lucky to have Camille, too, her lingering glance toward Oliver seemed to say.
Or was it his conscience working overtime? Because the part of him itching to escape back to the all-consuming job he’d built his life around was already looking for ways to justify
not
forcing the issue of Camille’s paternity. Except he wasn’t alone in this decision. This was Bellevue Lane, not his cutthroat, transient business world.
He took in the somber faces of the kids circled quietly around Marsha, almost like she was about to read them a story. To someone else they might look like a mismatched litter of cast-off lives. Instead, Oliver saw a thriving family. Because of Marsha and Joe’s determination to love and heal as many children as they possibly could.
Travis stepped to his other side, completing a united front for their younger brothers and sisters to see.
“You’re all worried,” Marsha said. Love filled her voice and fisted in Oliver’s throat. “I know. I’m worried, too. I don’t like the sound of things like surgery and more tests and Dad having to stay away from the family. I don’t like my Joe being sick, and how worried he is about all of us. But I’m grateful. Because I’m not going through this alone. Neither is your dad, even though we can’t get you younger ones in to see him yet. We’re a family. No one’s going through this alone.”
Just like Oliver steering clear of Selena the rest of the time he was in town was no longer his choice alone to make. He hugged his sister closer. He would do what was best for his family.
Marsha smiled at him, as if she’d read his mind.
“Whatever we have to face,” she promised, “everything’s going to be just fine, as long as we face it together.”
Chapter Nine
“Thanks for coming in again today,” Kristen Hemmings Beaumont said, bright and early the next morning. “We’ve really put you through your paces the last couple of months. Can you believe it’s almost summer?”
“It’s really heating up outside.” Selena smiled at the six-foot-plus former college basketball star.
Chandler Elementary’s much-loved principal was newly married, as of March, and still glowing from the whirlwind romance that had matched her with Chandler High’s soccer coach and in-demand local musician, Law Beaumont.
Kristen dabbed at her forehead with a Kleenex. “It’s steamy enough inside. I don’t know who’s more ready to be sprung from school—the kids or the faculty.”
Same as any other school day, Kristen was wearing a suit this morning—a jacket and skirt in a beautiful aquamarine color. Plus low-heeled pumps that screamed classic sophistication without adding to her height.
“Thank you for keeping me working all this time,” Selenasaid. “I know there are a lot of other moms on the sub list. It’s made a world of difference for Camille and me.”
Selena and her boss had never talked about it, and Kristen had never asked for details. No one in town had had the nerve to come out and pump Selena for information about her divorce. How when she’d come home at the end of March, it had been for only a few weeks’ visit.
“Math as flowers?” Kristen motioned to the project Selena had been prepping.
Selena smiled and kept working. She needed everything ready before her class arrived. She and Camille had had another late start—this morning because Selena had been up most of the night, obsessing about yesterday’s scene with Oliver and Brad. And the news about Joe’s overnight angioplasty. And now Oliver would be staying in town indefinitely, while his father recovered—which explained him and Marsha waving at Camille yesterday afternoon from the kitchen window, as if Oliver had settled in for a nice long visit.
Selena surveyed the colorful pile of cut construction paper on the desk and thought of her mother and daughter’s shared love for growing things.
“I seem to be working on a running theme.” She pasted together a second example of
Alex Lukeman
Debra Glass
Kate Stewart
Lisa Hughey
Donna Kauffman
Blake Bailey
Bianca D'Arc
Shan
Cachet
Kat Martin