Page 30 of A Place for Daydreams

“Of course.” He leaned forward for a kiss, and instead she fed him one of the sweet potato fries. “Mmpf. Delicious, but I’d rather have a kiss.”

“You can have that too.” She leaned forward and gave him an affectionate peck on the lips.

A waitress came by, and Grayson ordered a cup of soup and another tuna melt. He and Alexis ate together for the remainder of her lunch break, beginning to discuss the details of what a jewelry making business might look like.

She felt her excitement growing as they talked about it. In many ways, the whole concept seemed too good to be true, but Grayson seemed to think that it was more than plausible.

He’s being so sweet, but I don’t think anything will come of this,she thought.But even if it doesn’t, I feel so blessed that Grayson noticed that I was feeling down and that he cares this much. He’s a good partner in so many different ways.

When Alexis’s lunch break was over, she left the booth, but Grayson stayed to finish his meal. As she started to take care of other tables in the dining room, she kept glancing at her husband as she worked. Often, he was looking at her too, and they’d share a smile. But sometimes, she saw him sitting there staring at the bracelets that she’d made with a proud expression on his face.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Hazel tucked the last dinner plate into the sink and turned to her daughter with a smile. “Are you ready?”

“Yes!”

It was the evening that they’d planned to have their spa day on, and both Hazel and Samantha were bubbly with excitement. They’d made sure they had everything ready to go the day before, and they’d just finished up a quick and delicious dinner of homemade barbeque chicken pizza.

“What’s the first step?” Samantha asked as she put a jug of chocolate milk back into the refrigerator.

“The first step is putting on our silky pajamas and robes.”

The day before, they’d gone to the store and picked out matching sets of pink silky pajamas and robes. Samantha had said they looked like princess pajamas, and they reminded Hazel of the kinds of things that movie stars wore in old black and white films.

The two of them scampered upstairs to their bedrooms to get ready. Hazel changed into her soft, slippery pajamas and put on the robe, tying the sash gently around her waist. She pulled her hair back into a messy bun so that it wouldn’t get in her way when they were putting on their face masks.

“There,” she said to her reflection with a grin. “You look like you’re ready for some relaxation.”

She left her bedroom and found Samantha waiting for her in the hallway, bouncing up and down like a jackrabbit with excitement.

“Oh, you’re adorable!” Hazel cooed, giving her daughter a hug. “Before we do anything else, we should take a selfie.”

They posed in the upstairs hallway for a few selfies, and Hazel made a mental note to send the pictures to her sisters later. She knew they’d love to see them. But for the rest of the night, she knew that true relaxing involved turning her phone off. She turned off her cell phone and tucked it inside a little bookshelf that was nestled against a wall in the upstairs hallway.

“There,” she said, sighing with satisfaction. “Let’s go look at the next thing on our list.”

They’d written up an agenda for the evening, mostly for fun, but also because Hazel had read once that planning things in detail could make them more relaxing so that there wasn’t any decision-making stress involved.

They went back downstairs to the living room, where they’d already set up their foot soak buckets, manicure supplies, and face masks. The coffee table was absolutely covered in girly products, and Hazel thought to herself cheerfully that it had never looked better.

“Okay,” Samantha said, reading the list they’d made. “First thing is face masks and foot soaks. Well, actually the next thing is turning on our spa music playlist.”

Hazel did the honors, going over to her laptop and turning on the spa music playlist they’d made. She also turned on the TV and pulled up a video of a crackling fireplace mixed with the sounds of a windy rainstorm.

“Oh, I love that.” Samantha grinned. “Okay, then after foot soaks and face masks, we put lotion on our feet and put thesocks on, and we give each other shoulder massages, and then it’s manicures and pedicures.”

“Sounds perfect.” Hazel smiled at her daughter, feeling more relaxed already. “Oh! We almost forgot the candles.”

They went around the living room, carefully lighting a collection of scented and unscented candles. They’d carefully chosen which candles to use, making sure that the scents would blend well together. There was lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint, and sandalwood, and soon the room smelled absolutely incredible.

The last thing left to do was prepare the hot water for their foot soaks. Once that was done, Hazel poured it into the buckets and tested the temperature, making sure that it was hot enough to be relaxing without being uncomfortable. Next, they poured the lavender scented Epsom salts into the foot soak buckets, and the room was immediately filled with the rich, relaxing aroma of lavender.

“Oh, this is nice.” Hazel sighed, amazed that her homey little living room could be transformed into such a relaxing paradise. “Good job, honey.”

“Good job to you too!” Samantha was sitting down on the couch and sliding her feet into her foot soak. “It was your idea.”

Hazel sat down next to her daughter and slipped her feet into the hot water of her foot soak. She sighed involuntarily, feeling tension she didn’t even know she had leaving her body immediately.

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