Page 69 of Like A Daydream
His girls. Wow.
“How long have you and your husband been together?” Danielle asks her. The woman lights up.
“Seventy years in January,” she says, “it’s a long ride, but growing together is never something to sneeze at.”
“A World War couldn’t keep us apart,” her husband says, looking down at his wife fondly. “And we still have dates. Our daughter drops us off, of course.”
He turns to Andrew with a grin. “They bribed the DMV to take my license.”
“You can’t blame them,” his wife says. “You’re ninety-seven years old.”
“And I still have both knees,” he says, hitting his leg with a hand. “All natural, these are.”
“You might have your knees, but your mind is going,” his wife says, teasing. Andrew laughs, and Danielle grins by his side. “When you’re our age, everything is going.”
The minute the woman finishes her sentence, their waitress comes with their food. Harper digs in, hungry after skating earlier that morning.
“We won’t keep you,” the older man says, resting a hand on his wife’s lower back. “We just love to see young families out and about. Reminds us of a life once lived.”
He smiles, then guides his wife out of the restaurant. Danielle catches Andrew’s eye, and he smiles softly. He leans into her, kissing the top of her head.
“That might be us,” he says softly.
“If we’re lucky,” Danielle replies.
“I’m going to be sick,” Harper says, “stop being icky.”
Andrew
He honestly hadn’t realized how relaxing his time in Lake Placid had been until he pulled into his driveway back in Raleigh. His grass was perfectly cut, mailbox empty, and when he’d checked his kitchen, it was fully stocked with everything he would need for the pre-season diet to kick back in.
He supposes that he has his agent to thank, but right now all he wants to do is climb in bed with Roscoe and call Danielle. He has to be at the arena early the next morning, and he’s not sure when he’ll be able to talk to her between practice and pre-season interviews.
He’s only been gone for fourteen hours and he misses her like crazy.
It was also Harper’s first day of school.
With that as his excuse, not that he needs one, he navigates to Danielle’s contact card, pressing the FaceTime button. She picks up before the first ring even finishes, and he has to laugh.
She’s in her bedroom in her pajamas, hair wrapped up in a towel. He checks the time and feels a little bit guilty calling her at nine o’clock at night, but that goes away when her face lights up with a smile.
“Were you waiting for me to call, or something?” he asks.
She rolls her eyes. “I was watching a YouTube video when your call came through.”
“Was it a compilation of my sexiest plays?” he asks, wiggling his eyebrows. “I know they exist, D, so don’t pretend you haven’t watched them.”
“It was old interviews, actually,” she replies, “I have to see how you charmed the pants off of half the women in America.”
“Aunt D!” Andrew hears in the background. Roscoe hops onto his bed behind him and stretches out. “Are you talking to Andy?”
“Sure am, Sparrow,” Danielle says, looking over her shoulder. “Want to come say hi?”
“Yeah!”
Her little face appears on the screen next to Danielle’s and Andrew’s heart is so overwhelmed with love he doesn’t know what to do with himself.
“Hey, bug,” he says with a grin, “how was your first day of school?”
