Chapter Twelve
Errands complete, Charlotte found herself the proud owner of a new hose and sprinkler for the garden, a sun hat, and more sunscreen. She headed toward Gracie’s troop meeting, brown bag in hand. The building was close to where she’d met Tripp the first time all those weeks ago.
Gracie ran straight for her, but Amber’s mom headed her off at the door. “Do you have authority to pick up this child?” the woman asked Charlotte.
“Yes,” Gracie answered for her. “She’s my daddy’s friend. And my friend, too.”
Amber’s mom clearly didn’t like that at all. She opened her mouth, likely to chew Charlotte out, when Erica hustled over.
“Thank you again for your help at the pancake breakfast,” she said, squeezing Charlotte’s hand.
Wow. Without Bo around, Erica was super nice, the poor guy. Charlotte smiled back. “I was happy to help.”
That exchange seemed to quash Amber’s mom’s attitude. Feeling victorious, Charlotte put her arm around Gracie and led her out.
“Oooh! Can we get ice cream?” Gracie asked, pointing at the ice cream shop across the street.
“Absolutely,” Charlotte said. They headed over, and Gracie looked over every option carefully.
“I don’t know what to get.”
“Try samples, that helps me make up my mind,” Charlotte offered, juggling the paper bag into one arm.
Gracie asked for tiny spoons of pralines and cream, chocolate, and strawberry before finally deciding on bubble gum ice cream in a cone. Charlotte paid, and they headed back to the car.
Her phone started ringing as she buckled Gracie in. Terrified Grammy was hurt, she shut Gracie’s door and dug the phone out of her purse. “Oh, thank God,” she said, seeing the out-of-area number.
“Hello?”
“Hi, is this Charlotte Gram?”
“Yes.”
“Hi Miss Gram, I’m Letty Bates at the Ashton Firm. We absolutely love your portfolio, so I’m calling to offer you the website design job here at our firm.”
Charlotte gasped and nearly fell off the curb. Her dream company wanted…her?
“Wow, that’s…wonderful.”
“We were very impressed with your résumé as well. If you’re interested, we’d love for you to come in tomorrow and start the paperwork.”
She looked at Gracie in the backseat of the car, happily licking her ice cream cone. “I’m out of town at the moment. May I call you back tomorrow?”
“Of course!”
After exchanging information, Charlotte hung up and drove toward Tripp’s ranch. There was going to be a bigger discussion than she ever would have thought of having today, because while she was excited about this job and what it meant for her career, she needed to know if maybe there was a small chance Tripp had other ideas. She may not tick any of the boxes necessary to be what he and Gracie needed, but if he gave her some sort of sign, some hesitation, a single reason to throw away her dream job to explore what it’d mean to be in his family, she’d stay in Wyoming.
Permanently.
…
“There’s my girl,” Tripp said as Gracie hopped out of the car and dashed toward the arena. He chuckled and headed for Charlotte, who was climbing out of the driver’s seat.
It’d been a huge deal for him to let her pick up Gracie. She probably had no idea how huge, but he’d done it. And it felt good. Good enough that he was already considering when he might let it happen again.
She looked a little frazzled but not unhappy. He chuckled to himself. Little kids were a bigger handful than most people thought—especially kids with as much energy as Gracie. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I was just hoping to talk to you.”
He looked over his shoulder. Gracie was already at the arena in front of the house, sharing her ice cream cone with Sparkles.
“Okay.” He led Charlotte to the porch, and he sat next to her. “What’s on your mind?”
“Um, a lot. But it’s all jumbled and I wanted to talk to you and I don’t know where to start or even what to say.”
Tripp’s blood pressure kicked up a notch. This was either going to be bad news or good news. There was no in between, and he felt it.
Charlotte blew out a breath and looked at him. “I like you,” she said.
He smiled. “I like you, too.”
“No, I mean, I really like you.”
His smile got bigger. He was liking the sound of this, but he forced himself to stay quiet so she could finish what she was trying to say.
“I got a job offer, a great job offer, back in L.A.”
His face fell and his temples started pounding. There was a shift in the air that made his gut instantly ache. This was good-bye. He’d felt it before. And Charlotte was going to sit there and try to justify it to him. “I see,” he said, hearing the ice in his words.
Her eyes went wide. “No, I mean, it’s great for my career and it’s exactly what I’ve been wanting, but—”
“Daddy…” Gracie called in a weird voice. “Daddy, something’s wrong…”
Tripp shot up and rushed to where Gracie was climbing the steps. “What’s wrong, baby girl?” he asked, but instantly saw what it was. Her bottom lip was swollen to twice its size.
“Jesus,” he said, looking her over. “Can you breathe? Is your tongue swelling?”
“No,” Gracie said. “I can breathe a lot.”
But Tripp was too panicked to wrap his brain around the last five minutes. He looked at her ice cream cone. “What is this?”
“Bubble gum,” Gracie said.
“What did you eat today?” he demanded.
“Just my lunch you made,” she said.
“What’s going on?” Charlotte asked from behind Tripp.
“Her lip is swelling. It’s an allergic reaction, but she’s only allergic to certain nuts.”
He looked Gracie over, and while her lip was swollen, her breath and tongue were okay. Still, he wanted to take her to the ER to be sure. He heard horror stories all the time about “if parents would have just taken their kid to the doctor…”
“Come on, baby, we’re going to the ER.”
“Wait. Oh my God…” Charlotte said. “Tripp, I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
He looked at her. “What?”
“The ice cream shop. We had samples. One was chestnut. No, not chestnut. Pralines and cream.”
His blood ran cold. The one time he let a woman take his daughter, this happened.
He scooped up Gracie and put her in his truck at the speed of light. How could he have been so stupid? To think this would ever work? To think Charlotte would ever stick around? She’d been on the brink of telling him she was leaving back to the city and now he had to take his daughter to the emergency room.
If he weren’t so pissed and so panicked, he would have noticed the awful pain in his chest where his heart was supposed to be.
He started the truck, leaving Charlotte behind.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Is she okay?” she was yelling.
Tripp rolled down his window, everything inside him screaming to hurt her before she hurt him more than she already had. “Don’t concern yourself. You’re not her mother, and it’s my fault for letting you believe you ever could be.”
With that, he skidded out of the drive away, leaving her in the dust.
Charlotte wiped a hand over her eyes and packed her bags as fast as she could.
“What’s going on in here?” Grammy said, her walking cast making a thunking sound on the bedroom floor. Princess Peanut Butter trotted in behind her, her ears on alert.
“I’m leaving. I’m sorry, Grammy. I have to go now.” She felt hysterical and didn’t know what to do. What if she really hurt Gracie?
God, she couldn’t bear it.
“Hang on now,” her grandmother said calmly, and tugged Charlotte to sit down on the bed. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Princess immediately shoved her way between them and put her big head on Charlotte’s lap. Charlotte couldn’t help the tremor in her voice. “I didn’t know Gracie was allergic to pralines. I…I gave her ice cream. I’m so worried. I want to go to the hospital, but Tripp hates me. He’d never let me near her. I just want to know she’s okay.” The words, the fear, the guilt…it all started spilling out and she couldn’t gather her composure.
“Oh, honey, Gracie will be just fine. She had pralines when she was a baby. One of my cookies, actually. Her lip swelled just a little and that’s it. The doctor said she had a mild allergy.”
“Really?” Charlotte asked, cool relief washing over her. “She’ll be okay?”
Grammy patted her knee. “Of course she will.”
But Tripp had been so angry. So worried, and rightfully so.
“I would never hurt Gracie. I didn’t know she had an allergy.”
“Of course you didn’t,” Grammy assured her. “And Tripp knows that. I’m sure he’s just worried and overreacted as he always does when it comes to Gracie, but everything will be fine.”
Charlotte shook her head. “I don’t think it will.”
Grammy just cupped her cheek. “What’s wrong, honey?”
“I’m not mother material. I can’t be with Tripp or Gracie. It’s better that I go.”
“That’s not true. Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’m sure Tripp thinks you’re wonderful.”
“Tripp is the one who told me so.”
Grammy was quiet. Dead quiet. Just like Charlotte’s soul. Nothing could change the fact that Tripp had just made it clear Charlotte would never be more to him or to Gracie. That hesitation she was hoping for? That glimmer of more from him? Gone. She had her answer. Knew there was nothing for her here. She had Grammy and she’d visit, but she didn’t belong there. And Tripp sure as hell didn’t want her.
Her heart couldn’t take one more person she loved not wanting her.
“Oh God…” she whispered. “I love him.”
Grammy gave her a hug. “I know, honey.”
“I’m sorry, Gram. I can’t stay here.”
Her gram nodded. And all Charlotte could do was hug her and Princess Peanut Butter and try like hell not to the let massive hole in her heart split open any further.