“Me, too,” Raylene said.
After they’d gone, Annie closed her eyes, filled with shame. She’d never realized the toll her decisions took on her friends.
“You okay, baby?” her dad asked.
“Sure,” she said with a sniff.
“Those two are good friends,” he commented.
“I know that. I guess I put them in a pretty awful position before, huh?”
“You scared them, there’s no question about that.”
She shook her head. “It’s more than that. Sarah knew, even though I wouldn’t admit what was going on. She tried to talk to me, but I always blew her off. I did the same thing with Mom.”
“I don’t think either one of them will let you get away with that again,” he said.
“I’m surprised Sarah even wants to be my friend now,” Annie said.
“Why wouldn’t she?”
“Because I’m so messed up.” Annie choked back a sob.
“You’re not messed up,” her dad said, moving to the edge of the bed and gathering her into his arms. “You made a mistake, sweet pea. A real bad one, but we’re going to fix it.”
With her face buried against his shoulder, she murmured, “I don’t know if I can.”
“You can,” he said with confidence. “Your mom and I will help and so will Dr. McDaniels and the nutritionist.”
She knew it was useless to complain about the nutritionist, but she had to take another stab at getting the psychologist off her case. “I don’t want to see a shrink.”
“No choice,” he said flatly. “You can’t fix this by yourself.”
“But you and Mom—”
“Don’t know the right things to do. We’re going to need Dr. McDaniels and Ms. Reynolds to help us, too. We’re all in this together, Annie. You don’t have to do any of it alone.”
“But I’m the one who’s sick. I’m the only one who can fix it, and I don’t think I can.”
Her dad took her shoulders and held her away so he could look into her eyes. “Yes, you can,” he repeated. “You’re a smart girl, Annie. You can do anything you set your mind to. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it will happen. Bit by bit you’ll make whatever changes you need to, in the way you eat, the way you think about yourself.”
“I have a confession,” she whispered, riddled with guilt.
“Oh?”
“I didn’t want to eat the food they brought while I was still upstairs tonight. If I could have, I would have flushed it down the toilet.” Her voice cracked and caught on another sob when she saw the dismay in her dad’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Once again, he gathered her close. “It’s okay, baby. The point is that you didn’t flush the food away, did you?”
“Only because Lacy—Ms. Reynolds—was watching me like a hawk. If I get the chance, I probably will,” she admitted, resigned.
“Which is why you need a strong support system around you right now,” he said reasonably. “It’s going to get easier. I promise.”
Annie wanted to believe him. She really did. But right now she was so terrified, all she wanted to do was run away someplace and hide. What if they made her eat and she got fat? What if she actually started liking food again and couldn’t stop eating? The thought of it made her want to puke right now.
Her dad released her eventually, and she felt the way she had on the day he’d left—abandoned somehow, even though he was still right there beside her.
“Tell you what,” he said. “I think your mom has a little makeup kit in her purse. Why don’t I try to find her and bring that to you? You can get all dolled up before Ty comes by.”
Even though she didn’t want him to leave, even for a minute, Annie nodded. “Sure. That’d be great.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be back before you know it,” he promised.
He hurried from the room as if he couldn’t wait to be gone. As the door closed behind him, Annie actually thought she heard him crying, and that scared her worse than anything. Her dad was the strongest man she knew. If he was afraid, then things had to be really bad, maybe even worse than she’d thought.
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she whispered. “I’ll fix this. I swear it. Please don’t leave me again.”
Chapter Eleven
Annie had been in a good place when Ronnie left the hospital the night before. Her cheeks had been pink while Ty was visiting, and she’d actually laughed a time or two, sounding like the carefree girl he’d remembered from before the divorce. Seeing her like that had been a relief. He was finally starting to believe they’d turned a corner, not just physically, but emotionally.
Believing that inspired him to take the next morning off from the hospital and head back to Beaufort. He had to quit his job there and pick up the few belongings still in his motel room. None of it would take long. While his boss liked him because he’d been reliable, experienced, and had done good work for Thompson & Thompson Construction, it wasn’t as if there weren’t fifty other guys who could do the job just as well. Ronnie doubted there would be much commotion over his abrupt departure, especially after he explained about needing to be close to his daughter while she recovered.
“You gonna look for the same kind of work back in Serenity?” Butch Thompson asked, hitching his faded jeans over a modest beer belly, then adjusting his well-worn John Deere cap.
For a wealthy man who owned one of the largest construction companies in the state, Butch had no pretensions at all. He worked alongside his men when he could, shared a beer with them on Friday nights after work. He handled tools as well as anyone on his crews, proving that his early years had been spent literally learning the trade from the ground up. Ronnie had never seen him in a suit and tie.
“I hear there’s some
