Dana Sue regarded her quizzically. “You want me to spy on them?”
“Okay, it sounds ridiculous,” Maddie admitted. “But it might give you some idea if this is just Annie’s problem or if she’s responding to peer pressure. And spying is a very underrated tool for parents. We need to know what’s going on with our kids. Period.”
“Okay, let’s say I buy that,” Dana Sue said. “What will I really find out? If the food’s gone, sure, then someone ate it. Or they flushed it down the toilet. Or they binged and purged. There’s more than one eating disorder, you know.”
“I agree with Maddie. I think it’s worth a shot,” Helen said. “What have you got to lose?”
Considering how little she knew about the eating habits of Annie’s friends, maybe it would give her some much-needed insight, Dana Sue decided. “I suppose it could work,” she conceded eventually. It might be a pretty flimsy lifeline, but she was desperate. She’d grab on to anything at this point.
Maddie beamed at her. “That’s the spirit. Now let’s talk about you.”
Dana Sue frowned. “No can do. I’ve got to go.”
“Not so fast,” Helen said, latching on to her arm until she sank back down in her seat. “What has Doc Marshall told you lately?”
“That I’m still borderline diabetic, that I need to exercise, watch what I eat and check my blood sugar on a regular basis,” she recited dutifully.
“And you’re doing all that?” Maddie pressed.
“Yes,” she said, though she didn’t look either of them in the eye.
“Really?” Helen’s skepticism was plain. “You must be using all this lovely, expensive exercise equipment we bought when I’m not around.” She glanced at Maddie. “Is that right? Is Dana Sue in here, say, midmorning? Midafternoon?”
“Maybe I’m sneaking in after the place is closed!” she snapped. “And I don’t know what gives you the right to question my exercise routine. Yours is no better.”
“Agreed,” Helen said at once. “Which is why I’ve come up with a suitable challenge for each of us.”
“This isn’t good,” Maddie mumbled.
Dana Sue grinned. “No kidding.”
“Okay, you two, I’m serious,” Helen said. “I think we should each write down our goals, whatever they are, and a plan for reaching them. Whichever one of us sticks to the plan and achieves the goal wins something spectacular, to be paid for by the other two.”
Maddie’s eyes immediately lit up. She’d always loved a competition. And she loved winning almost as much as Helen did. “Do we each get to pick out our own prize?”
Helen nodded. “Seems only fair, don’t you think?”
“Any price limit?” Dana Sue asked. “You’re the only one of us raking in big bucks.”
Helen grinned. “Which should be excellent motivation for each of you to want to beat me. However, I happen to know Sullivan’s is way ahead of your financial projections, and if this place continues at its current pace, your cries of ‘poor me’ won’t hold water. The Corner Spa is going to make us all rich. We deserve to splurge, and none of us is going to go bankrupt if we do. The profits from this place will see to that.” She turned to Maddie. “So, what’s your dream prize?”
“The sky’s really the limit?” she asked, looking thoughtful.
“Why not?” Helen said with a shrug. “The whole idea is to motivate ourselves to work at this. The promise of a new dress or a pair of shoes won’t cut it.”
“Then I think a trip to Hawaii for my first anniversary would be wonderful,” Maddie declared. “We probably couldn’t take it till spring break, but I’d be willing to wait for that.”
Helen made a note on her ever-present legal pad. “So, a first-class trip for two, or three counting the baby, since I can’t see your mother looking after an infant. She’s only recently adjusted to babysitting your other three and two of them are in their teens.”
“Yes, it would definitely be for three,” Maddie confirmed. “Cal would never agree to leave Jessica Lynn behind. He can barely make himself go out the door to work.”
Helen turned to Dana Sue. “How about you? Any dream vacations you’ve been denying yourself? A new car? A fancy new kitchen at home?”
“I spend all day in a fancy new kitchen at the restaurant,” Dana Sue said. “That’s enough stainless steel for me. And I think travel’s highly overrated.”
“Only because you got lost on our senior trip to Washington, D.C.,” Maddie teased. “No one’s ever let you live that down, and you haven’t left South Carolina since.”
“Okay, no kitchen, no travel,” Helen said. “What, then? Dream big.”
There was only one thing Dana Sue really wanted for herself. She wanted a man in her life, the right man, one who would respect her and treat her as if she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. And, in the deepest, darkest corner of her heart, she wanted that man to be Ronnie Sullivan. Unfortunately, as much as Helen and Maddie loved her, they couldn’t give her that. And as furious as they were with him, it wasn’t a fantasy they’d encourage, anyway.
“I know what she wants,” Maddie said quietly.
“What?” Helen asked.
Maddie’s eyes locked with Dana Sue’s. “She wants Ronnie back.”
“I most certainly do not,” she sputtered indignantly, out of habit or maybe self-defense or embarrassment. How shameful was it to still want a man she’d made such a huge production out of throwing out? “How could you even say such a thing, Maddie? You know what that man did to me. You were there to pick up the pieces. Ronnie Sullivan is the last thing I want. If I never see his sorry face again, it will be too soon.”
Her two best friends regarded her with knowing expressions.
“Emphatic,” Helen said.
“Too emphatic?” Maddie asked.
They both grinned, thoroughly pleased with themselves.
Dana Sue scowled. “Well, all I have to say is that if Ronnie Sullivan is your idea of a spectacular prize, then one of you take him.
