Page 79 of Like A Daydream
She nods against Danielle’s shoulder, sniffling as her tears slow.
“Does he know we’re coming?” she asks.
“It’s a surprise for him, too,” Danielle says, voice soft as Harper climbs in her lap. “We’re staying for almost twelve days.”
“Twelve days?” Harper asks, eyes gone wide. “That’s a long time.”
“Uncle Jet got us tickets to all of Andy’s games,” Danielle says as their boarding group gets called. He helps Harper get all of her stuff, and then they head to their plane.
They land at around three, and a driver picks them up and takes them to Andrew’s house. He had told her the night before that he would be at PNC all day for Game Day coverage, and it makes it easy for them to drop their stuff off. Roscoe loses his mind when he sees Harper walk through the door, and Danielle helps Harper find the room that Andrew had showed her last time she was here.
“This is my room?” Harper asks, eyes wide as she looks around at the light purple room. It’s easily double the size of her room at Danielle’s house, and has been stocked with every possible book and toy a six-year-old could want.
And, to really sweeten the deal, Roscoe has a bed in the corner to sleep with her if he wants.
“All yours, Sparrow,” Danielle says, setting Harper’s suitcase down. “I was thinking we get pizza before we go to the rink?”
“Y-E-S, YES!” Harper says, excited, before she throws her arms around Danielle’s neck quickly, and takes off to explore her room.
“My room is at the end of the hallway, okay?” Danielle asks.
Harper climbs onto her bed and pulls a pillow toward her. “Are you sharing with Andy?”
The kid has the audacity to wiggle her eyebrows.
Danielle laughs, crossing the room to ruffle Harper’s hair. “I am.”
“How come you get to have a sleep over in his room but I don’t?” Harper asks.
“You get your own room, which is way cooler,” Danielle says, “and Andy smells bad.”
Harper giggles, falling back into the mountain of pillows on her bed, she closes her eyes and yawns.
“Do you want to take a little nap before the pizza gets here?” Danielle asks. Harper nods, not opening her eyes. “Alright, Sparrow.”
She pulls the throw blanket over Harper, and Roscoe jumps up onto the bed next to her.
A driver that Jet had arranged for them picks them up at six, driving them to PNC and showing them where to go. She and Harper had both changed into jerseys with Andy’s name and number on the back. Jet had bought Harper hers, and Danielle, of course, had already had one. Jet had reassured her that ‘there’s nothing better for a player than seeing his girl with hisname on her back’, and Danielle thinks ‘Fisher’ is a better last name than hers, anyway.
She just hopes his reaction to seeing them is a little bit better than last time she’d been in Raleigh. They’ve moved on at this point, but maybe she should have told him they were coming.
When they get inside PNC Arena, Harper holds her hand tightly and they navigate up an escalator and down a hallway, then down a set of stairs to their seats. They’re about fifteen rows back from the bench, on the opposite side of the ice so the likelihood of Andy spotting them is slim to none.
Jet had really pulled out all the stops for these tickets, and Danielle couldn’t be more excited to be back at a hockey game. It’s electric, and she feels her heart racing as the team intros start playing on the screen and they show them walking down the tunnel to the ice.
The arena loses their minds when the team bursts onto the ice, skating laps at high-speed before coming to a stop at their bench, and climbing over the boards.
“Should we take a picture for Andy?” Danielle asks Harper, grinning as her daughter jumps up anddown, cheering when they show Andy on the screen. Harper turns to her and pulls a goofy face while Danielle takes a selfie of them.
“We look silly, momma!” Harper says, laughing. “Let’s take a good one.”
Harper hugs around Danielle’s neck and smiles as they take another picture, the ‘C’s stitched onto their left chest in full view.
Danielle used to watch games when Jet played, but she had never paid attention to anyone other than Jet. She certainly never paid attention to number thirty-four with the ‘C’ on his chest, but now she can’t take her eyes off of him.
He makes hockey look easy. He makes it look beautiful. He makes it look like there is no place he’d rather be than on the ice. She’s always known that, deep down, but getting to see him do what he loves in person, again?
There’s nothing sexier than that, and she finds her heart racing for a reason other than the rush of the game.
