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Misha laughed. “I’m quite sure you’re right. But I’ll enjoy the years between now and then by smiling at Layla.”
Jay and Blake were walking ahead of them, with Jay carrying Ciara. It had been so interesting to watch Jay grow into being a great father. And now, a great husband. Charli was proud of him, and the things he’d accomplished in his personal life over the past few years.
Charli had helped Jay when Peyton had first arrived to live with him, but he didn’t need her help now. He and Misha had created a stable home for both of their children.
“Do you want some, Mom?” Layla asked as she held out the mound of cotton candy on a stick.
“Sure.” Charli had a bit of a sweet tooth, but the cotton candy was almost too sweet. Even for her. Still, she took a small bite, enjoying the way it melted on her tongue. “Thanks, sweetie.”
While the kids ate their cotton candy, they continued to walk around the field. They paused to talk to other kids and their parents. It wasn’t just Charli they talked to, though she knew them all from having taught their kids at one time or another. Many spent a few minutes speaking with Jay and Misha, too. Until their kids pulled them away from the conversation.
Blake stuck with them, likely because Amelia seemed happy to hang with Layla and Peyton. It was too bad that one of them wasn’t in her grade, but at least Peyton was still at the school so he could maybe look out for her at recess.
Layla had voiced more than once that she missed being at the elementary school. Not because she missed Charli, however. Nope. She missed hanging out with Peyton and a couple of other friends who were in the lower grades.
“Thanks a lot for letting us stick with you guys,” Blake said when they finally decided it was time to leave. “This is the happiest I’ve seen Amelia since moving here.”
“It was great to have you both around. Maybe we’ll see you on Sunday.”
“We’ll probably be there,” Blake said.
Charli was torn about how she felt about that prospect. She agreed with Jay that attending Sunday school might be good for Amelia. However, she’d rather not have Blake at yet another place where she regularly spent time.
Jay insisted on exchanging numbers with Blake. “Give me a call if you need anything.”
Charli didn’t feel inclined to do the same. Blake already had a way to contact her. He didn’t need her phone number on top of that. As she watched him talk with Jay, she knew that she really needed to have less contact with the man, not more.
As Blake took Amelia’s hand after she said goodbye to Layla and Peyton, he glanced at Charli. That brief meeting of gazes made her heart race, and her breath caught in her chest in anticipation of Blake addressing her directly.
But he didn’t.
After what felt like a long, drawn-out moment, Blake gave her a quick nod, then turned his attention to Amelia as they walked away. The tightness in her chest eased, but completely unwanted disappointment filled her.
“Do you have Layla’s stuff with you?” Misha asked. “Or should we swing by the house?”
Charli had given permission for Layla to spend the night at Jay and Misha’s. Denise would be watching the kids the next day while the couple went to work at the clinic.
“Yep. Everything is in the car,” Charli said as they made their way from the carnival area to where they’d parked.
When school had ended earlier, Denise had picked up Layla and Peyton from their schools, then gone to the house with all three kids. Charli had swung by the clinic to get Jay, since Misha needed to stay a bit later, then they’d gone to the house to grab the kids.
At the car, Charli handed Jay the small suitcase that contained Layla’s things, then hugged Layla. “See you tomorrow, sweetheart. Be good for Uncle Jay and Aunt Misha.”
“I will. Love you.”
“I love you too.”
When she let herself into her house a few minutes later, quiet greeted her. Usually Friday evenings meant guests for pizza night, but since she, Jay, and Misha had planned to go to the carnival with the kids, everyone who usually came had made other plans.
She assumed that Janessa and Will had gone on a date somewhere, which normally would have been fine. Except that evening, without them there, she had nothing to distract her from her thoughts as she puttered around the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher.
At one point, all her tangled emotions surged to the surface, and Charli was horrified to find tears pricking at her eyes. It had been a long time since she’d cried over something that wasn’t in a book or a movie.
Crying over Blake, though? That had been even longer. She’d decided not long after Layla was born that Blake didn’t deserve her tears. After how he’d treated her, he wasn’t entitled to them.
That was still true.
However, the time at the carnival had given her a glimpse of what things might have been like had they ended up together.
