Honeysuckle Summer (The Sweet Magnolias #7)(77)

She was stunned that he’d gotten that from the one occasion when she’d mentioned her garden. It was just more evidence of what a wonder he was…a man who actually listened to the details of a conversation. “I think maybe I did like the battle,” she admitted.

He gave her a sheepish look. “I had this crazy idea that if honeysuckle started taking over out back, you wouldn’t be able to stand it, that you’d run out there and yank it out yourself.”

Mandy was staring at both of them as if they’d gone a little crazy. “So, do I leave it in, or pull it out? There’s more. It’s way in back along the fence.”

Raylene met Carter’s gaze. He looked so hopeful, as if he’d given her more than an uncontrollable vine, as if he’d provided the lure to get her out of the house once and for all. It was a lot to expect from honeysuckle.

Then, again, perhaps there was a lesson to be learned from the plant’s tenacity.

“Leave it,” she said softly.

Maybe one of these days, it could do what nothing else had. If so, she’d never again regard it as a nuisance. Instead, it would become her summer miracle.



Carter watched Carrie’s expression as Dr. McDaniels introduced her to the nutritionist. The woman was young and a little offbeat in a way that should have appealed to his sister, but as understanding dawned about the reason for the woman’s presence, Carrie grew increasingly sullen. She turned to him.

“You knew about this, didn’t you?” she accused. “You knew they were going to blindside me like this.”

He nodded.

“Why didn’t you warn me?” she demanded, a deep sense of betrayal in her voice.

“We both know that would have been a bad idea,” he responded quietly. “You would have refused to come.”

“Yes, I would have,” she said, her voice rising in anger. “Because I don’t need some stranger monitoring every bite of food I put into my mouth.”

Carter held her gaze. “Yes, you do.”

Dr. McDaniels had allowed the exchange to run its course before stepping in. “Carrie, I know that deep down you know you need someone to help you develop a healthier eating pattern. You’ve turned food into an enemy. If that behavior keeps up, it will make you very ill.”

“And I’ll die,” Carrie said flatly. “Yeah, I’ve heard it before.”

The nutritionist sat down beside her. “And what? You don’t believe that’s a possibility?”

“Maybe I want to die!” Carrie retorted, shocking Carter so badly he felt himself turning numb.

The two professionals, however, took her angry words in stride.

“Because then you’d be with your mom and dad, right?” Dr. McDaniels asked gently.

Tears flowed down Carrie’s cheeks as she nodded.

Carter had never felt so helpless in his life. He looked to the psychologist to see if it would be okay for him to speak. At her nod, he hunkered down in front of his sister. Because she was almost sixteen and mostly behaved in a mature way, he sometimes forgot that she was still a young girl who’d lost her mom and dad and was still struggling to find her way.

“Carrie, do you know how awful it would be for me and Mandy if we lost you?” he said, holding tight to her ice-cold hands and willing her to absorb his warmth and to feel the love he felt for her.

“You don’t want me or Mandy,” she said. “We messed up your life.”

“You changed my life,” he amended. “You didn’t mess it up. It’s so much better because the two of you are with me. I don’t think I’d realized just how much I missed being with family until you and Mandy came to live with me. Nothing matters more to me than your happiness and Mandy’s. It kills me to think you’re so unhappy that you’d rather die than be with us.”

“But we’re a lot of trouble,” she argued. “Especially me.”

“Which is why we’re here. Do you think if I didn’t care about you, I’d be insisting on this therapy? You have such an amazing, bright future ahead of you. I want you to get better and experience every minute of it. I want to be there when you graduate from college, and I want to dance at your wedding, and then come to the inaugural ball when you get to be president!”

She stared at him incredulously, then to his delight, she giggled. The sound was something he’d almost forgotten.

“I think you can cross that last one off your list,” she said, then whispered, “But I do want you to dance with me at my wedding.”

“Then you need to believe that Dr. McDaniels and the nutritionist are going to help make sure that happens,” he told her. “Will you please, please listen to them, instead of fighting them every step of the way?”

She blinked back a fresh batch of tears. “You won’t give up on me?”

“Never,” he said fiercely. “You, me and Mandy, we’re a team. I know it was always just the two of you, but I’m here now, and I am always on your side. If one of us is in trouble, the other two will be there. That’s the way it works. I promise.”

She threw herself off the chair and into his arms. “I love you, Carter.”

She felt so fragile and thin in his arms, he was almost scared to hug her too tightly, but he did. She needed to feel the strength of his love, to believe in it. Right now, it was all he had to give her.