On this Saturday afternoon, as his wife worked on potions with the neighbors, he was the lucky son-of-a-bitch who got to spend the day with his favorite princess in the whole world, little Miss Carly Nichols, aka Speed Demon. She had some serious zero-to-sixty oomph on her blades, and as soon as she pushed off, she was racing.
“Be careful, honey bear. Don’t go too fast,” Clay shouted as he followed her, decked out in his Saturday garb of navy shorts, a T-shirt, and aviator shades for the bright summer sun that beat down on them.
“Try to keep up, Daddy,” she challenged, and her fighting words were punctuated by a long giggle. She laughed while pumping her arms and charging along the lower loop near Wollman Rink.
Of course, he could keep up with her. She was six, and he was in fine shape in his late thirties. Still, he liked maintaining the illusion that it was a battle.
They spent the next hour soaring on their wheels in a loop, passing some skaters and joggers and getting lapped by whizz-bang fast cyclists, as the warm sun baked their arms and spurred them on. As they crested a rolling hill near the end, the sound of a horse’s hooves behind them grew louder, the clippity-clop intensifying.
Carly was intent on beating her father up the hill, and she didn’t notice the carriage picking up speed. She was dangerously near to it. Clay’s pulse jackhammered. Carly was too focused on beating her dad, not on the big animals gaining on her.
For the briefest of seconds, fear took over as the hansom cab drew closer. As his pulse spiked, he raced to her, grabbed her hand, and tugged her out of harm’s way.
He pulled her off the path momentarily, slowing down and stopping to give her a hug. Carly’s shoulders shook as she seemed to fight off tears. “You okay, honey bear?”
She nodded, her lips tight. “You saved me,” she said, both worry and admiration in her tone.
“I’ll always keep you safe,” he said, and he hoped that would always be true.
After his crazily beating heart slowed, they finished their lap around the park, and Carly did that thing she was so damn good at. She batted her eyes and placed her palms together in a plea. “Can we please go on the carousel?”
That seemed a safer horse right about now, so Clay said yes. They changed back into their regular shoes from the pack that was on his back. With Rollerblades tucked safely away and helmets stowed in the backpack, his little princess found a white horse with a red saddle to ride on the merry-go-round. Sweet calliope music played as the carousel spun in lazy circles, and his daughter pretended to ride a horse into the sunset.
Some days, life was crazy with work, and he was yanked in too many directions. Sometimes, he faced deals that were hard to pull off or ones that nearly gave him palpitations, like his cousin Tyler’s wild scheme that had kept him working like a madman all week.
Other days, he simply relished the here and now of the little moments. To enjoy the city. To delight in his family. To appreciate the fairy tale that his life had become.
One that showed no signs of ending, especially not with his anniversary in another few days.
“What do you say we do some shopping for your mom?”
“For you and mommy’s anniversary?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Are you going to get her a pony?”
Clay laughed and shook his head. “I’m thinking more like a necklace. Some jewelry. Maybe tickets to a show she’s been dying to see, then dinner at her favorite restaurant,” he said, rattling off some of the gifts he was considering for his lovely Julia.
“Do I get to go out with you and Mommy on your anniversary?”
He draped his hand on her little shoulder. “’Fraid not, honey bear. Uncle Brent and Aunt Shannon are coming to town with your cousins so you’ll be hanging out with them.”
“At a hotel?” Her eyes went wide.
Clay nodded. His brother and sister-in-law had planned a family trip to New York with their kids and were staying at the Plaza in a big suite. Carly would join them for the night of Clay’s anniversary.
His daughter clapped and smiled. “I love hotels.”
“You got that from me,” he said, and he shouldered their skate bag, heading to their favorite sushi restaurant on the East Side, where they met Julia for an early dinner.
She updated him on her afternoon, listened to tales of their roller-skating adventures, then suggested they all go see the latest animated flick at a nearby theater.
“Yes, yes, yes, I want to go,” Carly chimed in, and once inside the movie house, she promptly fell asleep in the back row.
No one was behind them, and no one else was next to them, so Clay shrugged, winked, and ran his hand through Julia’s hair, then pulled her in for a soft, sweet kiss.