“I would never watch a child out of obligation.” The words slipped out of her mouth quickly, but, well, they were true.
Sutton laughed, the apprehension disappearing from her face with it. “That’s a good point.”
“Who was supposed to be watching her tonight?” Charlotte couldn’t help but ask. Sheknewthat Sutton knew Emma, Regan, and her other babysitter wouldn’t be available, and she must have had other arrangements.
“It was supposed to be Arianne, Layla’s wife,” she explained, pulling a slightly tight expression. “Layla is on call tonight in the ER, but Arianne was unexpectedly called into a surgery as well. I suppose it’s hard to be upset with that.”
Charlotte’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “Not really.”
Again, Sutton laughed, pushing at Charlotte’s shoulder with her own. “The downsides of co-parenting with surgeons, I suppose.” She lingered closely, though, still smiling, and Charlotte reveled in it. Sutton’s gaze dipped to the bags she was carrying. “What are those?”
Charlotte’s hold tightened as she resolutely did not look down. “Just some kid-friendly fun.”
The look Sutton gave her was utterly ludicrous. “What kind of kid-friendly fun? Lucy has so many toys; you didn’t have to bring anything.”
Charlotte winked. “Better safe than sorry.”
Truly, though.
Sutton’s incredulous expression hardly faded, though she didn’t seem to have anything else to say. “All right. Well, I should be leaving soon. Lucy is washing up. I told her you’d be coming, and she was very excited.”
“She was?” Charlotte asked, the surprise pushing through her.
Sutton chuckled again. “I told you before. You are onthe television. That makes you very high up on her cool-person list.”
Charlotte admittedly puffed out her chest at that, even if it felt ridiculous. What did it matter if a six-year-old thought she was cool?
Then again—she gazed at Sutton for a beat—this six-year-old’s opinion did matter.
“She’s already had dinner. There’s a drawer in the pantry for Lucy-appropriate snacks—you’ll know which one it is,” Sutton assured her. “Since it’s a school night, she should be in bed by eight-thirty. She might fuss about it, but she’ll be exhausted not too much later than that, so she should be easy.”
Charlotte nodded, cataloguing every piece of information.
“If you need me, you know where to reach me. My phone is fully charged, I’m less than an hour away, and when it comes to Lucy, my volume is on, too,” Sutton informed her as she reached for her jacket.
A fissure of nerves pushed through Charlotte as she reached out quickly. “Wait, that’s it? That’s all? You aren’t going to tell me the exact bedtime routine or allergies or doctors’ numbers or?—”
The list of things she’d thought about on the way over rolled off her tongue.
Sutton cut her off with only a look. A gentle look. One of softness and amusement and… something sweet in there, too.
“Charlotte, I wouldn’t let you watch Lucy if I didn’t trust you.”
“You trust me,” she repeated, feeling uncharacteristically stupid. It felt nice to hear, yet still it wasshocking, considering, well, everything in their history.
Sutton hesitated before she nodded. “I trust that if something was going to happen to my daughter, you would handle it. My actual biggest fear is that you would call the National Guard for a very minor problem and that we will be on the next news story.”
Charlotte pursed her lips. “Very funny.”
It wasn’tnotin the realm of possibilities…
Sutton seemed to know it and grinned at her again. Her smile was full of warmth, with just a tinge of mischief. “I am kind of looking forward to seeing how you handle this, I’ll be honest.”
Charlotte’s eyebrows lifted nearly into her hair. “Is this some sort of challenge?”
“Charlotte Thompson versus Lucy Spencer-West. Both enter. Will they both survive?” Sutton challenged before breaking into a sweet laugh. “I find it very nice to be your friend again, Charlotte.”
God. Yeah. That word… The huge positives behind it and the longing she had formoretwisted inside of her, even as she nodded.