“Thanks,” Karen said, beaming. “I didn’t want to step on your toes.”
“We’re a team. I may own this place, but when the food’s great, it benefits all of us. I want Sullivan’s reputation to get better every year. I don’t want to rest on our laurels.”
She turned back to Erik, who was still watching her intently. He lowered his voice. “She really needed to hear that,” he said. “Now let’s get back to my earlier question. Did something happen this afternoon to upset you? Is Annie doing okay?”
“She’s getting better every day,” Dana Sue replied. “She’s had her first sessions with the psychologist and the nutritionist. I gather they weren’t exactly lovefests, but both women think she’ll cooperate.”
“If Annie’s on track, then it must have been something else that sent you in here trying to stuff it down with comfort food.”
“Erik, babysitting me and my moods is not your job.”
“I do it because I’m your friend,” he said, looking wounded. “At least that’s what that pretty speech of yours a minute ago suggested.”
Dana Sue felt her stomach knot. “I didn’t eat the damn pie, okay? What more do you want?”
His gaze never wavered. “An explanation,” he said quietly. “Did it have something to do with the kiss your ex-husband planted on you outside the hospital?”
She felt the color drain from her face. “You know about that?”
“Grace Wharton was on her way inside to check on Annie,” he explained. “Apparently she made a U-turn to get back to Serenity’s information central. It was the hot item over at the pharmacy soda fountain five minutes later.”
“You were there?”
He shook his head. “Karen was.”
Dana Sue buried her face in her hands. “I hate this. I just hate it. I should live in a big city where nobody has a clue who I am.”
“You’d be miserable,” he said. “So, do you want to talk about the kiss or not?”
“Not.”
“Okay, then, but if it stirred you up enough to make you want to reach for apple pie and ice cream, you might not want to repeat it too often,” he advised.
“Oh, I think I can reassure you on that point,” she said. “Ronnie Sullivan will not get within a hundred feet of me ever again.”
Erik grinned. “Is that so?”
“Yes, that’s most definitely so,” she said.
“Then you might need to consider putting it in writing,” he suggested, gesturing behind her.
Dana Sue whirled around and looked straight into the amused face of her ex-husband.
“Talking about me?” he inquired cheerfully.
“Go away,” she retorted. “I thought you’d crawled into some cave to get some rest.”
“Turns out a little catnap was all I needed,” he responded. “Besides, the second I crawled into that bed at the Serenity Inn, I remembered the last time I’d slept in it—graduation night twenty-two years ago.”
“You rented the exact same room?” she sputtered. “The one we...” She glanced at Erik’s and Karen’s fascinated expressions, then sighed heavily. “I’ll have that apple pie now, please.”
This time Erik didn’t argue. He did, however, leave off the ice cream.
Chapter Ten
Annie’s first so-called meal was absolute torture. The nurse brought her a tray with what looked like a mountain of food, though truthfully it was only a small salad with a tiny container of dressing and a package of crackers. It was accompanied by some kind of watery, orange-colored drink.
“It will help to get your electrolytes back into balance and keep them there,” the nurse said cheerfully.
Annie had no idea what electrolytes were, and the drink looked disgusting. “Do I have to have it?” she asked, regarding the bottle with dismay.
“That’s what it says on your chart,” the too-perky nurse explained. “Lacy said she’d be here any second to sit with you while you eat.”
Great, Annie thought. Obviously nobody in this place trusted her to actually put the food in her mouth.
Since the nurse didn’t seem to be going anywhere, Annie made a great show of putting the dressing on the salad and mixing it with the greens. She opened the package of crackers and set them side by side on the tray. Then she carefully removed the top from the drink. When there was nothing left to do except eat, she tried to force herself to pick up the fork and put a bite of salad into her mouth. Halfway there, the aroma of vinegar and oil made her nauseous.
“I’m going to be sick,” she said, dropping the fork and turning away from the food.
Two seconds later the nurse was beside her with a disgusting little plastic bowl just in case Annie made good on her threat. Naturally, that was exactly when Lacy walked into the room.
“How’s it going in here?” she asked, then moved to take the nurse’s place. “Thanks, Brook. I’ll take over now.”
After the nurse had gone, Lacy moved to the chair beside the bed. “That’s not going to work with me, you know,” she said calmly.
Annie frowned. “What?”
“Pretending that the food makes you sick.”
“It does,” Annie said indignantly. “That salad dressing is nothing like my mom’s. It smells awful.”
“Would you like me to ask your mother to bring some for tomorrow?” Lacy asked.
Tears welled up in Annie’s eyes as it became clear that Lacy was every bit as tough as she’d warned she would be. “Whatever,” she mumbled.
“You have thirty minutes to eat your meal,” Lacy said. “Since this is your first one, we’ll start the time now, rather than from the time the tray arrived.”
Annie regarded her with a sense of panic. “You’re going to time me? You actually want me to eat all this in half an hour?”
“That’s the rule,” Lacy said, her gaze unflinching. She glanced pointedly at her watch. “Starting now.”
“But...” Annie couldn’t think of a single argument that the determined nutritionist would buy. She put one small lettuce leaf in her mouth, chewed for as long as she could, hoping that Lacy would glance away so she could spit it into a napkin. When it became obvious that wasn’t going to happen, she swallowed, gagging as
