiding it.”
Danny grinned as he started the car. “And what about you?”
“Who, me?” Leah said. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m perfect in every way.”
Danny kept his eyes on the road as he pulled out into the street, but Leah could see his dimples appear in profile. “You know, I should probably dispute that point, just to take your ego down a notch.”
Leah smiled. “Go right ahead.”
Danny shook his head.
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “Because I agree with you.”
The pinpoint of warmth in her chest ballooned outward as her stomach flipped, and Leah dropped her eyes to her lap. “You should really teach a class or something,” she mumbled.
He laughed. “On what?”
She shook her head as she chewed on her bottom lip.
Danny sighed. “You know, one of these days you’re gonna realize I’m not feeding you lines.”
Leah glanced over at him; he was looking straight ahead as they turned onto the main road, his expression devoid of any ribbing.
Leah looked down at her hands as she twisted her fingers together. She knew he wasn’t feeding her lines. That’s why she’d said what she did. She hadn’t meant he should teach a class on picking up women.
She meant he should teach a class on being the kind of man women fantasize about—the kind they conjure up when they create their perfect counterpart in their minds.
It seemed like only a few minutes had passed before they were already turning into Leah’s apartment complex. Danny pulled the car up to the curb, and just as Leah was about to force the word “goodnight” from her lips, he put the car in park and got out.
The car was still running, and it took her a second to realize he was coming around to her side to open the door for her.
Seriously. Just one class. Women everywhere would be eternally grateful.
Danny opened her door and reached his hand out, helping her out of the car. Leah stepped out onto the pavement and he let go of her hand and closed the door behind her before turning to walk up the pathway to her apartment.
She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat as she followed him, trying to clear it as butterflies fluttered up through her stomach and into her chest.
Oh God. Was he going to try and kiss her?
Was she going to let him kiss her?
Oh God.
She hadn’t prepared for this moment. Why hadn’t she prepared for this moment?
They walked the few steps up to the door in silence, and as soon as they reached it, Leah tentatively turned to face him.
“Thanks for asking me to come tonight,” he said. “I had a lot of fun.”
“Me too,” she managed softly.
“Although if I’m being honest, I really think I should have earned some type of trophy or medal. Or at the very least, a T-shirt that says, ‘I Survived Game Night with Robyn.’”
Leah laughed as some of the tension left her shoulders, and Danny smiled.
“Goodnight, Leah,” he said, and then he turned and started walking back toward his still-running car.
She watched him walk away from her, and it was as if the world momentarily stopped spinning as it suddenly hit her.
He wasn’t trying to kiss her. He was simply being a gentleman by walking her to the door.
And just like that, her decision was made.
“Danny?”
He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at her.
Leah walked the few steps over to where he stood, and as he turned to face her fully, she went up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.
It was a chaste peck, lasting only a few seconds, but when she pulled back, the look in his eyes caused her breath to catch—an inciting combination of surprise and hope.
Edged with just the right amount of hunger.
“Goodnight then,” she said softly, and then she turned, hurrying up the path and into her apartment, thankful he couldn’t see her hands shaking from where he stood.
Or the ear-to-ear grin she couldn’t seem to wipe off her face.