Page 33 of A Place for Daydreams

She thought about her first dance, trying to recall, and then she remembered that she had wanted to go with someone. She’d wanted to go with Jacob, and he’d gone with one of the other girls.

She swallowed, not wanting to think about how long ago her crush on Jacob had started.

“Hmm. Going dress shopping does sound fun.” Samantha sounded eager. “Maybe we can use these dresses I picked out as inspiration but go shopping in person. Maybe we could get Grandma and Aunt Julia and Aunt Alexis to come with us.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun.” Hazel smiled at her daughter, genuinely excited about the prospect of getting to go dress shopping with her and the other women in the Owens family. “I’ll call all of them later tonight and see when they’re free. Friday’s probably a good day, yeah?”

“Works for me,” Samantha said cheerfully.

“Okay, great.” Hazel leaned over and kissed Samantha on the side of the head. They went back to being quiet, but Hazel no longer felt relaxed and peaceful.

She was remembering how much she’d liked Jacob, even at Samantha’s age. Her crush on him had felt like someRomeo and Julietfantasy, and she’d hoped that he would someday walk up to her and ask her on a date or tell her he liked her and was interested in her. She sat with her eyes closed, beginning to remember all kinds of things, even an old dream she’d had once in which he’d given her a bouquet of roses in front of the whole school.

After a while, she’d stopped liking him so much and moved on to other crushes—but it was only after he’d started dating other girls and she’d cried herself to sleep a couple of times. She felt a rising panic, worrying that Samantha was going toend up feeling hurt in the same way. Jacob had seemed so wonderful, just like Austin seemed wonderful to Samantha, and even though Jacob had never done anything to hurt her, she’d felt so let down when he wasn’t interested in her. And here she was, years later, feeling the same way again.

And then, after Jacob, Hazel had fallen in love with and married Samantha’s father, who had turned out to be unreliable and uncaring. Hazel never wanted her baby daughter to have to go through something like that.

Feeling restless, she opened her eyes and looked at the time. “I think it’s time to take our face masks off, honey,” she said, feeling relieved to have something to do. “Then we can moisturize our feet and start doing our manicures.”

“Ooh, yes please!” Samantha sat up eagerly, ready for the next part of their spa night.

Hazel smiled at her, telling herself firmly that she was going to put aside her worries for the rest of the night. She needed some time to process, so she could figure out how to handle this new era of life. Thinking about it any more that night was just going to freak her out, and that would be a shame, since relaxation was the goal of the evening.

“Perfect. What color do you want to paint your nails?”

“I want that pink color,” Samantha said, pointing to a hot pink nail polish bottle. “It’s such a happy color.”

Hazel chuckled. “You’re right. It’s a very happy color.”

They continued to enjoy their spa night together as they painted their nails and chatted. After a while, Hazel’s nervousness melted away and she found herself enjoying the evening again. Samantha was always fun company, and Hazel’s body was responding well to the way she was pampering it. She knew that soon, she would need to face her fears about Samantha being interested in boys, but for the time being, she just got to have a fun, relaxing night with her daughter.

Dean leaned back in his armchair, letting out a long yawn. He stretched, pleased to find that his body felt more loose and relaxed than usual. It was clear that physical therapy was starting to help him already, and that gave him a sense of hope like he hadn’t had in a while.

He set down his book on a little table resting next to the armchair and glanced at his watch. It was almost nine p.m., and he was getting sleepy.

I’m an adult,he thought with a chuckle.I can go to bed whenever I want. Time to go to bed.

He stood up and wandered into the kitchen, where he poured himself a glass of milk and turned out the lights. He carried the milk upstairs with him along with his book, his mind going over the events of his day. It had been a good day, productive and pleasant. Best of all, he’d had more energy than he’d had in a while, and even though he was feeling tired and sleepy at the moment, he was relishing the fact that his symptoms were improving.

He sat in bed for a while, reading more of his book and slowly sipping his glass of milk. Outside, the night was turning blustery, and he wondered if an autumn storm was on its way. He glanced out the window a few times, enjoying the sight of a brilliantly silver moon shining through the tree branches.

Finally, he got back out of bed and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. By that point, he was so sleepy that his eyelids were drooping, and he could feel that all his limbs were heavy with drowsiness. He was just making his way back into his bedroom when his phone began to ring.

He picked it up from where it was resting on the end of his bed and saw that the caller was one of his friends who he’d met at a car show several years before. They shared a love for car restoration and often swapped advice and tips on where to find hard to locate parts. He answered the phone eagerly, suddenly feeling more awake.

“Hey, Shawn!” Dean found himself grinning. “How’s it going?”

“Dean, my man! It’s been too long. How have you been holding up?”

They spent a few minutes catching up, but Dean found himself holding back from sharing the news of his diagnosis. He didn’t want Shawn to feel bad for him, and he wanted their conversation to be about the positive things that were going on in their lives.

“So the reason why I’m calling?—”

“Yeah, at this hour?” Dean’s tone was playful. “It’s time for bed. I’m in my pajamas here. You could have woken me up.”

Shawn’s big booming laugh practically made the phone vibrate. “You’re getting boring, huh? Wow.”

“Oh, yeah. I even drank of glass of milk while reading first.”

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