Summer on Blossom Street
Page 44

“Hello, Vanessa,” Anne Marie gave the other woman an affable smile.
Vanessa had crossed her arms. “How come you have to be here?” she demanded. Any residual friendliness from their phone conversation had obviously evaporated.
“I felt Ellen needed to know I was close by in unfamiliar surroundings. It won’t always be like this.”
“I hope not.” With that, Vanessa turned and walked into the house, letting the screen door slam behind her. Not sure where to go, Anne Marie went in search of Ellen and Tim in the garage. Ellen sat on the Harley, the large black helmet on her head. She resembled one of those Roswell aliens, Anne Marie thought with amusement. Ellen saw her and waved frantically.
“Look, Mom! Look,” she cried, her voice muff led by the helmet.
“Who’s in there?” Anne Marie joked, peering through the visor.
“It’s me! It’s me!”
Laughing, she looked at Tim who smiled back. Their eyes held a fraction longer than necessary as they both shared in Ellen’s delight.
Anne Marie had to force herself to glance away. Despite her reassurances to Vanessa, she still found Tim attractive, especially when she saw how happy Ellen was whenever the three of them were together.
Ellen talked incessantly about Tim. It was Dad this and Dad that. She’d taken to calling him Dad ever since he’d announced he was her father. That same night she’d marked the wish off her list. Anne Marie and Ellen had begun putting pictures of father and daughter in the girl’s Twenty Wishes scrapbook. After a few minutes, Tim helped Ellen remove the helmet and led the two of them inside. “Mom and Dad are eager to meet you,” he said.
His parents—and Vanessa—were waiting in the living room. Tim held Ellen’s hand, tugging her forward. Not wanting to intrude, Anne Marie hung back.
Vanessa sat on the sofa, arms still crossed as she glared suspiciously at Anne Marie—as if to ask what she’d been doing in the garage with Tim all that time.
“Hello,” Tim’s mother said softly. “You must be Ellen.”
“Mom, Dad, meet your granddaughter.”
Ellen sidled close to Tim, looking small and uncertain.
“My name is Mary,” Tim’s mother said, “but I hope you’ll call me Grandma.”
Ellen gave an almost imperceptible nod.
“I’m Thomas, and I’m your grandfather,” Tim’s father told her next.
“I didn’t know I could have three grandmas,” Ellen said in a tentative voice.
Anne Marie felt she needed to explain. “Ellen was living with her Grandma Dolores when we f irst met. After I adopted Ellen, my mother wanted to be called Grandma, too.”
“Would you rather call me Mary?” his mother asked, glancing from Ellen to Anne Marie.
Anne Marie decided to let her daughter answer that herself.
“I’ll call you Grandma,” Ellen said after a bit.
“That would be very nice.” Mary straightened. “I hope you like fried chicken because that’s what we’re having for dinner.”
Ellen nodded.
“When your daddy was a little boy, he loved my southern fried chicken.”
Relieved, Anne Marie exhaled slowly. Tim’s parents were good people and it was clear that they loved Ellen already. Thomas stepped forward and thrust out his hand. “I’m Tim’s dad, and you’re Ellen’s adoptive mother?”
She accepted it and returned his smile. “Anne Marie Roche.”
“We appreciate your allowing us into Ellen’s life.”
It hadn’t been an easy decision, but Anne Marie didn’t tell him that.
“Ellen seems to be doing just f ine, don’t you think?” Vanessa said sharply. This was her way of telling Anne Marie that her job was done and it was time to move along now. Taking her cue, she started to back away. “I’ll leave you all to become better acquainted. When would you like me to come for Ellen?” she asked.
Tim narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going, are you?”
“Please join us for dinner,” Thomas said. “We’d like to get to know you, too, seeing that you’re the one raising our granddaughter.”
“Yes, well…” Anne Marie turned to Vanessa, unsure how to respond. She wanted the other woman to understand that she knew her place and had no intention of encroaching on her relationship with Tim.
“Thomas,” Mary called from the kitchen. “I need you and Tim to move the picnic table out of the sun.”
The two men promptly left and Anne Marie found herself alone with Vanessa, wondering what, if anything, she should say. Vanessa released a long breath. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Pardon?” Anne Marie felt awkward standing in the middle of the room, yet wasn’t relaxed enough to sit.
“Just now,” Vanessa elaborated. “When you f irst arrived. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”
“Oh, that,” Anne Marie said, pretending to have forgotten the complete lack of welcome. “Trust me, I understand. You’re in a diff icult situation. We both are. The only thing we can do is deal with it, right?”
Vanessa didn’t seem persuaded. “I guess, but it’s kind of hard.”
“Yes, it is,” Anne Marie said. “Listen, I’ll stay a little longer, then make my excuses and leave. You and Tim can bring Ellen home later, or if it’s easier I can come back and pick her up. Whichever suits you best.”
Vanessa nodded. “I’ll ask Tim.”
“We can make this work,” Anne Marie told her, “but we need to keep the lines of communication open. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”
“Why should I?” Vanessa said aggressively. “Tim and I are going to be married.”
“You shouldn’t be uncomfortable,” Anne Marie agreed. “And by the same token, I want Ellen to feel at ease with you.”
“She already does.” Vanessa scowled, as though she expected Anne Marie to dispute that statement.
“I appreciate how readily you’ve accepted Ellen.” Anne Marie wasn’t convinced that was true, but didn’t want to challenge the other woman.
Vanessa gave the same exasperated sigh she had earlier. “You have no idea how diff icult it is, sharing Tim with this child. What’ll happen when we have our own children?”
Anne Marie didn’t have an answer for her. “The two of you will f igure that out when the time comes,” she said. It was the best she could do.
“Right,” Vanessa mumbled. “We will.”
The two men returned, and Tim immediately went to Vanessa’s side.
Rather than feel like an outsider, Anne Marie made her way to the kitchen, where Mary and Ellen were chatting amicably.
“Is there anything I can do?” she asked.
“Thanks, but I have everything under control. We’ll be eating in a few minutes.”
Ellen sat on a bar stool at the counter. “Look, Mom,” she said excitedly. “Grandma Mary has a crooked little f inger, the same as me.” She held her two little f ingers together and displayed how they veered off, forming the shape of a V.
“My father once told me they’re a sign of high intelligence,”
Mary said.
“Does Dad have those, too?”
“He does.” Mary sent Ellen a smile. She took the chicken from the oven and arranged the pieces on a large platter.
“I can carry that outside if you’d like,” Anne Marie volunteered. She wished now that she’d declined the dinner invitation. It was too awkward for both her and Vanessa.
“Thanks. Ellen, why don’t you tell everyone dinner’s ready,”
Mary suggested.
“Okay, but can I show Grandpa something f irst?”
“Sure,” Mary said.
Ellen dashed into the living room while Anne Marie carried the platter of fried chicken outside and set it on the table. She’d just come back into the house when she heard Ellen scream. Anne Marie froze. She’d never heard her daughter scream like that. It was a cry of intense pain. In her rush to f ind Ellen, she nearly stumbled. Heart-wrenching sobs came from the garage. Anne Marie saw Ellen on the cement f loor with Tim bending over her. Thomas stood in the background, his face pale.
“What happened?” she cried, falling to her knees beside Ellen. The girl cradled her arm against her side and was in such pain she seemed to have trouble breathing. Sobs racked her thin body and she shook uncontrollably.
“She fell off the motorcycle,” Tim said. “It was so fast I couldn’t reach her in time to catch her.” He was pale and shaken, too. “I think she broke her arm.”
Anne Marie brought Ellen carefully into her embrace. “Call 9-1-1,” she shouted.
Tim rushed into the other room.
Anne Marie didn’t have a lot of medical experience, but it seemed to her that Ellen was going into shock. That was when she lost it, too. “What’s taking so long?” she yelled, f ighting to hold back the panic.
Thomas rushed into the house and returned with a blanket, which he wrapped around Ellen’s shoulders. Ellen’s sobs tore at Anne Marie’s heart and soon her own face was streaked with tears. She rocked Ellen, whispering words of comfort and reassurance as they waited for the paramedics. An eternity passed before she f inally heard the siren. As soon as the medical personnel arrived, they took over, and within minutes Ellen was loaded into the aid car. Anne Marie rode with her; Tim followed in his vehicle.
Thankfully the emergency room wasn’t crowded. Ellen was given something to relieve the pain, then sent to have an X-ray of her arm.
The second her daughter had been wheeled out, Anne Marie whirled on Tim. “How could you let this happen?” she cried. He shook his head hopelessly. “It was all so fast…” he said again.
Covering her face with both hands, she fought for composure. There was no point in blaming Tim; Ellen could just as easily have fallen at home with Anne Marie.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He slid his arm around her shoulders. “So am I,” he said, pressing his head to hers. “I knew the instant she landed that she’d broken a bone.”
At just that moment Vanessa walked into the cubicle. When she saw Tim with his arm around Anne Marie and their heads together, she exploded. “I knew it! I knew it! The minute I’m out of the picture you go after Tim…. So much for all that crap about not being interested in him. You’ve been after Tim from the day you met.”
Anne Marie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She blinked in confusion. “What?” she asked.
“You want Tim.”
“Vanessa!” he warned. “Stop it.”
“I won’t stop. Do you think I’m blind?” she demanded. “I saw how the two of you were looking at each other.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
A nurse stepped into the cubicle. “You need to keep your voices down,” she said. “If there’s a problem here, I advise you to take it outside.”