AN: I am unbelievably sorry for the delay in updating. It has been ongoing events one right after the other and I have not had the time to sit down and write away, and now just found the time today. I hope you are not all too dreadfully disappointed in my dilatory updates. I ask for your humble forgiveness and hope that this chapter makes up for small penance.

Chapter 12. To Feel At Home

Forgetting of the visitor for the moment being, Leah and Ethan entered the kitchen. Staring at the kitchen table, Leah's mouth dropped, soon erupting with laughter.

"Are you joking, Ethan?" Leah felt ridiculous saying that, knowing well Ethan's sincere ways, but she could not restrain herself. "You made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?"

"Do you like them?" Ethan grinned.

"Very sweet," Leah smiled back. "But I smell something else…"

"That's for later," Ethan's grin widened as he sat down.

"So I'm guessing your culinary skills are very limited," Leah remarked. "If this was all I was able to scrounge up during college, I might die."

"But I am certain you cook better?"

"College taught me that much."

"No starving for Leah, I suppose."

"Nope. Otherwise I'll just eat out everyday."

"Good," Ethan replied. "Because I wouldn't want you to starve."

Leah set down the sandwich to stare at Ethan, who continued eating without notice. Accusations of Leah's willowy figure being the cause of her not eating reminded her of her present situation that she kept pushing away, failing to acknowledge its presence until the very last moment. How could so many people look at her and think one thing and have Ethan fail to see all that she was known as?

"What does your family think of you being out here?"

"Charity supports me," Ethan answered. "She thinks this is best for me. My parents do not. They want me to marry Martha. What about your mother?"

"She would support me if I decided to cut off my right arm if she believed that would make me happy," Leah laughed. "She worries about me a lot."

"She loves you."

"I know. I know." Leah grinned. "I want to figure out what I want really fast. I hate telling my mom that I still have no idea what I'll be doing in the near future."

"I do not know what I will do either."

"I know I want to be secure and have a stable home," Leah closed her eyes, thinking hard about the future she had dreamt of since high school. "A family."

"You will find your way to make your dreams come true, Leah Lewis-Hall."

"I have no idea how I will get there…"

"What do you do for work?"

"I don't have a job," Leah confessed. "The only thing I do is feed the horses, which is a job that kids do in high school, not a college graduate. I do not know what I could go out and pursue."

"There are many jobs out there. You won't know what you can do until you go out there and try it out."

"I know," Leah frowned. "I am just afraid I won't make it."

"Why wouldn't you?"

"I don't know…" Leah bit her lip. "I don't want to get rejected."

"Rejected?"

"What if I'm not enough?"

"You are a brilliant person, Leah Lewis-Hall." Ethan smiled. "And if you remember…"

"You never tell a lie," relief spread across her face at mention of that. "You make life so much more bearable when you are here, Ethan."

"I was thinking the same about you," Ethan got up and retrieved dessert from the oven. "You like apple pie?"

"You cook better than I do!" exclaimed Leah. "The closest thing I have to apple pie is those microwavable ones I get at the store."

"Charity makes the best apple pies," Ethan explained, handing her a slice. "She taught me when I visited once."

"You are the most amazing person I know, Ethan Longacre." Leah told him after taking a bite of the pie. "I cannot believe you can make this. What need do I have to go out every morning to the café when I have professional cook?"

"Would you like to walk?"

It didn't matter that Leah was only half done with her slice of pie, or that her stomach grumbled in protest when she stood. Ethan could have asked her to take a knife and stab herself and she probably would at this moment. Instinctively, all eyes on him, her hand sought his, and she felt a flight movement within her stomach that felt greater than the pie she had just consumed, grinning ear to ear when Ethan's grip on her hand tightened.

For what seemed like the longest time for both of them, they walked around the oval of a street without a word said, afraid the utterance of any slight sound might ruin whatever moment they had both entered upon standing up from the table to leave the pie to grow cold. Passing by the house once, Leah's heart leaped and she was surprised it did not just come bursting through her chest when Ethan interlocked his fingers with hers.

What had brought them together? A plea for help in Leah's current situation that either one of them refused to acknowledge? As time progressed, the thoughts seemed almost imaginary, as if the only true reality was the present time of both of them being together once more.

Was it fate that though never mentioned, whatever was present between both of them was still there, beating with life just as strongly as before? That after all this time, a part of their life they once thought over could reemerge and conquer all else in a matter of days?

Nighttime had played its toll upon the world, painting it into a violet haze of moonbeam. Fireflies flickered in the darkness, contributing further to the enchantment this walk had yielded for Leah and Ethan.

Around the sixth or seventh time of going in a large circle around the neighborhood, Leah and Ethan stopped, staring at Mrs. Hendrickson's home. An arm came around Leah, and she settled down, leaning into the touch that had been missing for so many years.

"Ethan, I…"

"We should probably go back inside," Ethan interrupted, leaving Leah ambivalent over whether he had said that with no intentions of cutting off her confession or whether he knew it was coming and simply did not want to hear it. "Can't roam the streets all night."

"Ethan…" Leah covered his hand with her own when he reached the doorknob, causing him to look up into her eyes. "I…"

Bearing into his eyes, eyes that pleaded with the same passion as her own for the instant they had both been waiting for, he leaned in to kiss her. Sparks ignited, and it would be no wonder if they emanated a glow similar to the fireflies that surrounded them, as Leah wrapped her arms around Ethan, unwilling to let him go until they had completely given into this gesture, lest it be the last one they ever got in their lifetime with one another.

Ethan had never kissed anyone like this before. Deepening this kiss of theirs, he couldn't help smiling at the scandal that would erupt if anyone back at home had seen him right now. It was the reunion he had always hoped for, and something that he had no intention of wasting. Just as reluctant as Leah to never let go until they had, it was quite the scene when they broke apart, clinging to one another for support as they stood out of breathe.

"Leah Lewis-Hall…" Ethan breathed, pressing his hands on either side of her face and kissing her forehead. "Never… never… in my life… could I have thought…"

This time, using her turn to interrupt, Leah kissed him softly on the lips. Though her lips merely brushed his, it was like a volt of electricity, passing throughout their bodies until it settled down at their feet, igniting their whole body.

Enclosing Leah in his arms, Ethan laid his head down on hers and they both closed their eyes, once again more fearful of eradicating whatever it was that they had materialized since standing at the doorstep, and wishing with all their might that things might stay like this for the rest of their lives.

And for the first time in awhile, Leah Lewis-Hall and Ethan Longacre felt at home.

An: So begins the drama...