Sweet Silver Lining

Andrew and Annabelle stood there talking to the doctors while Dave and Lily helped Landon pack all of his things in the duffel bag so Annabelle could take it home. They wanted to know what Landon was and wasn’t allowed to do since he had just had surgery less than two weeks ago.

“Well, since his surgery wasn’t too long ago, you still want to be cautious around him, but you don’t have to exclude him from anything,” Dr. Reynolds told them.

“You were planning on taking him to the ice rink, right?” Annabelle asked, looking up at Andrew. “Is that alright? To have him ice skate and play hockey, and everything?”

“Yes, that’s fine,” Dr. Reynolds said with a chuckle. “Obviously, don’t have him play an actual game of hockey with the hitting and speed skating. But, if you just go to the rink and shoot the puck around, he’ll be just fine. Just keep an eye on him. If there are any problems, call me and bring him back here immediately,” he told them.

“Thank you,” Annabelle told him, as Dr. Reynolds was paged, and he had to leave. She turned around, walking back into Landon’s room with Andrew right behind her.

“Wait a minute,” she heard Landon say. “So, you’re her boyfriend?” he asked in disbelief, pointing back and forth between Dave and Lily.

“Hey,” Lily laughed. “Don’t sound so surprised. Seriously, you’re always so shocked when I tell you things about myself. First, you couldn’t believe that I wanted to play hockey when I was your age or that I know how to play now. And, now you can’t believe that I’m dating Dave!” Lily exclaimed jokingly.

“It’s just I never would have thought that he’d be with you!” Landon told her.

Lily spun around to look at Annabelle. “I don’t know if I should take that as an insult or a compliment,” she told her. Annabelle laughed a little, shrugging her shoulders as she turned her attention to the three boys.

“Landon, I want you to have a fun time today, but not too much fun. I’ll see you tonight,” she told him, giving him a hug and a kiss on his cheek.

“Annie!” he cried, pushing her off.

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” she told him, waving goodbye to Andrew and Dave as she and Lily left.

Andrew turned to look at Landon. “Okay, buddy, what do you want to do today?” he asked him.

Landon jumped off the bed. “Can we go to the ice rink like you said earlier?” he asked excitedly.

“Sure,” Andrew told him. “Let’s go.”

The entire drive to the rink, Landon asked Dave and Andrew questions about what it was like to play with the Chicago Blackhawks and how they had gotten to where they were today. Both men were happy to answer his questions, and there were no breaks in their conversation the entire way.

Andrew walked around to the back door, letting Landon out of the car. Landon immediately began running towards the rink, leaving Dave and Andrew with no choice but to run after him. “Slow down, Landon,” Andrew laughed, catching up to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Your sister will kill me if anything happens to you.”

“Annie’s always worried about me,” Landon told him. “It’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” Andrew told him. “Annabelle cares about you, and she doesn’t want anything to happen to you. I wish I had a sister like that.”

“Well, you can have Annie if you want,” Landon told him, causing Dave to chuckle and Andrew to shake his head.

They walked inside, and everyone put their skates on and made their way out to the ice. Andrew looked at Landon. “Okay, so Dr. Reynolds said that you can shoot the puck, but you can’t play an actual hockey game yet. So, what do you say? Do you want to shoot the puck around?” Andrew asked him.

“Can you show me how you shoot the puck?” Landon asked him.

Andrew nodded his head. “Sure,” he told him. “Bolly, you feel like being the goalie?” he asked, and Dave nodded, skating down to the net. “Okay,” Andrew began, grabbing his stick. “So, pretty much all I do is I try to put the puck right in the middle of the net. So, I line the puck up with where I think the middle is, and then I just try to hit it as hard as I can,” he explained, shooting the puck, which Dave saved. “You’re turn,” Andrew said, handing Landon his stick.

Landon was having a hard time trying to shoot the puck with Andrew’s stick, and both Dave and Andrew had to fight back a laugh as they watched the boy attempt to shoot the puck with a stick that was nearly as big as he was. After his fifth attempt, he finally got the shot down, and it went right down the ice towards the net. Dave intentionally moved so the puck went into the net, and Landon jumped up and down, celebrating.

“Well, apparently you’ve learned your goal celebration from Bolly,” Andrew joked as Dave skated back down towards them.

They continued messing around on the ice for a little while longer until Landon announced that he was getting hungry. “Okay,” Andrew said. “Where would you like to go to eat?” he asked. “If you could choose anywhere in all of Chicago, where would you go?”

“Giordanno’s,” Landon immediately said, naming his favorite pizza place.

Dave and Andrew gave each other a look, and Dave announced, “I think we can do that.” Landon jumped up and down excitedly as the three of them skated off the ice and took their skates off.

After eating Landon’s favorite pizza, consisting of ham and pineapple, Andrew looked down at his watch to see that it was only four. “Is there anything else you’d like to do?” he asked Landon. “Any movie you’d like to see?” he asked, trying to think of what five year old boys liked to do for fun.

“Yeah,” Landon said suddenly. “The new Star Trek,” he stated.

“Hey, I’ve been wanting to see that one, too,” Dave told him.

“Can we go?” Landon asked.

“Let’s go,” Dave said, placing some cash down on the table and walking out of the restaurant with Landon running ahead of him and Andrew trailing behind.

Two and a half hours and two buckets of popcorn later, they were headed back to Annabelle’s apartment. As they walked into the building, Dave told Landon goodbye, as he was planning on going to Lily’s apartment. “Thanks!” Landon called after him.

Landon ran to the door of Annabelle’s apartment, turning the doorknob to find it unlocked. He ran inside, and Andrew walked in after him. Annabelle, who had been sitting on the couch, stood up. “Hey, how was your day?” she asked Landon.

“Amazing!” Landon exclaimed, going on and on about everything they had done today.

“I’m glad you had fun,” Annabelle said in an excited tone that didn’t reach her eyes. Secretly, she was upset at everything Landon had done with Andrew, everything she had planned to do with Landon herself today. “Why don’t you tell Andrew thank you and head back to your bedroom to get ready to go to sleep?” she asked him.

“But, Annie,” he started to protest.

“No,” Annabelle said, shaking her head. “You just got out of the hospital, and you’ve had a long, fun day. You’re getting ready for bed.”

“Fine,” Landon sighed. “Thanks, Andrew,” he said, running over and hugging him. “I had a great day.”

“I did, too,” Andrew told him. “We’ll do it again sometime.”

“Bye,” Landon said, slowly walking back to his bedroom, wishing that Annabelle would change her mind and let him stay up.

“Don’t forget to brush your teeth,” Annabelle called down the hallway to Landon, who merely groaned in response. “Thanks,” Annabelle told Andrew.

“No, thank you for letting me and Dave take him out today. We all had a really good time,” he assured her.

“Yeah, it sounds like it,” Annabelle said in a sad tone.

“Is everything okay?” Andrew asked, picking up that Annabelle wasn’t exactly happy.

“Great,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “I mean, why wouldn’t it be? Landon had a great day with you and Dave,” she stated.

“Did I do something to upset you?” Andrew asked worriedly, not knowing what he had done.

“No,” Annabelle said shortly. She heard Landon calling for her, and she quickly turned back to Andrew. “Thank you for making his day today,” she said sincerely. “But, I’ve got to go.”

“Okay,” Andrew said walking to the door. “I’ll see you around.”

“Bye,” she said, walking down the hallway to Landon’s room, leaving Andrew there trying to figure out what exactly he had done to Annabelle.