The Knitting Diaries Read Free

to leave Blossom Street, which she should’ve realized from the start. The little girl wouldn’t say sodirectly but she came up with convenient excuses to reject every home they’d seen—until this one. If Anne Marie had been more experienced as a parent she might have caught on earlier. But Ellen’s resistance was the main reason she’d put off the search after the first deal fell through.
    “Do you want to see the house?” Ellen asked Mel, sounding hesitant.
    “I’d enjoy that, especially if you’d give me a personal tour.”
    Ellen glanced at Anne Marie.
    “Mel would like you to show him around,” Anne Marie explained.
    “I can do that,” Ellen said, revealing her first enthusiasm for their new home. “I know every room. Did Mom tell you I have a big closet of my own and my bedroom faces the backyard, so I can look out my window and watch Baxter? He likes to chase birds and butterflies and bugs. I won’t have to take him for walks anymore because there’s a fence…. I can just open the door and let him go out.”
    “True, but it’s still a good idea to keep an eye on him,” Anne Marie reminded her. “ And to take him for walks.”
    Ellen nodded.
    “I’ll bet there are lots of kids your age in the new neighborhood,” Mel said.
    Anne Marie hoped that was the case, although she hadn’t seen any.
    Ellen toyed with her fork and plate, moving the fork around the plate’s circumference. “I like my old neighborhood best,” she muttered.
    “But it’s a retail one,” Mel said.
    Ellen looked quizzically at Anne Marie.
    “He means there are shops on Blossom Street instead of houses.”
    “I like shops. I have friends there. Susannah lets me help her with the flowers in Susannah’s Garden. Last week I stood out front of her store and gave away pink carnations. Baxter was with me.”
    “That was fun, wasn’t it?”
    Ellen nodded again. “And Alix sometimes brings me leftover croissants from the French Café across the street.”
    Laughing, Anne Marie brought her head close to Mel’s and added, “That doesn’t happen often because they sell out of croissants almost every day.”
    “I like them warm so the jelly gets runny on them,” Ellen said. “Mom puts them in the microwave for me in the morning.”
    “I’ll have to try that,” Mel told her. “Sounds good.”
    “Lydia and Margaret are my friends, too.” Ellen continued to list her favorite people on Blossom Street.
    “Lydia owns A Good Yarn,” Anne Marie pointed out to Mel.
    “Yeah, I remember,” he said.
    “Lydia and Mom taught me to knit, and we knit every day, don’t we, Mom?”
    Before Anne Marie could respond, their food arrived. The conversation lagged as they passed around the serving plates. Mel asked for chopsticks, but Anne Marie and Ellen used forks—although Ellen proclaimed that she wanted to try chopsticks next time. She was just too hungry today.
    “You have lots of friends, don’t you?” Mel asked Ellen.
    Mouth full, the girl nodded eagerly.
    “But they’re all adults. Do you have any friends from school on Blossom Street?”
    After a short pause, Ellen said, “Cody and Casey, but they’re older and they go to a different school than me.”
    Anne Marie could see that Mel was trying to help Ellen see all the possibilities that awaited her in her new home. She thanked him with a smile, and he clasped her hand beneath the table.
    Half an hour later, when they couldn’t eat another bite, Mel asked for the bill. Carrying their leftovers, Anne Marie and Ellen walked to the parking garage for their car. Mel drove to the house on his own.
    Anne Marie and Ellen got there before him and after parking in the driveway, Anne Marie unlocked the front door, conscious that this was the first of many times. The inside looked different now that it was empty of furniture. The Johnsons had left the house meticulously clean, the floors scrubbed and polished and the walls freshly painted and unmarked.
    Mel showed up soon