Authors: Sherryl Woods
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Romance, #Contemporary
Maddie nodded in satisfaction. “I thought so, too.”
“It’s classy, too,” Dana Sue stated. “One more thing that sets this place apart from all the others.”
“I’m glad you like it,” Maddie said. “Now, do you want to tell me why you’re wearing that pensive expression? You look as if you’ve just lost your best friend.”
For once Dana Sue didn’t bother trying to deny the mood she was in. She needed to bounce this off someone before she worked herself into a complete panic. “I had a call from Dr. McDaniels before I came over here.”
“She’s Annie’s psychologist, right?” Maddie asked.
“Well, she’s supposed to be, but every time she’s stopped by to visit, Annie’s given her some excuse for not wanting to talk. It’s been more than a week now and they’re not making any progress.”
Maddie didn’t seem all that surprised. “I imagine the idea of therapy must be pretty scary to a sixteen-year-old. Most kids that age don’t even want to tell you if they’ve done their homework.”
“That’s what Dr. McDaniels said. She told me it’s not unusual for kids to be in denial.”
“Then why are you so worried?” Maddie asked.
“Because Annie’s life is on the line here,” Dana Sue said in frustration. “If she doesn’t talk, if we don’t get to the bottom of what’s going on with her, she could wind up right back in intensive care, and the next time we might not be so lucky. I know Dr. McDaniels is worried about that, even though she didn’t say as much. Annie needs to start cooperating, not just acting all chipper, like nothing’s wrong.”
“Have you told her that?” Maddie asked.
“No.”
“Why on earth not?”
“I suppose I was trying not to add to the pressure she’s under,” Dana Sue said. “Obviously that was the wrong approach.”
“Maybe this isn’t the best place for her to get treatment, if you’re going to let her off the hook too easily,” Maddie suggested gently. “Maybe it’s time to consider an inpatient facility.”
Dana Sue frowned worriedly. “No. I don’t think I could bear sending her away, especially when she’s so vulnerable.”
“Not even to save her life?” Maddie asked.
Dana Sue stared at her friend. “Oh, God, Maddie, what am I going to do? Obviously she needs help.”
“What does Ronnie say?”
“He hasn’t said anything to me about this. I tried to call him after I’d spoken to Dr. McDaniels, but he wasn’t answering his cell phone. He’s not at the hospital, either,” she said, then added, “Maybe it’s gotten to be too much for him and he’s taken off again.”
“You know better,” Maddie scolded. “He’ll turn up and the two of you can discuss it. In the meantime, here comes Helen, and she has that look in her eyes, the one that says she’s on a mission and she’s taking no prisoners.”
Dana Sue grinned, despite herself. “Too bad we don’t serve anything stronger than coffee in here.”
“I have a leftover bottle of champagne from the opening in my office, but popping the cork on that would probably set a bad example,” Maddie said, her expression wistful.
“Unless we go into your office, lock Helen on the other side and drink it before we let her in,” Dana Sue said.
Apparently Helen had heard enough of what they were saying to disapprove. “No one’s going anywhere to drink,” she said as she sat down and opened her ever-present briefcase, then distributed legal pads to all of them. “Okay, ladies, this is the first day of the rest of our lives. Let’s get busy. Ten goals in ten minutes. Start writing. We don’t have all day.”
Dana Sue scowled at her. “I suggest at the top of your list you write down in big, bold letters
STOP BEING BOSSY
.”
Helen scowled right back at her. “Not amusing.”
Dana Sue winked at Maddie. “Did you think I was trying to be funny?”
“Not so much,” Maddie said.
“Okay, you two comedians, you promised to take this seriously. We need goals. We need a plan.”
“Have you by any chance rescheduled your appointment with Doc Marshall?” Dana Sue inquired.
“It’s tomorrow morning, as a matter of fact.”
“Which explains why you’re so anxious to get this in writing,” Maddie concluded. “I imagine you have a notary lined up to validate our signatures on the bottom of your page when we’re through.”
Helen flushed guiltily. “As a matter of fact, Patty Markham has her notary seal with her. She said she’d be in here working out till eight forty-five. Which is yet another reason we have to hurry. It’s already eight-fifteen and we have to agree on our goals once we’ve written them down. Let’s get a move on.”
Dana Sue exchanged a look with Maddie. “She’s hopeless, you know.”
“Type A, through and through,” Maddie agreed.
Helen glowered at them. “Which is why I need these goals even worse than the two of you. Help me out here, instead of making fun of me.”
Dana Sue sighed. “She has a point. We’re not being helpful.” She picked up her pen and tried to formulate her own health goals and a timetable for achieving them. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to focus on the state of her own health, not when her daughter was in such trouble and seemed determined to fight every step of the way on her recovery.
Instead, she wrote, “Get Annie Well” over and over, as if the words had been assigned by a teacher to drill in an important lesson.
In precisely ten minutes, Helen glanced at her watch and said, “Time’s up. What have you got?”
Dana Sue blinked, then looked at the paper in front of her and felt tears well up in her eyes.
Helen immediately reached for her hand. “What?” she demanded. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
Dana Sue shook her head, unable to speak. Maddie took the legal pad and looked at it, then came around the table and hunkered down beside her. “Annie will get through this,” she said confidently. “She has us. She has her dad. She has Dr. McDaniels and the nutritionist.”
“What if that’s not enough?” Dana Sue whispered, swiping impatiently at the tears on her cheeks.
She saw Maddie and Helen exchange a worried look before Helen squeezed her hand and said in a no-nonsense tone, “It
will
be enough. We’ll see to that.”
Dana Sue gave her a watery smile and prayed that know-it-all Helen had gotten it right this time, too.
Two hours later Dana Sue and Ronnie were summoned to Dr. McDaniels’s office.
“Any idea what this is about?” Ronnie asked as they waited outside for her to arrive.
Dana Sue nodded. “She called me this morning. Annie’s not cooperating in their sessions. For the most part, she’s refused to say anything at all. Dr. McDaniels told me it’s not unusual, but it is troubling.”
Ronnie looked stunned. “I thought she was better. She was laughing last night, almost like her old self.”
“That’s denial,” Dana Sue said wearily. “Not a sign she’s cured. She wants us to believe everything’s okay.”
“She needs to get with the program,” Ronnie said heatedly.
“So…what? You want to go to her room and yell at her?” Dana Sue inquired sarcastically. “I’m sure that will accomplish something.”
Ronnie regarded her with dismay. “I never said that. I know that yelling won’t accomplish anything. It’s just so damn frustrating, you know?”
“Believe me, I know,” she said, thinking of her own meltdown earlier.
Dr. McDaniels arrived just then. “Sorry I’m late,” she said as she unlocked the door and gestured them inside. “An unexpected crisis with one of my patients.”
Dana Sue studied the psychologist’s drawn face and decided she looked exhausted. Were all of her patients like Annie? she wondered. Dealing with teens in trouble was bound to take a terrible toll.
Instead of sitting behind her desk, Dr. McDaniels pulled a chair up beside them. “Okay, here’s where we are. After you and I spoke this morning, Dana Sue, I visited with Annie again and got absolutely nowhere. She’s still denying that there’s anything wrong, though I gather she’s been a bit more cooperative with Lacy. Then again, Lacy is able to give her very specific goals and watch to see that she follows through. It’s more difficult to get her to talk if she’s not inclined to. I think she’s afraid if she admits what she’s been doing, she’ll have to deal with it, and she doesn’t think she can.”
Ronnie nodded. “She actually said as much to me the other day.”
Dr. McDaniels looked surprised. “Really? I wish you’d told me that.”
He squirmed. “Sorry. It never occurred to me.”
“At this point, anything about Annie’s state of mind is important. I need to hear it,” Dr. McDaniels said.
Ronnie nodded, then said, “In that case, there’s something else you ought to know. She told me she’d wanted to flush her meal down the toilet. The only thing that stopped her was that Lacy was watching her eat.”
“What?” Dana Sue said, staring at him incredulously. “And you didn’t think that was important?”
“She knew her attitude was wrong,” he said. “I honestly think she knows better. I’m convinced she won’t act on that impulse.”
“Then you still don’t get the fact that she lies about food,” Dana Sue snapped.
Dr. McDaniels held up her hands. “Okay, that’s enough. We won’t get anywhere by attacking each other.”
“I’m sorry,” Dana Sue said. “What can we do?”
“Each of you has a unique relationship with Annie because of the divorce,” the psychologist said. “She looks to each of you for emotional support. I don’t know the dynamics of your relationship since your divorce, but from this moment on, I want you to present a united front.”
Dana Sue felt her heart climb into her throat. “You’re not saying…” she began, but she couldn’t even voice the absurd idea.
The psychologist regarded her in confusion. “Saying what?”
“That Ronnie and I…” She hesitated, swallowed hard, then blurted, “That we should get back together.”
Ronnie looked at her steadily, as if the idea wasn’t totally insane or unappealing. Dr. McDaniels kept her expression completely neutral.
“I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to do about that,” Dr. McDaniels assured her. “I’m only talking about how you interact with Annie. If we agree on a plan, you both need to support it. There’s no room for a good cop–bad cop approach, not between the two of you or between both of you and me. We’re all on the same page. Can we agree to that?”
“Of course,” she said at once.
Ronnie nodded, though his gaze was directed at Dana Sue. She could read the speculation in his eyes.
“Okay, then,” Dr. McDaniels said briskly. “I’ve talked to Dr. Lane and he and I are agreed on this. Even though he says Annie is physically improved enough to go home, tomorrow I’m spelling out a few cold, hard facts to her. I’m going to tell her she doesn’t go home unless she cooperates with Lacy and with me. Period. Can you live with that?”
“Absolutely,” Ronnie said.
Dana Sue wanted to protest, but knew she couldn’t, not if she wanted Annie to get well. “Agreed,” she said reluctantly. “But what if that’s not enough?”
“Then we talk inpatient treatment facilities,” Dr. McDaniels said, her expression grim. “In the long run, that may be the best option.”
“What should we be telling her?” Ronnie asked.
“She’s going to want you to make me back off,” the psychologist said. “She’s going to plead with you to take her home, since the cardiologist says she’s better. She’ll make all the promises you want about doing whatever she needs to do once she’s home again. You have to back me up—no progress, no release. End of story. We’re in a situation that calls for tough love. Can you handle that?”
“We’ll have to,” Dana Sue said, her gaze locked with Ronnie’s. For all of his promises to do whatever needed to be done, and her own guilt-ridden misgivings, he was the weak link in this. If anyone faltered, it would be him. He hated to see his baby miserable.
He finally winced under her scrutiny. “I can do this,” he muttered.
“Even when she cries?” Dana Sue asked skeptically.
“Even then,” he said with surprising resolve. “I know I was always too easy on her, but not about this, Dana Sue. Not this time.”
“I hope you mean that,” she told him.
Dr. McDaniels nodded in satisfaction. “Good. If you’re even tempted to cave, remember one thing. Annie needs you to be her parents now, not her friends.”
“When are we supposed to start this whole tough love thing?” Ronnie asked.
“No time like the present,” Dr. McDaniels said. “Maybe it will put her in a more receptive frame of mind when I see her in the morning.”
Dana Sue gave the doctor a wry look. “I wouldn’t get your hopes up. She’s got her daddy’s stubbornness.”
“Pot calling the kettle black,” Ronnie retorted. “Let’s go, darlin’. We might as well do this while we’ve got the backbone for it.”
Dr. McDaniels chuckled at that. “Any time your backbone starts to weaken, remember I’m right here. Remember this, too. I’ve dealt with tougher kids than Annie. We will get through to her and make her well.”
Dana Sue wanted to believe her. She
needed
to believe her.
R
onnie and Dana Sue were almost to the elevator when he panicked. He tucked his hand under her elbow and steered her toward the hospital exit.
“Ronnie, what is wrong with you?” she demanded. “I thought we were going to see Annie.”
“We were. We will,” he said. “Just not now.”
She stared at him with confusion. “Why not now?”
“Because I don’t know if I can do it now, that’s why not,” he admitted. “You were right to question me back there. If Annie looks at me with those big eyes of hers and starts to cry, I’ll give her whatever she wants.”
“Not with me in the room,” Dana Sue said fiercely. “You
agreed
we had to be tough, Ronnie.”
“And I know that’s the right thing to do,” he said. “But we’re talking about Annie here. She’s still a kid.”
“She’s sixteen and she almost killed herself,” Dana Sue reminded him, her voice thick with emotion.
Her anger was justified, but somehow Ronnie couldn’t reconcile those words with his beautiful daughter. “It was an accident,” he said.
“If you mean that she didn’t realize she could die from not eating, then, yes, it was an accident,” Dana Sue agreed, her tone calmer but no less impassioned. “But not eating was a
decision,
Ronnie. Maybe there were a lot of factors at work that we don’t understand yet, but she looked at food every single day and made a deliberate decision not to eat it, not even after she passed out at Maddie’s wedding and scared us all to death.”
“She passed out before?” he asked, shocked. “Why didn’t you tell me? I don’t give a damn how mad you were at me, I had a right to know.”
Dana Sue looked vaguely guilty. “Probably so, but I was still in denial then. I was able to convince myself it was no big deal, the same way you’re doing right this second. Lots of people skip meals. Lots of people faint. It doesn’t have to mean they’re in trouble. Sound familiar?”
Dana Sue’s words resonated a little too clearly with Ronnie. He had thought all those things, even after seeing Annie lying in a hospital bed looking like a shadow of her former self. Even after grappling with the fact that a cardiac arrest had put her there.
“I hate this,” he whispered. “I just hate it.”
Dana Sue touched a hand to his cheek. “I know. Me, too.” She started to move away and head back to the elevators. “Let’s just go see her, okay?”
“No!” Ronnie said sharply. “We need to talk about this, Dana Sue. I want to know everything. Maybe then I’ll be able to make some sense of it.”
“I’ve known about it for months and I haven’t made sense of it,” she responded. “What makes you think you’ll get it after one conversation?”
“Please, let’s just get out of here for an hour and have something to eat. Then we’ll come back and talk to Annie.”
“But Dr. McDaniels said…”
“She doesn’t know everything,” Ronnie said tersely. “Apparently, neither do I. That needs to change.”
Dana Sue’s gaze faltered. Finally she nodded. “Okay, where do you want to go?”
“Only one place in town worth eating at, the way I understand it,” he said, his tension easing now that he sensed she would go along with his request. “Admit it. You’ll feel better if you check on how things are doing at Sullivan’s, anyway.”
She hesitated, then nodded. “I get five uninterrupted minutes in the kitchen to check on things,” she bargained, then stopped herself. “Make that ten minutes.”
Ronnie chuckled. “Take as long as you want, sugar. I’ll still be waiting when you’re through hiding out.”
“Checking on things,” she corrected.
“Call it what you want, as long as you know I’m not going anywhere.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know. I’m beginning to think you’re like a fungus. Once it comes back, it’s even harder to get rid of the second time.”
“Is that any way to talk about the man you promised to love for all eternity?” He was amused, despite her attempt to be insulting.
“That man’s dead and buried to me,” she claimed.
Maybe it was just one more thing Ronnie was wearing blinders to avoid seeing clearly, but he didn’t think so. He winked at her. “We’ll see, darlin’. We’ll see.”
Dana Sue couldn’t escape into the restaurant kitchen fast enough. Despite her very best attempts to keep Ronnie at arm’s length, to make him feel her disdain, he was getting to her. His genuine concern for Annie was part of it, but she’d always known he loved being a dad, that Annie was the joy of his life. It was his persistence that was beginning to undermine her defenses. Some traitorous brain cell was actually beginning to believe he’d changed, that he wanted to make amends for the past, that he wanted her back and wouldn’t stop until he got her.
Of course, there were still fifty billion cells or so that weren’t buying it, but that one susceptible cell seemed as if it might start dividing and eventually catch up. She had to prevent that. She needed a couple of hours with Helen’s cynicism to accomplish it, but that clearly wasn’t in the cards for tonight. Erik’s innate protective streak would have to do.
“Did I see that ex-husband of yours come in with you?” he inquired when Dana Sue walked into the kitchen.
She nodded.
“You brought him here? Voluntarily?”
“To be accurate, he drove, but basically, yes,” she said, already feeling better now that Erik was holding her feet to the fire. He might not have been around at the time of her divorce, but he knew enough of the details to make sure she didn’t cut Ronnie any slack.
Erik regarded her with typical male bemusement when confronted with a female’s contradictory actions. “Why? I thought you hated his guts.”
Dana Sue sank onto a stool out of the way of the busboys, who were coming in with trays piled high with dirty dishes. She considered denial, but it hadn’t worked with Annie. It wouldn’t accomplish a thing now, either. She gave Erik a resigned look. “Apparently not so much.”
He looked stunned, or maybe that was just disappointment she saw darkening his eyes. She could relate. She was pretty disappointed in her weakness, too.
“You’re falling for him again?” Erik asked, as if he didn’t want to believe she’d do anything so foolish.
“Maybe.” She held thumb and forefinger a quarter inch apart. “Just a little bit.”
“Dear God in heaven. What should I do? Sign you up for an exorcism?”
Dana Sue laughed. “Now that’s an approach I’ve never considered. I wonder if it would work.” If she thought it would, she might give it a try. But how was a woman supposed to rid herself of the feelings she’d had for a man for most of her adult life? If having him cheat on her and humiliate her hadn’t done it, what would?
“I vote for telling him to get lost, and meaning it,” Erik said flatly.
“Not as long as Annie’s sick.”
Erik’s expression changed at once. “No, of course you can’t do it right now. How’s she doing?”
“She’s being stubborn and uncooperative.”
“That sounds like Annie.” He grinned. “And her mother.”
“Ha-ha,” Dana Sue responded humorlessly. “That’s why Ronnie and I are here. We’re trying to come up with a way to get through to her. And he wants to hear every single detail of how she got into this shape in the first place. He’s not going to be happy when I tell him I don’t have all the answers.”
“Then you’re not here so you can get all cozy in a dark booth in the back?” Erik joked. “That’s a relief.”
She frowned. “I may be wavering, but I haven’t jumped off the ledge yet.”
“Then, since Helen and Maddie aren’t here to do it, let me help drag you back from the edge of a very slippery slope,” he offered. “The man cheated on you. Isn’t that pretty much the scoop on Ronnie Sullivan?”
Dana Sue nodded. “For a very long time, it’s been the only part that mattered.”
“So, why would you even consider taking him back? I just don’t get it. You’re better than that, Dana Sue. You deserve a helluva lot more from the man in your life.”
“You don’t really know him,” she began.
“I know enough,” he said tightly. “I know he hurt you and Annie.”
“I can’t deny that,” Dana Sue admitted. “But I’m just starting to remember that there’s a lot more to him.”
And that scared her almost as badly as what was going on with Annie.
Ronnie was chatting with the waitress about the night’s specials, and awaiting Dana Sue’s return, when he spotted Mary Vaughn Lewis coming in the door. When he’d left town, she’d been married to the mayor’s son, the top real estate agent in the region. Knowing her driven personality, which was only one degree less driven than Helen’s, he imagined she still was.
“Excuse me,” he said to the waitress, a perky teenager who’d introduced herself as Brenda. “I think I’ll wait till Dana Sue is free before I order. I see someone I need to speak to.”
“Sure,” Brenda told him. “I’ll let Dana Sue know.”
“Thanks.” Ronnie slid from the booth and headed to the table where Mary Vaughn was already seated, her cell phone plastered to her ear. The instant she recognized him, she said something to whomever was on the phone, then snapped it shut. She stood up and threw her arms around his neck. “Ronnie Sullivan, if you aren’t a sight for sore eyes,” she said, giving him a smacking kiss on the lips. She lowered her voice. “You do know Dana Sue’s probably around here somewhere, don’t you? Are you ready to risk her coming after you with a butcher knife?”
He laughed. “Thanks for the warning, but she’s well aware I’m here. That’s probably why she hasn’t come out of the kitchen in a while. That and the fact that she knows I’m going to grill her some more about Annie.”
Mary Vaughn’s expression sobered. “That poor child. How’s she doing?”
“Better,” Ronnie said, not wanting to get into that discussion. “Do you have a minute? There’s something I’d like to talk about with you.”
“Have a seat,” she said at once. “I’m meeting someone, but he’s always late. I doubt tonight will be an exception.”
Ronnie pulled out her chair, then took the one next to her. “You look great, by the way,” he told her. She had the trim build of an avid tennis player, a sport she’d taken up when she’d decided the country club would be the best place in town to meet rich potential clients.
“So,” he asked, “are you still a big real estate mogul in town?”
She laughed. “The biggest. Why?”
“Are you by any chance handling the real estate that’s on the market on Main Street? I didn’t notice whose signs were in the windows.”
“Most of it,” she said. “And the one or two listings that aren’t mine, I can get you into. What’s up?”
“This needs to stay between you and me for now, okay?” he said.
“You know me, I’m the soul of discretion,” she claimed.
Ronnie laughed. “Must have been hard for you getting to that place,” he teased. “Used to be there wasn’t a thing going on at the high school that you didn’t know and share.”
She winced at the reminder. “Not a trait that works in this business. I know things—” She cut herself off. “Of course, if I told you, that would pretty much prove your point, wouldn’t it? You can trust me, Ronnie. I swear it.”
He nodded. “I’d like to take a look at the old hardware store property. When did it go on the market?”
“Only a couple of months ago,” she told him. “It broke my heart to see one more business die. Rusty had a heart attack and, what with worrying about him and making sure he followed doctor’s orders, Dora Jean couldn’t handle the business. Not that there was much left of it, anyway. She just put a Closed sign in the window, called me and told me to sell it, lock, stock and barrel.”
“When could I see it?”
She pulled out a day planner that was crammed with business cards and slips of paper. When she finally found her schedule, she skimmed a finger over the entries. “Eight in the morning tomorrow,” she said finally. “Otherwise, not till after six. The day’s jam-packed. I’m meeting with a developer at nine to talk about getting an exclusive on selling the homes in the new subdivision he’s starting. Six hundred houses, if you can believe it. Then there’s a Chamber of Commerce lunch at noon that will drag on till two. And then I’m showing properties to a couple relocating from Michigan.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ve already shown them everything twice. I’m beginning to think they just like looking.”
“Put me down for eight,” he said at once.
If he liked what he heard and saw during his tour of the property, maybe he could get Mary Vaughn to consider letting him tag along to meet the developer. At the very least, he might be able to wrangle an introduction later, so he could pitch the kind of services he’d be offering to contractors once he had the doors opened. Once again it seemed as if fate had stepped in.
Just then Mary Vaughn’s dinner companion, a well-dressed, older man Ronnie didn’t recognize, arrived. Ronnie stood up and shook his hand as they were introduced. Though he was wearing a suit and tie, he looked as if he spent a lot of time on a golf course.
“Dave Carlson, Ronnie Sullivan, an old school friend,” Mary Vaughn said.
“I won’t intrude on your evening,” Ronnie told him. “I was just scheduling an appointment with Mary Vaughn for tomorrow.”
The man shrugged. “I’m used to it. Besides, she’s one of my top Realtors, so I never complain when she’s conducting business that could bring in more money.”
“Ah, you’re her boss,” Ronnie concluded.
Mary Vaughn frowned at the man. “And ever since my divorce the man I go home with at night,” she said, then added rather pointedly, “at least for now.”
Suddenly Ronnie felt as if he’d stepped into a minefield. Were they married or not? It sounded as if there was tension around that issue.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “See you in the morning. You two have a good evening.”
“Thanks,” she said.
Ronnie wove his way back to his booth in about two seconds flat, picked up the menu and hid behind it.
A moment later, Dana Sue slid into the booth opposite him. “So why were you huddled with Mary Vaughn?” she asked, tilting the menu down to look into his eyes.
“Business,” he said evasively.
She regarded him uneasily. “Are you about to start looking at houses, Ronnie?”