Page 19 of Like A Daydream
Andrew
He’s been in Lake Placid for a week before he finally ventures outside, other than the tour that JT had brought him on after he’d gone to that funeral. Andrew had a sneaking suspicion that JT had needed to process alone, so he had gone along for the ride willingly and listened to JT drone on about the town he’d grown up in and loved.
Today, he’s out and about because JT asked him to come with him to get coffee and do a couple of things in town so that they can be ready for the cabin renters this weekend. They need some new throw rugs, and a couple of the porches need to be re-stained.
If anything, it’ll give Andrew something to do that keeps him away from the public.
In the week he’s been gone, he’s had a call with his therapist, a call from his mom, and he’s spent more hours than he would care to tally in the basement playing ball and teaching Roscoe manners.
He hasn’t even looked at his phone since he’d hung up with his mom, deciding instead to give it to Ainsley to keep in her office at the Lumberyard until he felt like he was ready to face the world again.
Which might never happen, but at least he’s making steps to try to regain some kind of control over his life and mental health. He’d been an anxious personbeforehe’d gone to college and gotten drafted, but playing professional hockey certainly hadn’t helped.
Even if the ice is the only thing that makes sense to him. The only place where he feels truly centered and in control.
It had always been like that, ever since he was little. He knew that he could count on the sound of his skates cutting through ice to put him at ease, to regulate his breathing. No matter what his day had been like, he could make sense of it in the cold of the rink.
“Is there even a coffee shop here?” Andrew asks as he climbs into JT’s truck. It’s nice today, so he’s in black athletic shorts and a white t-shirt, beat up and fraying baseball hat pulled low over his eyes to try to tame the unruly mess his hair has become.
“There’s several,” JT replies, rolling his eyes, “but we’re going to the one in the bookstore. Ainsley has an order to pick up, and their coffee is pretty good.”
“I don’t care, as long as it’s caffeine.”
Now that he’s out, in the passenger seat with the window down, he can see why people want to be here. Why it was so hard for JT to leave once he had made his way back, family issues not included. The mountains are in view pretty much everywhere you go, and it’s the kind of small town that would seep into your bones if you stay long enough to let it.
“Is it normally busy in the summer?” Andrew asks, turning to face the front as they drive down Main Street and into town.
“Tourism is always up with kids being out of school and families on vacation,” Jamie says with a shrug. “But it’s an all seasons kind of place. There’s something worth seeing no matter what time of year it is.”
“Unlike Raleigh,” Andrew grins, “sometimes it feels like a stopping point in a longer trip.”
“Raleigh isn’tthatbad,” JT says, laughing, “I think you just have to go outside of the city for a lot of the things people are looking to do. Here, you can do all of it without driving more than fifteen minutes.”
“You’re sure no one is going to harass me?” Andrew asks, bouncing his knee up and down. “The last time I went out in public…”
“I know, and that’s not going to happen here,” JT says, “not with these people, and not when you’re with me.”
“What, are you my bodyguard now?”
“In your dreams,” JT says, parking his truck in front of a row of shops. “People just know me here, and they know not to mess with friends I bring around.”
“Maybe you should get into politics,” Andrew says, adjusting his hat so it’s a little lower over his eyes and casts a shadow on his face. “NHL Defender turned small town mayor. I can already see the headlines.”
“I’m not stupid enough to be a politician.”
“You’re pretty damn close.”
“Shut up,” JT says, but he’s grinning as he jumps down from his truck. “Don’t forget, I’m letting you live with me.”
“I’ll kiss your feet later, King Jamie.”
JT shoves his shoulder, and he misses a step but catches his balance quick enough to shove back as they reach the door to the bookshop.
It’s like they’re nineteen again, shoving each other around Albany, waiting to be called up from the farm team. Though, they had gotten into a lot worse of situations than walking into a bookstore while they were in the minors.
He likes to think they’ve matured since then, but he’s not sure. JT had still been arguing with him about toilets, and it had been a week.
Andrew gets to the door first and bows with a dramatic flourish.
