Twenty Wishes (Blossom Street #5)(76)

When they returned to the apartment, it was still light out. Ellen had a number of small tasks to perform. She watered the small tomato, cucumber and zucchini seedlings they’d planted in egg cartons last Sunday. Once Ellen was home at her grandmother’s, Anne Marie would help the girl plant her own small garden. They’d already planted a container garden on Anne Marie’s balcony, with easy-care flowers like impatiens and geraniums.

As soon as she’d finished the watering, Ellen phoned her grandmother. Anne Marie spoke to the older woman, too.

“I don’t know why these doctors insist on keeping me here,” Dolores grumbled. “I’m fit as a fiddle. Ready to go home.”

“It won’t be long now,” Anne Marie told her.

“I certainly hope so.” She sobered a bit. “How’s Ellen doing? Don’t whitewash the truth for me. I need to know.”

“She misses you.”

“Well, of course she does. I miss her, too.”

Anne Marie smiled. “Actually, she’s doing really well.”

Dolores Falk sighed expressively. “God love you, Anne Marie. I don’t know what Ellen and I would’ve done without you.”

The praise embarrassed her. She was the one who’d truly benefited from having the child.

When Ellen had done her homework, the two of them knit in front of the television. Ellen had completed the scarf for her grandmother and started a much more ambitious project, a pair of mitts. After an hour’s knitting, she had a bath and put on her brand-new pajamas. She crawled into her bed. Prayers were shorter than usual that night, since Ellen was especially tired, and then Anne Marie read to her. They were now on the third “Little House” book and rereading these childhood favorites gave Anne Marie great pleasure. Ellen fell asleep listening.

When Anne Marie got down from the bed, Baxter hopped up to take her place.

The small apartment was quiet now, and a feeling of peace surrounded her. As always, she kept the bedroom door partially ajar for Ellen, who was afraid of the dark.

Tiptoeing down the hallway to her own bedroom, Anne Marie opened her binder of Twenty Wishes. She wanted to document the fact that she’d laughed. As Ellen had said, that was, indeed, one of her wishes.

She turned the pages in the binder and reviewed her list. She added a few more.

16. Go to Central Park in New York and ride a horse-drawn carriage

17. Catch snowflakes on my tongue and then make snow angels

18. Read all of Jane Austen

Lillie and Barbie had both said they wanted to fall in love again. Anne Marie wasn’t sure she did. Love had brought her more grief than joy. She’d loved Robert to the very depths of her soul, and his sudden death had devastated her.

Then to learn he’d had an affair with his personal assistant…The betrayal of it still felt like a crushing weight.

Anne Marie closed her eyes at the pain.

“Stop it,” she said aloud. “Stop it right now.”

She felt suddenly angry with herself. It was as if she’d set out to dismantle the positive attitude she’d so carefully created and destroy all the happiness she’d managed to find by thinking of everything that had gone wrong. No, she wouldn’t do it; she refused to let herself reexamine the pain of the last months.

Turning a page, she looked at the picture of the Eiffel Tower.

Someday she’d go.

Someday that wish, too, would be fulfilled.

Chapter 25

Anne Marie entered the small neighborhood park at the end of Blossom Street, where she walked Baxter every morning. Her stepdaughter sat on a bench waiting for her.

The weather had taken a turn for the worse since Wednesday, when she’d gone to the waterfront with Ellen and Baxter. This afternoon the sky was overcast and the scent of rain hung in the air.

Melissa had suggested they have lunch in the park. Anne Marie appreciated not having any reminder of their last restaurant meeting.

“Hi,” Melissa said as Anne Marie sat down beside her.

“Hi.” Strange—after years of avoidance, they were now seeking each other’s company. Anne Marie was curious about what Melissa had decided since they’d last talked.

“I’m having yogurt for lunch,” Melissa announced. “I don’t even like it, but Michael says it’s good for me and the baby.”

Anne Marie took out a tuna sandwich she’d slapped together that morning. “You told Michael, then.”

Melissa peeled off the foil top on the yogurt container and discarded it in her sack. “I went to see him right after you and I met, just like you said, and I’m glad I did.” She paused. “He was definitely shocked.”

“No more than you were.”

“True.” She grew quiet. “He didn’t believe me at first.”

This angered Anne Marie on her stepdaughter’s behalf. “Why not?”

“Remember I was the one who broke up with him, and I hurt him pretty badly. I should never have done that. I should’ve told Michael right away.”

“We all make mistakes,” Anne Marie said. She’d certainly made hers. Late at night she sometimes wondered if she’d been wrong to give Robert an ultimatum, if she should’ve tried to work things out in a different way.

“I could see he wanted to talk to me, but he was scared I’d hurt him again, so he kept looking away.” Melissa’s voice became more animated. “I kept asking him to look at me and he wouldn’t.”