A Slice of Heaven (10 page)

“W
ell, that was…interesting,” Maddie said when she joined Dana Sue and stared after Ronnie as he drove away from the hospital.

“Don’t start with me,” Dana Sue said sharply.

“I’m just saying—”

“I don’t want to hear any of your opinions or observations about what just happened,” Dana Sue said.

“I was merely going to comment on your knack for compromise,” Maddie said, barely holding back a grin. “Impressive.”

Dana Sue scowled at her. “Rub it in, why don’t you? He didn’t give me a chance to compromise. He made me so mad, all I could think about was getting him out of town as fast as humanly possible.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s not going anywhere now,” Maddie said, her expression gloating. “What man would leave after a kiss like that?”

“Oh, go suck an egg,” Dana Sue retorted. She’d never been so humiliated in her entire life. Except, maybe, for the day she’d kicked Ronnie out of her house and the whole neighborhood had come out to watch. Today was definitely a close second. She held up her hand to ward off whatever words were still on the tip of her friend’s tongue. “Not another word,” she warned.

Maddie grinned. “Okay.”

“And don’t tell Helen.”

“Okay.”

“Or Annie,” Dana Sue added. “Especially don’t tell Annie.”

“Got it,” Maddie confirmed. Apparently not content to leave it at that, though, she added, “I’m supposed to keep my mouth shut about your ex-husband laying a kiss on you that could have steamed up every window in the state.”

Despite her annoyance, a grin tugged at the corners of Dana Sue’s mouth. “It
was
hot, wasn’t it?”

“You’d have to be the one to say,” Maddie said piously. “I’m not supposed to comment on my observations.”

“Maddie, what am I going to do?” she asked, unable to keep the desperate note out of her voice. She still wanted the man, damn him to hell.

“Am I supposed to answer that?”

“Please.”

“Give it time, sweetie. Maybe he’ll change his mind and leave once he knows Annie is okay.”

Dana Sue met her gaze. “Maybe, if I’m being honest, I don’t want him to.”

Maddie’s determinedly serious expression gave way to a full-fledged grin. “Something tells me he’s counting on that.”

She was probably right, Dana Sue thought. Maddie knew Ronnie inside out, understood him on some level that eluded her. Probably because Dana Sue never used logic when it came to Ronnie. She listened to her heart and her hormones. She’d been his partner, his lover, his grand passion, but Maddie had been his friend. In some ways, Dana Sue was jealous of that. Maybe if she and Ronnie had talked more, if they’d had the kind of relationship she had with Erik, for instance, they would have been able to work through their problems. Instead, the breakup had been just as passionate and unthinking as the relationship.

“What if there’s still this wild, out-of-control attraction, but neither of us has really learned anything?”

“You’ll survive,” Maddie said. “You not only survived the last time, you thrived.”

“Because I had to,” Dana Sue said. “I had Annie to consider. I couldn’t just fall apart and let her suffer. She was in enough pain as it was.” She glanced toward the hospital. “And look how
that
turned out. I did a lousy job of protecting her.”

“For the hundredth time, you did not fail Annie,” Maddie insisted. “If parents blamed themselves for every single foolish decision their kids made, they’d never get out of bed in the morning. Teenagers are going to make mistakes, more than likely a lot of them. All we can do is be there to pick up the pieces, and hope they learn from them.”

Maddie gave her a thoughtful look. “You know, it might be easier to get through all this with Annie if you were sharing the burden with someone.”

“I have you and Helen,” Dana Sue said defiantly. “Even Erik has been a rock. You guys are enough.”

“But daughters and dads,” Maddie said, “they have a special bond.”

Dana Sue thought about her too-brief relationship with her own dad, who’d died when she was only seven. She’d never felt entirely safe after that, which may have been why she’d put so much faith and trust in Ronnie. He’d made her feel that way again.

“You think I should let him stay, don’t you?” she asked.

Maddie lifted a brow. “I’m not sure whether he stays or goes is your decision. Ronnie has a mind of his own. However, I do think you could find a way to look on the bright side if he does stay.”

“More chances to kill him?” Dana Sue suggested, not entirely in jest.

“I was thinking of letting him share the work it’s going to take to get Annie back on track. But there is a benefit for you, as well.”

“Oh?”

“There are a lot of unresolved issues between you. Because he took off, you never dealt with anything.”

“I threw him out. I’d say that had a certain finality to it,” Dana Sue argued.

Maddie looked amused. “You threw him out in a fit of temper, because your pride had been wounded. I’m not saying it wasn’t justifiable. I’m just saying it didn’t give either of you a chance to work through the real issues, like why he cheated in the first place and whether there was anything he could do to prove that it would never happen again. You didn’t even give him a chance to explain, did you?”

Dana Sue regarded her incredulously. “What was there to explain? The man cheated. End of story.”

“With some mature relationships,” Maddie said, “that would be the beginning of the hard work, not the end of the story.”

“I don’t recall you being all that eager to take Bill back when you found out he’d been cheating on you,” Dana Sue retorted, referring to Maddie’s ex-husband. Even as the words crossed her lips, she regretted opening an old wound. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s okay.” Maddie didn’t look half as upset as she might have a few months ago. “His girlfriend was pregnant, remember? He wanted to marry her. It was a little too late to think about working things out.”

“And if Noreen hadn’t been pregnant, would you have fought to keep Bill after you found out about the affair?”

“Yes,” Maddie said without hesitation. “He’s the father of my children and we had a twenty-year marriage on the line. A part of me will always regret that we couldn’t make it work. But am I happy now? Am I glad that things turned out the way they did, that Bill left and I found Cal? Of course. Cal’s incredible.” A smile lit her face. “We have a new baby, something I never would have contemplated in a million years if Bill and I had stayed together. If it had been up to him we would have stopped after Kyle was born. Katie was a surprise to both of us. She turned out to be a blessing, but he was adamant about not having any more children, and I thought I was too old to consider it, anyway. Thank heaven Cal doesn’t think I’m too old to do anything I want to do.”

Dana Sue didn’t believe her friend was being entirely honest. “You seem to have forgotten one thing.”

“Oh?”

“Bill and Noreen never got married. He decided he wanted you back. You chose Cal.”

Maddie’s cheeks colored. “True, but there was a lot of water under the bridge by then. Even so, I hesitated for about two seconds and thought about whether I should go back to Bill because of the kids. Then I faced the fact that I was happier with Cal than I had been in a long time.”

“Maybe I’m happier without Ronnie,” Dana Sue suggested.

“Really?” Maddie asked.

She found the skepticism annoying. “I have Annie. I have the restaurant. I’m busier than I’ve ever been.”

“And you’ve never gone out with the same man more than twice,” Maddie said. “The one man who might actually be a good match for you, you keep at arm’s length.”

Dana Sue frowned. “Who’s that?” she asked, though she already knew.

“Erik.”

“I suppose you have a theory about that?”

“Of course,” Maddie said. “Your heart still belongs to someone else.”

“Gee, I thought it was because most of the men were jerks,” Dana Sue retorted, then amended, “and because Annie freaked out over my having any dates at all.”

“Not all of them were jerks,” Maddie countered. “Helen introduced you to a couple of guys who were solid, intelligent men with successful careers.”

“True,” Dana Sue admitted.

“You found flaws in them, too,” Maddie said. “Mostly because they weren’t Ronnie.”

“No, that was a plus,” Dana Sue insisted.

Maddie rolled her eyes. “Whatever. How about Erik? What are his flaws?”

“He doesn’t have any that I’ve noticed,” Dana Sue admitted. “He’s a wonderful man. I just don’t feel that way about him. I would never take a chance on spoiling the friendship and the working relationship we have.”

“Is it that, or is it because Ronnie was and is your soul mate, and you know it?”

Dana Sue gave Maddie a perplexed look. “I don’t get it. I thought you were as furious about Ronnie’s betrayal as I was.”

“I was,” she agreed.

“But I’ve seen you with him the last few days. You’ve given him a pass. The two of you are all buddy-buddy again, just the way you were years ago.”

“Because at his core, Ronnie Sullivan is a decent guy. He made a stupid mistake, but one that a lot of men make at one time or another. He wasn’t some serial cheater who chased anything in shorts and a tank top. I’m not saying he deserves a pass, just a chance to make it right.”

“Helen would disagree,” Dana Sue said.

“Helen’s a divorce attorney. She’s a lot more jaded than I am,” Maddie responded. “Bottom line, it’s your life, your decision. I’m just saying maybe you could keep an open mind. Whatever you decide, you know I’ll back you a hundred percent.”

“Even if I chase him off?”

“Even if you
try
to chase him off.”

“You don’t think I can?”

Maddie held up her hands. “Hey, don’t you dare turn this into a challenge just to prove me wrong. It’s your happiness that’s on the line.”

Yeah, that was the rub, Dana Sue admitted to herself. On some level she knew there wasn’t another man on earth who could make her happier than Ronnie Sullivan. What flat-out terrified her, though, was that no man could make her as miserable, either.

Annie was starting to feel as if her mom was staying away on purpose. Oh, she’d breezed in and out of the ICU, told her she loved her, but she’d avoided the kind of heart-to-heart Annie had been expecting. Either that was because her dad was around or because her mom was so furious with her she didn’t want to risk a fight while Annie was still lying in a hospital bed.

She hoped it wasn’t because her dad was back. If it was, and her mom created some kind of ruckus with him, she was afraid her dad would take off once more. Annie didn’t think she could stand it if he left again, not now when her life was such a mess.

The door to her room inched open just then and her mom peered in.

“You awake?” she called softly.

“Awake and bored,” Annie said.

Her mom came into the room, brushed a kiss across her forehead and pulled a chair up beside the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Lousy,” Annie replied.

Alarm flared in her mom’s eyes and she was on her feet in an instant. “What’s wrong? Should I get the nurse in here? The doctor? Is it your heart?”

Annie stared at her. “Mom, chill. I just meant I was tired of all these people coming in here to poke around in my psyche and tell me what to do.”

Her mom’s shoulders sagged with relief. “Oh.” She looked as if she wanted to say a lot more, but instead she sat back down, appearing uncomfortable.

Annie lost patience with all this tiptoeing around what was on both their minds. “Mom, why don’t you just say it?”

“Say what?”

Annie’s eyes welled with tears. “That I screwed up and you’re mad at me.”

“I’m not…”

Annie regarded her with a watery, disbelieving stare. “Come on,” she said, swiping at her tears. “You know you want to yell at me. You believe what everyone around here is saying, that I was deliberately starving myself. Why not admit it? You’ve thought all along that I was anorexic. Now you have backup. You can say ‘I told you so’ for the next hundred years.”

Her mom gave her a weary look. “I’d rather it weren’t true, sweetie. And I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at myself for not facing it sooner and getting you some help.” Her eyes filled with tears, as well. “I can’t believe I was so stupid. I thought I was handling it. I thought you were smart enough to see what you were doing to yourself after you passed out at Maddie’s wedding. I thought a lot of things that just weren’t true. This isn’t something that gets fixed by wishful thinking.”

Annie was shaken by the tears spilling down her mom’s cheeks. She’d never seen her cry before, not even when her dad had left. Oh, sure, she cried when they watched certain movies, but that wasn’t the same. This was real. And the tears were all Annie’s fault.

She reached for her hand. “I’m sorry, Mom. Please don’t cry.”

Her mom lifted her face, her expression filled with anguish. “We could have lost you, Annie. If Raylene and Sarah hadn’t been there…”

Annie shuddered. The gravity of what had nearly happened was finally starting to sink in. Worse, if Dr. McDaniels was telling her the truth, there were no certainties that it wouldn’t happen again.

“Mom, I’m scared,” she whispered. “Really scared.”

Her mom moved to the side of the bed and pulled her into her arms. “Me, too, baby. But we’re going to fix this. All of us together.”

“Dad, too?” she asked hesitantly.

She thought she felt her mom sigh against her cheek.

“Yes, sweetie, Dad, too.”

Ronnie found a motel room about halfway between the hospital and the home he’d once shared with Dana Sue. Even as he pulled into the parking lot, he knew what lay ahead. The owners of the Serenity Inn, Maybelle and Frank Hawkins, had lived in town all their lives. They knew every person who came and went, including those who only passed through for a day or two. They’d known Ronnie’s parents and Dana Sue’s entire family, including her black-sheep uncle and his no-account sons who lived outside of town and caused more trouble with their illegal still and gambling than the Sweet Magnolias had ever dreamed of. Maybelle and Frank went to every high school football game, every basketball and baseball game. And they were regulars at Wharton’s, where town gossip spread faster than a winter cold.