Helen flushed. “Not exactly.”
Dana Sue regarded her with dismay. “Helen! Doc Marshall must have been furious. Did he put you on medication for your blood pressure the way he threatened?”
“Um, no,” Helen said, not meeting her gaze.
“You canceled your appointment, didn’t you?” Dana Sue guessed.
Helen gave her a guilty, barely perceptible nod.
“Are you crazy?” Dana Sue demanded. “This is important, Helen. You can’t keep ignoring it and hoping your blood pressure will correct itself. Have you at least taken a day off to relax, the way you promised?”
“There was no way I could do that this week,” her friend said defensively. “I’ve been here every second I wasn’t at the office or in court.”
“Okay, that’s it,” Dana Sue said fiercely. “Tomorrow morning we’re all meeting at The Corner Spa at eight. I will even spend twenty minutes on the stupid treadmill, if you will. Deal?”
Helen regarded her with obvious reluctance, then nodded. “Fine. Deal.”
“Then we set our goals,” Dana Sue continued. “Maddie can type them up for us afterward so we’ll all have copies. It’ll help us to keep ourselves and each other motivated. I think we should even include penalties if any of us start backsliding.”
“You don’t think the big reward is enough motivation?” Helen teased. “I thought you really wanted that convertible.”
“I do, but that’s a long-term reward. I have a hunch we’re going to need a lot of prodding along the way. If the most obsessive human being I know can’t stick to a regimen for more than two days at a time, then the rest of us are doomed.”
“I can stick to anything I want to,” Helen declared.
“Then you obviously don’t want to stick to this.”
“And you do?” Helen said.
Dana Sue met her gaze, then sighed. “Not especially, if I’m being totally honest. But there’s a big difference between not wanting to do it and knowing that I have to.”
“Ditto with me,” Helen admitted. “I honestly thought the challenge would make me stick to it.”
“And then Annie got sick,” Dana Sue said. “We have to resolve not to let anything interfere, okay? No begging off because of work for you and no using Annie as an excuse for me.”
“You’re right.” Helen nodded. “Now let’s go upstairs and see Annie.”
“Ronnie’s with her,” Dana Sue said.
Her friend’s eyes glittered with mischief. “Then we’ll chase him away. That should be fun.”
Dana Sue laughed despite herself. “You have the oddest sense of what passes for entertainment.”
“Tell me the idea doesn’t appeal to you, too,” Helen dared her.
“Okay, it does,” Dana Sue confessed. “At least a little bit. One thing, though....”
“What?”
“How’s he going to get back to his motel? I drove him over here.”
“All the better,” Helen said. “A long walk will be good for him. Might give him time to think better of sticking around.”
“Or make him mad enough to dream up a diabolical way to get even,” Dana Sue said.
“Not to worry. When has any man ever been able to put one over on the Sweet Magnolias?” Helen asked confidently.
“Not often, that’s true,” she admitted. But that didn’t mean her ex-husband wouldn’t try. The prospect sent a little shudder through her. More troubling was the fact that she couldn’t tell if the reaction was dread or anticipation.
* * *
Despite the earlier struggle to eat even a little portion of her meal, Annie lay back in her hospital bed feeling better than she had in months. Her dad was right there beside her, and Sarah and Raylene had come by the minute they’d found out she could have visitors. They’d told her that Ty was on his way over, too. He was coming with his mom after dinner. Annie wasn’t sure how she felt about him seeing her like this, but then she remembered that he’d seen her under all sorts of embarrassing circumstances over the years and he was still her friend. Eagerness overcame her trepidation.
She’d tuned out most of the other news Sarah and Raylene were delivering. It was just a bunch of gossip from school, and right now none of that seemed important. A week ago she would have wanted to hear every word, certain that her life would be over if she missed any hot news flashes about the in crowd. Now she understood what having her life be over really meant. She felt a hundred years older than her two best friends.
“Are you even listening to us?” Sarah demanded. “You look as if you’re a thousand miles away.”
“I heard you,” Annie swore, then grinned. “Well, some of it, anyway.”
“Are you getting too tired?” Raylene asked, glancing at Annie’s dad for his input. “Should we go?”
Her dad looked at her. “Annie, it’s your call. You still feeling okay?”
“Maybe I am a little tired,” she admitted finally. It was better than saying she was bored listening to the same old stuff. “Come back tomorrow, though, okay?”
“Right after school,” Sarah promised. “My mom said she’d bring us whenever we want.”
“Mine, too,” Raylene said.
They were almost to the door when Sarah ran back and gave Annie a hug that almost squeezed the breath right out of her.
“You scared us,” she said, an angry edge to her voice. “Don’t you ever do anything like that again, you hear me?”
“I’m not planning on it,” Annie assured her.
“But Ms. Franklin said in P.E. that eating disorders don’t just go away.” Sarah’s expression was filled with concern. “You have to want things to be different, Annie.”
Annie flushed with embarrassment. She was apparently being turned into some sort of example at school. “Ms. Franklin was talking about me in class?”
“She never mentioned you by name,” Raylene said hurriedly. “But everyone knew. I guess she figured the opportunity to lecture us was too good to pass up.”
“All I know is that if I don’t see you putting real food in your mouth every single time you’re supposed
