“Even if having you be nice is making me nuts?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yep, afraid so.”
Her lips twitched at his response, but she turned away before he could see if it turned into a full-fledged smile. It didn’t matter, though, because he wasn’t going to stop trying until they were back to laughing all the time, the way they once had.
* * *
There was something weird going on with her mom and dad, Annie decided after being out of the hospital for two weeks. They were still watching her every move, making sure someone was with her for every meal, making sure she stuck to the routine they’d worked out with the dietitian. But the two of them were never around at the same time. They seemed to have some uncanny knack for avoiding each other. It was almost as if they’d worked out a schedule behind her back.
Tonight her dad had barely walked out the door when her mom walked in. Annie regarded her with a perplexed expression. “Did you wait down the block till you saw Dad leave before you came home?” she demanded.
“Why would I do that?” her mom asked, her guilty expression revealing the truth.
“Because you don’t want to see him,” Annie said dryly. “What’s he done now?”
“He hasn’t done anything,” she said. “He’s busy these days. So am I. You know I’ve been neglecting the restaurant and the health club. I need to make up for the time I’ve missed.”
She made it sound pretty reasonable, but Annie wasn’t buying it. “Will you both be at the family counseling session tomorrow?”
When her mom regarded her with a startled expression, Annie knew she’d forgotten all about it. “You can’t get out of it,” Annie declared. “The whole point of family counseling is for all of us to be there. Dad’s coming. I reminded him tonight.” In truth, he hadn’t seemed any more eager to be there than her mom, but he’d agreed.
Her mom sighed. “Of course I’ll be there. It just slipped my mind, that’s all.”
The sessions the shrink had had with just Annie hadn’t been so bad. Dr. McDaniels was pretty cool, after all. She got the things Annie tried to explain to her, and she didn’t make a lot of judgments. She just pushed and prodded till Annie started to look at situations differently.
Like her parents’ marriage, for instance. She knew now that there was probably nothing any of them could have done to keep it from falling apart after her dad had cheated. But whatever the real reason was that he’d slept with that bimbo, it was his issue, not her mom’s and certainly not Annie’s. And her not eating was a pretty dumb way to go about protesting her dad leaving town.
Not that she’d realized at the time that was what she was doing, some sort of stupid hunger-strike thing, but that was what it amounted to. She might not trust herself to eat right all the time yet, but she was pretty sure she’d never be that dumb again.
In her attempt to figure out what was going on between her mom and dad, Annie had forgotten to share the good news she’d had that morning.
“Guess what?” she said, unable to contain a grin. “Dr. McDaniels said if the cardiologist says it’s okay when I see him day after tomorrow, I can go back to school next week.”
Her mom beamed. “Wow, that is good news! You’ve worked really hard to get better. I know it’ll be great to be back in class and with your friends again.”
The best part would be seeing Ty every day, Annie thought, but she didn’t tell her mom that. He’d been coming by a lot while she’d been at home, but she couldn’t wait to see if he would spend time with her at school. Not that he was acting like a boyfriend or anything. He’d never kissed her, except on the cheek, the same way he kissed her mom. But Annie thought it would say a lot if he treated her like a friend in front of all the guys on the baseball team and the other seniors. Like she was special.
“Are you all caught up with your assignments?” her mom asked.
Annie nodded. “Sarah and Raylene have been bringing them and I’ve sent all the homework in with them. I might have to take some tests I’ve missed, but it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up. Ty said he’d tutor me if I need it.”
Her mother regarded her intently. “That was nice of him. He’s been a good friend, hasn’t he?”
“The best,” she said, feeling her cheeks heat.
“You aren’t counting on anything more, are you?” her mom asked, looking worried.
Annie knew the point she was trying to make—that Ty was her friend, not her boyfriend. But she didn’t need reminding of that every minute. “No way,” she said. “Why are you making such a big deal about it?”
“I just don’t want you to be disappointed.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time in my life I’ve been disappointed,” Annie told her.
Her mom frowned at that. “Are you talking about me and your dad?”
“Exactly,” Annie said.
Her mom suddenly looked tired and incredibly sad. “And look at how you dealt with that,” she said gently. “I couldn’t bear it if Ty hurt you, and it sent you down that path again.”
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe he won’t disappoint me?” Annie demanded heatedly. “Thanks for believing in me, Mom.” Hurt and anger were all mixed up inside her as she ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door behind her.
She heard her mom call after her, but she just buried her face in her pillow. She knew what she’d said was mean, and it wasn’t even true, not really. Her mom had always believed in her. In fact, she was her biggest booster. Annie knew in her heart that she was the one who didn’t believe that she was good enough for Ty. Which was why
