AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Glancing over her shoulder, Charli saw that it was Blake. She tried to ignore the jump of her pulse and the way the air seemed to momentarily vanish from her lungs.
Why were her reactions when she saw Blake the same as they’d been twelve years ago? Where was her hurt and anger? She needed them to keep these other emotions at bay.
She focused back on the contents of the trunk as she heard the truck door open. And after she’d handed Layla the hula hoops, she heard her enthusiastically greet Amelia.
“Do you need a hand?” Blake asked after the girls had run off to greet Peyton.
Charli wanted to tell him no, but that would clearly be a lie since she’d then have to either struggle to carry everything herself in one go or make two trips. “Sure. That would be great.”
“What do you want me to carry?” he asked.
“The cooler bag is the heavier one.” She stepped back, watching as Blake leaned into the back of her car and lifted the bag out, his T-shirt stretching across his shoulders. “Thanks. You can just set it on the picnic table.”
Charli grabbed the bin, then shut the hatch. When she turned, she realized that Blake had waited for her.
What was she supposed to do? Tell him to go on without her and then stand there for a minute like an idiot before following him?
Looking like an idiot was out of the question, so Charli fell into step beside Blake as they walked across the grass to where the others were.
“Would I be able to talk to you?”
No… “About Amelia?”
“Well, if you think we need to talk about her, then definitely,” Blake said. “But I’d also like to speak to you about what happened… before.”
“That’s in the past,” she told him, her heart pounding. The last thing she wanted was to talk about that time because she was afraid that he might ask about Layla. “I don’t think we need to have a conversation about it.”
“If that’s your decision, I’ll respect it.” Charli felt a swell of relief at his words. “But if you change your mind, I’d be very grateful for the opportunity to talk about everything.”
Since they were just steps away from the picnic table, Charli didn’t say anything further. However, the conversation continued to play in her head, and not all of the versions her brain came up with were her saying no to what Blake wanted.
“Everything okay?” Janessa asked as she came to stand next to Charli at the picnic table.
Thankfully, Blake had set the bag down, then moved on to where Jay and Will were standing.
“Yep. Why?”
“It looked like you and Blake were having an intense conversation.”
“Intense?” She supposed that from a distance it hadn’t looked like a friendly interaction. But that’s because it hadn’t been.
“Was it about Amelia?”
“He is concerned about her making friends in my class.”
“And she isn’t?”
“Not really. Not yet. Perhaps after this weekend, that might change since I’m sure she had a couple of my students with her in Julia’s Sunday school class.”
“Layla seems to have taken her under her wing,” Janessa said, turning her gaze to where the girls and Peyton were trying to make the hula hoops work. “Too bad they aren’t in the same grade.”
“Yeah.” Only that would have been impossible.
“Maybe she could at least hang out with Peyton at recess.”
Charli nodded as she opened the freezer bag and set the potato salad and the tub of butter on the picnic table. Then she zipped the bag back up and set it under the table, out of the sun, in hopes that the popsicles wouldn’t melt.
“I think he might be interested in you,” Janessa murmured.
