#della slade

Between their respective jobs, it was rare for Daphne and her sister-in-law to both have a Saturday off. But Daphne had managed to get a full weekend off for a change. And while she wasn’t yet an expert on tourism in Catalina, she assumed it was slow this time of year, which meant Della had managed to have the day off as well.

Which is why, earlier that week, the detective had texted her sister-in-law to arrange a day out of shopping together. Now the two were walking through the shopping center, Daphne looking forward to the after-Christmas sales. Nothing had made Daphne come to appreciate sales quite like becoming a mom had. Turning to glance at Della, she said “Which shop should we check out first?”

Daphne arrived at her in-laws house early that afternoon, planning to change Dani into her party outfit there so that it wouldn’t get ruined before everyone had a chance to see it. After using one of the spare rooms to wrestle Dani into her tutu and Elsa shirt, she set to work pulling the little girl’s hair up and out of her face. Hearing a knock on the bedroom door, she went to open it and saw her sister-in-law standing there. “Hi” she said warmly. “I could actually use your help if you don’t mind lending me a hand.” She held up the hairbrush and elastic hand in her hands. “Do you mind keeping her distracted while I braid her hair? Maybe this way she’ll still look halfway presentable when everyone else arrives.”

Daphne was feeling a bit nervous. It wasn’t that she was scared of the water, per se. After all, she’d been in the ocean before. But being on the water with Dani was a whole different ball game so to speak. Daphne wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if anything happened to her daughter. But she knew that it was important Dani learned to be on the water, considering Catalina was an island. And she didn’t want to pass her fears onto her daughter. So when the opportunity to go out on Della’s boat had presented itself, she’d said yes. Now that they were preparing to head out of the marina though, she was second-guessing herself. She double checked that Dani’s life-jacket was on properly, then she turned her attention to Della. “I guess we’re ready when you are” she said, doing her best to appear calm and giving her sister-in-law a small smile. “Thanks again for taking us out today.” It was a rare day that Daphne had off during the week, and she wanted to make the most of the time with her family.

Daphne was exhausted. She’d worked early that morning, then had gone back in that evening to help with making sure the streets were safe. This situation was dangerous enough with the traffic lights out. The police department couldn’t let people take advantage of what was happening to cause trouble. As a result, Daphne had left her daughter in the care of Della for the evening. Now that she was done work for the night, she’d stopped by Della’s boat to pick up Danielle and check up on her sister-in-law. Stepping onto the boat, she gave a tired smile when she saw Danielle was asleep. “How are you doing in all this?” she asked, turning her attention to the blonde.

Daphne smiled as she opened the door of her apartment to see Della standing there. “Hi” she said warmly, holding the door wide enough for the other blonde to come inside. “Thanks for coming over for girls’ night.” She’d just put Danielle to bed about 30 minutes ago, and was relieved the toddler had gone to sleep easily that night. “I have wine chilling and the Netflix all fired up” she added.