Would tomorrow be the test she failed to prove to Tripp, and to herself, that she really was in over her head?
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.