“I don’t think he’s up to anything,” Maddie said. “I think he’s worried about Annie.”
“Sure, but there’s something else going on,” Dana Sue insisted. “He keeps giving me these strange, speculative looks, as if he’s trying to figure out what I’m thinking.”
Maddie chuckled. “I’m sure he is. He’s probably waiting for you to wake up and remember what he did, then tear a strip out of his hide again. It’s not as if you just said ‘so long’ and sent him on his way. That scene on the front lawn had the whole town talking for months. Given your volatile temperament, I’m sure he thinks it could happen again at any second.”
Dana Sue grimaced. “Once was enough. It was mortifying.”
“It was what he deserved,” Maddie corrected.
“No, I mean I was mortified when I thought about it afterward. Thanks to my public drama the whole town knew what he’d done to me. It’s little wonder Annie skipped school for an entire week after that. I wanted to hide, too.”
“Well, all that’s in the past now,” Maddie consoled her.
“Don’t you think having him back here will remind everyone?”
Maddie gave her a knowing look. “Do you honestly regret calling him?”
Dana Sue thought it over, then shook her head. “As much as it pains me to admit it, he has every right to be here. And maybe he can actually get through to Annie. I certainly haven’t had any luck.”
“Maybe this scare will be enough to do the trick,” Maddie suggested. “Passing out is one thing. A cardiac arrest at Annie’s age is quite another.”
“I wish I thought you were right, but Dr. McDaniels, the psychologist, seems to think the impact will be temporary unless Annie deals with the underlying issues. She told both me and Ronnie that she wants her in therapy. I can’t disagree, but something tells me Annie’s going to pitch a fit.”
“Let her, but see to it she goes anyway. If the alternative is being sent to an inpatient facility, I imagine she’ll get with the program soon enough. And it’ll help to have Ronnie as your backup.”
Dana Sue blinked at that. “He’s not staying. I’m sure he’s just waiting for the doctors to say that Annie’s out of the woods, and he’ll be leaving again.”
Maddie looked startled. “He’s not staying in Serenity? I got the impression...” Her voice trailed off. “Maybe I got it wrong.”
Panic crept through Dana Sue. “Did he tell you something different, Maddie?”
“Talk to him,” her friend encouraged. “You should be discussing this with each other, not with me. I refuse to get caught in the middle.”
“Oh, I intend to talk to him,” Dana Sue said grimly. “Calling him the other night was not an invitation for him to move back here.”
Maddie grinned. “I don’t think he sees it the same way.”
“Oh?”
“I believe he said something to Helen about fate stepping in.”
Dana Sue sat up straight, suddenly reinvigorated and spoiling for a fight. “Fate, my behind! Get me back to the hospital right this second. I need to have a little come-to-Jesus chat with my ex.”
“You sure you want to have that conversation there?” Maddie asked worriedly.
“Why not?”
“Because, sweet pea, it’s a hospital. You’ll have to keep your voice down.”
That was a downside, Dana Sue thought, but she could manage. She’d once told off a produce vendor with fairly colorful language without anyone eating in the restaurant being aware. Of course, getting anything through Ronnie Sullivan’s thick skull without shouts and shattered pottery was another matter.
* * *
Annie was so surprised to find her father sitting beside her hospital bed that she almost passed out again.
“Daddy?” she whispered weakly, in case she was hallucinating.
A smile spread across his face. “I’m here, angel. It’s good to see those big blue eyes of yours open again.”
“I thought I heard you talking to me, but I was sure it had to be a dream. How long have you been here?”
“Since the night they brought you in.”
Everything was so fuzzy. She remembered practically gagging at the sight of all the food her mom had brought in for the sleepover. Then she and the other girls were dancing when her chest started feeling funny, like something was squeezing her heart real tight. She’d never felt anything like it before in her life, not even in phys ed, when she’d had to run. She’d decided to take a nap, and that was the last thing she remembered.
“When was that?”
“A few days ago.”
“That long? Why can’t I remember coming here? Or anything that’s gone on since I got here? How come I’m hooked up to all this stuff?”
“The monitors are keeping track of how you’re doing and the IV is getting some fluids and medicine into you. You’ve been mostly asleep since that night. I don’t mind telling you that you gave us all quite a scare,” he chided gently.
“I’m sorry. How did you know to come?”
“Your mom called me.”
That meant her mom must have been terrified she, Annie, was going to die. She couldn’t imagine any other reason her mom would have called her dad.
“How long are you going to stay?” she asked.
“For good,” he said.
Annie just stared at him, a faint spark of hope stirring in her heart. “Does Mom know?”
“Not yet,” he admitted. “Think she’ll flip out?”
Annie managed a wobbly grin. “You know it.”
He sighed. “Yeah, that’s what I figured, too.”
She reached for his hand. “Don’t let her talk you out of it, okay?”
“Not a chance, angel. Not a chance.”
Annie leveled a look straight into her dad’s eyes to see if he was telling her the truth. He didn’t even blink.
“You promise?” she asked, just to be sure.
“Cross my heart,” he said, as he had after every single promise he’d ever made to her.
Annie thought back. He’d never broken one of those promises. He might have betrayed
