Home in Carolina (6 page)

“Got it,” Jay said. “I’ll keep you posted if I hear from her again.”

“Yeah, do that,” Ty said. He clicked the phone shut and barely resisted the urge to throw it across the room, which was a good thing because it might well have hit Annie, who’d just walked in the door. She caught sight of him and stopped in her tracks, her expression immediately wary, either because of his expression or merely his presence.

“I thought you’d be gone by now,” she murmured, already backing toward the door. “I saw the lights on and thought you and Elliott had just forgotten to turn them off.”

“I was getting ready to leave when I got a call I had to take.”

She started to turn to leave. “Good night, then. You can cut off the lights on your way out.”

Jay’s call had left Ty feeling restless and out of sorts. He didn’t want to be left alone with his thoughts in turmoil. “Annie, don’t go,” he pleaded.

She regarded him with a torn expression. Though she was obviously still poised to flee, she’d clearly heard something in his voice that had stopped her.

“The call, was it bad news?” she asked hesitantly. Years ago she would have pestered him till he told her the problem, but now it was clear she wasn’t sure if she wanted to get involved.

Ty knew better than to tell her about Dee-Dee’s sudden, unexplained reappearance. “My attorney just wanted to alert me to a potential problem.”

“Then why did you want me to stay?”

He quickly came up with an excuse that would ring true. “Because most of my conversations these days are either about which superhero T-shirt Trevor wants to put on or how badly I’ve screwed things up with you. Since I doubt you’ll want to discuss either of those topics, I was hoping we could talk about…oh, anything else.” He met her gaze. “Maybe the weather,” he suggested hopefully.

“It’s South Carolina in the spring. It’s already hot and humid,” she said wryly. “Can I go now?”

“You can, but I hope you won’t.”

She hesitated for what felt like an eternity, then sat down on the bench of a weight machine halfway across the room. “How does it feel being home again?” she asked eventually.

“Weird,” he admitted. “How about you?”

“Definitely weird. My parents don’t quite know how to treat me. I’m too old for rules and curfews, yet I’m under their roof. I can hardly wait to save enough to buy my own place.”

He took heart from the fact that she’d willingly strung more than a couple of sentences together. “Then you’re planning to stay here?”

“Of course. Why else would I move back?”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure.”

“It certainly wasn’t because you’re here,” she said, bristling.

Ty grinned. “I know that, Annie,” he said with exaggerated patience. “You got here months before I did, so unless you had some premonition that I was going to injure my shoulder, the two of us being here at the same time is coincidence.” Okay, maybe on his part it had been calculated to take advantage of a situation, but she didn’t need to know that. He held her gaze, then added, “By the way, if you did have a premonition, I wish you’d warned me about it. This hurts like hell.” He removed the ice pack and rubbed his shoulder.

“Try the hot tub,” she said grudgingly.

“Only if you’ll join me,” he taunted, just to see if he could put a blush of pink in her cheeks. It worked.

She stood up at once, her face flushed. “Only after hell’s frozen over,” she said. “I have to go.”

“Plans for the rest of the evening?” he inquired innocently. Annie had never been a late-night person, and it was now going on eleven o’clock. There was no place she needed to be except away from him.

“Yes,” she said, looking directly into his eyes and lying through her teeth. “Big plans, as a matter of fact.”

Ty laughed. “Sleep well, Annie.”

“I’m not going home to sleep,” she insisted indignantly. “I’m—”

Before she could utter a blatant lie, Ty crossed the
room and touched a finger to her lips. “Don’t,” he said quietly. “Whatever happens between us from here on out, let’s keep things honest and real.”

She swallowed hard, proving to him that she was affected by his nearness, but then that stubborn chin of hers jutted up.

“That would be a refreshing change,” she said, then whirled on her heel and left him standing there.

Even though Annie had just put him squarely in his place, Ty laughed. From where he stood, it seemed as if she was working her way back to the feisty, indomitable woman he’d loved and lost. Getting her back again was going to be an absolutely fascinating challenge.

Of all the nerve! How dare Tyler Townsend stand right there in
her
workplace and taunt her like that? How dare he touch her, even if it had been nothing more than a faint brush of a finger across her lips?

A little voice in her head suggested she was lucky he hadn’t kissed her instead, and made a liar out of all of her declarations that he meant nothing to her.

It was hours later, after a sleepless night, and she was still seething as she slammed pots and pans around in the kitchen at Sullivan’s. At all the noise, her mother came dashing in.

“What on earth are you doing in here? You’re not trying to cook, are you?”

Annie scowled at her. “I can cook.”

“Not in the restaurant kitchen, you can’t. If you want to burn things or ruin pots and pans, do it at home.”

“If I’d done that, Dad would have wanted to know why I was making such a racket.”

“Believe me,
I
want to know why you’re making such a racket,” Dana Sue said, studying her expectantly.

Warned away from the expensive and satisfyingly noisy pots and pans, Annie grabbed a stool and sat on it. “Ty,” she said succinctly.

Her mom froze in midstride on her way to the walk-in pantry. “What did Ty do?”

Annie thought back to the incident in the spa and sighed. “Nothing, really. His mere existence is a thorn in my side.”

Her mother chuckled. “I see.”

“Do not laugh at me. None of this is even remotely amusing.”

Dana Sue sobered at once. “I know that.” She went into the pantry and emerged with various ingredients that looked promising. Annie’s mouth watered at the prospect of her mother’s justifiably famous French toast.

“You could take some time off, maybe get away for a while, if having Ty around is going to be too hard for you,” her mom continued. “Maddie wouldn’t object.”

Indignant and alarmed, Annie stared at her mother. “And you know that how? Have the two of you been discussing how to be supportive of poor little Annie?”

“Absolutely not,” Dana Sue claimed, breaking eggs in a bowl and adding cinnamon, nutmeg, barely a whiff of almond extract and a dash of cream before slipping thick slices of French bread into it to soak. “I just know that she would understand if you need a break. She’s sensitive to the situation.”

“Which means you did discuss it,” Annie said in disgust. “Margarita night must have been a real blast.”

“To be honest, I don’t remember that much about it,”
her mom admitted, looking chagrined. “Helen apparently overdid it with the tequila. She was a little stressed out.”

“Helen was stressed out? Why?” Annie regarded her mother with dismay, distracted for the moment from her own turmoil. “She and Erik aren’t in trouble, are they?”

Dana Sue forked the bread slices into a skillet in which butter sizzled. “No way. This was about her mom. Flo broke her hip. Helen’s in Florida now. I had a call from Erik last night that she’s driving her mother back up here today.”

“Flo’s coming home with Helen?” Annie asked, stunned. “Oh, brother, how’d that happen?”

“Flo asked, then Erik encouraged it. I gather she wants to move home. For now, that means into Helen’s place.”

“Yikes!”

“That was pretty much my reaction,” Dana Sue said, setting two plates with golden slices of French toast in front of them, along with a pot of strawberry jam and a small pitcher of warm maple syrup. “Something tells me if things don’t go well, Erik is going to spend the next few weeks hiding out right here.”

“He’d be better off in another state.”

“Enough of that. Let’s get back to Ty,” Dana Sue said.

“I’d rather not,” Annie said. She concentrated on her favorite comfort food, hoping if she didn’t make eye contact, her mother would drop the subject.

Dana Sue persisted. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Not unless you know how to deaden the pain in my heart every time I see him,” Annie said wistfully.

“Afraid not, kiddo. There’s never been a cure invented for that particular kind of pain.”

“What about margaritas?”

“Based on recent experience, I can tell you for certain that whatever temporary escape they might provide is nothing compared to the pain they leave behind.”

“Too bad,” Annie said. “Maybe you should put the Sweet Magnolias to work on a cure for the lovesick blues. You guys could make a fortune.”

“I’ll mention it next time we get together. We are pretty inventive.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Eventually Annie faced her mother. “I still love him,” she admitted. “I don’t want to, but I do.”

“I know, sweetie.”

“Am I supposed to forgive him and give him another chance after what he did?”

“Only you can decide that,” Dana Sue said.

“How did you decide it was time to take Dad back?”

“He convinced me I could trust him again.”

“Just by coming back when I was in the hospital, and then not giving up even after you kept pushing him away?”

Dana Sue’s expression turned thoughtful. “That was part of it, but mostly I took a leap of faith. I think that’s all any of us can do once we’ve been betrayed. It’s a question of looking at the evidence that someone’s changed, evaluating whether you’re happier with them than without them, then taking that leap.”

“Sounds scary.”

“It is.”

Annie sighed. “I don’t think I’m there yet.”

“You don’t need to be. You’ll get there when it feels right.”

“What if Ty’s healed and gone by then? What if he’s given up on me?”

“If you believe with everything in you that you’re meant to be, then you go after him.”

Annie stared at her. “Pride be damned?”

Dana Sue nodded. “Pride be damned. Look at your dad. Once he came back to town, remember how hard he fought to get back into my life, back into both our lives? I kept pushing him away, but he never gave up. You’ve got our stubborn genes. You’re strong enough to get whatever you really want.”

She covered Annie’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Meantime, make sure Ty does his fair share of groveling. You’ll feel better for that, no matter what.”

Annie chuckled. “You know, I think I will.”

W
hen Ty got up on Saturday morning, he pulled on a pair of cutoff jeans and wandered toward the kitchen in search of his son. Usually by now Trevor had crawled into bed with him to wake him for the trip to Wharton’s for breakfast. Ty made it as far as the living room before stopping in his tracks.

There, lined up on the sofa, were his fourteen-year-old sister, Katie, and four of her friends. Judging from their rapt, slack-jawed gazes and sudden silence when they saw him, they’d been waiting for him.

“Good morning, girls,” he said, regretting that he hadn’t grabbed a T-shirt and maybe a decent pair of pants. “Katie, I didn’t know you had company.”

“Mom said I could invite some friends over,” she said with a touch of defiance.

“Any particular occasion?”

The girls giggled, their cheeks turning bright pink. Katie frowned at them. “You’re acting crazy,” she scolded them. “I told you it was okay to come over, but only if you didn’t act all weird. He’s just my brother.”

“He’s
Ty Townsend!
” one girl corrected in an awe
struck voice. “And he’s right here,
and
he’s not wearing a shirt!”

Ty bit back a groan. “Katie, I think maybe you should offer your friends something to drink. They seem a little overheated. Where’s Trevor, by the way?”

“Cal took him, Jessica Lynn and Cole for a walk. He said for you to meet them at Wharton’s.”

“Okay, then. Nice meeting you, girls,” he said. He left to a chorus of more giggles as he went back to his room to shower and dress.

When he emerged, the girls were gone, except for Katie, who hurriedly stuffed something behind her. He regarded her suspiciously. “What was that?”

“What?” she asked, all innocence.

“You put something behind the cushion,” he said, crossing the room in a few quick strides and yanking away the cushion before she could stop him. Five-dollar bills scattered. Ty stared at the money in shock. “You charged them to meet me?” he asked incredulously. “What? Five dollars apiece?”

Katie’s face flamed. “Ten, because you weren’t wearing a shirt. We’d agreed they’d pay extra if you weren’t.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t let them peek in my room while I was sleeping. They might have gotten quite an eyeful.”

“That would have been rude and an invasion of your privacy,” Katie said indignantly. “I would never do that.”

Ty wanted to be furious with her, but she sounded so solemn about the boundaries she’d set, he couldn’t seem to muster the energy to yell. “You do know that even this was wrong?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m your brother, not a sideshow at the circus. And what if one of those girls had snapped a picture with a cell phone and sold it to a tabloid or something?”

Katie rolled her eyes. “They don’t know people who work at tabloids.”

“I think you’re missing the point. You don’t let people into the house to ogle your brother. It’s inappropriate.”

“People pay to see you pitch,” she argued.

“This is hardly the same thing.”

“You’re famous. I’m your sister. I should be able to cash in on that.”

“If you’re that desperate for money, I’ll find some chores you can do. You can mail pictures to my fans for me.”

“That’s no fun. This makes me kinda famous, too. The kids like me better ’cause I’m your sister.”

She sounded so woebegone that Ty sank down beside her on the sofa. “I can’t believe you don’t have plenty of friends without doing something like this. You’re pretty and smart and funny.”

“I have braces and I’m too smart,” she countered.

“The braces will only be on a few more months, and there’s no such thing as too smart,” Ty told her.

“There is if you like Dougie Johnson. He calls me Brainiac—and he doesn’t mean it in a good way.”

“Then Dougie Johnson is an idiot and not good enough for you,” Ty declared emphatically.

“But he’s sooo cute,” Katie said plaintively. “I’ve liked him since second grade.”

Ty hid a smile. “Then it’s time you met someone new. Why don’t you come with me to the ball field today? I’ll bet there’s someone on one of the teams
who’s cuter and smarter than Dougie Johnson and who’ll think you’re awesome.”

She hesitated, her expression thoughtful. Eventually, she said, “There is this one guy who plays on Tom’s team. He’s at least fifteen and way cuter than Dougie. I asked Jeanette at the spa—she’s married to Tom now—if she could find out if he had a girlfriend, and she told me he doesn’t. I’ll bet if he finds out I’m your sister, he’ll pay attention to me.”

At last, a way to use his fame for good, Ty thought with amusement. He’d be his little sister’s teenage boy magnet. Of course, if one of the little punks even looked at her cross-eyed, Ty would be forced to beat the daylights out of him, but he’d cross that bridge later.

“Let’s go hook up with Cal and the little guys,” he said. “Then we’ll put this operation into action.”

Katie grinned at him. “You’re the best big brother ever.”

He waved the fistful of money under her nose. “Let’s not tell Mom why you think so,” he warned. “You need to give this money back, okay? Promise me.”

“Do I have to?”

“If you want me to find you a cool guy, you do.”

“Okay,” she said grudgingly. “But this guy better be worth it. I was saving up for a new iPod. I lost my old one, and Mom says I have to replace it myself so I’ll learn to be more responsible.”

Ty draped an arm across her shoulders. “Growing up and being responsible sucks, doesn’t it?”

Katie sighed dramatically. “You’re telling me.”

Annie was working with one of her regulars when Sarah came in, twenty minutes early for her appointment.

“You must be really eager to get started,” Annie said, surprised not just by the early arrival, but also by the spark of excitement in Sarah’s eyes.

“Forget the workout. I heard something this morning, and I couldn’t wait to get in here to tell you. It’s going to make your day.” She grinned at Annie’s client. “I’m sorry to interrupt your session, but could I borrow her for just one minute?”

“If it means I can stop this torture while she’s gone, take your time,” Marijo Butler said.

Annie gave her a stern look. “Just for that, do ten more reps while I’m gone.”

She walked to the side of the room with Sarah. “What’s this about?”

“Ty,” Sarah said, then held up her hand when Annie would have turned right around and walked away. “I know he’s bound to be a sore subject with you, but this will cheer you up. It was the hot news at Wharton’s this morning.”

She described how Katie had been selling admission to her friends to catch a glimpse of Ty. “So the word is already all over Wharton’s, and then he and Katie walk in to join Cal Maddox. The whole place erupts with wolf whistles and catcalls. Ty about died right on the spot.”

Despite herself, Annie couldn’t help chuckling. Served him right.

“I swear I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody so embarrassed in my whole life, except maybe you after you passed out in his arms while you were dancing at his mom’s wedding to Coach Maddox.”

Annie flinched. “I’d really rather not think about that,” she said. It was a memory she’d tried to bury, though Dr. McDaniels dragged it out every once in a while as a
reminder of when she should have realized just how bad her eating disorder had gotten.

Sarah regarded her intently. “But the story was worth it, wasn’t it? You’re not mad at me for mentioning Ty?”

“I’m not mad.”

“One of these days we’re going to have to sit down so you can tell me how things between the two of you got to be such a mess. I saw the tabloids in the supermarket a few years back and couldn’t believe my eyes. What on earth was that man thinking?”

“We’ll have to wait till I figure that out myself,” Annie said. “Now, since you’re here early, there’s no point in wasting time. Go spend the extra few minutes on the treadmill until I can get to you.”

Sarah looked distraught. “You are mad at me, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m being a good friend by making you do what you came to me for. You did hire me to see that you had a hard workout, right?”

“Something I could come to regret,” Sarah grumbled, but she dutifully went off and climbed onto a treadmill, leaving Annie to gloat quietly to herself over the scene Sarah had described in Wharton’s.

Then she thought of sweet little Katie doing such a thing in the first place and her smile spread. Maybe she wasn’t going to have to do a thing to humiliate Ty and have her revenge for the pain he’d caused her. At this rate, his family might make him suffer quite nicely without her help.

Because she couldn’t help herself, Annie lingered at the spa after closing to see if Ty would show up for his workout. She was still in her office when Elliott walked in.

“You know Ty’s going to be here soon, right?”

She grinned. “I’m counting on it.”

Elliott looked taken aback for an instant, then chuckled. “Oh, you heard about the teen version of show-and-tell, didn’t you?”

Annie nodded. “I hear it’s the talk of the town.”

“And you intend to rub it in,” he guessed.

“Just a little.”

“As long as you’re hanging out, anyway, you could take over his session and I could get home to Karen,” Elliott suggested slyly. “I hate having a wife I hardly ever see.”

“Don’t pull that pitiful act with me. I happen to know that Karen works at the restaurant on Saturday nights, anyway, so you’re not missing out on alone time with her.”

Elliott sighed dramatically. “What was I thinking, trying to put one over on her boss’s daughter?”

“I think you were just trying to throw me together with Ty,” she told him. “And it’s not going to work. All I want is a few minutes of gloating time, and then I’m out of here.”

Just then Ty appeared in the doorway. Clearly he’d overheard her remark, because there was a telltale blush on his cheeks. “I gather you heard.”

“I did. You’re now the poster boy for the young teen girls in Serenity. How does it feel?”

“Ridiculous,” he muttered.

“How much older do they need to be before it feels terrific?” she asked, unable to keep the bitter note out of her voice. “How old is the average major league groupie, anyway?”

Elliott backed out of the room. “That’s my cue to leave. Ty, I’m ready when you are.”

“Five minutes,” Ty replied tightly, his gaze never leaving Annie.

When Elliott was gone, he shut the door, then locked it for good measure. Annie began to get the idea that she might have pushed him too far.

“A lock won’t keep Elliott out if I scream,” she warned.

Ty just stared at her and shook his head, looking hurt and bemused. “What is wrong with you? You know that the women I was involved with were just that, women. You also know I would never lay a hand on you in anger. I get that you’re mad at me, but you’re crossing a line, Annie.”

She knew she was on shaky ground, but she stood up and stared him down, anyway. “You’re the one who crossed a line. You don’t get to act all self-righteous now.”

“I do if you’re going to hint around that there was anything improper in what I did. I betrayed you, Annie. I cheated on you. I have no defense for that, but it wasn’t ugly and you know it. You know
me
better than that.”

She flinched under his furious gaze. “Yes, I do,” she admitted, deflated. “I’m sorry. That was a low blow. I could hear the words coming out of my mouth, but I couldn’t seem to stop them.”

“How about this? How about I blow off my workout with Elliott and you and I go someplace and have this out once and for all. You can yell at me, call me names, make all the outrageous accusations that will make you feel better, and maybe then we can finally move on.”

She was shaking her head before he finished. “I won’t let it be that easy for you.”

“You want me to pay?”

She nodded. “I’m not sure what that says about me, but I do. I want you to hurt the way I hurt.”

He met her gaze, his expression weary. “Believe me, Annie, not a day goes by when I don’t feel that kind of pain. I know what I cost you, what I cost us. And I know there’s nobody to blame but myself. I’ll have to live with that the rest of my life.”

He was close enough to touch her cheek, a quick brush of his fingertip that left a trail of fire and a sea of longing. “Let me know if you ever change your mind and want to have that talk.”

Then, before she could respond, he walked out, not just out of her office, but out of the spa.

Elliott walked in and found her still standing there, tears tracking down her cheeks.

“What the hell did he do to you?”

“Nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing. You’re crying.”

“Because I didn’t think it was possible for things to get any worse between us,” she whispered. “And now they are.”

And for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine how they’d ever be right again.

“Helen, I’m not made of spun glass. You can drive a little faster,” Flo commented from the backseat of the rental car as they crossed the Florida-Georgia border. “Otherwise it’ll be midsummer by the time we get home.”

“Mother, I’m driving the speed limit,” Helen replied, gritting her teeth against the desire to say a whole lot more.

“Nobody drives the speed limit,” Flo scoffed. “There’s a five-mile-an-hour cushion before the cops will stop you.”

“Not in Georgia. These cops have a reputation for strictly enforcing the law. Why are we even arguing about this? I’m the one behind the wheel.”

“I just thought you’d be more anxious to get home,” Flo retorted.

“I am anxious, but I’d like to get there in one piece. Why don’t you rest for a while? Close your eyes. I’ll wake you when it’s time to stop for lunch.”

“We’ll have to do a drive-through,” her mother said. “I don’t know if I can get out of the car.”

“Sooner or later, you’re going to need to use a restroom. We’ll have to go inside then, so we might as well go to a regular restaurant.”

“Then how about Cracker Barrel?” Flo suggested at once. “I like that place. I can do a little shopping, maybe find something for Sarah Beth. They have real cute things in the gift shop.”