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“Charlie! Uncle Cash…I need down…” The girl was squirming on the horse, and Cash helped her down so she could run, arms wide, toward Charlotte. The image made her chest twist. She knelt down and opened her arms, and Gracie ran into them. The spot in Charlotte’s mind that was void of any interaction or know-how with kids didn’t seem to be mocking her at the moment. Gracie made it easy to feel comfortable.
“Wanna ride horses?” Gracie asked her.
“Oh, I can’t today, but maybe some other time.”
“Tomorrow?”
Charlotte smiled. “I wish I could. Grammy is doing better, but if I’m not there to help, she’ll try to take care of the garden and milk Wynonna by herself.”
“The weekend?” Gracie said.
“The weekend sounds good,” Charlotte agreed.
“Hang on, you can’t, Gracie. You have your troop pancake breakfast,” Tripp interjected.
“Oh,” Gracie said, and her shoulders slumped. Then popped her head up, her little curls bouncing when she smiled at Charlotte. “Wanna come to the pancake breakfast?”
Charlotte’s eyes went wide. She glanced at Tripp, but he gave no sign whether the invitation was okay. Charlotte just said she could make the weekend work, and truly, she wanted to be there for Gracie.
“Sure,” she said. “I can come.” All she had to do was apply for more jobs online and continue to help Grammy. The former was getting increasingly important, since she still had no income lined up for when she left.
“Woo-hoo!” Gracie shouted and jumped.
“Looks like that’s a yes,” Tripp said.
Charlotte smiled. So there was another date, this weekend.
“Daddy makes the best pancakes,” Gracie said. “All the moms love his pancakes the most.”
Charlotte couldn’t help it—she laughed. “I just bet they do.”
Tripp coughed. “All right, time to go,” he said. Gracie hugged her again and scampered back to Cash.
“You make the best pancakes, huh?” Charlotte asked Tripp when they were out of earshot near her car.
“The troop needs parent volunteers. They do this every summer at the town square.”
“Over by the train station?”
/> “That’s the one,” he said.
“The whole town will be there?”
“Most of it. The pancake breakfast is hosted by a bunch of local clubs. Gracie’s troop is manning a station. Well, the parents are.”
She smiled up at him. “That’s wonderful. You’re very involved.”
She thought of her own father and couldn’t even remember the color of his eyes, much less other involvement. And her mom never cared beyond Charlotte’s being alive, and even then, that was a stretch. She got a check every month from the government assistance department, and that was it. Extracurricular activities weren’t a thing.
Tripp was nothing like what she knew parents to be.
“Thank you for a nice night,” Charlotte said.
“You’re welcome.” He didn’t lean in, didn’t give any sign of a hug or any gesture good-bye. He just opened her car door, and she got in. She didn’t know how to feel, other than confused at the warring emotions. She didn’t expect him to lay a kiss on her in front of Gracie, but it was clear that Gracie liked her. That counted for something right?
Counted for what?
She no longer knew.
