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"Heaven, I'm in heaven," Steve sings, "and the cares that hang around me through the week seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak." He rubs Sarah's back, pressing a kiss to her downy hair as he continues dancing her around her tiny, dark bedroom. She'd woken up crying at some point during the night, and Steve had tried just about everything before finally picking her up, holding her close, and starting to sway. The song had come to him almost immediately, and he didn't mind at all, seeing how it's one of his favorites.
"Your mother and I used to dance to that song," he says, resting his cheek against the top of Sarah's head. "After the war. We'd go out and they wouldn't have put all the buildings back together yet, but there'd be candles and one of those old record players with the hand crank and you know, it was kinda fun."
"That was in John Lewis," Peggy says, her voice floating over to him from somewhere around the doorway. "On Fridays after tea they'd push the tables in the restaurant out of the way and anyone who wanted to could dance."
"It wasn't too bad," Steve says. "Eventually you learned where the holes in the floor were and you could step around them without landing on your partner's feet."
Peggy laughs, sounding a lot closer to him.
"And you were a natural at it," she says, and then her hand's on his arm. "You two all right?"
"Yeah," Steve says. He stops his dancing with Sarah, but she makes a noise that's a lot like the beginning of a cry, so he starts it right back up again. She lets out a great sigh, pushing her head into his collarbone, and Steve can't help but smile. "Think our little girl wanted a dance."
"Well with a partner like you I can see why," Peggy says. She slides her hand up his arm, crossing over to the other one and following it up before stopping and resting it over the hand he's got on Sarah's back. She works her fingers in, giving him a brief squeeze. "Soon she'll be big enough to stand on your shoes when you're dancing together. "
"Yeah?" Steve goes warm at that image of him holding Sarah's hands while she's balanced her feet on top of his. Of her smiling face looking up at him.
Peggy hums in agreement.
"That's how every little girl dances with her father," she says.
"Even you?"
"Even me."
"I'd have liked to have seen that," Steve says, "bet you were cute."
Peggy huffs out a laugh.
"I'm never cute."
"Well, yeah, because you're pretty now," Steve says, without missing a beat. "But then...I bet you were cute."
"Wasn't," Peggy says, and before Steve can protest, she adds, "we'll go over to my mum's one day and I'll get the pictures out for you to judge. You'll see."
"I'll see that you were cute," Steve says, and he doesn't have to see Peggy now to know she's rolling her eyes.
"I'm going back to bed," she says, and he's not sure how, but she manages to find his cheek and press a kiss to it. "Good night, darlings."
"'Night, Peg," Steve says, and he waits until she's closed the door before whispering to Sarah, "I've seen the pictures. Your mother was awful cute. Almost as cute as you."
Sarah gurgles. Steve kisses her hair and picks up the song from where he left off.
"When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek…"