She was so earnest in that moment, soSutton, that Charlotte felt a piece of her melt. An… unfamiliar feeling with a child. She acquiesced and took the book. “That’s very sweet, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Lucy said back, as if it was so natural and easy to be so instinctively kind. Maybe for her it was; she was Sutton’s daughter, after all.
The next hour found them playing the Nintendo Switch Charlotte had purchased and subsequently hooked up to the television in the living room.
Lucy’s eyes had widened as soon as she’d looked into the bag and seen what else she’d brought. “Mario Kart! I love Mario Kart!”
“Do you already have it?” Damn it, should she have gone with another recommendation?
“Um, no,” Lucy answered distractedly as she hugged the box—longer than her short little torso—against herself. She was newly donned in a pair of Winnie the Pooh pajamas. “My friend Malia has it, and we play at her house! I like to be Toad.”
Charlotte had no earthly idea what that meant in the moment, but she felt a sense of victorious pride that wouldn’t be quelled. She was killing this whole babysitting thing. “You want to be… a toad?”
Lucy laughed loudly, leaning her whole body against Charlotte’s arm as she kicked her legs out. “You’re so silly. Notatoad. Toad!”
Ah, well that explained everything, didn’t it?
Charlotte spent the following twenty minutes hooking the gaming system up to the TV and figuring out how to work the controllers before she learned what it meant to beToad.
Though she’d never played a video game, her competitive nature certainly kicked in. Especially after Lucy beat her in the first cup.
She’d dropped her little hand to Charlotte’s knee and patted her there, wide eyes looking up at her as she’d said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get better.”
And somehow, the touch and the words made that competitive edge take a little break.
As they played, she learned all about Lucy’s other hobbies: how she enjoyed skateboarding because her uncle Ethan brought her on his skateboard when she was four and it had been so much fun; she’d giggled through the entire story in the sweetest way. How she’dreallywanted to paint her room half blue and half orange, but Sutton had made her choose one, with the promise that they could repaint two years to the next color of her choice. How her aunties Regan and Emma had come over and helped paint and Regan had then had dabbed a color of paint on Sutton’s cheek when she hadn’t been expecting it, which had beenso funny.
Lucy exhaled in a big yawn after their third cup, leaning back against the couch, using one little fist to rub her eye.
“That wasreallyfun,” Lucy said, nodding with it after taking a moment. “Maybe you can come back and we can play again?” She looked at Charlotte, more alert after voicing the idea. She turned and reached out to take the plastic cup she’d been drinking juice from, holding it with both hands as she sat back on the couch, sipping as she watched Charlotte, clearly waiting for a response.
“Oh, I’m not taking the Switch with me,” Charlotte said, turning slightly to face her.
Blue eyes widened as Lucy jerked the cup away from her mouth. Charlotte’s own eyes widened as the liquid hit the brim but then settled back. “Really? Is it for me? Is it gonna stay here? That’smine?!”
The excitement seemed to perk her right back up, and Charlotte smiled at it, a little caught up herself at having caused it. “Of course.”
But then she realized… Sutton didn’t have any of these systems? Shit. Was Lucy not allowed to have video games? Had she just committed some sort of babysitting taboo?
But as she looked down into the sweet little face that seemed like Sutton’s in miniature, with some added freckles, she found she couldn’t take it back. Itshouldbe simple, she thought. She’d outright fought with key world leaders at this point, gone toe to toe with some people who held more power than a person probably ever should.
Saying no to a child shouldn’t be that difficult.
And yet…
“I’ll just”—she cleared her throat—“talk about it with your mom when she comes home.”
Lucy nodded sagely at her, wide-eyed and still grinning from ear to ear. “Thank youso much, Charlotte! You’re thebest!”
In an action that seemed too quick to be plausible, Lucy had pushed up on her knees and launched forward—Charlotte presumed to give her a hug?
Only to send her juice all over Charlotte’s lap.
The wet splash had Charlotte sitting stock-still, and Lucy froze with it, too. She went back to grasping her cup with two hands, her mouth open as she stared at Charlotte. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Charlotte was gamely trying to hold back a grimace. The sticky juice had completely seeped into her Armani pants, and she hesitated to text Sutton.
Lucy had oh so carefully placed her cup on the table before hopping off the couch and running into, well, somewhere else in the house. She’d been out of the living room like a flash; she really could move like lightning.
