Summer on Blossom Street (Blossom Street #6)(82)

Phoebe sighed. “I wish there was something I could do.”

“There is.”

“What?” she asked eagerly.

He folded her in his embrace. “Let me hold you for a few more minutes,” he whispered. “When you’re in my arms I can’t think of anything else.”

Hutch might not be as eloquent as Clark had been, but his words were sincere. His emotions were real.

Chapter 29

Anne Marie Roche

This was going to be diff icult; Anne Marie could see it already. As Tim had repeatedly reminded her, she was the one who’d insisted on being present when Ellen met Vanessa. That was certainly true, but Anne Marie didn’t think meeting at the Mariners’ game for Stitch and Pitch night—meeting “accidentally on purpose”—was such a brilliant idea. She’d agreed to do it his way, although it went against her instincts. That had been her f irst mistake. They’d arrived at the game as planned and were headed toward their seats when Tim had called out to them. He’d made a pretense of just noticing them. The evening had gone downhill from there.

Vanessa had been openly hostile to Anne Marie. To Ellen she’d been patronizing and saccharine sweet. The worst part, as far as Anne Marie was concerned, was that Tim didn’t appear to perceive anything amiss with Vanessa’s behavior. To all outward appearances, he seemed to feel the meeting couldn’t have gone better. In Anne Marie’s opinion, the whole experience had been a disaster. Now that they were home and Ellen was preparing for bed, she had a chance to mull over the events of the evening.

“Mom,” Ellen called from her bedroom. “I’m ready.”

Time for their nightly ritual. Ellen climbed into bed with Baxter cuddled next to her. Anne Marie knelt on the f loor so Ellen could say her prayers.

“Did you enjoy the baseball game?” Anne Marie asked.

“It was all right.”

It wasn’t for Anne Marie, but she couldn’t tell Ellen that. The girl looked guilelessly up at her. “I thought you were Tim’s girlfriend.”

Doing her best to sound calm and serene, Anne Marie smiled down at her daughter. “Tim and Vanessa are a couple.”

“Oh.” Ellen frowned. “But he took you out to dinner by yourself, remember?”

Anne Marie wasn’t likely to forget. “Vanessa was there,” she half-lied. Perhaps not in the physical sense but in every other way Tim’s girlfriend had been with them.

“You didn’t tell me about her.”

Anne Marie realized she didn’t actually know very much about the other woman. “I guess I should’ve told you earlier,” she said. In a short time Ellen had grown close to Tim. She admired him and talked about him incessantly. Along with Brad, Mark and Hector he was a positive male f igure, and Anne Marie wouldn’t say or do anything to jeopardize that special relationship.

“I know meeting Vanessa was a surprise.” Tim had wanted to be the one to introduce Vanessa to Ellen, and Anne Marie had agreed. In retrospect it would’ve been a hundred times better if she’d been able to lead up to the subject of this other woman. She wished now that she’d suggested it and regretted that she hadn’t.

“You like Tim, don’t you?” Ellen asked.

For fear her voice would give her away, Anne Marie nodded instead.

“And he likes you?”

“Yes,” she said, “just not in a girlfriend-boyfriend way.”

“Oh.” Clearly Ellen was disappointed as well as confused. Who could blame her? “The person Tim really loves is you,” Anne Marie murmured.

“Me?” Ellen’s eyes f lashed with delight. “I like him, too. He makes me laugh and takes us neat places.”

“Yes, he does. Besides, Tim knew your grandmother and your other mom.” Anne Marie didn’t believe it was her place to inform the child that she was Tim’s biological daughter. She’d leave that to him—at a mutually acceptable time and place. This evening had taught her a valuable lesson. She wasn’t about to let Tim blurt out the news without f irst laying the groundwork. Ellen’s dark eyes widened. “He knew my Grandma Dolores?

How come I never met him till now?”

Anne Marie wasn’t prepared to answer that question. She’d already stretched the truth about as far as it would go. “You’ll need to ask Tim the next time he stops by.”

“Will Vanessa be there?”

“Probably. You like her, don’t you?”

Ellen shrugged. “She’s okay, but she talks to me like I’m a baby.”

“She’ll learn,” Anne Marie assured her and prayed that was true. “Vanessa’s a very nice person.” She almost gritted her teeth as she said it.

Ellen seemed to consider that and then nodded. “She must be if Tim loves her.”

Good point. Anne Marie hadn’t thought of it in those terms. Out of the mouths of nine-year-olds…

“You’re right.” Anne Marie reached for Ellen’s small hands and closed her eyes, prepared to listen while the child said her prayers. These sometimes went on for three or four minutes. She asked God to bless Anne Marie f irst, then listed all her friends from school and day camp, followed by her Blossom Street friends and f inally Tim. She hesitated and added Vanessa to the list.