Seeing her mom in the doorway, Annie breathed a sigh of relief. Now she was off the hook for sure. Of course, the downside was that she had almost twenty-four hours to dread her next session.
* * *
When Dana Sue found Dr. McDaniels in Annie’s room, she immediately felt guilty for interrupting.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize you were having a session,” she said, trying to gauge from the psychologist’s expression how the session was going. “I’ll be in the waiting room when you’re finished.”
“No need,” Dr. McDaniels said. “Why don’t you come in now? We’ve just finished.”
“Are you sure?” Dana Sue asked. “Don’t cut it short on my account.”
“I’m not. Annie and I have been chatting for a while,” the doctor told her with a warm smile. “We’ve made some progress this morning, right, Annie?”
The teen nodded, though she didn’t look quite as cheerful as the psychologist.
“That’s wonderful,” Dana Sue said.
“In fact, we’ve made enough progress in the right direction,” McDaniels announced, “that I think we can release Annie from the hospital tomorrow, as long as she agrees to continue seeing me every day in my office.”
Annie’s expression brightened. Obviously, this was the first time she’d heard the news. “Really? I can go home?”
“If Lacy and Dr. Lane agree, you can leave right after our session tomorrow,” Dr. McDaniels told her.
She turned to Dana Sue. “And then I’d like to schedule a family session for the next day, if that’s okay with you. Can you and Mr. Sullivan be there?”
Dana Sue nodded at once. “Absolutely.”
“We’ll use that time to go over all the guidelines you’ll need for Annie’s recovery, and maybe talk a little bit about what each of you can do to help her stay on the right track,” she told them. “I think I’ll ask the nutritionist to be there for that session, as well.”
“What about her first day home?” Dana Sue asked. “Is there anything we need to do then?”
Dr. McDaniels glanced at Annie. “Do you want to fill your mom in after Lacy and I go over everything tomorrow?”
Annie nodded eagerly, clearly pleased that the doctor trusted her to be honest about the rules.
Dr. McDaniels stood up. “You did good work today, Annie. I’m proud of you.”
“It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.”
“It’ll get harder,” the doctor warned her. “And there will be setbacks. You need to understand that, so you don’t just throw up your hands and give up.”
Annie nodded. “Okay.”
“Then I’ll see you in the morning,” she said.
After she’d gone, Dana Sue crossed to Annie to give her a hug. “I’m so proud of you, sweetie. And I cannot wait to have you home again. I don’t think I’ve slept the whole time you’ve been gone.”
“Even though my music hasn’t been blasting?”
Dana Sue shrugged and admitted ruefully, “I guess I’ve missed that, too.”
She sat down beside Annie on the bed. “You want to have a little homecoming celebration? Just Maddie, Helen, your dad and maybe Ty, Sarah and Raylene?”
“That would be awesome,” Annie said. “But, Mom, not a lot of food, okay? Could you just invite them to stop by after dinner? I’ll feel weird if everybody’s watching to see what I put in my mouth.”
“If that’s what you want,” Dana Sue agreed. Maybe it was too soon to expect Annie to be comfortable around any occasion involving food.
Or maybe, Dana Sue thought with concern, it was a sign that she was already thinking of ways to slip back into her pattern of avoiding meals with other people, so no one would notice that she wasn’t eating at all.
Hating that she didn’t trust her daughter’s motives, Dana Sue resolved to check with Dr. McDaniels about what her own expectations ought to be regarding her daughter’s behavior, and about the warning signs that would tell her that Annie was regressing. This time Dana Sue didn’t intend to ignore anything.
Chapter Sixteen
Ronnie had just spent an hour on the phone with Butch Thompson, who’d agreed to come to Serenity in the morning to look over the hardware store and Ronnie’s business plan.
“Then I want that meal you promised me at your wife’s restaurant,” Butch had told him.
“You bringing your wife along?”
“Not this time. We’ll set that up once we have all the paperwork finished and signed. Shouldn’t take longer than a week or two.”
Having Butch respond as if their deal were a foregone conclusion had left Ronnie elated, so when the phone rang again he was more cheerful than he’d been in a while.
“Ronnie?” Dana Sue asked, as if she wasn’t quite sure it was him.
“Hey, sugar. How are you?”
“Good,” she said. “You sound pretty chipper yourself. Something going on?”
“I’ll tell you about it later,” he promised, then remembered he’d gone to the restaurant the night before specifically to fill her in. Once he’d gotten caught up in her staffing crisis, he’d forgotten all about it. He didn’t dare put it off much longer, but he wanted to tell her face-to-face so he could gauge her reaction.
“Why’d you call?” he asked.
“Can you meet me at the house in an hour?”
“Sure,” he said, though he was surprised by the invitation. It must be important if she was willing to let him cross that threshold again. “You want to tell me why?”
Dana Sue hesitated, but she’d never been any good at keeping secrets. Ronnie gave her time to reach the bursting point.
“Annie’s coming home tomorrow!” she said at last. “Isn’t that fantastic?”
Relief flooded through him, along with a bit of caution. “Fantastic doesn’t even begin to describe it,” he said. “The doctors are sure she’s ready?”
“I saw Dr. McDaniels myself just a few minutes ago. She seems to think Annie’s finally turned a corner. She’s set up a family counseling session for all of us day after tomorrow.”
“It must have been the visit from Ty,” Ronnie speculated.
“What visit was that?” Dana Sue asked, sounding puzzled. “I mean,
