Honeysuckle Summer

by Sherryl Woods

  Every time he handled a call like that, he felt an urgent need to rush home and check on Carrie and Mandy. He knew they were both sick of his lectures about driving too fast, but he felt the lesson had to be repeated if it was ever to sink in. Thankfully, neither of them had a license yet, but it was only a matter of time.

  After facing the boy’s parents to tell them what had happened, he went back to the station where he found a voice-mail message from the prison saying that Paul Hammond’s release was tentatively scheduled for August. There seemed to be little chance that it would be postponed. He’d been a model citizen, the caller reported, using his time in prison to provide medical care for other inmates. As Carter saw it, that could be good news or bad. If it proved he’d learned his lesson, great, but it was just as likely that he’d simply manipulated the system to look favorably on an earlier release.

  By the time Carter finally wrapped up for the day and walked into the house, all he wanted to do was take a hot shower, order in some food and relax. Instead, he found Carrie and Mandy in the middle of an argument that escalated into tears and doors slamming. Just what he needed.

  Sighing, he followed Mandy to her room and tapped on the door. “Go away,” she mumbled tearfully.

  “Not an option,” he said, and walked in.

  She sat up and made room for him on the side of her bed. “I thought you were Carrie.”

  “My hair’s shorter,” he joked.

  That drew a faint smile.

  “So what’s going on with you two?” he asked.

  “She’s just being a pain, that’s all,” Mandy said, snuggling against his side and leaning her head on his shoulder. “Raylene left a message about having lasagna for us, so I rode my bike over to get it, and Carrie freaked out.”

  “Why?”

  Mandy shrugged. “I have no idea. Anyway, she said she wouldn’t eat it if it were the last meal on earth. Like I care whether she eats or not.” She regarded him hopefully. “You and me, we can have it, though, right? It looks really good. Raylene says it just needs to be heated in the oven for a half hour or so. I can do that, while you change. She even gave me garlic bread to go with it.”

  “Sounds good to me. You go and do that. I’ll see if I can figure out what’s going on with Carrie.”

  “It’s a waste of time, if you ask me,” Mandy said.

  “Trying to keep the two of you happy is never a waste of my time,” Carter chided. It was just a challenge.

  He crossed the hall and tapped on Carrie’s door. She didn’t even bother to answer. He opened it and walked in to find her with her face buried in a pillow and her shoulders still shaking with sobs. He sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “Go away,” she said, her voice muffled.

  “You know that never works with me,” he chided. “What’s going on? Why were you and Mandy fighting about lasagna, of all things?”

  “It wasn’t about lasagna,” Carrie said, sitting up and turning to him with an indignant expression. “Is that what she told you?”

  “What’s your version?”

  “It was about her sneaking off to Raylene’s house just to check up on me.”

  Carter frowned. “To check up on you? Were you over there?”

  She flushed at the question. Apparently she hadn’t realized how revealing her comment had been. “I stopped by,” she said defensively. “But I’m sure she told you that.”

  “She who? Mandy? She didn’t mention it.”

  “No, Raylene,” Carrie said impatiently. “She probably told you every word I said.”

  “I haven’t spoken to Raylene all day, but something tells me I need to.”

  Carrie flushed and grabbed his arm. “No, don’t,” she pleaded. “She promised she wouldn’t tell you anything, and I guess she didn’t. I’m sorry I accused her of being a blabbermouth.”

  Carter regarded her with bewilderment. “Carrie, what’s going on? What did you and Raylene talk about?”

  “Just stuff,” she said evasively. “She told me to tell you, so it’s not like she’s going behind your back or keeping stuff from you.”

  “What is it she thinks you should tell me?”

  She hesitated, her expression miserable. “That my life sucks,” she admitted in a small voice. She gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Carter. Really, really sorry. I know you didn’t want to wind up stuck with me and Mandy, and I know you’re trying, but I hate everything about this boring town and the people here and my whole, stupid life.”

  Carter felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He’d known she wasn’t happy about the move, but he’d figured she would adjust. Teenagers had a tendency to overdramatize everything, so he probably hadn’t taken her frequent complaints seriously enough.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “How can we make this better for you?”

  She looked at him hopefully. “Move back to Columbia,” she suggested.

  He shook his head. “Other than that.”

  “You won’t even consider it?”

  “No, this is our home now. I’m going to start a police department for Serenity. I’ve made a commitment to the town, and I take that seriously.”

  “I know,” she said, looking defeated. “I thought maybe you’d consider it before, but I knew it was too late now.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Before, it was like you just had this job with the sheriff’s department, no big deal. Now you’re going to be chief of your own department, and that’s really cool. And there’s Raylene, and I know you like her. You have everything you want right here. But what do I have? Nothing. Not even any friends.”

  “You’ll make friends here,” he said. “It just takes a little time in a new school.” Despite his very deep reservations, he held out the promise of something he knew she wanted. “Maybe you can even find a summer job, so you can save up for a car.”

  For a fleeting instant, her eyes lit up. “You’d let me have my own car?”

  “By the time you’ve saved enough money, I think you’ll be ready for it,” he said.

  “In other words, it’ll take forever,” she said, looking defeated. “My life sucks.”

  She did, in fact, look so unhappy that he couldn’t help feeling a certain amount of pity for her. Even if the move had been for the best, it must have been hell being uprooted from the home and neighborhood she’d always known and the friends she’d had since grade school.

  “Why don’t we go to Columbia this weekend,” he suggested impulsively. “We can get rooms at a hotel with a pool and you can invite some of your friends over. We’ll see a movie, too. You and Mandy can pick it. I’ll even suffer through a chick flick, if that’s what you want.”

  She giggled at that, and for just a minute she reminded him of the carefree girl she’d been before they’d lost their folks.

  “Okay,” she said grudgingly. “Can we eat all the candy in the minibar?”

  “At those prices?” he said with exaggerated horror, then grinned. “What the heck! Go for it. Just this once.”

  She threw her arms around him then. “You’re the best big brother in the entire world.”

  “I try,” he said.

  Her expression immediately sobered. “I know you do, and I promise not to be a pain all the time.”

  “You’re not a pain all the time,” he told her with a grin.

  “But when I am, I’m a big one,” she said.

  “True.”

  She laughed.

  “Come downstairs and have dinner,” he said. “If Raylene sent it over, it’s bound to be better than anything we could order.”

  For a minute, he thought the mention of the lasagna was going to start another argument, but instead she nodded. “I’ll be right there.”

  Carter left her room feeling as if he’d negotiated a very tricky and temporary truce between two warring factions. He hoped dinner went smoothly, because he wasn’t sure he had sufficient energy in reserve to go another round.

  And he
still had to come up with some way to tell Raylene that she had less than two months before her ex-husband was going to be released from prison.

  Raylene decided the best way to handle her suspicions that Carrie might have an eating disorder would be to get the Sweet Magnolias on the case. The day after Carrie’s visit, she started making the calls midmorning and had everything lined up for a margarita night by lunchtime.

  When Sarah arrived home in the afternoon, she brought all the ingredients for the margaritas, along with everything Raylene had requested to make a new burrito recipe.

  “I think we’re getting to the point that guacamole isn’t enough to counteract the effects of all that tequila,” she told Sarah. “We need real food.”

  “Works for me,” Sarah said. “So, what’s going on? Why the call for an emergency gathering?”

  “I’ll explain tonight. In the meantime, though, I need to see how you’d feel about hosting the Fourth of July barbecue here this year.”

  Sarah looked startled by the suggestion. “But Dana Sue and Ronnie have always had it. Don’t you think their feelings will be hurt if we steal it away from them?” Her expression immediately fell. “Sorry. I know you miss out every year, so of course we should have it here this time.”

  “Honestly, it’s not about me,” Raylene told her. “I had a very disturbing conversation with Carrie Rollins this afternoon. I think she could be anorexic, or at least she might be on the verge of developing an eating disorder. I want an opportunity for Annie and Dana Sue especially to observe her behavior to see if I’m right.”

  Sarah regarded her worriedly. “Shouldn’t you just mention it to Carter and let him take it from there? He might not appreciate your meddling.”

  “I would, but it’s a pretty serious thing to say about someone. I want to be sure. He’s got a lot to handle as it is. There’s no point in upsetting him if it turns out I’m overreacting.”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t think you’re likely to over-react about something like this. You and I were there with Annie. We both still feel a certain amount of guilt for not jumping in sooner to tell Dana Sue what we thought was happening.”

  “We were kids,” Raylene said. “We didn’t go running to parents to tattle on our friends. And just about everyone we knew was dieting, so for a long time it didn’t seem as if Annie’s behavior was unique or out of control.”

  “Still, we should have spoken up when we did realize what was happening,” Sarah said. “If Annie had died…” She shuddered, much as Raylene did when the same thought occurred to her.

  “She didn’t die, thank God,” Raylene said fiercely. “But it certainly taught us all a valuable lesson about not ignoring possible eating disorders.”

  “You’re right,” Sarah agreed. “Are you sure you can handle all this by yourself on the Fourth? Travis and I will be at the radio station all morning covering the parade.”

  “Not a problem. I’m sure some of the others will pitch in to set things up in the backyard. I’ll just have to cook and coordinate everything.”

  “Maybe you’ll be able to come onto the patio by then,” Sarah suggested, her expression optimistic. “These little two-minute forays have gone pretty well. In another couple of weeks, who knows how long you’ll be able to stay outside.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” Raylene said, though her own optimism had grown with each step she’d taken back into the outside world. “But, like you said, who knows? Maybe I’m due for a minimiracle.”

  That’s certainly what it was going to take for her to spend a whole evening on the patio. Still, this barbecue wasn’t about her. Right now she needed to focus on Carrie and what she needed.

  As soon as Raylene described her fears about Carrie Rollins, all of the Sweet Magnolias were immediately on board with moving the Fourth of July event to Sarah’s house.

  Dana Sue seemed especially upset by the possibility that Carrie was anorexic. Annie moved to her mother’s side.

  “I’m right here, Mom. Fit as a fiddle,” Annie told her.

  Dana Sue squeezed her hand. “But you almost weren’t. Just look at all you would have missed—being married to Ty, raising his son, having Meg, your career as a sports-injury therapist and fitness instructor.”

  “It’s not as if the world couldn’t live without another fitness instructor,” Annie said half-jokingly.

  “Stop it,” Maddie chimed in. “You provide an important service to a lot of women who need help staying fit. They might complain bitterly while they’re exercising, but all of the women you work with at the club leave there feeling better about themselves.”

  “I know that,” Annie conceded. “I suppose I’m trying to diminish it out of guilt. I was out on maternity leave for months. I felt as if I’d abandoned them. Some of them worked with Elliott, but a lot of them just quit. I failed them.”

  “If they quit, it was their choice,” Maddie reminded her. “You didn’t even stay away half as long as we were expecting you to. You couldn’t wait to get back to work.”

  “Yes, she was anxious to get that gorgeous body of hers back into shape right away,” Sarah said. “Of course, Ty’s so taken with her shapeliness, she’ll probably end up pregnant again!”

  Annie rolled her eyes. “Let’s try to concentrate on Carrie, okay? Do you think I should sit her down and have a talk with her?”

  Raylene shook her head. “I thought about that, but it’s not our place to charge in to the rescue. If we decide there’s a problem, I’ll tell Carter and then offer to have you or Dana Sue talk to Carrie or set up something with Dr. McDaniels. Carter will have to take it from there, unless he wants more help from us. Agreed?”

  Annie frowned. “What if he’s in denial? If Carrie’s like I was, she’s probably pretty good at covering up what’s going on. And if he asks her directly, she’ll only lie. I did.”

  Dana Sue nodded. “Then we have to gang up on him and insist he get help for Carrie. If we honestly believe there’s a problem, we can’t just turn it over to him and walk away. I can’t, in good conscience, do that. Not when I know the possible consequences of doing nothing. I had to almost lose Annie before I realized just how deep my own denial was.”

  “Carter will get her help,” Raylene said confidently. “He takes his responsibility as her big brother and guardian very seriously.”

  Helen had been quiet most of the evening, but she’d been studying Raylene with a penetrating gaze. “Mind telling me how this turned into your problem? Last time I was over here, this was a man who was threatening to have you charged with child neglect.”

  “Times have changed,” Sarah said, grinning. “Haven’t they, Raylene?”

  Raylene blushed furiously. “We’re getting along okay now.”

  “He’s kissed her,” Sarah confided.

  “Sarah!” Raylene protested, her cheeks heating.

  “Well, we’re your friends,” Sarah retorted. “We all care about what’s going on in your life, especially the fact that you have a very sexy guy who’s hot for you.”

  Helen continued to look troubled. “Are you really ready to have a man in your life?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know,” Raylene admitted. “But he doesn’t seem to be going away. His persistence is actually kind of sweet, to say nothing of flattering.”

  “And he understands the situation? Not just that you can’t go out, but why?” Helen persisted.

  “Even I don’t know why,” Raylene said irritably.

  “Of course you do,” Helen said. “It all goes back to Paul Hammond.”

  “That’s probably too simplistic,” Raylene said. “Paul’s certainly part of it. Anyway, I’m trying to sort it all out with Dr. McDaniels.”

  “Maybe you should see how that goes before you add in a distraction like Carter,” Helen advised.

  Sarah turned on her. “Why are you being such a downer? I think Carter’s the best thing that’s happened to Raylene in a long time. You should see how she glows when he’s around.”<
br />
  “That’s terrific,” Helen conceded. “I’m just concerned that he—or any man—might start out thinking he can deal with a woman in Raylene’s situation, but then realize all the ramifications.” Helen shrugged. “I don’t want to see Raylene get hurt.”

  “You’re assuming she’s not going to get better,” Sarah said. “I believe she will. She’s been making progress. Tell them, Raylene.”

  When Raylene remained silent, Sarah added, “She’s been going outside every day.”

  Helen looked mildly impressed. “That’s great, but—”

  “Okay, stop it, you two,” Raylene ordered. “It’s not as if Carter and I are having a serious relationship. Right now we seem to be enjoying each other’s company. That’s it.”

  “You’re getting involved with his family,” Helen said. “That sounds serious to me.”

  “We’re all getting involved with Carrie,” Raylene corrected.

  Helen frowned. “Still, you can see my point,” she said, looking to Maddie and Dana Sue for support.

  “Raylene is a grown woman,” Maddie said. “I’m sure she understands the risks.”

  “Better than most,” Raylene said quietly. After all, none of the other women in this room had had their hearts broken quite the way hers had been. If she could open hers again, she saw it as a testament to the spirit of hope that still lived deep inside her.

  Walter ate the salad that Raylene had prepared for him. He was actually starting to like what he’d always thought of as rabbit food. He enjoyed the company even more, though she’d been getting on his nerves today with all her questions about Rory Sue. He was tired of being on the defensive, so he turned the tables on her.

  “I hear you had another one of those margarita-night things here last night. Why didn’t you include Rory Sue?”

  Raylene frowned at the question. “She’s never been a Sweet Magnolia.”

  “Is it like some kind of secret society that requires a long social pedigree?”

  “Of course not.”

  “An engraved invitation?”