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“We’ll go,” Will said. “I never turn down ice cream.”
“What if I want to go home?” Janessa asked.
“I wouldn’t believe you.” Will grinned. “You never turn down ice cream either.”
“Okay. Fine.”
“Are you coming too, Jackson?” Will asked.
Jackson glanced at Blake, then said, “Yep. Ice cream for the win.”
With that, they made their way down the bleachers. The majority of people had already exited the gym. The few who lingered were most likely the parents of the players who were still gathered around Jay.
“I’ll send you the address, Blake,” Will said as they reached the parking lot. “It’s not too far from here.”
“Nothing is too far from anywhere here,” Blake replied.
Will laughed. “Yeah. True.”
Charli headed for her car with Layla, hoping that agreeing to go to the ice cream parlor hadn’t been a mistake. But she needed to stop thinking just about herself. Going for ice cream clearly meant a lot to Amelia, and Charli was pretty sure that it wasn’t just because she wanted another treat.
She wasn’t blind to how Amelia seemed to blossom when she was around Layla and Peyton. Though the little girl was finally finding that connection with a couple of the girls in their class, she still seemed most at ease with Layla and Peyton. Her smiles came more quickly and were bigger when she was around them.
“I wish Skylar was still here,” Layla said as Charli drove to the ice cream parlor. “I miss her cheering.”
“I’m sure she misses cheering, too.”
Skylar had graduated the previous spring, and she was now off at college. Surprisingly, she hadn’t chosen to go to the same college as her boyfriend and Cole.
Though Skylar hadn’t said it yet, Charli thought that maybe they’d broken up. She just hoped that if they had, it was Skylar’s choice, and that Adrian hadn’t ghosted her like Blake had done to her.
Not that Adrian could get away with that the way Blake had been able to. Since he was best friends with Cole, it was likely that Cole would always know where Adrian was. Plus, Adrian’s immediate family still lived in Serenity and went to the same church as the Halversons. He wouldn’t be able to slip out of Skylar’s life as easily as Blake had slipped out of hers.
The ice cream parlor wasn’t full, so they had no problem snagging enough seats for all of them after pulling together a couple of tables. There were a few other people there, but since the temperatures had turned more autumnal, ice cream didn’t appear to be as popular.
The next little while was spent getting everyone settled with their choice of ice cream. The kids chose to sit at the counter, while the rest of them gathered around the tables. Jay had arrived right as they were sitting down, and once he had his ice cream, he sat down beside Misha.
Charli was trying to ignore the fact that she and Blake had ended up sitting next to each other. Jackson was on her other side, while Janessa and Will sat opposite her.
When Jay glanced at her, then Blake, and smiled, Charli realized that perhaps Misha had set this up—with the stamp of approval from her husband. That was probably the reason for asking in front of the kids, knowing the parents wouldn’t be able to say no to them. She narrowed her gaze at Jay, but he just lifted his brows.
What on earth were Jay and Misha thinking?
She knew that Jay and Will had been getting close to Blake, which was fine. However, she wasn’t on board with the matchmaking. Several of her siblings had tried to set her up over the years—though not so much recently. None of those attempts had been successful.
Jay had never tried before, so she wondered how much was him, or if Misha had decided that it was time for Charli to have a chance at a relationship. Regardless of who or why they had gotten to this point, this attempt wasn’t going to be successful either.
“How do you feel Amelia is adjusting to life in Serenity, Blake?” Misha asked.
Blake scooped up a spoonful of his ice cream—chocolate peanut butter, which is what she remembered him liking twelve years ago—and took his time answering. Charli wished she could read his mind.
“She seems happy here,” Blake finally said.
“That’s wonderful,” Misha told him.
“It is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her as happy as she’s been over the past few weeks.”
“Serenity has a way of doing that,” Jay said. “It took awhile, but Peyton will also tell you that he’s super happy here now, even though he wasn’t when he first came to Serenity.”
