Page 60 of Like A Daydream
“I know I haven’t been around for a really long time,” Andrew says, “but for someone taking on a six-year-old after a traumatic event, I’d say you’re doing a pretty good job. Harper looks at you like you hung the moon.”
“It’s enough to do the best I can,” she says, “I know that’s all I ever really can do. I just don’t want anyone to try to come for Harper because I make a mistake.”
She clears her throat and pulls back, turning on the bench so she can look at him.
“Alright, I’ve showed you mine,” she says, wiggling her eyebrows, “now you have to show me yours.”
“You can’t laugh,” he says, biting the corner of his lip and reaching for the hem of his shirt. He pulls it over his head.
“When I said you show me yours I didn’t meanliterally,” she says, but there’s gentle teasing in her voice. He drops the shirt on the bench and combs his hair out of his face.
“If I were showing you mine, it wouldnotbe on a bench in the woods,” he says, voice low, “and you can count on that.”
He doesn’t think he mistakes her shiver, or the spark of heat that flames to life in her eyes.
“I was talking about this,” he says, rubbing a hand over his collar bone. He pulls his hand away, and Danielle’s eyes drop to the new tattoo there. “Since we’re sharing our souls.”
“I was wondering what it said,” Danielle says, “but you covered up too fast for me to get a look, earlier.”
“Well, look all you want, now, but don’t laugh,” he says, turning to face her.
“From the ashes, a fire shall be woken,” Danielle says softly. She runs her fingers over the tattoo Andrew’s collarbone and it’s like he can’t breathe. Her touch is gentle, curious even, and he pulls her a little bit closer beneath the cover of the trees. “What’s it mean?”
“It’s fromLord of the Rings,” he says, tracing a slow line down her side so he can watch goosebumps erupt on her skin. “Most people only know ‘not all who wander are lost” but that’s never been my favorite line in the poem.”
“Why this one?” she asks. “I know the poem, but why this line?”
“I don’t have time to get into all of the textual implications and lore,” Andrew says with a grin, “but I can give you the gist, if you want.”
“Those are big words for someone who ‘isn’t much of a reader’ she says, teasing as she traces over the words with her fingertips. “I would be happy to have the whole conversation with you. But, maybe just the gist for now.”
“Since we’re going surface level,” Andrew says, keeping his voice quiet, “besides being incredibly allegorical, because, you know, it’sTolkien, it’s that the poem is pointing towards someone greater. The second half gets more into the specifics of it, and that’s where the line comes from. Someone, or something, greater is rising from the darkness, brokenness, and despair.”
She leans closer, ghosts her lips over his shoulder, and his hands slide up her back.
“The public has spent so much time spreading hurtful things about me, casting shadows over who I am as a person and as a player,” he says, “that I know if I can come out of this, and can get to the other side, I have been restored through the flames.”
“When did you get it?” she asks, looking up at him.
Their faces are so close together, he has to swallow and look away.
“About two days after we lost the Cup,” he replies, “it meant a lot to me before all of this happening, but it felt more symbolic after that.”
“Because a fire isn’t just destruction, it’s life,” she replies, pressing her palm flat to his chest where his heart is beating rapidly under his skin. He knows she can feel it. “It’s rebirth. Like a phoenix.”
“Exactly,” he says, covering her hand with his. “If I can be destroyed, I can rise.”
“My favorite line has always been ‘deep roots are not reached by the frost’,” she says, making no move to distance herself from him.
Seriously, is this girl even real?
They’re hidden amongst the trees, sticky with summer humidity and drying lake water, and she’s swapping her favoriteLord of the Ringslines with him. He couldn’t have dreamed a better woman.
And she’s looking athim. She doesn’t care that he’s Andrew Fisher, she doesn’t care that he missed the game-tying goal in the Stanley Cup two months ago.
She just knowshimand seeshim.
She wants Andrew.
