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“Oh, sweetie, I have an appointment in Coeur d’Alene at three,” Julia said. “But I could try to reschedule.”
“No. Don’t worry about it. I think Charli would probably be willing to keep an eye on her until I’m able to get her.” If not, he might have to run and pick Amelia up and then have her sit in the garage office while he finished out his workday.
After he ended the call with his aunt, Blake looked up the information for the school. He didn’t know if Charli checked her email throughout the day, so he decided he’d better contact the office.
When the receptionist answered, Blake said, “Hi. I have a child in Charli Halverson’s class, and I was wondering if I could have a message passed to her. It’s rather time sensitive.”
“She’s on her lunch at the moment, but I’ll see if I can get her for you.”
He was on hold for a minute, then Charli came on the line.
“Hi Charli, it’s Blake,” he said after she answered. “I’m sorry to disturb your lunch hour, but I’m wondering if you’d be able to take Amelia home with you after school.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” she
“Thank you so much. I really appreciate that,” Blake told her. “Stan asked if I could stay until closing since one of the guys here got sick. We have a couple of cars we’re trying to finish up before the weekend.”
“I’m sure the owners will be happy about that. I can meet you at the bowling alley with her, if you want.”
The plan was to grab dinner at the bowling alley. Jessica had texted him for his pizza order to place ahead of time since they were going to be a fairly sizeable group.
“That would be great. Once I’m done here, I’ll need to run home and change, then I’ll meet you all at the bowling alley.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you there.”
“Yep. Thanks again.”
Once the call ended, Blake lowered his phone from his ear, then stared at it. Their interaction had felt so… normal. The awkwardness of previous interactions had been missing. Most likely because it centered on her job in relation to Amelia.
Whatever the reason, he was grateful.
“Everything okay?” Stan asked.
“Oh.” Blake looked up from his phone. “Yep. Amelia’s teacher said she’d take Amelia home with her since we’re meeting up at the same place later for supper.”
“You’re friends with the Halversons, eh?” Stan said.
“Yep. Charli’s daughter and Jay’s son have befriended Amelia, so we’ve been spending quite a bit of time with them. Jackson is also a good friend of Gareth’s, so they’ve been good about including us in various activities. Tonight, we’re going bowling.”
“Have fun,” Stan said with a laugh. “I haven’t been bowling in a long time. Not since my boys were young.”
Because they had a lot of work still to do, they quickly wrapped up their lunch, then returned to the cars they had to finish before the end of the day.
When five o’clock rolled around, the cars had been repaired and picked up, and Blake was free to go. He didn’t linger, heading right to the apartment so he could take a quick shower and change.
He hoped that Amelia was doing okay.
There was no reason she shouldn’t be, but he usually prepared her for any change to their plans, which he hadn’t been able to do this time. Also, he hoped she was okay wearing what she’d worn to school that day since she hadn’t had the chance to come home and change her clothes.
His anticipation of the evening had been relatively high, given that it meant being able to spend more time with Charli and the others. After their positive conversation earlier that day, he was looking forward to their evening together even more.
Which probably wasn’t a good thing. However, he hoped that perhaps, in time, he and Charli would get to the point of being friendly acquaintances, if not friends.
Blake didn’t dare extend that hope for anything more, though. He might be a lot of things, but he’d like to think he wasn’t stupid enough to get his hopes up about something that was unlikely to ever happen.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Charli held hands with both Layla and Amelia as they walked across the parking lot toward the doors of the bowling alley. The large building stood alone in a parking lot on the edge of town. Though there was another bowling alley in the town, this was the one they’d frequented the most as teenagers.
