Summer on Blossom Street (Blossom Street #6)(66)

“Go on, Tim,” Anne Marie said. “I’ll stay here.”

“Aren’t you coming in, too?” he asked, sounding disappointed.

“Maybe later,” she said, kicking off her sandals and taking out a paperback novel she’d been looking forward to reading. “I’ll hold down the fort,” she told him, sitting cross-legged on the blanket. They’d been fortunate enough to secure a place on the grassy area in front of the water.

He jerked the T-shirt over his head, tossed it onto the blanket and ran to the wave pool. She couldn’t help noticing that he had an impressive physique, with sculpted muscles and broad shoulders. He probably worked out, but he wasn’t excessively muscular with that weight-lifter look she hated. He joined in the girls’

antics as if he were nine years old all over again. Anne Marie did make an effort to read. Soon, however, she abandoned all pretense of following the story and spent her time watching Tim and the girls.

“This is silly,” she muttered and stripped off her T-shirt and shorts. She waded into the pool. The shock of the cool water made her gasp, but after a minute or two she’d adjusted to the temperature. The wave machine, which was periodically turned off, wasn’t on just then.

Ellen and Hallie rushed toward her, and Anne Marie instinctively held up her hands. “I’d like to keep my hair from getting—”

She didn’t have a chance to finish before two teenage boys nearby decided to have a water f ight. Caught between them, Anne Marie was drenched within seconds. Her hair hung in wet tendrils about her face. She wiped her eyes, blinking to clear them of water. So much for that idea.

“You want me to splash them back?” Tim asked, making no effort to disguise his amusement. “I’ll defend your honor.”

Anne Marie played along, clasping her hands and batting her lashes outrageously. “My hero!”

“Mom, watch!” Ellen shouted and dove underwater. In a few seconds, she’d thrust her skinny legs into the air as she stood on her hands. She surfaced and shoved the wet hair out of her eyes.

“Did you see? Did you see?”

“I didn’t realize you were so agile,” Anne Marie teased.

“What’s agile? ” Hallie asked.

“Limber,” Tim explained.

Hallie exchanged a blank look with Ellen.

“It means I’m talented,” Ellen said.

“So am I!” Hallie imitated the trick and a moment later both girls were upside down.

A bell rang, indicating that the waves were about to start again. When Anne Marie had watched earlier, she thought it looked tame enough—at least from the sidelines.

“Get back, Mom,” Ellen warned.

“I’m f ine,” Anne Marie said.

Standing near the “shore” with both girls, Tim called out,

“You might want to move to the shallow end.”

“Would you two cut it out?” Anne Marie said as the f irst wave hit her. She was swept off her feet and went tumbling through the water. She came up choking and sputtering to the sounds of Tim, Ellen and Hallie roaring with laughter.

“Very funny,” Anne Marie managed to say. Clutching her throat, she made a show of choking. Soon Ellen and Hallie were pounding her on the back.

Anne Marie’s biggest concern was that the girls not get sunburned. Throughout the afternoon she repeatedly slathered them with sunblock. Returning the favor, Ellen rubbed the lotion on Anne Marie’s back. At one point, Anne Marie caught Tim watching her—and suspected he would’ve enjoyed being the one to rub her back. It was a good feeling and she held on to it for several minutes.

They stayed at the park until after f ive and although the girls were bone-weary, they protested when Tim announced it was time to leave. In order to buy peace, Tim offered them dinner at McDonald’s. They stopped at one close to the park, and Tim purchased cheeseburgers, fries and milkshakes for everyone. Anne Marie couldn’t remember having such a good appetite in years. She relished every bite of her burger and drank every drop of her milkshake.

When she’d f inished her meal, Anne Marie felt completely relaxed, completely content. While the girls explored the playground, she and Tim sat in the booth, chatting.

“Thank you. That was a lot of fun,” she said. “I didn’t intend to go in the water but I’m glad I did.”

His gaze held hers for an extra-long moment. “I’m glad you did, too.”

Anne Marie smiled. “I didn’t have much of a choice, did I?”

The girls would eventually have dragged her into the water, one way or another.

Tim glanced at Ellen, who’d clambered to the top of a huge red slide. “She’s terrif ic, isn’t she? So conf ident and naturally charming…”

Anne Marie nodded, enjoying the opportunity to see her daughter through another person’s eyes.

He sighed, and then looked tentatively at Anne Marie. “Would it be all right if just the two of us—just you and I—went out to dinner one night?”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Sure,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. In reality she was excited about seeing Tim again. On their own. Without kids. It was her fantasy coming to life….

“What about Friday?”

“Friday works for me,” she replied. It wasn’t as though she had to check her social calendar; she rarely had plans for Friday night.