A Sweet Magnolias Novel

“No catfish, so what are you having?”

“The meatloaf’s another favorite of mine,” he said.

She nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll have that,” she said and set the menu aside. “Now tell me what Misty said to you.”

He winced. “I can’t. Doctor-patient confidentiality. I can tell you it was enough to worry me. How about you?”

“She’s been skipping my class and one other.”

He frowned. “But not all of them?”

She shook her head. “No, it seems her math class and mine are the only ones.”

“What’s the connection?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. My gut’s telling me she has a problem with another student, and those are the only two classes they’re both in. I’ll compare notes with Dave Jamison to see if there’s a student who’s a common denominator, but I’d be very surprised if there aren’t several. Small school, and only one AP English class, though there are two of the AP math classes. Not all advanced placement kids excel at both, but many of them do.”

“So that’s not going to narrow it down by much, is it?” he said. “And you haven’t heard rumors about a problem with another student?”

“Cal’s more likely to hear the school gossip than I am,” she admitted. “But he hasn’t heard a word.”

“That’s not good,” J.C. said, his expression filled with unmistakable concern. “For Misty to reach out to me and want a note to get out of school, she’s on edge. I don’t like it.”

“Neither do I,” Laura admitted. “I insisted that she be in class on Monday morning. We’ll see. Something tells me she won’t be. If so, I’ll have no choice but to go to the principal.”

“And then?”

“She’ll be suspended,” Laura said, dismayed. “I was so hoping to avoid that. It’s one thing when a kid breaks the rules for no good reason, but I don’t think that’s true in this instance. I think there’s a real problem.”

“My gut’s telling me the same thing,” J.C. said. “I could speak to the principal with you, even be there if Misty’s called in. Maybe together we could convince the principal to hold off on suspension, try to find some other solution.”

“Have you met Betty Donovan?” Laura inquired. “She doesn’t bend the rules for anyone. I even have to say, I can’t blame her. The next thing you know, every student and parent would be coming up with excuses that they think justify missing classes, that their little darling deserves an exception.”

He smiled. “Definitely a slippery slope,” he agreed. “But right now, I’m only concerned about Misty. She has to be my top priority.”

When she looked into his eyes, she saw real worry there. The depth of his caring surprised—and impressed—her. Maybe a little too much. He was shattering all sorts of first impressions—mostly bad ones. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to start sounding almost human.

4

Going online was a little like being unable to look away from some awful accident you drove past on the highway, Misty thought as she clicked on the social-networking site that Annabelle used to post her latest slurs against Misty. Sure enough, there were more, and they were just as ugly as the ones she’d posted two nights ago and a week before that. Tears stung Misty’s eyes as she read them.

How on earth was she supposed to show her face at school at all? She knew that’s exactly what Annabelle was hoping, that she’d be so humiliated she’d drop out. She also wanted to tarnish Misty’s reputation so badly that it would make Greg look like an idiot if he kept asking her out.

What Annabelle didn’t get was that Greg apparently got turned on by the idea of dating the school’s biggest slut. These posts just made him more determined. He’d left half a dozen messages on her cell phone in the past week. She’d stopped answering and stopped listening to the messages. She just deleted them. She didn’t even tell Katie about Greg’s calls because she was afraid Katie would insist she keep them as some kind of evidence in case things got even nastier.

When she got to Wharton’s Friday night, she could tell from the sympathetic expression on Katie’s face that she’d seen the online posts.

“You looked, didn’t you?” Katie asked.

“So did you,” Misty accused, slipping into the booth.

She glanced around Wharton’s and breathed a sigh of relief. There was no one in here except a couple of older ladies—Frances Wingate, a retired teacher, and Liz Johnson, who was practically a legend in town—eating ice cream. She doubted they paid any attention to the social-networking sites online.

“What did your mom say when you told her you weren’t going to the game?” Misty asked Katie after they’d given their order for burgers and fries to the waitress.

“She was fine with it. I told her I was meeting you here and that I’d be home way before curfew.” She rolled her eyes. “These days that’s nine o’clock, if you can believe it. She probably would have made me leave the stupid game at halftime. She’s still punishing me for skipping school. The grounding ended last week, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a curfew till I leave for college.” She gave Misty a warning look. “Let that be a lesson to you.”

“You don’t get it,” Misty responded. “I’d love to be grounded. Suspension would be great, too.”

“You don’t mean that,” Katie protested. “Did you talk to Ms. Reed?”

Misty nodded. “It didn’t help. She just asked a bunch of questions I wouldn’t answer. If I’m not in class Monday morning, it’s all over. She made that pretty clear. She’ll tell Mrs. Donovan.”

“So, you’re coming to class, right?” Katie pressed.

Misty felt tears welling up in her eyes. “How can I?”

Katie looked alarmed. “Misty, you don’t have a choice. You’re probably out of second chances.”

“You saw those new posts online. I don’t want to show my face at school ever again. Maybe I should just drop out, maybe even run away.”

“No!” Katie said, looking shocked. “You can’t do that. You’d be letting Annabelle win.”

“She’s already won. She’s making my life miserable, which is exactly what she wants to do.”

“You could fight back,” Katie suggested. “She’s not the only one who can post online. Turn the tables on her.”

“A part of me would love to do that,” Misty admitted. “Payback sounds great, but you know I’d be the one who’d wind up in trouble. Annabelle would claim I started it.”

“But there’s proof that she did,” Katie insisted. “The posts are dated.”

Misty shook her head. “I can’t do it,” she repeated. “It would all come out. It would kill my mom and dad. I don’t want them to ever have to read that filth.”

Silence fell as the waitress returned with their food and their diet colas. Thankfully, Grace Wharton, who seemed to be everywhere at once and heard everything, was at the game tonight. This waitress was fairly new to town and barely said two words to the customers.

“Thanks for meeting me here tonight,” Misty said eventually. “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have at least one friend I could talk to about this.”

“You have plenty of friends,” Katie reminded her. “They’re all just waiting for a signal from you that you want them around.”

“I guess,” Misty said. She couldn’t help wondering, though, if real friends would have been waiting for some sign from her. Katie hadn’t. She’d been in her face, outraged on her behalf, from the moment the first post had gone up online. If anyone else had reached out, maybe she wouldn’t be feeling so isolated and alone. She had a hunch even the people who claimed to be on her side were wondering if what Annabelle was posting was true.

“What are you going to do this weekend?” Katie asked.

“Hang out at home, do my homework, nothing special,” Misty said with a shrug.

“There’s a fall festival close by. We could go to that. We probably wouldn’t see anyone from here.”

“How would we get there? Neither of us has a car.”

“But Kyle’s home and he does. I’ll bet I could talk him into taking us.”

Misty shook her head. She’d always had a secret crush on Kyle. She knew he wasn’t half as hot as Katie’s other brother, the sports superstar, but he was cute and smart and sweet. She was terrified someone in town would blab to him about the posts online, and he’d be totally disgusted with her. “No way,” she told Katie.

“Okay, then you could come to my house for a sleepover tomorrow night,” Katie suggested. “Mom wouldn’t mind.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think so,” Misty said. “Your stepdad knows about me skipping class. You said so yourself. I don’t want him to start asking questions.”

“Well, you can’t spend the whole weekend stuck at home all alone,” Katie protested. “How about I come over to your house? We could make popcorn and watch a bunch of romantic comedies.”

“Absolutely not,” Misty said, then blushed. “I didn’t mean that like it sounded, like I don’t want you there. It’s just my mom and dad. If they’re in the same room, they fight. You don’t want to be in the middle of that. Heck, I don’t want to be in the middle of that.”

“We could take our books and go study by the lake,” Katie suggested, clearly determined to be Misty’s social director. “That could be fun.”

Misty shook her head. “We might run into other kids from school.” She gave Katie a look filled with regret. “I’m sorry I’m such a downer. I know it’s no fun being around me right now.”

“You’re my friend, no matter what kind of mood you’re in,” Katie said loyally. “I learned all about what it means to be a good friend by watching my mom, Dana Sue and Helen. They were way younger than us when they first got to be friends, and they were our age when they started calling themselves the Sweet Magnolias. To this day nobody hurts one of them without answering to the others. I figure you and I are going to be just like that our whole lives.”

Katie held up a hand, and after a few seconds, Misty actually managed a watery smile and gave her the expected high five. Maybe her life didn’t totally suck, after all.

* * *

“Where’s Katie tonight?” Dana Sue Sullivan asked as she and Ronnie joined Maddie, Cal and the kids in bleachers at the high school.

“She met her friend Misty at Wharton’s for a burger,” Maddie replied.

Dana Sue regarded her with surprise. “I thought family football nights were a command performance, especially these days.”

Maddie shrugged. “Cal has me convinced that Misty needs a friend right now, and Katie’s apparently appointed herself to that role.”

“Leave it alone,” Cal murmured from beside Maddie.

Dana Sue studied her two friends, who rarely showed any signs of dissension, at least in public. “What am I missing?” she asked.

Ronnie gave her a warning look. “Did you not just hear Cal indicate we all need to stay out of this?”

Dana Sue cast a dismissive look at both men. “When a teenage girl is in some kind of trouble, I’m sorry if my antennae go up. Since we almost lost Annie to anorexia, you’ll have to pardon me if I’m concerned.”

Cal leaned across his wife and lowered his voice. “Not the place or the time, okay? This doesn’t involve an eating disorder, I can tell you that much.”

Just then the play-by-play announcer introduced Annabelle Litchfield, who was going to sing the national anthem.

“Now, there’s a girl who looks as if she has an eating disorder,” Dana Sue murmured. “I hope Mariah is paying close attention to her.”

Maddie smiled. “I think you can count on that. Mariah is counting on Annabelle taking them to the top of the country charts in Nashville with that voice of hers. She still hasn’t stopped talking about the American Idol judges who didn’t give her a pass for Hollywood. She complains to everyone who’ll listen that they must be tone-deaf. That won’t stop her from pushing Annabelle front and center for the next auditions.”

“I almost feel sorry for Annabelle,” Dana Sue said. “That’s a lot of pressure for a kid. And you know why Mariah’s doing it, don’t you? It’s all because she lost her own big shot at stardom when she got pregnant with Annabelle and had to get married. Now she’s living vicariously through her daughter.”

Cal gave her a wry look. “Maybe Mariah is pushing her for her own selfish reasons, but I don’t think you need to feel bad for Annabelle. She has more than her share of self-confidence. It’s a little unnerving, actually, to watch all the kids at school circle around her like she’s some diva with an entourage. I worry sometimes what will happen to her if that big break never materializes.”

“Oh, it will materialize,” Ronnie said. “Mariah’s the kind of woman for whom failure’s not an option. Not for her little girl. I’m not sure how Don Litchfield puts up with her.”

Dana Sue shuddered. “I still say that’s way too much pressure.”

“I’m with you,” Maddie said. “I saw my share of that kind of early adulation with Ty, when he was pitching right here at Serenity High and the pro scouts were hanging around.”

“Not the same at all,” Cal said. “Not only was Ty the real deal, but you raised him to be a grounded kid. The proof of that is how well he’s done as a pro.”

“Not without his share of mistakes,” Dana Sue commented, thinking of the way he’d nearly lost Annie by cheating on her before they were married. She squeezed Maddie’s hand. “All in the past, though. He couldn’t be a better husband and father now. My daughter’s a lucky young woman.”

“How on earth did we get so far off track, when there’s a game already started on the field?” Maddie said. “Aren’t we here for the football?”

Kyle leaned past Cal. “Since when, Mom? You know you’re going to hear about every play again at breakfast. You could sleep through the actual game.”

Maddie regarded him indignantly. “As if,” she huffed. “I’m a fan.”

Kyle’s grin only spread. “Any idea what an I-formation is? Or where the tailback plays?”

As the others chuckled, Maddie regarded her son with a dismayed expression. “Did I raise you to have such a smart mouth?”

“You did,” Kyle confirmed. “You always told me I was hilarious.”

Maddie sighed. “Well, I was mistaken. You’re just annoying.”

Dana Sue grinned. So did Cal, though he tried really hard to hide it. Maddie caught him and scowled. “You, too?”

Cal held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Time for hot dogs. Who wants one?”

A chorus greeted the question, and he and Ronnie took off for the relative safety of the refreshment stands.

Dana Sue leaned closer to her friend. “Now you can tell me the real scoop about what’s going on with Misty and Katie.”

Maddie just gave her a weary look. “I wish I knew. I just know Cal’s worried, and that’s never good.”

“Anything we should try to do to help?” Dana Sue asked.

Maddie shook her head. “If I think of anything, I’ll let you know. From what I know, Misty’s the one in real trouble. I just don’t want it rubbing off on Katie. She’s already had enough problems at school this year.”

“Hey, we survived all the mistakes we made at that age,” Dana Sue consoled her. “Katie will, too.”

Maddie still looked unconvinced. “I hope you’re right. I really do.”

Dana Sue grinned. “Since we have no solutions for that, how about some hot gossip to chew on? You’ll never guess who was having dinner at Sullivan’s just now when I left.”

“Who?”

“J. C. Fullerton and Laura Reed, the self-professed bachelor and the introvert teacher. Want to know the best part? They were actually laughing.”

“Holy mackerel,” Maddie said, obviously impressed. “J.C. is cute as can be, but this is the first I’ve heard of him going out with anyone in town. Even Bill’s mentioned what a hermit he’s been since he moved here. And Laura? She’s absolutely lovely, but awfully quiet. Who would have imagined the two of them hitting it off?”

“All I know is what I saw with my own eyes,” Dana Sue said. “They had their heads together and looked to me as if they were deep in conversation. I imagine it’ll be tomorrow’s headline at Wharton’s. Everyone in the place was grabbing for a cell phone to make a call.”

Maddie chuckled. “You gotta love the Serenity grapevine.”

“At least as long as you’re not the hot topic on it,” Dana Sue agreed. “We’ve both been there, done that.”

“Amen, sister!” Maddie said, just as the men returned with food and drinks.

Cal regarded them suspiciously. “Do we even want to know what you two had your heads together about?”

“I doubt it,” Dana Sue said breezily. “You macho men never give two hoots about girl talk.”

“I can always fill you in,” Kyle said, giving them a wicked grin. “They forgot all about me being right here. They were never that careless when I was a kid. All Katie, Ty and I ever heard around the house when the Sweet Magnolias got together was ‘little pitchers have big ears.’ We missed all the good stuff.”

“What’s it going to cost for you to pretend you didn’t hear any of this?” Dana Sue inquired.

Kyle’s smile spread. “I could use a coupon for dinner at Sullivan’s. I have a hot date tomorrow night.”

“Don’t you dare!” Maddie said to Dana Sue. “I will not have one of my children blackmailing you.” She whirled on Kyle. “As for you, you’re not too old for me to ground you.”

“Mom, I don’t live at home anymore,” he reminded her patiently. “I can always head back to college.”

Maddie buried her face in her hands. “What ever made me think that parenting would get easier with experience?”

Cal draped a comforting arm over her shoulders. “You were delusional, all right.”

She turned an accusing look on him. “And just when I had three almost grown and out of the house, thanks to you I have two more little ones.”

Cal laughed. “How can you complain when creating them was so much fun?”

Maddie shook her head. “Let’s have this conversation again when they hit their teens.”

“The teens,” Ronnie said, nodding knowingly.

“Oh, don’t even try to sound like you suffered through those years,” Dana Sue said. “We were divorced most of the time when Annie was a teenager and you weren’t even living here in Serenity.”

Ronnie winced. “Probably best not to revisit that time right now. Sorry.”

She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “It’s okay. I’ve forgiven you. Mostly, anyway.”

But an occasional reminder of that awful time did wonders to keep their marriage on track these days. Just like Maddie and Helen, she found herself counting her blessings when it came to love. Who could have imagined it would take the drastic step of a divorce to get her and Ronnie to such an incredible place?

* * *

J.C. glanced surreptitiously at his watch and realized that the football game at the high school would already be well under way. He enjoyed stopping by the games. The whole community usually attended, and he liked feeling a part of things. He should have noticed the time when Sullivan’s had started emptying out a half hour ago.

“Am I keeping you from something?” Laura asked, studying him with concern. “I’m so sorry. It never occurred to me that you might have other plans. It’s a Friday night. Of course you do.”

He smiled, enjoying the flustered rise of color in her cheeks. “I mentioned before we came that I’d planned to stop by the game. You said you were planning on going, as well. I lost track of the time and just now realized it’s probably started.”

She looked even more nonplussed. “Oh, my gosh, we did talk about that. I need to make a call. The other teachers will wonder what on earth has happened to me.”

“Why don’t we drive over together? It’ll be faster than going back to my office for your car.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Of course not.”

He quickly paid the check, then led the way to his car, which he’d wisely parked on the street, rather than in the crowded lot. Now that lot was almost empty.

Ten minutes later he found a parking space a block from the field. As soon as they got out, he could hear the shouts of the crowd and smell the aroma of popcorn.

“Sounds to me as if we just missed a great play,” he said, as he helped Laura out of the car.

“Are you a big football fan?”

“Big enough,” he said. “I played a couple of years in college, but it was tough to do that and keep my grades high enough in premed. Since I knew I’d never go pro, I dropped off the team. Let me tell you, it put a crimp in my social life.”

She studied him curiously. “Then you weren’t always averse to dating?”

“Not always,” he said, leaving it at that.

“There’s a story there,” she said, holding his gaze. “Maybe you’ll tell me sometime.”

“Maybe,” he said, evasively. Surprisingly, though, the thought of revealing that time of his life didn’t seem as depressing as it usually did. The best thing about moving to Serenity had been the fact that not a soul in town knew a thing about his marriage to his childhood sweetheart or how it had blown up in his face.

When he’d paid for his ticket and Laura had shown her pass, they walked into the stadium just in time for the Serenity team to score a touchdown on a pass from quarterback Greg Bennett.

“That kid has an incredible arm,” he commented.

Laura nodded, but there was something in her expression that suggested she wasn’t half as impressed with him as J.C. was.

“You don’t like him,” he said intuitively.

“He’s a good player,” she said carefully.

“But you don’t like him,” he repeated. “Why?”

She hesitated, then said, “If you really want the truth, he has a massive ego and I’ve seen the careless way he treats the girls at school. It’s a bad combination.”

J.C. nodded. “I don’t really know him personally. He’s Bill’s patient. All I know is what I see on the field.”

“Lucky you,” she said, then winced. “What is wrong with me? I’m not usually so indiscreet when it comes to students.”

“I think we’re past worrying about being careful with each other. If we’re going to get to the bottom of what’s happening with Misty, we need to trust each other enough to speak frankly.”

“But one thing has nothing to do with the other,” she said.

J.C. hesitated. It was a shot in the dark, but it was something worth considering. “You sure about that? You just said Greg’s careless with the girls he dates. Could Misty be one of them?”

She shook her head at once. “I’d say she has better sense, but at that age, who knows? The problem with your theory, though, is that he’s not in either of the classes she’s been skipping. And the word around school is that he’s seeing Annabelle Litchfield.”

“Oh, well, it was a thought.”

“And not a bad one,” she said, then caught sight of her friends who were waving from the stands. “I see the other teachers. I should join them. If you’re not meeting anyone, you could come along.”

“And stir up even more talk?” he asked, grinning at her.

She smiled back at him. “That ship sailed long ago. First Sullivan’s and then we walked in here together. Haven’t you noticed that since the touchdown more eyes are on us than on the field? I can’t imagine having you sit in the bleachers with a bunch of women would make anything worse.”

“All women? Where are the men?”

“Sitting with their wives,” she said. “There’s not a bachelor on the faculty. Trust me, you’ll feel like a king.”

He laughed. “How can I possibly resist that? Lead the way.”

They climbed up to the top row, where three women moved over to make room for them. He already knew all of them, at least by sight.

“You sly girl,” Nancy Logan said in what was meant to be a whisper but was easily overheard. “How’d you snag the hottie?”

Laura blushed furiously. “I haven’t snagged anyone. J.C. and I were just having a quick bite to eat and realized it had gotten late and we both had plans to be at the game.”

“So you had dinner and then you came to the game together,” Nancy said, her grin spreading. “In my world that sounds a lot like a date.”

“Mine, too,” the others echoed.

J.C. saw that their teasing had Laura even more flustered. He leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Don’t panic. I can handle the talk, if you can.”