The Calendar of New Beginnings by Ava Miles

eyes now. “You didn’t know you were being bad.”
    Indeed. It took some effort not to laugh at his sincerity.
    Andy cleared his throat. “How about we grab a table?”
    “Good idea.” She held her arms out to Danny. “I had Dad reserve one in the corner for us.”
    “Thinking ahead like always,” Andy said as Danny jumped into her arms without fear.  
    Andy grabbed their drinks, and together, they meandered to the open table. She smiled at the dancing leprechauns, arching rainbows, and pots of gold on the wall.  
    “What are you smiling at, Miss Lucy?” Danny asked, leaning his elbows on the table and staring at her.
    “This place,” she said, feeling warmth for her dad’s bar roll through her heart. “Some things never change.”
    “No, some things don’t,” Andy said with a soft smile as he settled onto the bench across from her like he had hundreds of times growing up.
    As she gazed at her best friend in her dad’s bar, Lucy was grateful their friendship had never changed either. Despite the sparks of attraction she’d occasionally felt for him, nothing was worth risking their connection.

Chapter 7       

    Danny was so engrossed with talking to Lucy, Andy had to remind him to eat his hamburger and fries at least ten times. Everyone else was equally enthralled. Even Moira, Matt, and Natalie, who’d known Lucy growing up. Jane and Blake were new to the Lucy show, and they shoveled in their Cobb salads without looking at them as his best friend answered Danny’s rapid-fire questions.  
    Had she ever seen an animal eaten by a lion? He squealed when she told him she’d seen a whole pride of lions eat an antelope, going into grisly detail only a five-year-old boy would want to hear. In response to Danny’s question about whether she’d ridden a camel, she told him she’d lumbered through the pyramids in Egypt at sunset on one of the hairy, spitting beasts. And when his son asked her if she’d ever found buried treasure, her response was to tell him about the incredible tombs in the Valley of the Kings, where dead people were transformed into mummies and entombed with all their worldly possessions.
    “Do you mean like a Wii or football?” Danny asked, seeking clarification on this entombing stuff.
    “Take a breath—and then a bite of your hamburger, Danny,” Andy repeated again, hoping Lucy’s stories weren’t going to give his kid nightmares. “And don’t talk with your mouth full.”  
    “Exactly like an Wii or football,” Lucy said, her eyes sparkling. “But not just small things like that. We’re talking about beds, chests of gold, and statues of their family members. The ancient Egyptians believed they needed all their things around them so they could make a home in the afterlife—the place they went to after they died.”
    “I like this idea of being buried with my football,” Blake said, putting his arm around Natalie. “Babe, let’s keep that in mind. And I’ll want a statue of you, of course.”
    His wife socked Blake in the arm and gave him a look. “Not funny.”
    Danny propped his chin up with his hand on the table. “I thought people went to heaven when they died. Dad, does Mom have her things with her? I can’t remember.”
    Andy’s chest constricted, and for a moment, he couldn’t breathe. Everyone at the table stared at him, and Lucy went from sparkly to stricken in the space of a second.  
    “The ancient Egyptians didn’t know about heaven,” he said cautiously, trying to formulate a response that wouldn’t scar his kid. “Your mother has everything she needs. Trust me on this.”
    “Maybe we should visit her tomorrow and check to make sure,” Danny said, his brow furrowed now. “I don’t want Mom to be without her favorite things. If I were in heaven, I’d want to take my Wii and the football Blake gave me. And my bike. Oh, and my stuffed hippo.”
    His son thought about death way more than any child should. Andy knew it was only natural.