A Slice of Heaven (15 page)

Annie didn’t respond.

Dana Sue cast a helpless look at Ronnie, then stood up to wait as he leaned down to kiss Annie.

“’Night, sweet pea,” he said. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Annie murmured, her voice catching on a sob.

Dana Sue had to leave the room before she, too, burst into tears. When Ronnie followed her out, she looked into his distraught face.

“Do you think any of that got through to her?” she asked him.

“I wish to hell I knew,” he said. “We did the best we could.”

She met his gaze and voiced her worst fear. “What if it’s not enough?”

“It has to be,” he said simply. “It just has to be.”

Though Ronnie was excited about getting into the old hardware store to see its potential, he couldn’t shake the scene with Annie from his head. Would today go better than previous days when she met with Dr. McDaniels? And if it didn’t, what would happen next? The possibility of having to send Annie away loomed over everything. He knew Dana Sue was no happier about it than he was. Both of them were praying it wouldn’t come to that.

Pushing that worry aside for now, he paced the sidewalk in front of the hardware store, fifteen minutes early for his meeting with Mary Vaughn. He was already a nervous wreck when she drove up and parked right behind his car. A lot was riding on what he saw inside and the figures she was going to give him.

“I like a client who’s eager,” she told him with a smile as she found the right key in her purse and unlocked the door. “It usually means I can wrangle a better deal for the seller.”

Ronnie laughed at her candor. “I’m interested, not stupid,” he told her. “If I decide to buy—big
if,
by the way—I’ll be as fair to Dora Jean and Rusty as I can be, given the limitations of my funds.”

“Sounds reasonable,” she said. “You need me to go through here and give you a spiel, or would you rather look it over on your own?”

“On my own, if you don’t mind. Then we can go over any questions I have.”

She nodded. “I’ll wait outside, then. I have calls I need to make, anyway. The street’s the only place to get a decent cell phone signal around here. My calls were cut off three times last night while I was at Sullivan’s. I should have known better than to try to take them in the first place.”

“Make your calls. I’ll be fine,” Ronnie said, eager to get inside.

The place was musty from being closed up for even just a couple of months. Ronnie walked up and down the aisles, a thousand memories crowding in as he thought of all the times he’d come inside and pestered Rusty for advice about tools and the various projects he was doing around his parents’ house. The forty-year-old house had had its charms, but there’d always been something breaking or requiring paint or patching. His dad had been clueless and his mom impatient. Ronnie had enjoyed the work, and doing the odd jobs himself had the added bonus of keeping his mom off his dad’s case. He’d earned a fair amount of pocket money from his grateful father, who’d insisted they move to a maintenance-free condo in Columbia when they retired.

Today the shelves were no longer as fully stocked as they’d once been. And there was so much dust! Still, the remaining inventory was good quality and would give him a head start. He imagined Rusty would put him in touch with suppliers. Maybe he’d even want to come in and work from time to time if his health permitted. Ronnie liked the idea of having the old guy around. It’d give the place some continuity.

The large back room of the building held a limited supply of lumber, insulation and other building supplies, but Ronnie knew he’d need a warehouse for the kind of operation he was envisioning. Still, this place could be the anchor, with plenty of room for, literally, the nuts and bolts of the business.

He walked behind the counter and fingered the old, intricately molded brass cash register. He’d probably need to replace it with something more modern and electronic, but there was a charm to this one that made him wish it could be otherwise.

Looking outside, he could see the town square through the grime-covered window. He imagined that glass sparkling in the sun, a clever display of some sort on the built-in shelf below, or glittering with lights at Christmas. It felt so right that if Mary Vaughn had come back in at that precise second, he would have agreed to any terms she laid out for him.

Which was why it was a good thing she was still outside, her cell phone plastered to her ear. He went out to join her and she immediately ended her call. When she emerged from her car, he noticed that she took her time, making sure he got a good view of her shapely legs. He couldn’t help wondering if that was part of her sales strategy or if the relationship she was in was as rocky as he’d suspected the night before. Mary Vaughn on the prowl was a complication he didn’t need.

“Well?” she asked, studying his face.

“Walking through there brings back a lot of memories,” he said. “You have the specs and asking price with you?”

She nodded at once and pulled them from her briefcase. “I also have a contract with me if you want to make an offer.”

Ronnie was so tempted it took everything in him not to go for it, but he shook his head. “I need to look over these papers,” he said. “And there’re people I want to discuss this with.”

“Don’t wait too long,” she said, but they both knew there wouldn’t be a lot of competition for the property, not until someone took the lead in bringing life back to downtown.

“I’ll be in touch,” Ronnie promised. “How’s Rusty doing now? I’d like to speak to him if he’s well enough for company.”

Mary Vaughn’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “You wouldn’t go behind my back and try to make a deal directly with him, would you?”

Ronnie returned her gaze evenly. “I think you know me better than that,” he said, annoyed that she’d even felt the need to ask.

She flinched at his tone. “Sorry. It just makes me nervous when buyers want to set up little tête-à-têtes with sellers.”

“Understandable,” he said. “But I imagine there are things Rusty could tell me about this place that you can’t. Besides, I’d just like to talk old times with him.”

Mary Vaughn visibly relaxed. “He’s probably chomping at the bit for some company by now. Dora Jean’s had him on a very short leash.”

Ronnie nodded. “I’ll drop by, then. You and I will talk again.”

“Any idea when?”

He needed to pay that visit to Rusty, then talk again with Butch. Considering the amount of time he needed to devote to Annie, as well, it would be at least several days. “End of the week,” he suggested. “Maybe not till the first of next.”

The Realtor looked vaguely disappointed, but made a note in her day planner. “I’ll call you if I haven’t heard from you by then.”

“Of course you will,” he teased, then brushed a quick kiss across her cheek. “You didn’t get to be queen of real estate around here without trying to make things happen.”

He was about to walk away when he remembered her other meeting this morning. The fact that he’d forgotten something so important was testament to how distracted he was by Annie’s rebellious attitude.

“Would you do me a favor?” he asked Mary Vaughn.

“Of course.”

“When you’re talking to your developer friend this morning, mention my name, okay?”

“Mind if I ask why?”

“Let’s just say it’s all part of this plan I have in the back of my mind.”

As if sensing that it might help her to close the deal for the property, she said, “You could come along with me now. I’m sure he wouldn’t object. He’s a pretty laid-back guy.”

Ronnie debated with himself, then decided against it. “I need to get my ducks in a row first,” he told her. “Just speak kindly of me if the opportunity arises.”

“Done,” she said at once. “Now I’d better run. Being late never makes a good impression.”

Ronnie watched her climb into her cream-colored Lexus and drive off. He cast one last look back at the hardware store and once again felt that burst of excitement deep inside. He shoved the papers Mary Vaughn had given him into his pocket and headed straight back to his motel. It was time to start running some numbers to see if this dream of his had a chance in hell of succeeding.

Annie scowled at Dr. McDaniels, trying to hold back her anger. She knew the woman had ratted her out to her parents, and now they were going to be all over her until she cooperated. The whole thing sucked, big-time.

Annie remained stoically silent, even though the shrink was regarding her with an expectant expression, just waiting for her to open up and spill her guts. So what if her parents had been telling her the truth, that she couldn’t get out of the hospital till she started talking. The truth was, she was scared. What if she blabbed every one of her deepest, darkest secrets and the doctor decided she was a basket case? Nope, she couldn’t take that chance.

“I’ve got nothing for you,” she told the shrink eventually. “I don’t eat because I’m not hungry.”

“Never?” Dr. McDaniels asked skeptically.

“Nope, never.”

“And yet you know the human body has to be fed in order to survive,” Linda McDaniels said. “You know it’s important to drink plenty of fluids, so you won’t get dehydrated. I imagine they taught you all that in school.”

“Sure,” Annie said. She didn’t add that Lacy and Dr. McDaniels themselves had been over the same information a zillion times in the last week or so. It was getting really old.

“Then not eating or drinking is a conscious choice on your part. You must be making a decision to starve yourself to death. Why?”

Annie shrugged. “I dunno.”

“I think you do,” the shrink chided.

“Then maybe you should tell me,” she said. The woman might as well work for her seventy-five bucks an hour!

As if she’d guessed Annie’s unspoken challenge, Dr. McDaniels merely smiled. “I think I’ll let you come up with your own answers, Annie. Think it over and we’ll discuss it further tomorrow. Same time.”

“I thought I was going home tomorrow,” she said, even though she’d been told it wouldn’t happen as long as she wasn’t talking to the shrink.

Dr. McDaniels shook her head. “Not unless I feel you’re giving me your full cooperation. Lacy says you’re still trying to fool the nurses about how much you’re eating, as well. I heard all about that turkey sandwich you managed to hide in the trash can, Annie. That you would do something like that when you’re in the hospital tells me you still don’t grasp the seriousness of this.”

“Did my mom and dad blab about that?” Annie demanded.

Dr. McDaniels regarded her evenly. “They didn’t have to. There’s not much we don’t find out about around here. Think of this as a tiny microcosm of Serenity. News travels very fast on the hospital grapevine.”

“That sucks,” Annie said sullenly.

“No, it just means there are a lot of people around here who are dedicated to seeing to it that you get well. But you have to want that, too, Annie. You have to acknowledge that you have a problem before we’ll ever be able to deal with it.”

“What happens if I don’t talk?” she asked. “You going to keep me locked up here forever?”

“Your parents didn’t explain the alternative to you?”

Annie shook her head. “No.”

“Okay, here’s what I told them,” she said, leveling a look at Annie that made her squirm. “If you don’t address this in a meaningful way, I’ll have no choice but to recommend that you go to an inpatient treatment facility.”

“No way!” Annie cried.

“Yes, way,” the shrink responded. “So here are your choices, Annie. We start to make some progress here, and you eat everything on the menus that you and Lacy plan, then I’ll release you, and we’ll continue to have sessions every day after school. Or you go to a treatment facility that specializes in eating disorders. There are a couple in the state that I recommend.”

“I’d have to go away from Serenity and leave all my friends?” Annie asked incredulously. “For how long?”

“As long as it takes.”

Annie shook her head. “My parents will never agree to me being sent away.”

“They already have,” Dr. McDaniels said. “So what’s it going to be?”

Annie stared at her in dismay. “I’d have to keep these stupid appointments every day after school?”

“Until you get a grasp on why you’re doing this, yes. We can’t fix the problem until you acknowledge and understand it, and we come up with a plan for getting you healthy again. The sooner we get started, the sooner you’ll be well, and free of me.”

Nobody had explained that part of the deal to her. It totally sucked, Annie thought. “What if I, like, have some kind of breakthrough?”

“That would speed things along,” the shrink conceded. “I think we’ll all be a lot happier if you understand what pushed you down this path in the first place. That way it’s less likely to happen again. So, tomorrow, same time. If your attitude’s improved and you’ve gotten real with Lacy, too, then we can talk about you going home.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Annie grumbled. Her chances of getting out of here were next to nothing unless she talked. She might as well accept that. Her mom and dad were on the doctors’ side. They were totally united for once.

It was kinda cool, in a way. She had a hunch if it went on long enough, they’d wake up and see what Annie already knew—that they still loved each other. She’d figured that out the first time she saw the way they looked at each other after she woke up. Maybe, eventually, she’d have her family back. If that happened, this totally lame stay in the hospital would be worth it.

“H
ow did Annie do in her therapy session today?” Maddie asked Dana Sue, who’d stopped by The Corner Spa the next morning. “If you have time for tea, let’s go outside and sit on the patio. The weather’s gorgeous and you look as if you could use a break.”

“I honestly don’t know if I’m coming or going,” Dana Sue admitted, pouring herself a cup of strong Earl Grey tea from one of the pots in the spa café, then heading to the patio. “I go by the hospital for a while in the morning, then again in the afternoon and evening. In between I’m trying to keep up with the paperwork at the restaurant.”

“Isn’t Ronnie at the hospital a lot, too?”

Dana Sue nodded. “And believe me, that just adds to the stress.” She closed her eyes and turned her face up to the sun filtering through the trees. The warmth felt heavenly. If she could have, she would have sat right here all day long.

“You could always divvy up the visiting times, so neither of you needs to be there as much,” Maddie suggested, studying Dana Sue intently. “You wouldn’t cross paths as much, either.” Her expression turned smug. “If that’s what you really want.”

“In theory that’s a great idea,” Dana Sue said. “But right now it seems to be taking both of us coming at Annie at the same time to get any point across. Otherwise she just tries to play us off against each other. Heck, she tries that when we’re both in the same room. She attacks me to stir up my guilt, then turns on the tears for Ronnie.”

“Would you cave if he wasn’t there for backup?”

“No,” Dana Sue said. “I’ve finished pretending that everything will work itself out on its own.”

“Would Ronnie give in if you weren’t around?”

“Now that’s the million-dollar question,” Dana Sue said. “He’s been amazingly stern with her so far, but I know it’s killing him.” She shook her head, determined to give him more credit. “No, he wouldn’t give in. He knows how important this is.”

“Does he have any idea of the kind of stress you’re under and how bad that is for you?” Maddie asked worriedly.

Dana Sue shook her head. “No. At least, I haven’t said anything about my health. Unfortunately, the other night at the restaurant, Erik was tossing out all sorts of hints. I’m not sure whether Ronnie caught on or not. Every now and then, though, he gets this look in his eyes that makes me wonder. And he gets all weird if he thinks I haven’t eaten three meals a day. If he
has
figured things out, I don’t want to know. I couldn’t cope with his pity on top of everything else.”

“It might be genuine
concern,
not pity,” Maddie corrected. “He still has feelings for you, Dana Sue. You know he does.”

“I can’t cope with that right now, either.” She regarded her friend wearily. “I’m just so damn tired. I would give anything for one decent night’s sleep. I don’t think I’ll get one, though, till Annie’s back home again.”

“Any idea when that will be?”

“If she’d just wake up and get with the program, it could be tomorrow or the day after, but she’s stubborn to her core,” Dana Sue said ruefully. “From what Dr. McDaniels told me, she was only marginally more cooperative today, even after Ronnie and I ganged up on her last night.”

When Maddie started to respond, Dana Sue held up her hand. “I can’t talk about this anymore right now, okay? I’m at the end of my rope. Besides, I came over here to thank you for getting Ty to go by to visit with her so much. I’m sure a hospital is the last place he wants to be, but he’s been really good about stopping by.”

“He’s worried sick about her,” Maddie confessed. “In fact, his reaction caught me by surprise. I think he’s feeling guilty for some reason. I’ve tried to talk to him. So has Cal. We’ve told him what happened wasn’t his fault.”

“That’s true, but he was there the night it happened,” Dana Sue told her. “Did you know that?”

Maddie looked stunned. “I had no idea.”

“Not actually
when
it happened, but earlier,” Dana Sue explained. “Annie was having that sleepover we’d talked about, and Ty and some other guys came by the house, even though I’d strictly forbidden Annie to invite any boys. I saw them leaving. With everything else that’s happened, I haven’t confronted her about it yet.”

“I’ll speak to Ty tonight,” Maddie said, frowning. “He knows he has no business being at a party of any kind when the parents aren’t home.”

“Knowing how he feels about Annie, as if she’s another kid sister, he probably felt he should have been looking out for her that night,” Dana Sue mused. “I have no idea what went on while he was there—a lot of dancing, I suppose—but he might feel responsible for what happened later, even though he was long gone. Please tell him again that none of this was his fault, that it all started a long time before that night.”

Maddie nodded. “I also think I’ll have another serious chat with him about spending time at any of his friends’ houses when the parents aren’t around. Kids his age need adult supervision. He knows that’s the rule, even if it
is
your house and he’s always treated it like a second home.”

“Just don’t stop him from spending time with Annie,” Dana Sue pleaded. “She adores him. He’s an important part of her support system right now.”

Maddie smiled. “I know. I’ve watched her looking at him as if he hung the moon.”

“I wish he looked at her the same way,” Dana Sue said, then added wistfully, “Wouldn’t it be great if sometime down the road the two of them got together?”

“Sometime
way
down the road,” Maddie replied. “But, yes, it would be great. Right now, though, all Ty really cares about is baseball. And all I care about is getting him into a good college. Cal and I are still at odds over that, since he thinks Ty could go pro straight out of high school, and that scout he invited to watch him play agrees. So far, Bill’s remaining neutral, which means it’s up to me to convince Ty that college is important. You’d think Cal, of all people, would understand the importance of a college education, since it came in darn handy for him when his baseball career ended so abruptly.”

Dana Sue regarded her with a wistful expression. “I wish those were the kind of things going on with Annie right now—nice, normal, teenage stuff.”

“Oh, sweetie, this crisis will pass,” Maddie said, regarding her with sympathy. “A day will come when all you’ll worry about will be whether Annie’s home on time from a date and whether her grades are good enough for the college she wants to attend.”

“That day can’t come soon enough for me,” Dana Sue exclaimed earnestly. “I need to go. I want to stop by the restaurant before I head back to the hospital. I’m going to owe Erik and Karen huge raises after the way they’ve pitched in, but there are some things I have to do myself. I would give anything to spend an evening there cooking. I miss it.”

“Well, even if you don’t have time to cook, eat a decent meal while you’re there,” Maddie advised. “I hear the food’s outstanding, even with the owner away.”

Dana Sue smiled. “Thank goodness for that.” She leaned down and gave her friend a fierce hug. “Thanks for listening.”

“Anytime,” Maddie said. “Ronnie’s a pretty good sounding board, too, you know. And he has as much of a stake in the outcome of all this as you do.”

“I know,” Dana Sue murmured. She just didn’t want to start relying on him, and find out that all his promises about sticking around Serenity meant no more than the vows he’d taken on the day he’d married her.

Annie was feeling pretty battered and bruised after another unproductive session with Dr. McDaniels. It was getting harder and harder not to give in to the psychologist’s entreaties, especially knowing that she could be stuck here for days if she didn’t cooperate, or worse, wind up in some dump far away from home, where they’d pester her until she caved in. There had to be rules about torturing a kid, right? Maybe she should ask Helen about that.

There was a hesitant tap on the door of her room, then it inched open. Ty stuck his head in, his expression tentative.

“Is it okay to come in?”

Annie brightened at the sight of him. He was such a hunk, especially in jeans and an old Atlanta Braves T-shirt. “Sure,” she said eagerly, wishing she’d done something to fix herself up earlier. She probably looked pretty disgusting. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I cut classes,” he admitted, pulling a chair up beside the bed.

She stared at him in shock. “To come see me?”

He nodded, looking uncomfortable. “It’s just that every time I’ve come, the room’s been filled up with other kids, and your folks or my mom. I wanted to talk to you alone.”

“Your mom’s going to flip out when she finds out about this, you know. Coach Maddox probably will, too. Isn’t he real strict about players being in class?”

“Oh, yeah,” Ty admitted. “But he’s my stepdad now. I can probably get him to cut me some slack.”

“Dreamer,” she teased. “He probably thinks he has to be harder on you than anybody else, so you’ll be an example, even if you are his star player.”

Ty shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I needed to talk to you about what happened.”

“You mean the night I got sick,” she said, her enthusiasm for the visit waning.

“Yeah, that,” he said. “And the fact that me and those other guys were over there. I feel like we contributed to what happened.”

“That’s crazy,” she said. “You’d been gone forever when I passed out.”

“Maybe so, but that’s the second time I was around and you keeled over.”

“It wasn’t the same as it was at your mom’s wedding,” Annie insisted. “I just got a little dizzy that time.”

“From not eating,” Ty said. “And we both know it wasn’t just some little thing. I know all about anorexia from school, Annie. It’s not something to fool around with. I’m worried about you.”

She stared at him, startled that he would admit to such a thing. “Why?”

“You almost died, dammit, that’s why,” he said, his voice rising. “Don’t you know how scary that is for everyone around you? Sarah and Raylene are terrified. I get sick thinking about what could have happened. And all of us feel guilty because we’ve seen what you were doing and haven’t stepped up to say anything.” His somber gaze clashed with hers. “So I’m stepping up, here and now. You’re my friend. Heck, you’re practically family. We’ve known each other since we were babies.”

“I know,” she whispered, shaken by the barely concealed anger and fear in his voice.

“Then here’s the deal,” he said, his gaze not wavering. “Either you get help for this right now or I’ll be on your case morning, noon and night until you do.”

Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “It matters that much to you?”

“
You
matter that much. Not just to me, but to a lot of people.”

She regarded him incredulously. “But I’m so fat,” she whispered. “I don’t know how you can even stand to look at me.”

Ty stared at her in shocked disbelief. “Are you crazy?” He jumped up, yanked open a bedside drawer and fumbled around until he found a compact. “Look at yourself,” he demanded, holding up the tiny mirror. “Take a good, hard look, Annie. You used to be beautiful, but now you look like a skeleton.”

Annie couldn’t bear to look in the mirror. She began to cry in earnest at the harsh words.

Ty tossed the compact back in the drawer, then took her hand in his. “I want the old Annie back. I want to see your dimples again. I want to hear you laugh again. I want all of us to go out for pizza and burgers and not see you pushing the food around on your plate and only pretending to eat it.”

Annie clung to his hand, stunned that any of this mattered to him. “I don’t know if I can be that way again,” she told him.

“I think you can be,” he said with confidence. “I’ll bet the shrink does, too, or she wouldn’t be wasting her time. But you have to want it, Annie. You have to want it enough to fight for it. I know all about how you’re stonewalling the doctor right now. My mom was telling Cal about it last night at dinner. You act like none of this is a big deal, but it
is.
”

Annie closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see his disappointment. Having Ty come down on her like this had caught her totally by surprise. She wished she could tell him what he wanted to hear. Did he think she wanted to die?

“Hey,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Look at me.” He waited patiently until she finally relented and met his gaze. “I know you’re scared. And I know what the teacher said in health class about anorexia being some kind of weird control thing.” He smiled at her. “So here’s how I see it. If you were strong enough to control your eating that way, then you’re strong enough to turn things around. You just have to want it.”

His smile spread. “And until you want it enough for yourself, consider me your conscience. I’m going to be on your case like white on rice.”

Annie wasn’t sure she could see a downside to that, but she knew there was one. Having Ty underfoot every time she turned around was like a dream come true. Knowing he was there for one reason only, to see to it that she ate, well, that wasn’t so terrific. In fact, it was kinda humiliating.

“I can do this on my own,” she told him, not wanting him to know how scared she was that she couldn’t.

He nodded. “I believe that. Just the same, I think I’ll keep a close eye on you until all the votes are counted.”

“Did your mom send you over here?” Annie asked.

He blinked at the question. “No, why?”

“My mom?”

He shook his head.

Annie lay back against the pillows, pleased that he’d done this completely on his own. Maybe he
did
care about her, at least a little. Not like he was in love with her or anything, but this was the start she’d always longed for.

For the first time since her life had started spiraling out of control, she felt motivated to fix it. Maybe the next time Dr. McDaniels came by she’d have something to say to her.

Ronnie had been just down the hall when he’d seen Ty slip into Annie’s room. Given the time of day, it was pretty clear the kid had cut classes to come. His reason for doing that must have been pretty important.