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  Sarah squinted at the clock. “It’s nearly midnight. Are you sure?”

  “Just think of all the people who wish they had friends who’d call ’em at this hour,” Annie said. “Lots of people have no one.”

  “I’m just thinking that maybe the first time she hears from us after all this time, it ought to be at a civilized hour and maybe we ought to be sober,” Sarah argued.

  “Stick in the mud,” Annie accused. “Besides, I want to hear her take on Ty. You’re obviously totally biased where he’s concerned. He says a few sweet things to you and you get all softhearted and sympathetic. I can’t trust your opinion.”

  “That’s a lousy thing to say,” Sarah protested. “But he does seem to be trying. You have to admit that.”

  “Don’t have to admit anything,” Annie said staunchly, digging in her purse until she found her cell phone. “Here it is,” she announced triumphantly.

  “You found your phone. Other than proving that you still have limited eye-hand coordination, what’s the big deal?” Sarah scoffed.

  “Not the phone. Raylene’s number.” She was dialing before Sarah could stop her. When she finally heard the sound of her friend’s sleepy voice, she suffered a momentary pang of guilt. Still, she spoke cheerfully, “Hey, girlfriend, guess who this is?”

  “Annie,” Raylene said at once, sounding shocked. “Are you drunk?”

  Annie paused thoughtfully. “Could be,” she admitted. “Sarah, too. Want to say hi to her?” She shoved the phone toward her friend.

  “Hey, Raylene. I tried to stop her,” Sarah said. “I hope we didn’t wake up everyone in your house.”

  Annie watched as Sarah’s eyes widened. “Really? Emergency surgery? Does that happen a lot? Yeah, I’m sure it’s one of the trials of being a doctor’s wife.”

  Annie grabbed the phone back. “So, Raylene, how about getting together one of these days? Sarah and I would love to see you. We’ve been talking about the old days, when the three of us hung out together all the time.”

  “I really, really don’t have any desire to set foot in Serenity again,” Raylene said flatly.

  “That’s okay,” Annie said, not even trying to defend the town. Raylene’s family had never felt at home here. Her mother had come from an old Charleston family and had always thought she was better than most everyone in town. It wasn’t surprising that Raylene eventually had picked up her attitude. It had started when she’d attended a debutante ball and had her first real taste of the life her mom had once been accustomed to.

  “Sarah and I will come to you,” Annie offered. “How about lunch one day next week?”

  “I don’t know,” Raylene said at once. “My schedule’s pretty full. I’m on half a dozen fundraising committees and we’re planning for the fall social season right now. It’s worse than having a full-time job. My time’s just not my own. Why don’t I check my calendar and get back to you?” The excuses tripped off her tongue.

  Even with her faculties impaired by margaritas, Annie knew a dismissal when she heard it. “Yeah, you just let us know. Good to hear your voice, though.”

  “Yours, too,” Raylene said, sounding relieved that Annie hadn’t pressed her.

  Annie hung up and regarded Sarah with puzzlement. “She completely blew us off.”

  “Her life’s moved on, that’s all,” Sarah said, defending her. “And it’s not as if either of us have done much to stay in touch with her before now. We all went our own separate ways.”

  Annie considered that, but she wasn’t totally satisfied with the explanation. It was something she’d heard in Raylene’s voice. Behind the too-quick dismissal, there’d been a note of something that sounded almost like fear. She replayed the conversation in her head. Yes, that was definitely what she’d heard. Not condescension, but fear.

  “Maybe her life’s a mess and she doesn’t want us to know,” she suggested slowly. “I’ll bet that’s it. Here it is a Friday night, and her husband’s in surgery after midnight. Come on. That can’t be good.”

  “I’m sure a lot of accidents happen on the weekend,” Sarah replied. “People need to have bones set.”

  “I suppose,” Annie said. In fact, she knew for a fact it was possible, but something had sounded off to her, as off as Sarah’s voice had sounded when she first got to town, as off as Annie’s own voice no doubt sounded when she talked about Ty.

  But she and Sarah talked openly about their problems. Annie found it worrisome that Raylene might not. Then, again, it was practically the middle of the night.

  “I think we need to stay in touch with her,” she said eventually.

  Sarah blinked. “You’re seriously worried. Why?”

  “Instinct, I guess.”

  “After three margaritas, I’m not sure you can trust what you think you see, much less your instincts.”

  “Still, it won’t hurt to call again in a couple of weeks. Isn’t that what real friends do, hang in there even when the other person claims to be just fine? You two certainly did that for me back in high school. This is me trying to return the favor.”

  With any luck, maybe it was just the tequila clouding her judgment, but she didn’t think so. Whatever the reason, she had a feeling their friend was in some kind of trouble, trouble she didn’t want them to discover.

  15

  Annie felt as if she’d been run over by a truck. She was sitting at the kitchen table at home in the morning, trying to decide whether to live or die, when her dad walked in. He started toward the coffeemaker, then came back and took a closer look at her.

  “What happened to you?” he asked, his expression troubled.

  Annie had seen that look far too often. She’d learned to ignore it from her mom, but Ronnie was another story. He knew a little too much about lies and evasions to buy them from her. Straightforward honesty was the only way to go.

  “Sarah and I had delusions about being Sweet Magnolias,” she said. “We had a margarita night.”

  The crease in his forehead eased. “Yeah, I recognize the signs. I’ve seen your mom look this bad on one or two occasions.”

  “Did she live?” Annie inquired.

  “You know she did, though I’m sure there were times when she didn’t much want to. Come on, kiddo. You need more than coffee. Let’s go to Wharton’s.”

  “Food?” Annie questioned, gagging at the thought. “I don’t think so.”

  “Grace has all the ingredients for my guaranteed hangover concoction.”

  “Mom runs an entire restaurant. Don’t we have the ingredients here? I don’t think I can actually move, much less walk.”

  “Yes, you can. The fresh air will do you good,” he said. He tucked a hand under her elbow and pulled her to her feet. “There you go. See. That wasn’t so bad.”

  “My head is spinning,” she warned him.

  “Stand there a second. It’ll stop.”

  “You know way too much about this.”

  “I’ve had my moments, though in the very distant past,” he assured her, his tone virtuous. “What time are you due at work today, by the way?”

  “Noon, thank goodness.”

  “Okay, then, we have time to get you whipped back into shape. We’ll walk to Wharton’s. You’ll sweat some of the alcohol out of your system. Walking this time of year is better than going to a steam room.”

  Annie stared at him incredulously. “My clients think I have a sadistic streak,” she muttered. “Now I know where I got it.”

  “All this is for your own good,” Ronnie assured her.

  “That’s what I tell them,” she said, resigned to going along with her father’s wishes, just as her clients usually caved in to hers.

  The walk to Wharton’s was torture. Her dad kept up a running pep talk, which was almost as annoying as the fact that he wouldn’t slow down. Amazingly, though, by the time they reached Wharton’s, Annie was miserably hot, but she felt almost human again. She doubted she looked it.

  That made it doubly bad that t
he first people they encountered when they walked into the old-fashioned drugstore with its soda fountain and booths were Ty, Trevor and Dee-Dee, who looked as if she’d just stepped out of the pages of Town & Country.

  Ty glanced up, caught sight of Annie and did a double take. “What the hell?” he murmured.

  Annie didn’t pause long enough to satisfy his curiosity. Her father, however, did stop. Whatever he said had Ty looking over his shoulder and shaking his head.

  “What did you tell him?” Annie demanded when Ronnie joined her.

  “That you and Sarah had a margarita night.”

  “Because of him?” Annie asked. “Please tell me you did not say it was because of him.”

  Ronnie looked bewildered. “I didn’t know Ty had anything to do with it. I thought you girls were just trying to follow in your mom’s footsteps with the Sweet Magnolias’ tradition. What did Ty do?”

  Annie considered the question, probably for longer than it deserved. “Nothing, when you get right down to it. I mean not recently, anyway. It’s that woman.”

  Understanding finally dawned on her father’s face. “Trevor’s mother?”

  Annie nodded. “I didn’t expect her to be so, I don’t know, put together, beautiful.”

  Ronnie glanced in Dee-Dee’s direction. “Superficial,” he said, dismissing her. “Anybody can achieve that look with the right clothes and makeup.”

  “I expected a floozy,” Annie said disconsolately.

  Ronnie gave her a knowing look. “Would that really have made this situation any better?”

  She gave the question the thought it deserved. “No,” she admitted eventually. “Especially if she’s going to get her way and be a part of Trevor’s life. He should have a good mom.”

  “Exactly,” Ronnie said, apparently proud that she’d grasped the importance of that.

  “I don’t want to like her,” Annie grumbled.

  Her dad smiled. “You don’t have to.”

  Grace appeared just then with two cups of strong coffee and a glass of what looked innocently enough like tomato juice. Annie suspected it wasn’t. “What’s that?” she inquired suspiciously.

  “Trust me,” her dad said.

  “It’s good for what ails you,” Grace concurred.

  Annie took a tentative sip that burned all the way down. “Good grief! What is in that?” she asked, after swallowing a huge gulp of water as an ineffective chaser.

  “A little of this, a little of that,” Grace said. “Probably best if I don’t tell you right now.”

  “Oh, sweet heaven,” Annie moaned. “I can’t drink a whole glass of that stuff. My entire esophagus will rot.”

  No sooner had she said that than Ty slid into the booth next to her, blocking her exit. Trevor climbed up beside Ronnie.

  “Come on now,” Ty coaxed, regarding her with sympathy and a hint of amusement that he was trying unsuccessfully to hide. “You’ll feel better once you’ve chugged that down.”

  “You’ve had this awful stuff before?”

  “On occasion,” he said, trying to maintain an innocent expression.

  “How many occasions?” she asked.

  “The first couple of times your dad, Cal and Erik let me hang out with them.”

  “The man can’t hold his beer,” Ronnie said with a sigh. “It’s a pitiful thing.”

  “Not when it’s interspersed with shots of liquor, that’s for sure,” Ty said with a shudder. “Learned my lesson.”

  “Really? Then why did you ever have a second occasion to need this vile drink?” Annie asked. “Are you a slow learner?”

  Ty laughed. “Could be.”

  Annie wanted to ask him a million questions about how things had gone between Dee-Dee and Trevor, but she couldn’t with Trevor right there. As if he knew what was on her mind, her dad picked up Trevor and slid from the booth.

  “Looks like my work here is done,” he said. “I’m going across the street to open the store. Mind if my pal here goes along with me? I’ll teach him how to use tools.”

  “He’s three,” Ty reminded him. “Tools may not be the best things to let him play with.”

  “I put your first hammer in your hand when you were about this age,” Ronnie reminded him. “But not to worry. I have plastic sets for kids that’ll be just right.”

  “Okay, then,” Ty said. He looked at his son. “You want to go with Ronnie for a little while?”

  Trevor nodded and patted Ronnie’s cheek. “We buddies, right?”

  “We are definitely buddies,” Ronnie agreed.

  Annie’s eyes filled with tears at the sweetness of the moment. She turned away so none of them would see how sad it made her to see Ronnie with Ty’s son in his arms, a child she had no claim to, a child that should have been Ronnie’s grandson but wasn’t.

  “We gonna build things,” Trevor announced enthusiastically.

  “Absolutely,” Ronnie replied.

  “Then by all means, go and enjoy yourselves,” Ty said. “I’ll be by in a few minutes to pick him up.”

  “Take your time,” Ronnie told them. “See if you can get our girl to eat something.”

  As soon as her father had walked away, Annie shot a daunting look at Ty. “Don’t even try. My stomach’s not up to it.”

  “Toast,” he contradicted, waving to get Grace’s attention and then placing the order.

  “You’re as bossy as ever, I see.”

  “Comes from having to remind a three-year-old who’s in charge,” he claimed.

  Annie took a sip of her coffee, decided it was worth the risk, then took another before asking, “How’d it go with Dee-Dee and Trevor?”

  Ty regarded her with concern. “You sure you want to talk about this?”

  “Why not? Otherwise, it’ll just be one of those huge elephants in the living room that everyone pretends to ignore.”

  “In that case, it went okay,” he conceded. “She was really good with him. She didn’t press too hard or expect too much.”

  Though it was a great answer for Trevor’s sake, Annie had a hunch Ty hated admitting it as much as she disliked hearing it. “That’s good, I guess,” she said.

  Ty nodded, though he looked miserable. “I could see how this could work. I just don’t like it. I don’t trust that it’s going to last, and then where will Trevor be?”

  “That may be one reason, but I’ll bet I know another,” Annie said.

  “Oh?”

  “Because you’ve had him all to yourself for three years.” She nudged him in the ribs. “You never did like sharing. I remember back when we were kids when your mom had Kyle and then Katie, you didn’t want to share anything with them. You were the worst.”

  A grin slowly spread across his face. “I was, wasn’t I? I guess that hasn’t changed.”

  “This must be a thousand times harder, because Trevor’s your son. You want the best for him, but up until now you were what was best.”

  “That all makes perfect sense, and I know you’re right about why I feel the way I do, but what am I supposed to do about it?” Ty asked. “I’m afraid I don’t have any control over the situation.”

  “Letting go, even a little, must seem scary as hell,” Annie said. “Keep in mind, though, that you have Helen. She knows more about controlling things than you or I will learn in a lifetime.”

  “I’m counting on that,” he said.

  He looked so sad, Annie wanted to put her arms around him, but she resisted the urge. She did put her hand over his. “You’re going to figure this out, and it will be fine.”

  “I just wish I knew why this suddenly matters so much to Dee-Dee. For three years she didn’t send Trevor so much as a card for his birthday or Christmas. She never called me or even Jay to find out how he was. Now this? I just don’t get it.”

  “Maybe it’s as simple as what she told you,” Annie suggested. “She’s turned her life around, is settling down and needs to make peace with the past and get to know her little boy. She must have a
thousand regrets over how she handled things.”

  “Hogwash!” Ty said succinctly. “More likely, she decided on a whim that she wants something and is reaching out and grabbing for it, without giving one single thought to the consequences. When the whim passes, she’ll disappear again.”

  “Does Helen think this is a whim?”

  He shook his head.

  “She’s pretty good at reading people, especially in circumstances like this,” Annie reminded him. “How about your mom? Has she met Dee-Dee yet?”

  Ty shook his head. “She still seems a little too eager to rip out Dee-Dee’s heart for everything she did, ruining my relationship with you and abandoning Trevor. I think it’s best to keep them apart for the time being.”

  Annie gave him a penetrating look. “You might want to remind her that Dee-Dee did not make that baby alone.”

  Ty grimaced. “Believe me, I’ve heard my share of lectures on the topic. There’s definitely plenty of blame to go around.”

  “But you are Maddie’s precious firstborn,” Annie teased.

  Ty grinned. “It does give me a slight edge in the forgiveness department,” he agreed, then sighed. “I really did make a mess of things, didn’t I?”

  “But you took on your responsibilities and have tried to learn from your mistakes,” Annie said, surprising herself by giving him credit for that much.

  Ty studied her. “Does that mean you could maybe start trusting me again?”

  She hesitated, knowing what she wanted, what he needed to hear, but scared silly of the risk of saying it aloud. She and Ty were a lot alike when it came to facing the uncertainties of the future.

  He gave her a weary smile. “Your silence speaks volumes,” he said.

  Annie considered correcting him, telling him he’d gotten it all wrong, but maybe it was better this way. His interpretation might keep her heart safe just a little longer.

  Ty showed up at the high school ball field just as practice was ending. Cal had sent the players to the locker room, then lingered to help the team’s equipment managers collect the bats, balls and gloves. When he caught sight of Ty, he regarded him with surprise.