“It’s a date,” Charlotte confirmed before she slid her gaze toward Sutton. “If that’s okay…?”
“Of course!” The words fell out of Sutton’s mouth.
Because the reality was that she wanted to have Charlotte around—around her, around Lucy—as much as Charlotte could be around. It was a want that increased at an alarming speed, every single day.
“Okay, then! I’m ready,” Lucy informed her, reaching for the door as she dragged her now-closed backpack with her.
“Be right back,” she informed Charlotte before opening her own door.
Lucy led the way up the walkway to the large, beautiful house Layla lived in with Arianne as Sutton trailed behind her a few steps.
In the past, walking to this home that her ex shared with the woman she’d cheated on and left Sutton for had left an unshakable heaviness in the pit of her stomach, even after she’d emotionally recovered from her marriage.
Right now, though, she didn’t feel the sense of foreboding. Her frustration with Layla from earlier as well as how thrilled she was about Charlotte combined in a very disconcerting way, but there was no sinking dread involved.
Layla opened the door as they walked up the porch and smiled down at Lucy.
Sutton recognized that exact smile—remorseful and entirely too exuberant. It was the same one she’d been given many times during their relationship. And at the end of it, given how everything had played out. Layla was apologetic but not remorseful, wanting entirely too much to simplymove on.
“Luce, I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there today. How did it go?”
Lucy’s excited smile seemed to take Layla aback as she skipped across the porch toward her. “It wasawesome! Mama had us all write a story together, and—and then Charlotte came, and she organized us to do debates! And my team won over half of them!”
At the mention of Charlotte, Layla’s smile faltered, and her gaze darted to Sutton. All she did in response was nod, lifting her eyebrows at Layla as if silently daring her to say something disparaging when they both knew she didn’t have a leg to stand on.
“Charlotte, huh?” Layla asked, gamely smiling down at Lucy once more. It was a lot more strained this time, Sutton noted, and she knew it killed Layla to bite back her initial reaction.
“Yup!” Lucy answered, blissfully oblivious to her mother’s slight changes in tone. “And then we got cookies and hot cocoa!”
That muscle in Layla’s cheek twitched, but she maintained her grin. “That sounds like so much fun, sweetie.”
“It was,” Lucy confirmed. “Can Anha sleep over this weekend?” she asked, smiling widely and guilelessly up at Layla.
Layla cleared her throat. “Uh… well, I’d have to check with her parents?” She sent Sutton a questing look.
“Her mother’s cell number is on the email we got in September from Lucy’s teacher,” Sutton informed her, though it didn’t shock her that Layla likely hadn’t looked at that email since she’d received it.
“Then I’ll call her,” Layla confirmed.
Sutton wasn’t quite certain if Lucy was asking for a sleepover because she knew she could likely ask for anything right now from Layla or if she’d have asked anyway. At the end of the day, that wasn’t really her business anymore.
And when Lucy pumped her fists in the air in excitement, she also didn’t really care. “I love you, honey.”
“I love you, Mama.” Lucy turned to hug her waist.
Sutton stroked her hands over her daughter’s soft hair in return. “I’ll see you in a couple days.”
“Okay! Bye!” she unceremoniously shouted as she disengaged from her, charged past Layla, and ran into her house.
They both watched her disappear down the hallway before Layla turned to Sutton with an arched eyebrow, the smiling façade dropped entirely. “Charlotte went to Lucy’s show-and-tell? Was that just going to be a surprise for me this afternoon when I arrived?”
Bristling, Sutton crossed her arms. “Charlotte only showed up today because there was an unexpected vacancy in the schedule. It was wonderful to have the company at this sort of thing.” She didn’t actually voice thefor onceshe wanted to add, but she knew Layla picked up on it.
And she looked suitably chastised. Well, as much as Layla ever did.
Sutton watched as Layla looked beyond her, down at Sutton’s car parked at the curb. Right where Charlotte sat in the passenger seat.
“It seems this is getting more serious than some sort ofworking relationship, then,” Layla surmised quietly.
