The Gentle Giant

After the game we went and got something to eat together at Tony Luke's. We went back to his place. He ate his sandwich along with half of mine, which he yelled at me for not eating. "Seriously Danielle, you should have eaten it."

I just laughed. "You sound just like Raina earlier ate the game when she handed me this huge hot roast beef sandwich. I feel like I am in a food coma right now."

He smiled and rubbed my stomach. "My kid gotta eat Mommy."

I just stuck my tongue out at him. "Oh I called Maman and told her finally. She is excited, but not happy with me living on my own."

He sighed. "I told you you can move in here Dani. We can still take things slow."

"I’m doing good on my own and like you said, we don’t want to rush into anything. The best we can do right now is try and salvage things. We were doing good and I messed up. I understand why you did what you did. Andrej, I am happy that you would even think about speaking to me again. So right now I am content with the way things are.” He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

“Ok, let’s relax, no decisions need to be made now. You have to get up early. Are you staying?”

I looked at the clock and it read midnight. “I guess, I can just go home early and change.”

He got up and pulled me towards his bedroom. “Let’s get you something to wear.“

He handed me shorts and a t-shirt. I slid my shirt over my head and he stared. “Wow Danielle, you really are pregnant. You can’t tell too much with your clothes on.” He reached out and rubbed my stomach gently, leaning down and kissing it. “Moje malé dieťa, milujem ťa, zostaňte v bezpečí v Mami. Slibuji vám, všetko, čo sa chystá byť dokonalý, keď prídete. Mami a tati musieť zistiť niektoré veci, ale bude všetko fungovať na konci pretože táta miluje vás a Mami.”

I looked at him curiously. Now I know how Raina felt with Danny speaking French all the time. “Umm, what did you say.”

He smiled at me and winked. “Just talking to my kid.”

I just grinned at him, happy he was thrilled to be a Dad. The rest we could work on.

“Come on Dani, let’s go to bed. He went out and turned the tv off and locked the door. I climbed into his bed and under his warm comforter. He slid in next to me and wrapped his arms around me his hands resting on my stomach. I was starting to doze off when I heard him whisper “I love you two” softly.

I slept great, warm in his arms. I woke up and looked at the clock and it read seven o'clock. I tried to slide out from under his arm but he just hugged me tighter.

“Don’t go anywhere. I’m too comfortable.” I pushed his arm off.

“Andrej, I have to get a shower. I have work in a little while.” He groaned as I got up.

I put the shower on as I pealed my clothes off. Once it heated up, I stepped inside letting the hot water soak into me. I heard the shower doors open and smiled as he wrapped his arms around me.

“I told you not to get up. You suck Dani, we could have cuddled all morning long.” We stood for a while just letting the water hit us before he washed my hair. We cleaned each other. I knew where this was leading and I was trying my best to put it out of my mind. I rinsed off and stepped out leaving him in there.

We got dressed quickly and headed towards my apartment, me promising him breakfast for coming with me. I got dressed quickly throwing on a floor length black skirt and a red shirt with heels.

He just cocked an eyebrow at me when he seen the shoes. “You are going to give me a heart attack with those on. Now I know why Danny used to be so neurotic.”

I laughed it off. “Chill out there Daddy, I’m careful.”

We went to the diner around the corner from my work. One of the owners of the firm had come by and stopped and said hi to me. I introduced Andrej and it was completely awkward. I had no idea what to call him. I finally just introduced him as “Andrej” and left it like that.

Once those two were done talking, he left and Andrej stared at me. “You can call me my baby daddy if it makes you feel any better.” I burst out laughing, it definitely broke the tension. We walked back around to my building and stood outside talking for a few minutes. They had a home game tomorrow and then were away for six games. I promised him that once I got off work I would call him. He was taking me somewhere, but wouldn’t tell me.

Worked passed quickly. I had a million things to do for Pittsburgh next week. I was sitting at my desk around 11 am and I got a text from him. “So bored Dani, Come to my place for lunch.”

I quickly sent him a text. “No can do, super busy, don’t even have time to stop for lunch yet.” By 12:30, he had lunch and flowers delivered to me. I sat at my desk eating the fully balanced meal he had sent to me and had to laugh. He was so protective.

The flowers were beautiful and one of the girls I worked with had stopped in to see who they were from. “So who is the guy Danielle?” Bella asked. I hadn’t told her anything about my outside life. As far as she knew I was single, which I still kind of was. She didn’t really question my last name.

She leaned down and smelled the flowers. “Umm, my baby daddy sent those” I said and she cracked up.

“So are you together again.?” She asked and I just smiled thinking of this morning.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Kind of trying to go slow with it, see where it goes.”

She sat down and grinned. “So is he good looking? Let’s go, give it up. He has good taste. They are beautiful.”

I just laughed. “He definitely did not pick those out. He probably just flung money at the lady and said give me something pretty. He isn’t that good.”

She started to get up and I stopped her. “Listen, you are single right?” She shook her head yes. “Do you want to go out tomorrow night with me? Do you like sports?” She smiled and said she has watched them for the last few years after an ex got her into them. “Ok, so I got a connection for Flyers tickets, you want to go tomorrow night?”

She laughed. “Sounds good.” She started walking towards the door and turned around. “Danielle, the last name gave it away when we met. You two look a lot a like. Make sure some of his teammates are single tomorrow.“ I cracked up.

She left and I finished my lunch and got back down to work. Andrej called around two o'clock to bother me. My secretary transferred the call stating he said he was a VIP and that I should be honored to talk to him. “He’s an idiot and bored. Transfer it to me.” My secretary was cute, she was all of 18 and the nicest girl.

“Hey sweetheart, now you know you owe my secretary, giving her a hard time and what not. Nah, seriously though, I need really good seats for tomorrow’s game. I am bringing a friend from work. Tell Mike to work his magic and I’ll introduce him to her. She’s adorable, twenty four years old and pretty down to earth." We hung up and I finally got back to work.

I walked around to Bella’s office after I got a text from Mike letting me know he got me glass seats and not to bring her into the locker room or let anyone else see her. I had to laugh. “So we got first row seats courtesy of Mike cause he loves me.”

We took a picture of us together sticking our tongues out and sent it to Mike who immediately responded.

“I love you Dani, you are the best.” I just cracked up when I saw it. I looked down at my watch realizing I needed to finish up and get out of there. I left promising I would call her early tomorrow afternoon.

I finally finished up for the day at six-thirty. I called Andrej as I was walking outside the building. He answered quickly, “thank god, I’m starving.”

I asked him to pick me up at my apartment as I rushed home to get changed. I threw on tights and a short baby doll cut dress and changed into flat shoes which I was sure would please him. He rang my phone and I could see him outside waiting impatient. I met him outside and he took me by surprise by kissing me on my mouth.

We went to a nice Tapas restaurant in town. The food was fantastic. After dinner we went to see a movie. By the time we got back to his place it was close to eleven o'clock. I was exhausted, but we had fun.

I ended up staying over again, but I behaved and the furthest we got was kissing. He had to get up early for morning skate so we went to sleep early. Things were starting to get better for us. I prayed they would stay this way.

Notes