Honeysuckle Summer (The Sweet Magnolias #7)(73)

“Now, that has to be a first,” he said, his voice determinedly cheerful. “I thought you were dying to shop where the clothes have some style. Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me?”

“I just don’t want anything,” she said.

“She says everything makes her look fat,” Mandy said, turning around and giving her sister a defiant look.

Carter’s gaze shot to Carrie in the rearview mirror. “What’s that about, Carrie?”

“I never said that,” she said, casting a murderous look at Mandy. “I said I felt fat today. I ate too much at breakfast.”

All Carter recalled her eating was a half piece of toast and a bite of scrambled eggs. It was more than she usually touched, true, but hardly enough to cause her to feel full, much less fat.

Still, he refrained from responding. In their session this week, Dr. McDaniels had suggested he keep a close eye on Carrie and report to her, but not to be the bad guy by challenging her over every meal. She’d said the time would come for that, once the nutritionist became involved. That was scheduled for this week, though she hadn’t mentioned it to Carrie yet.

“Okay, let’s talk about something else,” Carter suggested. “How about stopping to see a movie before we head back?”

“That’d be cool,” Mandy said eagerly.

“I don’t feel like it,” Carrie said, clearly determined to be a spoilsport about everything.

“We could go sightseeing,” he suggested, giving Mandy a pleading look in the hope that she wouldn’t argue. “The last time you girls were in Charleston, Mom and Dad brought you. You were pretty young.”

“I was old enough,” Carrie said. “It’s boring.”

Carter felt his last nerve close to snapping. “Okay, since you haven’t liked any of my suggestions, what would you like to do, Carrie?”

“We might as well go home,” she mumbled.

“No,” Mandy protested. “We’re here. I want to do something fun. Come on, Carter. Just because old sourpuss is in a bad mood, it shouldn’t spoil the day for the rest of us. Let’s at least go to the market downtown where the vendors have all that cool stuff. We can probably find someplace to eat, too.”

“Works for me,” he said, silently agreeing with her that to give in to Carrie’s mood would be sending the wrong message. She’d just have to get it together and deal.

He wove through the crowded streets until he finally found a parking place.

“I’ll stay in the car,” Carrie announced.

He turned and frowned at her. “No, you won’t. I can’t make you enjoy yourself, but you will come with us.”

“You’ve turned into nothing but a big bully,” she accused. “I wish Mom and Dad were still here.” And then she burst into tears.

Before he could think of what to say, Mandy scrambled out of the front passenger seat and jumped into the back to hug her sister. “I miss them, too,” she whispered, burying her face in Carrie’s shoulder.

They sat like that for a while until Carrie’s sobs quieted. When they separated, Carter handed her a fistful of tissues.

“Feel better?” he asked gently.

She nodded, her expression chagrined. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a pain all day.”

“Nothing new,” Mandy taunted, poking her in the ribs with an elbow.

A smile finally broke through on Carrie’s face. “You’ll pay for that, squirt. You have to use your allowance to buy me the first thing I see that I want.”

“Okay,” Mandy said agreeably. She grabbed Carrie’s hand and dragged her out of the car.

Carter watched as they started toward the market, then sighed. Was he ever going to figure out how to deal with two teenage girls and their mood swings, much less Carrie’s eating disorder? His appreciation for what parents everywhere had to cope with had increased a hundredfold since his parents’ deaths.

He glanced skyward. “Forgive me,” he murmured, hoping his folks could hear. “I apologize for every moment of grief I ever gave you.”

And then he went to catch up with his sisters.



Raylene listened as Carter described Carrie’s outburst earlier in the day. He’d left the girls at home watching a video, then dropped by to see her to bring her a pair of earrings he’d picked up from a jewelry vendor.

“The girls told me they’d go with your eyes,” he said of the lapis stones.

Raylene chuckled at the admission that the girls had made the choice. “Did you even have any idea what color my eyes are?” she teased.

“Sure, blue,” he said.

“Which can cover anything from gray-blue to turquoise or dark blue,” she said.

His gaze narrowed. “Is the eye-color thing a test of some kind?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, all I know is that when I used to look into your eyes I’d see nothing but sadness, and now I see a whole range of emotions.”

“Such as?”

“Right now I see laughter lurking in there. Sometimes there’s joy, sometimes annoyance…” He grinned. “And when you’re not censoring yourself, I see desire. Or maybe that’s just my ego playing tricks on me.”

She hesitated, not sure she was willing to have this discussion. “It’s true,” she finally admitted. “I want you, Carter, at least a part of me does.”