Blossom Street Bundle. Debbie Macomber
arranged a small buffet with everything on a sideboard in the formal dining room. The buffet started with a selection of cheeses, olives, brie-stuffed dates and three different salads—a seafood pasta, a Caesar with home-made croutons and a fruit salad. For the entrée, Lillie presented them with ricottafilled chicken breasts and scalloped potatoes.
Elise shook her head. “My goodness, Lillie, you must’ve been cooking for days.”
“Mother is a tremendous cook,” Barbie said quickly.
Lillie turned to her daughter. “Thank you. I enjoy spending time in the kitchen—it takes my mind off other concerns.”
The comment seemed to be directed at Barbie, whose cheeks flushed as she looked away.
Anne Marie helped Ellen prepare her plate and then served herself. The five of them assembled around the table, which seated twelve. Anne Marie noticed that Lillie didn’t have much of an appetite; for that matter, neither did Barbie. They barely seemed to touch their meals. Anne Marie, Ellen and Elise, however, savored every bite.
Conversation was general at first, with everyone asking Ellen about school and which classes she liked best. Reading, spelling and math, she’d answered, providing examples of what she’d recently learned.
“Speaking of classes, did you sign up for belly dancing?” Anne Marie asked Barbie.
Barbie jerked her head up, apparently caught unawares. “Belly dancing?”
“You said it was one of your wishes.”
“Oh, yes. No, I haven’t. Not yet at least. I will, though… probably.” She sat straighter in her chair, chasing the food around her plate before she set her fork aside.
“What else is on your list?” Elise asked her.
Barbie reached down for her purse and withdrew a sheet of paper. “I started a binder like Anne Marie but left it at home this morning. I have my list here, though.”
“I left my binder at home, too. At Anne Marie’s house,” Ellen said in a comforting voice as if to reassure Lillie’s daughter.
“You know, I thought skinny-dipping would be fun.”
“I’ve always thought that would be fun, too,” Anne Marie murmured. She’d forgotten all about it until now.
Ellen tugged at her sleeve and when Anne Marie bent close, the girl whispered, “Is skinny-dipping a new diet? Grandma Dolores talked a lot about diets.”
Anne Marie wasn’t sure how to answer. “It’s, uh, something like that.”
For the first time that evening a smile tweaked the edges of Barbie’s mouth. “I am going to do it.”
“Do what?” Elise asked as she and Lillie entered the dining room with dessert—platters of brownies, cookies and tarts.
“Skinny-dipping.”
“Barbie!” her mother gasped.
“At night, Mother. In what you’d call a controlled environment.”
“In the moonlight,” Elise added softly. “Maverick and I—” She stopped abruptly and her face turned bright pink.
“You and Maverick went skinny-dipping?” Barbie asked.
“It was years ago.…” She paused. “Well, to be honest, it happened shortly after we reunited.” Elise shook her head fondly. “That man was full of crazy ideas.”
“No wonder you loved him so much,” Barbie whispered.
“Oh, I did, I did. I regret all the years we wasted. Maverick wouldn’t let me talk about my regrets, though. He said we had to make up for lost time and we did everything in our power to squeeze thirty years of life into three.” The expression on her face showed both happiness and loss and was almost painful to watch.
Anne Marie’s eyes filled with tears, and she stared down at her binder. “What about you, Lillie?” she asked, wanting to draw attention away from Elise so the older woman could compose herself.
“You first,” Lillie insisted, offering Ellen some dessert. The girl studied the platter carefully and chose a blueberry tart.
Anne Marie smiled, then glanced down at her binder again. The sheet she’d turned to had a picture of the Eiffel Tower. “I want to go to Paris with someone I love.”
“That’s so nice,” Barbie murmured.
Anne Marie didn’t mention that this was one of Robert’s promises. She’d felt the lure of France, of Paris in particular, from her high school days, when she’d taken two years of French. Robert had spun wonderful stories of the adventures they’d have…someday. It was always in the future, always around the corner. Next month. Next season. Next year. And whenever they made tentative plans, his job interfered.
She tried to dismiss the thought. Her life was her own now and if there was happiness to be found, it was up to her to seek it. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, rely on anyone else ever again.
Because she’d loved and supported her husband, Anne Marie had never complained. Now it became clear that she’d lived her entire marriage based on tomorrow—on well-intentioned promises, directed toward the future.
“I believe you talked about that one before,” Elise reminded her. “It must be important to you.”
“It is.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“I don’t want to go alone.”
Ever practical, Elise said, “Okay, it’s not just about seeing Paris. It’s also about falling in love.”
“Yes, that’s true. I want to be in love again.”
“Good.”
“I do, too,” Lillie said quietly. Her gaze drifted down the table to her daughter.
Anne Marie was shocked to see tears glistening in Lillie’s eyes. “I have Twenty Wishes but only one is important,” Lillie said next. “None of the others means a thing without the first.”
“What’s that?” Elise asked. “As if I can’t guess.”
Lillie smiled briefly at Elise’s remark. “I want to fall in love again,” she said, “with a man who’s honorable. A man respected by his peers. A man of principle who values me as a woman… A man who’ll be my friend as well as my lover.” A tear rolled down the side of her face. “I have lived most of my life trying to please others. I don’t think I can do that anymore.”
“Nor should you,” Barbie said. “You deserve to find that man, Mom.”
Lillie’s voice shook. “So do you.”
“I know.”
Then to everyone’s astonishment, Barbie burst into tears. “I’m so sorry, Mom, so sorry.”
“I am, too.”
Lillie pushed back her chair and a moment later, mother and daughter were hugging each other, weeping together.
Anne Marie looked at Elise, who shrugged. Once again Ellen tugged at the cuff of her blouse. “Why are they crying?” she asked in a loud whisper, leaning toward Anne Marie.
“I’m not sure.”
“Will they be okay?”
Anne Marie placed her arm around Ellen’s shoulders. “I think so,” she said.
As quickly as Lillie and Barbie had burst into tears, they started to laugh, dabbing their eyes with the linen napkins, smearing their mascara and giggling like teenagers.
Ellen began to giggle, too. Soon Elise joined in. After a while she got up and carried her dinner dishes into the kitchen and set them on the counter.
Anne