Judge Harold Roper read over the paperwork, which included a home study and background check. This was actually a formality; Child Protective Services had already approved the adoption. The six months had passed quickly. They’d moved into their new home, and Ellen was a third-grader now, getting top marks in her classes.
“So, Ellen, you’re going to have a new mother,” Judge Roper said.
“Yes, Judge,” Ellen answered politely.
“Your Honor,” Anne Marie whispered.
“Your Honor,” Ellen repeated.
She placed her hand in Anne Marie’s and edged closer to her side.
“Congratulations,” the judge said and signed his name at the bottom of the document.
“That’s all there is?” Ellen asked in a whisper.
Anne Marie was surprised herself. “Apparently so.”
Anne Marie’s mother wept noisily at the back of the courtroom. The next name was called, and Anne Marie and Ellen hugged and left the room. Laura Bostwick continued to sob, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue as they walked out into the hallway. The heavy door closed behind them.
“Are you sure you can’t come to the party, Mom?” Anne Marie asked.
“I’ll come by later if that’s okay.”
“Of course. I want you to meet my friends.”
Catching her off guard, Laura awkwardly hugged Anne Marie. “You’re going to be a wonderful mother.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“My name is Ellen Roche,” Ellen announced to a guard who strolled past.
“That’s a nice name,” the uniformed man told her.
“Ellen Dolores Roche,” she said. “Dolores was my grandmother’s name. She’s with Jesus now.”
The man smiled at Anne Marie and kept on walking.
“This is my new mother,” Ellen called after him. “She loves me a lot.”
“Ellen,” Anne Marie murmured. “He’s busy.”
“I just wanted to tell someone I have a new name,” she whispered, lowering her head.
“Would you like to tell Barbie and Mark?”
The girl nodded eagerly. “Lillie and Hector, too?”
“They’ll all be at the party.”
“What about Mrs. Beaumont and Lydia and Cody and all my friends from Blossom Street?”
“They wouldn’t miss it.”
“Melissa and Michael, too?”
“Yes.” This shouldn’t be news to Ellen, who knew all about the party at Blossom Street Books after court.
But Anne Marie understood. Ellen was happy and excited, and she had to express that happiness. She mattered to all these people, belonged to their community as Anne Marie did. Her daughter… Anne Marie’s mind came to a sudden halt.
Ellen was her daughter.
Her daughter.
Unexpected tears gathered in her eyes.
“Anne Marie?” Instantly Ellen was concerned. “Are you okay?”
“Yes—I’m just happy.”
“Like Grandma Laura?” she asked.
Anne Marie squeezed her hand. “Just like Grandma Laura.”
By the time they got to the bookstore, it seemed the entire street was there to celebrate. Susannah from the flower shop had come, but could only stay briefly. She brought a number of small floral bouquets to commemorate the adoption and a pretty pink corsage for each of them to wear.
Soon after their arrival, Alix Turner carried in a tray of freshly baked cookies, compliments of the French Café. Lydia and her sister, Margaret, came over in turns, so as not to leave the store unattended. They’d brought several bottles of champagne for the adults—Veuve Clicquot, of course—and sparkling lemonade for the kids. Lydia’s husband, Brad, dropped in later, bringing their son, Cody. Michael and a heavily pregnant Melissa showed up, too, and Ellen was doubly excited.
“It’s going to be a girl, right?”
“Right.”
“Can I be her big sister?”
“I’m counting on it,” Melissa said. She was due anytime and Michael remained close to her side. They didn’t stay long as they had a birthing class to attend, their final one before her due date.
Theresa, Cathy and Steve, her part-time employees, helped serve, and Ellen mingled with the crowd, reminding everyone that she had a new name and a new mother.
Late in the afternoon, both Evelyn Boyle and Anne Marie’s mother stopped by, but could only stay for a few minutes.
“We were thinking of holding a mommy shower for you,” Barbie said around five o’clock. Almost everyone had come and gone by this point. The ones who remained were the original members of the widows’ group—with the addition of Mark and Hector. It was hard to believe nearly a year had passed since that bleak Valentine’s evening, when they’d started their lists of Twenty Wishes.
She’d completed her list last spring.
19. Karate classes with Ellen
20. To live happily ever after
Twenty wishes, nearly all of them a reality now.
Anne Marie had found a pair of red cowboy boots in a secondhand store for a fraction of the cost. They fit perfectly and she wore them often.
Then one Sunday in July, shortly after Anne Marie had begun attending church with Ellen, she’d spontaneously sung a hymn. She was well into the second verse before she remembered that she couldn’t sing anymore and yet here she was…. Now not a day went by without her belting out one song after another.
Anne Marie’s gaze fell on Barbie, who sat next to Mark, holding his hand.
Anne Marie had met him only half a dozen times, but Barbie had spoken of him often enough to make her feel as if she knew him.
“When we made our lists of wishes, did you ever dream it would come to this?” Elise asked, joining the circle of friends.
“We haven’t talked about our lists recently,” Lillie said, sitting in the overstuffed chair with Hector standing behind her, his hands on her shoulders. “Has anyone completed any wishes lately?”
“I have,” Elise said, looking down at her plastic glass of champagne. “I’ve set up a charitable foundation in memory of Maverick.”
“Elise, that’s wonderful!”
The older woman struggled to hide her emotion. “That’s not all. I took my two grandsons on a hot-air balloon ride. That was something Maverick and I always intended to do. We put it off—and then it was too late.”
“Was it as exciting as you thought it would be?” Anne Marie asked.
Elise smiled warmly. “Even better than I imagined. When I closed my eyes, I could almost feel Maverick’s arms around me again,” she said in a low voice. “It was the most thrilling sensation to be that high above the ground. He would’ve loved it.”
“I completed one of my wishes, too,” Barbie volunteered.
“Which one?” Lillie asked.
Eyes dancing,