“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she grumbled, but jotted it down.
“Very good,” Dana Sue said. “Now I really do have to get ready for work, you guys. I promise I’ll work on my goals today and we can compare notes tomorrow, okay?”
“I suppose it will have to do,” Helen said reluctantly. “I’m due at the office in a few minutes myself. I have a new client coming in for a consultation.”
Dana Sue walked the two of them to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” she promised.
They’d already stepped outside when Maddie turned back. “I don’t suppose you had time to talk to Annie about a sleepover, did you?”
“No, but last night we did have one of the best conversations we’ve had in a long time. I’ll bring up the sleepover thing when I see her tonight.”
“Don’t put it off,” Maddie stressed.
“I won’t.” Not only was it important, but as Dana Sue already knew, her two best friends would hound her until she did it. It would be easier just to get it over with.
“Mom, that is so lame,” Annie declared when her mother came up with this crazy sleepover idea. “I mean, how old do you think I am—six?”
“When I was your age, girls got together all the time. We ate pizza and popcorn, experimented with makeup and talked about boys.”
“You and Maddie and Helen?” Annie guessed.
“And a few others,” her mom said. “It was fun.”
“What about boys?” Annie asked.
“We talked about them,” her mother said, looking faintly puzzled.
“I mean, could I have boys over, too?”
“You mean for a couple of hours?” her mother asked.
“No, for the whole sleepover. We’d play music, dance, whatever. It would be really cool.”
“Not a chance! Not under my roof, anyway,” her mom said, as if Annie had suggested some kind of orgy or something. “Are you crazy? That’s just asking for trouble.”
“Mom, it’s not like we’d do anything. You’d be right here.”
“I don’t care. It’s a terrible idea. I can’t imagine the other parents would go along with it.”
Annie studied her mother speculatively. Ever since her dad had left, her mom could be talked into a lot of things if Annie played her cards right. “What if the other parents said okay?” she coaxed. “Would you let us do it then?”
“Absolutely not,” her mother said, holding firm.
“Then forget it! I don’t want to spend the night with a bunch of girls. Like I said, it’s totally lame.”
Now it was her mother’s turn to give her an odd, curious look. “When you went to Sarah’s a couple of weeks ago, were there boys there that night?”
Oops! Annie thought. No one was supposed to find out about that. No parents, anyway. “Of course not,” she lied.
“I will find out if you’re not telling me the truth,” her mother warned.
Annie just rolled her eyes. Her mom was clueless. There were at least a dozen things she’d done that her mom would flip out about if she ever found out about them.
“Don’t give me that look,” her mother said. “I can make a few calls and your goose will be cooked.”
“Not likely,” Annie said. She couldn’t think of a single soul who’d blab. Just in case, though, she probably ought to get her mother off on another track. “Maybe having Sarah over would be okay. And Raylene,” she added. “But that’s it.”
“Friday night,” her mom suggested, looking pleased. “And if you decide to ask a few more girls, it would be okay.”
Perfect, Annie thought. Her mom never got home from the restaurant before midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. If the guys stopped by, she just had to get them out the door by eleven forty-five. And if she could convince Ty to be one of those guys, even if she got caught, maybe her mom would think of Ty as a chaperone or something. Even though Annie didn’t think of him that way, her mom always said she was lucky to have him as kind of a surrogate big brother. As if, Annie thought.
She gave her mother an impulsive hug, noting once again that she’d probably gained another five pounds just since she’d opened the spa with Maddie and Helen. It wasn’t a very good recommendation for the place, in Annie’s opinion.
“Mom, I thought you were going on a diet,” she said accusingly.
“I am on a diet, but at my age it’s harder to lose weight,” her mom said, immediately on the defensive, which was where Annie liked her to be.
“I thought that’s why you guys opened that gym, so you could exercise and kick your metabolism back into gear. I’ll bet you don’t even spend ten minutes a day on the treadmill there, do you?”
“I do when I can,” she responded, her expression tense.
“Well, if you don’t lose it, you’re going to get sick and die like Grandma,” Annie said. “And I will not go and live with Dad.” She said it matter-of-factly, but the truth was the possibility terrified her—not of getting to be with her dad, but of her mom dying.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” she answered. “I have no intention of dying anytime soon, and we don’t even know where your father is.”
“I know,” Annie blurted without thinking. “He’s working down in Beaufort and living in some dump.”
Her mom looked stunned. “How do you know that? He sends his support checks through his attorney.”
Seeing the dismay on her mother’s face, Annie immediately felt guilty for keeping her dad’s calls a secret. “He’s phoned once or twice,” she admitted, unwilling to say it had been that many times just in the past couple of weeks. It wasn’t like her mom had ever said she couldn’t talk to him, or even see him if she wanted to. But initially Annie had made such a big deal about not taking his calls or visiting him that she hadn’t wanted to admit it when she’d finally started talking to him. It would have felt as if she were betraying her mom.
“When?”
“While you’re at work. He calls me on my cell phone, mostly.”
“I see,” her mother said, looking suddenly weary.
Annie could tell she wanted to say more, but she just turned and left the room…probably to get something to eat, if Annie knew anything about her. That was exactly why Annie had kept the calls a secret.
“I swear to God, if I could have gotten my hands on Ronnie right that second, I would have strangled him on the spot,” Dana Sue declared to Maddie the next morning in the gym. “I know I’m being ridiculous, that Annie has a right to talk to her dad, but I know he talked her into keeping it a secret.”
“Are you sure about that?” Maddie asked. “Maybe Annie was afraid it would hurt you to know they were talking again.”
Dana Sue scowled. “So now my own daughter’s afraid to be honest with me? Isn’t that great. Just one more giant gap between us. And before you ask, no, I have not set my goals. I was too furious to sit down and think about it last night, and I came straight here first thing this morning. You might as well call Helen and tell her, because I’m not up to her bullying me about it.”
“You need to work off some of that anger,” Maddie said, her