Helen shook her head. “Not buying it. I think you’re avoiding Ronnie. What I don’t understand is why.”
“Maybe he’s avoiding me,” Dana Sue said tightly.
“Hold on a sec,” Maddie said, looking from one to the other. “I thought things were working out. The whole town knows you’re back together.” She paused and raised a brow. “Well, except for Mary Vaughn, but she tends to be delusional when she has a man in her sights. As long as Ronnie’s your ex and not your husband, she’ll see him as fair game.”
Helen frowned. “Gee, that must be reassuring for Dana Sue to hear.”
“Sorry,” Maddie said. “But we all know how Mary Vaughn operates. Including Ronnie. I don’t see him falling for it.” She turned back to Dana Sue. “Besides, for a couple of weeks there you and Ronnie were inseparable. What changed?”
Dana Sue blinked back unexpected tears. “I have no idea. All of a sudden it’s all about his new business. He’s at the hardware store for hours and hours every day. Annie’s in there helping him, now that she’s back on her feet. When he’s not painting and cleaning and going through wholesale catalogs, he’s running around with Mary Vaughn.”
Maddie and Helen exchanged a look.
“I knew that’s what this was about,” Maddie said. “You’re jealous. You’re terrified that Mary Vaughn will sink her claws into Ronnie, and instead of protecting your turf, you’re walking away from the fight. Why don’t you just let him move back in?”
“It’s too soon,” Dana Sue said, then sighed. “Besides, that won’t solve anything. Every time I lay eyes on the two of them with their heads together, I lose it. If I’m in the kitchen at Sullivan’s, I don’t see what’s going on.”
“How’s that working for you?” Helen asked. “Are you any less jealous? Any less scared? Hasn’t it occurred to you that if there was anything going on between those two, it wouldn’t be happening right under your nose? Ronnie may be a lot of things, but he’s not stupid. After what occurred two years ago, he’s not going to be in your face with some other woman. I may not be his biggest fan, but even I can see this has to be innocent, at least on his part. Besides, you said yourself that Annie’s over there with them. Do you honestly think he’d flaunt a relationship with Mary Vaughn around her?”
“You could have a point,” Dana Sue conceded grudgingly.
“Maybe you should just march over to the hardware store and ask what you can do to help,” Maddie suggested. “Make yourself part of his dream.”
“I don’t know the first thing about hammers and bolts and toilet-repair kits,” she said.
“You could learn,” Maddie said. “I doubt that Mary Vaughn gets all warm and fuzzy at the thought of tools, either. But she obviously gets all turned on by your ex-husband.”
Helen shot a warning look at her. “Not helping,” she said. “Next thing you know Dana Sue will be over there with a carving knife.”
“Believe me, I’ve been tempted,” she admitted.
“What’s held you back, aside from the law?” Helen asked.
“Just like you said, Ronnie has sworn to me that Mary Vaughn means absolutely nothing to him, that she’s just helping him to make some business contacts. I might be white-knuckling it, but I am trying to trust what he says.”
“Trust is all well and good, but I’d want to see the evidence for myself,” Helen said. “I’d be in their faces twenty-four-seven if that’s what it took to reassure myself that those two aren’t collaborating on anything besides business.”
Dana Sue shook her head. “I have to start trusting him sometime or it will never work between us.”
But even as she said the words, she realized that she simply wasn’t there yet. Not wanting to dwell on her insecurities for another second, she turned to Maddie.
“How are you feeling? It looks as if you’ve lost a few pounds of pregnancy weight.”
Maddie shrugged. “It’s very slow going, but I’m trying not to let that discourage me. I keep reminding myself that chasing after a toddler will take off whatever weight I haven’t lost in the meantime.” She held Jessica Lynn up in the air. “This is the only weight lifting I do, right, baby girl?”
The baby gurgled happily.
“I always thought I’d be chasing after a couple of rug rats by now,” Helen said, her expression surprisingly wistful.
Dana Sue shot an I-told-you-so look at Maddie.
“You’ve never talked about wanting children before,” Maddie stated. “Not in all the years we’ve known you.”
“What was the point?” Helen said. “Everybody knows I’m married to my career. It’s too late now.”
“It most definitely is not too late to have a baby, if you want one,” Maddie told her gently. “Look at me.”
“But you have a man in your life,” Helen responded. “I have a client list in mine.”
“If you want a baby, you can make it happen,” Maddie insisted. “There are lots of options. You could find a willing partner, you could have artificial insemination or you could adopt.”
Helen shook her head. “I always thought I’d do it the old-fashioned way, but time just got away from me.”
Dana Sue could relate to that. She covered Helen’s hand with her own. “Don’t give up yet. The right man could be just around the corner. Your situation’s not like mine. Ronnie and I couldn’t have another baby even if we wanted to. It would be too dangerous.”
“Because of the diabetes,” Maddie said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“It was always there,” Dana Sue admitted. “Even when I had Annie, there was some concern. My blood sugar spiked then, but they figured it was gestational, and we kept it under control. Now that it’s a real threat, there’s no way I can risk another pregnancy. And with everything else going on—Ronnie’s new business, keeping up with Sullivan’s, keeping
