Page 62 of Like A Daydream
Danielle shakes her head. He had taken Harper to lunch and then to the movies.
“Erick is not only the last person I would go to for relationship advice, but he’s also the wrong gender, and probably in love with me. This isn’t something you ask a guy. Andrew isn’t here, is he?”
“He just left for the rink with Jamie,” Ainsley says, soft smile turning into a full-on grin now. “He finally convinced him to get back on the ice.”
“Probably for the best, since he’s leaving in a couple of weeks.”
Ainsley must hear something in her voice because her gaze softens just a fraction before she steps aside.
“Come in,” she says, gesturing inside, “they shouldn’t be home for a at least two hours.”
Danielle returns her smile, grateful, and steps through the front door into the mansion that, two years ago, she would have killed to live in. Would have killed to have been with the man who built it for his family, but now she’s just walking into a friend’s house.
Sometimes she finds her past resentment for Ainsley hard to believe.
Now, she just thinks that it was all wasted time when she could have had a camaraderie and friendship with the woman standing in front of her, starting a pot of coffee.
She had everything that Danielle had thought she wanted. Jet, the house, his love… and now she’s lived and lost more than she could have ever imagined. She’s grieved and part of her always will, but she wants to live, too.
She’s also experiencing the bone-crush of falling in love for herself.
What she had thought she had felt all those years ago for Jet is nothing compared to this.
The miracle of liking someone, and knowing that they like you too. How rare it is, how beautiful it is. She wants to keep it in her heart and treasure it forever. Save Andrew’s secret smiles for her alone.
“I think Andy wants to try a relationship,” Danielle says, “for real, for real.”
“That is brand new information,” Ainsley says, setting two mugs on the counter as Danielle sits, resting her elbows on the smooth surface. Fall air is coming to Lake Placid, and Danielle can’t say she doesn’t love the feelings that come with Autumn in the mountains.
“I never would have guessed by how many times he’s been on my couch, whining like a lovesick teenager while Jamie pets his hair and tries to soothe him,” Ainsley adds, grinning. “You should see it, it’s pretty funny.”
“I think men are just as bad as we are,” Danielle says, looking down at the counter, “they just try to hide it. Because society.”
“Society,” Ainsley says, rolling her eyes. “How are you feeling about it?”
“I mean, I knew it was coming,” Danielle says, resting her elbows on the counter, “but I don’t know what to do. He brought it up at the lake the other day and I kind of just.. brushed it off? He didn’t ask me to respond and we were a little busy.”
“Jamie thought you were getting a fever with how flushed you were when you came back,” Ainsley says, grinning. “Can Andy kiss as good as I think he can?”
Danielle’s eyes cut to Ainsley, face heating.
“Oh, come on,” Ainsley says, “don’t deny me. Andy is a man who looks like heknowswhat he’s doing. Jamie and I have learned almost everything together.”
“Andy is probably better than what you can imagine.” Danielle says, covering her face with her hands in embarrassment.
“I knew it!” Ainsley says, grinning. She sets out two mugs and grabbing packets of hot chocolate powder. She pours them into the cups, then pours hot coffee over them. “Do you like him?”
“I’ve liked him since he walked through the door of the bookshop,” Danielle says. “He’s everything I’ve ever wanted.”
“I’m going to ask you something, and you can’t get mad because I think this is why you’re hesitating,” Ainsley says, sliding her a cup of coffee. “If Emerson was still here, would you be waiting, or would you have taken the jump already?”
This girl, a former mortal enemy, has pinned her down so fast it almost gives Danielle whiplash.
Because isn’t that what’s been holding her back the entire time? Isn’t that what made her go to the cemetery the morning before the lake? So that she could have some sort of clear conscience before she decided if she should go for it? Isn’t that what had frozen the words in her throat when Andy had said he liked her?
Even though he’d never pressured her for a response to him confessing feelings and went back to work with her like nothing happened out of respect for her? When he’s been there waiting for her to sort out everything in her head, and had all but promised he isn’t going anywhere.
Emerson was gone, had only been gone for two months, and Danielle is already moving on, making a daughter out of Harper and a family with Andrew and how is that fair?
