Honeysuckle Summer (The Sweet Magnolias #7)(39)

“I know,” she said, looking defeated. “I thought maybe you’d consider it before, but I knew it was too late now.”

“Meaning?”

“Before, it was like you just had this job with the sheriff’s department, no big deal. Now you’re going to be chief of your own department, and that’s really cool. And there’s Raylene, and I know you like her. You have everything you want right here. But what do I have? Nothing. Not even any friends.”

“You’ll make friends here,” he said. “It just takes a little time in a new school.” Despite his very deep reservations, he held out the promise of something he knew she wanted. “Maybe you can even find a summer job, so you can save up for a car.”

For a fleeting instant, her eyes lit up. “You’d let me have my own car?”

“By the time you’ve saved enough money, I think you’ll be ready for it,” he said.

“In other words, it’ll take forever,” she said, looking defeated. “My life sucks.”

She did, in fact, look so unhappy that he couldn’t help feeling a certain amount of pity for her. Even if the move had been for the best, it must have been hell being uprooted from the home and neighborhood she’d always known and the friends she’d had since grade school.

“Why don’t we go to Columbia this weekend,” he suggested impulsively. “We can get rooms at a hotel with a pool and you can invite some of your friends over. We’ll see a movie, too. You and Mandy can pick it. I’ll even suffer through a chick flick, if that’s what you want.”

She giggled at that, and for just a minute she reminded him of the carefree girl she’d been before they’d lost their folks.

“Okay,” she said grudgingly. “Can we eat all the candy in the minibar?”

“At those prices?” he said with exaggerated horror, then grinned. “What the heck! Go for it. Just this once.”

She threw her arms around him then. “You’re the best big brother in the entire world.”

“I try,” he said.

Her expression immediately sobered. “I know you do, and I promise not to be a pain all the time.”

“You’re not a pain all the time,” he told her with a grin.

“But when I am, I’m a big one,” she said.

“True.”

She laughed.

“Come downstairs and have dinner,” he said. “If Raylene sent it over, it’s bound to be better than anything we could order.”

For a minute, he thought the mention of the lasagna was going to start another argument, but instead she nodded. “I’ll be right there.”

Carter left her room feeling as if he’d negotiated a very tricky and temporary truce between two warring factions. He hoped dinner went smoothly, because he wasn’t sure he had sufficient energy in reserve to go another round.

And he still had to come up with some way to tell Raylene that she had less than two months before her ex-husband was going to be released from prison.



Raylene decided the best way to handle her suspicions that Carrie might have an eating disorder would be to get the Sweet Magnolias on the case. The day after Carrie’s visit, she started making the calls midmorning and had everything lined up for a margarita night by lunchtime.

When Sarah arrived home in the afternoon, she brought all the ingredients for the margaritas, along with everything Raylene had requested to make a new burrito recipe.

“I think we’re getting to the point that guacamole isn’t enough to counteract the effects of all that tequila,” she told Sarah. “We need real food.”

“Works for me,” Sarah said. “So, what’s going on? Why the call for an emergency gathering?”

“I’ll explain tonight. In the meantime, though, I need to see how you’d feel about hosting the Fourth of July barbecue here this year.”

Sarah looked startled by the suggestion. “But Dana Sue and Ronnie have always had it. Don’t you think their feelings will be hurt if we steal it away from them?” Her expression immediately fell. “Sorry. I know you miss out every year, so of course we should have it here this time.”

“Honestly, it’s not about me,” Raylene told her. “I had a very disturbing conversation with Carrie Rollins this afternoon. I think she could be anorexic, or at least she might be on the verge of developing an eating disorder. I want an opportunity for Annie and Dana Sue especially to observe her behavior to see if I’m right.”

Sarah regarded her worriedly. “Shouldn’t you just mention it to Carter and let him take it from there? He might not appreciate your meddling.”

“I would, but it’s a pretty serious thing to say about someone. I want to be sure. He’s got a lot to handle as it is. There’s no point in upsetting him if it turns out I’m overreacting.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think you’re likely to overreact about something like this. You and I were there with Annie. We both still feel a certain amount of guilt for not jumping in sooner to tell Dana Sue what we thought was happening.”

“We were kids,” Raylene said. “We didn’t go running to parents to tattle on our friends. And just about everyone we knew was dieting, so for a long time it didn’t seem as if Annie’s behavior was unique or out of control.”