Honeysuckle Summer (The Sweet Magnolias #7)(83)

“What about trips to see your grandparents? Did she go on those?”

“My grandparents usually came here,” she recalled, beginning to see a pattern she’d never even noticed as a child.

“Raylene, is it possible your mother was agoraphobic?”

The significance of the question stunned her, but even as the words registered, she knew it was entirely possible based on what she’d learned about the panic disorder. Other than maybe her first couple of years in school, when her mother had walked with her to kindergarten and first grade, she couldn’t recall a single occasion when they’d gone anywhere together, not to Wharton’s, or dinner, or a movie. Nowhere.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “You could be right.”

“And if I am, then doesn’t it make sense that when confronted with a situation like your abuse, you’ve reacted in a way that seemed perfectly normal and familiar to you? You shut yourself inside.”

“But she did move to Charleston,” Raylene said.

“Did she start going out once she was there?”

“Some,” Raylene recalled. “Not so much at first, but after a while, yes.”

“Then perhaps, because she was finally where she thought she belonged, she stopped punishing your father by closing herself off from the world.”

Raylene tried to sort through what the doctor was saying. “So in her case, it might not have been about fear?”

“I can’t say with certainty, since I’ve never spoken to her, but sometimes it doesn’t matter how the pattern starts—from a history of abuse like yours or in some sort of passive-aggressive attempt to hurt someone, which is what I suspect your mother might have done. In the end, the result is the same. You stay inside for a day or a week, then longer until it becomes a way of life. You’re locked away from the world and you can’t break the cycle without help of some kind.”

Though Raylene was blown away by what they’d discovered, she regarded Dr. McDaniels with bewilderment. “How does knowing this help? I doubt I’m going to spring up from this chair and run into downtown Serenity.”

Dr. McDaniels allowed herself a smile. “You could try. Who knows what might happen.”

“Seriously, I don’t see what difference it makes that we’ve figured this out,” Raylene said, her momentary excitement now lost to reality.

“Do you think your mother would come over here to participate in a session?”

“I doubt it.”

“Not even if she understood how important it is? I could speak to her myself and explain what’s happening.”

“I don’t know if I want to see her,” Raylene admitted. “I haven’t forgiven her for not listening when I told her about Paul. Maybe if she had, things wouldn’t have gotten as bad as they did.”

“All the more reason to have her come. You need to clear the air.” She met Raylene’s gaze. “May I call her?”

“I guess,” she said reluctantly.

“Good. I’m proud of you. We’ve had a real breakthrough here today.”

Raylene understood why the doctor sounded so excited, but she felt no differently than she had before the so-called breakthrough. What she needed was a miracle. Because if one didn’t come along soon, she was going to lose the one person who might be able to give her the life she’d always dreamed of.



Carter hated the idea of using his sisters to worm his way back into Raylene’s life, but since Carrie’s situation was part of the problem, he convinced himself she could also be part of the solution.

That night after dinner, before the girls cleared the table, he regarded them hopefully. “I need a favor,” he said.

“Anything, you know that,” Mandy said at once.

“Sure,” Carrie said, though with more reserve.

“I’d like to have dinner with Raylene tomorrow night,” he began.

Carrie immediately brightened, probably because she thought it meant he wouldn’t be spying on her. “Go for it. We don’t mind.”

“I meant all of us,” he said. “It’s really important.”

“It’s okay with me,” Mandy said. “I like Raylene. I’m over there almost every day anyway. I’ll just hang around till you come.”

Carrie’s expression turned sullen. “You two go ahead. I’m not interested. I don’t want to eat out in public with everyone staring at me.”

“We won’t be in public. We’ll be at Raylene’s.”

“Same difference,” Carrie insisted. “I’ll stay here.”

“It’s all of us, or none of us,” Carter told her.

“Because you don’t trust me to eat on my own,” Carrie said sourly.

“That’s part of it, yes,” he confirmed, unwilling to sugarcoat it for her. “We’re still in the tough-love phase of all this.”

“You said part of it,” Carrie said, expressing a faint hint of the curiosity he’d counted on. “What’s the rest?”

He searched for the right words. “Raylene’s been feeling left out. She’s really worried about you, Carrie. You haven’t been over to visit recently and I’ve been here with you. I think it’s important that we all let her know she matters to us.”