Maddie nodded. “I also think I’ll have another serious chat with him about spending time at any of his friends’ houses when the parents aren’t around. Kids his age need adult supervision. He knows that’s the rule, even if it is your house and he’s always treated it like a second home.”
“Just don’t stop him from spending time with Annie,” Dana Sue pleaded. “She adores him. He’s an important part of her support system right now.”
Maddie smiled. “I know. I’ve watched her looking at him as if he hung the moon.”
“I wish he looked at her the same way,” Dana Sue said, then added wistfully, “Wouldn’t it be great if sometime down the road the two of them got together?”
“Sometime way down the road,” Maddie replied. “But, yes, it would be great. Right now, though, all Ty really cares about is baseball. And all I care about is getting him into a good college. Cal and I are still at odds over that, since he thinks Ty could go pro straight out of high school, and that scout he invited to watch him play agrees. So far, Bill’s remaining neutral, which means it’s up to me to convince Ty that college is important. You’d think Cal, of all people, would understand the importance of a college education, since it came in darn handy for him when his baseball career ended so abruptly.”
Dana Sue regarded her with a wistful expression. “I wish those were the kind of things going on with Annie right now—nice, normal, teenage stuff.”
“Oh, sweetie, this crisis will pass,” Maddie said, regarding her with sympathy. “A day will come when all you’ll worry about will be whether Annie’s home on time from a date and whether her grades are good enough for the college she wants to attend.”
“That day can’t come soon enough for me,” Dana Sue exclaimed earnestly. “I need to go. I want to stop by the restaurant before I head back to the hospital. I’m going to owe Erik and Karen huge raises after the way they’ve pitched in, but there are some things I have to do myself. I would give anything to spend an evening there cooking. I miss it.”
“Well, even if you don’t have time to cook, eat a decent meal while you’re there,” Maddie advised. “I hear the food’s outstanding, even with the owner away.”
Dana Sue smiled. “Thank goodness for that.” She leaned down and gave her friend a fierce hug. “Thanks for listening.”
“Anytime,” Maddie said. “Ronnie’s a pretty good sounding board, too, you know. And he has as much of a stake in the outcome of all this as you do.”
“I know,” Dana Sue murmured. She just didn’t want to start relying on him, and find out that all his promises about sticking around Serenity meant no more than the vows he’d taken on the day he’d married her.
* * *
Annie was feeling pretty battered and bruised after another unproductive session with Dr. McDaniels. It was getting harder and harder not to give in to the psychologist’s entreaties, especially knowing that she could be stuck here for days if she didn’t cooperate, or worse, wind up in some dump far away from home, where they’d pester her until she caved in. There had to be rules about torturing a kid, right? Maybe she should ask Helen about that.
There was a hesitant tap on the door of her room, then it inched open. Ty stuck his head in, his expression tentative.
“Is it okay to come in?”
Annie brightened at the sight of him. He was such a hunk, especially in jeans and an old Atlanta Braves T-shirt. “Sure,” she said eagerly, wishing she’d done something to fix herself up earlier. She probably looked pretty disgusting. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”
“I cut classes,” he admitted, pulling a chair up beside the bed.
She stared at him in shock. “To come see me?”
He nodded, looking uncomfortable. “It’s just that every time I’ve come, the room’s been filled up with other kids, and your folks or my mom. I wanted to talk to you alone.”
“Your mom’s going to flip out when she finds out about this, you know. Coach Maddox probably will, too. Isn’t he real strict about players being in class?”
“Oh, yeah,” Ty admitted. “But he’s my stepdad now. I can probably get him to cut me some slack.”
“Dreamer,” she teased. “He probably thinks he has to be harder on you than anybody else, so you’ll be an example, even if you are his star player.”
Ty shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I needed to talk to you about what happened.”
“You mean the night I got sick,” she said, her enthusiasm for the visit waning.
“Yeah, that,” he said. “And the fact that me and those other guys were over there. I feel like we contributed to what happened.”
“That’s crazy,” she said. “You’d been gone forever when I passed out.”
“Maybe so, but that’s the second time I was around and you keeled over.”
“It wasn’t the same as it was at your mom’s wedding,” Annie insisted. “I just got a little dizzy that time.”
“From not eating,” Ty said. “And we both know it wasn’t just some little thing. I know all about anorexia from school, Annie. It’s not something to fool around with. I’m worried about you.”
She stared at him, startled that he would admit to such a thing. “Why?”
“You almost died, dammit, that’s why,” he said, his voice rising. “Don’t you know how scary that is for everyone around you? Sarah and Raylene are terrified. I get sick thinking about what could have happened. And all of us feel guilty because we’ve seen what you were doing and haven’t stepped up to say anything.”
