“To marry well,” Raylene said. “Ask my mother. It’s the only thing that counts, which is why I am going to have to go through with this whole stupid debutante thing.” She stuck her finger in her mouth. “Gag me.”
Annie regarded her with surprise. “You’re going to have a ball and all that kind of stuff?”
“That’s what they tell me. My grandparents in Charleston have it all arranged. I even have to take some stupid classes in the ‘social graces,’ whatever those are.”
Sarah giggled. “Do they have any idea what a challenge it’s going to be to turn you into a lady?”
Raylene scowled at her. “Bite me.”
“It could be fun,” Annie said thoughtfully. “I’d do it if I had the chance.”
“No way,” Sarah said.
Raylene grinned. “She just wants a chance to ask Ty to some fancy dance.”
Sarah nodded. “Now, that I can believe.”
Annie grinned back at them. “So bite me,” she said, suddenly feeling like a normal kid again.
“I wish we could do it together,” Raylene said wistfully. “If we did, maybe I could get through it without puking.”
Sarah grinned at her. “I imagine one of the first things they’ll teach you is to stop talking about puking in public.”
“It’s better than doing it in public,” Raylene countered. “Come on, guys, we’d better get to class. Mr. Grainger takes off points if we’re late, and I’m going to need all the points on this test I can get.”
Both girls linked their arms through Annie’s as they hurried down the hall. It made walking into class a thousand times easier, Annie thought, grateful to both of them.
“Welcome back,” Mr. Grainger said when Annie had taken her seat.
That was it, and then he was handing out test questions, and Annie was officially back in school. It didn’t mean there wouldn’t be times the rest of the day when she was aware of stares and whispers, but the worst was behind her. Best of all, there was the chance she would run into Ty at lunch. And her dad was back in town for good. Life was better than she’d ever imagined it could be a couple of months ago.
Dana Sue stared at Ronnie across the kitchen table. “How do you think she’s doing at school?” she asked for what had to be the tenth time.
“Probably a whole lot better than she was when you were hovering over her an hour ago,” he said.
“Of course I was hovering,” she exclaimed. “Don’t try to convince me you didn’t want to keep her right here where we could keep an eye on her.”
“Never denied it,” he said. “But now that she’s gone, you and I could use this time to do something for ourselves.”
She studied him with a narrowed gaze. “Such as?” she asked warily. “If you’re thinking about sex at nine o’clock in the morning, there must be something wrong with you.”
“I think about sex whenever I look at you,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what time it is. But actually, I was thinking we could go down to the store and you could pick out some paint for the trim on the house.”
She stared at him blankly, vaguely disappointed. Despite her comment, sex was never far from her mind lately, either. “This house? You want to paint the trim on this house?”
“It needs it, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“But painting it is not your responsibility,” she said. “I just haven’t gotten around to hiring someone.”
“Why hire a painter when I’m here and willing, and I own a hardware store where I can get the paint wholesale?”
“That’s too much logic in one sentence coming from you,” she said. “It makes me nervous.”
“Me offering to paint the house makes you nervous? Why?”
“Because something tells me it’s like the camel getting his nose under the edge of the tent. Next thing I know you’ll decide the bedroom needs paint and right after that you’ll want to test the mattress.”
Ronnie laughed. “You haven’t let me anywhere near our bedroom since I got back to town. I have no idea if it needs painting or not.”
“It does, but you’re not going to do it,” she said stubbornly. “I’ll get around to it eventually.”
“Eventually might be soon enough for the bedroom, but it’s not for the exterior. Stop getting all weird over a few cans of paint and come with me to pick it out.”
“You’re determined to do this, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am,” he said somberly. “Very determined.”
“You could pick it out yourself,” she suggested.
“And risk your wrath if I get it wrong? I don’t think so,” he countered. “Besides, maybe you should give this some thought. Be daring. Paint the trim shocking pink or something.”
Despite her reluctance to go forward with this project at all, a memory of the first time she and Ronnie had worked side by side to fix up the house came back to her and had her smiling. “As I recall, the first time you and I painted the trim, we got more paint on ourselves than we did on the house.”
“Which is why I’d paint it all by myself this time,” he teased. “You were too much of a distraction in your cute little shorts and tank top.”
Dana Sue rolled her eyes. “Okay, you can paint it, but I think shocking pink might be a little over-the-top.”
“Ah, you’re still in your stodgy, traditional phase,” he noted. “I thought you’d be past the stage when our house has to look like every other house on the block.”
“I am not stodgy,” Dana Sue said.
“Oh, please, who are you trying to kid? Annie had to plead with you before you agreed to paint the shutters bright blue instead of black.”
Dana Sue frowned. “I don’t remember that.”
“Then you’ve conveniently blocked it from your memory,” he said. “Come on, sugar, there’s a whole color palette down at the store with your name on it. Besides, you haven’t even been by to see the changes I’ve made. I want to know what you think.”
She was surprised by the hint of hurt in his voice. “Really? It’s the first time you’ve invited me.”
“Silly me,” he said. “I thought maybe you’d be interested enough to drop on by with Annie.”
“Maybe we both need to stop assuming things and just ask for what we want,” she said.
“I want you to stop dillydallying and to come with me,” he said plainly.
She grinned. “Okay, then, let’s go look at paint. And just so you know, I will try really, really hard not to tell you how to rearrange the displays once I’ve seen them.”
“Thank God,” he said with exaggerated relief. “Helen’s already offered her two cents. She would have had the whole place torn apart and reorganized, if Annie hadn’t hustled her out the door.”
“Helen’s seen it?” she asked, surprised.
“She brought by some papers the other day,” he said. “Didn’t I tell you she’s handling the legal work for the business?”
Dana Sue frowned. “You didn’t mention it and neither did she.”
“You don’t object, do you?”
“No, why would I?”
“You sound a little ticked off,” he commented.
“Because neither of you saw fit to tell me,” she said. “Is Maddie somehow involved in all of this, as well? Maybe you’re thinking of hiring her as manager?”
Ronnie leaned down and kissed her hard. “While Maddie would be an excellent manager, I can’t afford her. Stop feeling slighted. You’re the only one who’s had a personal invitation to tour the place before the grand opening, and the only one for whom the owner is going to paint a house personally.”
“That’s something, I guess.”
“Based on my usual rates for that kind of job, it’s quite a lot,” he taunted. He held the kitchen door open and waited impatiently as she hunted for her purse and followed him out. “Shake a leg, sugar. If we don’t hurry up, the window of opportunity for me to make good on the offer is going to slam shut. I have almost no time for mysel
f now and once I open the store, my time’s not going to be my own for a while.”
“I see,” she said, feeling somehow deflated by the news and by the fact that he didn’t seem the least bit disappointed that there would be no time for the two of them.
He glanced over at her after he got behind the wheel of his pickup. “Stop fretting, Dana Sue. You and Annie will still be my number-one priority.”
“You sure about that?” she asked doubtfully.
“Oh, that’s right, I was thinking of sneaking off to Myrtle Beach with Mary Vaughn for a couple of weeks,” he said.
Dana Sue scowled at him. “You are so not funny.”
“And you so don’t have anything to worry about,” he countered. “I…love…you. Only you, okay?”
She finally allowed herself to relax. “Okay,” she said meekly. “If that changes—”
“It’s not going to change,” he said, cutting her off. “Not ever.”
Impulsively, she reached across the console and linked her fingers through his. Some of his strength and certainty seemed to seep into her then.
“You know,” she said, tracing a slow, tantalizing circle in the middle of his palm. “The paint will still be there in an hour, won’t it?”
He gave her a startled look. “You want to…?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said.
Ronnie whipped his pickup around the turn to the Serenity Inn so fast she was almost thrown from her seat.
“I guess that’s a yes,” she said, grinning as he skidded to a stop in front of his room.
A day that had started with worry and uncertainty had just taken a substantial turn for the better.
Just as he’d warned might happen, Ronnie was so caught up with staying on Annie’s case and getting his business up and running that he barely crossed paths with Dana Sue during the first two weeks of November. When they did happen to meet, he forced himself to do little more than kiss her senseless and keep on moving. The kisses were reminders of everything good between them. He figured it was going to take him opening the store and making a go of it to prove to her that he wasn’t going anywhere again. Even though their relationship had heated up considerably, he was smart enough to know that it would take more than hot sex to make her accept him back into her life for good.
Somehow he had to find a way to prove to her that everything he needed was right here in Serenity—a career he could get excited about, a daughter he was crazy about and the only woman he’d ever craved with every fiber of his being. A woman who most definitely was not Mary Vaughn.
By working practically around the clock himself, and with a lot of help from Annie and the ever-present Mary Vaughn, who wouldn’t take his hints discouraging her, he was actually running ahead of schedule. He was opening the business on Saturday, almost a whole week before Thanksgiving, rather than the pre-Christmas launch he’d been envisioning. Maybe after this weekend he could get serious about his pursuit of Dana Sue.
“Dad, when are you going to ask Mom to marry you again?” Annie asked as she put up the crepe-paper streamers she’d insisted on for the store’s grand opening.
“Maybe I thought I’d wait till she asks me,” he teased.
“Are you nuts?” Annie demanded, regarding him with a thoroughly disgusted expression. “Don’t you know her at all? She will never do that. It’s not romantic enough. You need to sweep her off her feet.”
He grinned at his daughter, grateful to see that she was no longer just skin and bones. She’d gained a few pounds and her cheeks had a healthy glow. The glow seemed to increase a thousandfold whenever Ty was around, which he would be any minute now. She’d apparently coerced him into helping her decorate. Ronnie would have opened the doors without fanfare, but Annie and Dana Sue had conspired on the decorations and on catering the whole thing.
“You’re wrong about what your mom needs,” he told Annie. “She doesn’t need grand gestures and romance from me. She needs to see I’m in this for the long haul. And she needs to believe I’m not going to start looking elsewhere just because she’s gained a little weight, or for any other reason.”
Annie frowned at him. “Haven’t you even noticed that she’s toning up?”
“Well, of course I have,” he said, though he wasn’t about to explain to his sixteen-year-old daughter that a man knew just about all there was to know about his wife’s body. Okay, ex-wife, but that was a technicality he’d remedy when the time was right.
“Have you seen her trainer yet?” Annie asked, carefully avoiding his gaze. “Mom works with him a lot. He’s a real hunk.”
“Is that so?” Ronnie said neutrally, even though his blood pressure spiked at the image.
“A total hottie,” Annie confirmed gleefully.
“You wouldn’t be trying to make me jealous, would you?” he inquired, regarding her with amusement. “Because jealousy is actually a very damaging trait in a relationship, especially for your mom and me.”
“Why?” Annie asked, frowning.
“Because of what happened before,” he reminded her. “Trust is a pretty big deal with us right now. I wouldn’t start messing with that, if I were you.”
Annie regarded him guiltily. “I never thought of that. Sorry.”
He gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Not to worry. It’s just something you should think about before you start trying to matchmake.”
“I just want you guys back together before you’re too old to do stuff, you know?”
Ronnie almost choked at the comment, but recovered without giving himself away. “I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about,” he said when he could get the words out without chuckling.
“Well, what’s holding things up?” she demanded, handing him the end of a streamer while she climbed nimbly up a ladder. “You love her, right? And I know she still loves you.” Annie stretched and slapped the streamer up with some tape, then scampered right back down.
“We’re still working on the whole trust thing,” he said. “And she needs to know that I am not going anywhere ever again, at least not without the two of you.”
Annie nodded sagely. “Okay, I get it. That’s why you’re opening this place, instead of just getting another construction job.”
“Exactly.”
“I think a flower shop might have impressed her more. She loves flowers, but I don’t think she gets all that worked up over hammers and paint,” Annie said, her expression filled with doubt as she looked around the store. “I mean, this place is painted beige, for goodness’ sake. How boring is that?”
“What would you have suggested? Purple?” He grinned. “As for a flower shop, can you honestly see me making up bouquets of posies?”
Suddenly Annie was laughing, her expression more carefree than Ronnie had seen it in years. If nothing else, his coming home had been good for her.
And very soon, he thought hopefully, Dana Sue might finally see it was good for her, too.
Dana Sue was setting out hors d’oeuvres on tables that had been tucked in various corners of Ronnie’s store when the bell over the front door chimed. From where she was, she couldn’t see who had come in, but the next thing she heard was Mary Vaughn’s chipper voice.
“Ronnie, sweetie, I’m here,” she called out. “I came early to see what I could do to help.”
Dana Sue set her basket of light-as-a-feather cheese straws down with a thunk and marched around the end of the display unit. “Hello, Mary Vaughn.”
The Realtor’s eyes widened, but she was too good a sales-woman to appear rattled. “Dana Sue,” she said warmly, giving an air kiss somewhere in the vicinity of Dana Sue’s ear. “I had no idea you’d be here.”
“Sullivan’s is providing the food,” Dana Sue said without elaborating. Some devilish little imp inside her wanted to deliberately give the impression that she was nothing more than the hired help.
Mary Vaughn seemed to relax. “Oh, of course, I believe Ronnie did mention something about you catering the grand opening. I
suppose I assumed you’d just drop off the food and leave. Or perhaps send Erik. This must be uncomfortable for you.”
Was the woman living in a cave? Dana Sue wondered irritably. The whole town had been speculating for weeks about the reconciliation between her and Ronnie. Mary Vaughn had apparently turned a deaf ear to it simply because it didn’t suit her. Or perhaps she was so confident in her own powers of seduction, she’d assumed Dana Sue wouldn’t stand a chance against her. Knowing Mary Vaughn’s ego, Dana Sue found it easy to imagine that she could blow off all the gossip as premature or misguided.
“Why would I be uncomfortable?” Dana Sue inquired innocently. “Ronnie and I were married for a lot of years. We have a daughter. We’ve spent a lot of time together since he came back to town.”
“Because of Annie, of course,” Mary Vaughn said, though she was starting to look just a little uncertain.
“Of course,” Dana Sue said sweetly.
Just then Ronnie emerged from the back room, took one look at the two of them squared off facing each other and turned pale. To his credit, he apparently sized up the situation in a glance, because he strolled over, bent down and kissed Dana Sue with so much heat she worried that some of the nearby hors d’oeuvres might get singed.
With his arm still firmly around her waist, as if he feared she might take off, he smiled warmly at Mary Vaughn. “Thanks for coming. Have you tried any of the food yet? Dana Sue and Erik outdid themselves.”
Mary Vaughn evidently didn’t need to be hit in the head with a baseball bat to get the picture when it was spelled out right in front of her face. She managed a weak smile and said, “I was just thinking I’d love to try one of those cheese straws. A party in the South wouldn’t be complete without them.”
“So true,” Dana Sue confirmed, refusing to take offense at the implication that they were unoriginal. “I believe you’ll find that mine are a slight variation on the traditional cheese straws.”
She bit back a grin when Mary Vaughn swallowed her first bite and nearly choked, then grabbed for a bottle of water. “Jalapeños,” she whispered, waving a hand in front of her face.
A Slice of Heaven Page 31
