A Sweet Magnolias Novel

Raylene had been waging an internal battle against seeking help from the moment her friends had first mentioned it. It had probably been a ridiculous point of pride that she conquer this problem on her own. The truth was, though, that she obviously couldn’t. Whatever was going on was bigger than she was.

When she remained silent, trying to work up the courage to concede defeat and ask for help, Annie stepped in.

“Raylene, this is treatable,” Annie assured her. “You know that. I’ve shown you all the research I could find on the Internet. There’s a very good chance Dr. McDaniels can work with a physician to get you on the right combination of medicine to help, and maybe teach you some calming and relaxation techniques. Don’t let that horrific ex-husband of yours rob you of the rest of your life. Now that you’re free of him, you need to live every second to the absolute fullest. You need to meet someone new, someone who’s kind and gentle and treats you with the respect you deserve. We all want that for you.”

“And you think I’ll meet that kind of man in Serenity?” Raylene scoffed with some of the leftover snobbishness she’d been taught by her mother, a Charleston socialite who’d married a local man, then found herself stuck in Serenity and had chafed at every minute of her life here.

“I have,” Sarah reminded her, glancing over at Travis, who gave her a wink. “So have Annie and Jeanette. And look at the men in Maddie, Dana Sue and Helen’s lives. They’re all amazing. And, if you don’t mind my saying so, that highly educated blueblooded doctor you met in Charleston wasn’t exactly a catch, now was he?”

Raylene’s lips quirked despite the reminder of just how awful Paul Hammond had been.

“You have me there,” she admitted. “Although a man is the last thing on my mind at the moment, I will call Dr. McDaniels.” Because she’d made the promise at least a dozen times before, she knew it probably sounded empty now. “I mean it. I’ll do it this time, first thing in the morning. You can stand right by the phone and listen in, if you want to. I owe you that much for sticking by me despite what happened.”

“You’re not doing it for me,” Sarah corrected. “You’re doing it for yourself. You need to concentrate on that. And I don’t need to listen to the call, Raylene. If you make a promise, you’ll keep it.”

Raylene was grateful for the trust Sarah had in her word. She just wasn’t so sure she deserved either the trust or a future. That was one more aftereffect of living with a man who’d literally and figuratively beaten her into submission for way too long before she’d wised up and left. That it had taken her years, rather than minutes, would shame her forever. That it had cost her the baby she’d been carrying had left her with the kind of gut-wrenching guilt from which she couldn’t imagine ever recovering.

Even she recognized that she’d been punishing herself by locking herself away in this house. Paul might be serving his time in prison, but she’d been serving her self-imposed sentence right here. Even now, she wasn’t a hundred percent certain she deserved to have it end, but today the stakes of doing nothing had increased to a level she could no longer ignore.

2

Carter Rollins had taken one look at the woman standing on the front stoop at Sarah Price’s house the day before and labeled her some kind of expensively clad snob who thought she was too good to get her hands dirty. The fact that she’d been standing around, rather than looking for the missing boy, had grated on him. It had cemented his first impression that she was a selfish, overindulged, irresponsible female. If it had been up to him, he’d have found some way to charge her with child neglect on the spot.

Unfortunately, he’d learned a few things since moving to Serenity. It was a tight-knit, friendly community that stuck together. Unless he had the law very firmly on his side, it was best to handle things with that in mind.

WSER might not be the most powerful radio station in the state, or even in the region, but its owner, Travis McDonald, and star personality, Sarah Price, were local celebrities. He’d heard about their very public romance when he’d first arrived in town. Everybody in Serenity, it seemed, loved a love story. If Travis and Sarah intended to back up this woman, then there was very little Carter could do about it. And their protective attitude toward her yesterday had been as unmistakable as it was unfathomable.

The next time, though—if there was one—he wouldn’t hesitate to handle things differently, local politics be damned. He’d involve the child protective authorities in a heartbeat.

It was his job to protect people, especially innocent kids. Finding Tommy Price wandering alone several blocks from home had stirred his anger, so he didn’t much care who was on that babysitter’s side. Next time, he’d haul her in.

“Why do you look so grim?” his sister Carrie asked, eyeing him warily as he set an assortment of take-out boxes from the local Chinese restaurant on the kitchen table.

“Just a bad day,” he told his fifteen-year-old sister. One of these days, one of them—he, Carrie or his other sister, Mandy—was going to have to learn to cook. Beyond throwing meat, chicken or fish on a grill, he was pretty useless in the kitchen. Carrie had once excelled at baking chocolate-chip cookies from a package, though lately she’d refused to bake them for reasons beyond him. Mandy could make popcorn in the microwave and scramble eggs. When they’d moved and his hours had become more predictable, he’d vowed to change their pitiful culinary ineptitude, but so far, they mostly existed on takeout. Sadly, the variety in Serenity was pretty slim.

“You’ve had a lot of bad days since we moved to Serenity,” Mandy noted. She was the younger of the girls for whom he’d had full responsibility since their parents’ deaths two years ago. “Wasn’t that the whole point of moving here, so you’d be in a better mood? I have to tell you, big brother, I don’t think it’s working.”

Carter frowned at her interpretation of the decision he’d made to leave his police job in Columbia for a smaller community. “We’re here because this is a better environment for the two of you.”

“In other words, because it’s totally boring,” Carrie said, disdain in her voice. “You didn’t want us to have fun ever again.”

“No, I wanted you to be safe,” Carter countered, passing the kung pao chicken.

“Then how come you had a bad day?” Carrie persisted, scooping a tiny spoonful of rice onto her plate and adding a few of the vegetables from another container. It was barely enough to feed a bird, but Carter resisted pointing that out. His comments inevitably led to an argument.

“If it’s so safe, your days should be dull as dirt,” she added, her expression challenging.

He shook his head at her logic. “A little boy went missing this afternoon.”

Carrie immediately looked chagrined. “But you found him, right? And he was okay?”

“He was fine. He’d gone looking for the ice-cream truck.”

Carrie looked relieved. “So it all turned out okay,” she concluded. “You should be happy.”

“I’m just irritated that he got away from the woman who was supposed to be watching him in the first place,” he admitted.

Mandy gave him an incredulous look. “Oh, come on! You used to run away from home all the time. Mom and Dad told us. Mom said it’s why her hair turned gray.”

Carter winced. They were enough younger that he hadn’t realized they would know about his own adventures on the wild side when he was only a few years older than Tommy Price. “That was different,” he claimed.

“How?” Carrie asked. “You scared Mom and Dad to death, and you did it deliberately. It sounds as if this little boy just went on an innocent search for ice cream.”

“You’re missing the point. Anything could have happened to him.”

“Anything could have happened to you, too,” Carrie said. “Do you blame Mom and Dad for letting you sneak away?”

He saw he wasn’t going to win this argument. Truthfully, he very rarely came out on top with these two. They could twist him in knots faster than anyone else in his life. Worse, now that they were both in their teens, the dangers were even greater and his influence on them was still shaky. They were all still getting used to the idea that he was in charge, and not just a bossy big brother anymore.

“It was different,” he repeated. “I was older than this little boy. I could take care of myself.”

“You were six the first time you ran away,” Mandy corrected. “Dad said he followed you until it got dark. You finally got scared at some noise or a shadow or something and ran home.”

Carter scowled. “Did they tell you every stupid thing I ever did?”

Carrie grinned impudently. “No, they pretty much glossed over all the stuff you did with girls. We just know there were a lot of them.”

“Ancient history,” Carter said. And given how much trouble these two were likely to be, he couldn’t imagine having time for any kind of relationship of his own in the near future.

“Too bad,” Mandy commented, her expression thoughtful. “You might mellow out if you had a girlfriend. I hear not having sex is tough on guys.”

“We are so not discussing my sex life,” he declared emphatically, feeling heat climb into his cheeks. He supposed he should be grateful that the girls still thought they could say anything to him, but not if one of those topics was going to be his personal relationships…or lack thereof.

Carrie’s eyes brightened. “Hey, we could work on finding someone for you,” she suggested eagerly.

“I do not need you to pick out a woman for me,” he said, horrified by the thought. “I have enough on my plate right now, anyway, so just forget it, okay?”

Both girls shrugged.

“Whatever you say,” Mandy said. “But if you’re cranky all the time, don’t blame us.”

Carter shook his head. “Give it a rest. I am not cranky all the time.”

Carrie gave him a disbelieving look, then turned to her sister. “He’s in denial, right?”

“Lives there,” Mandy confirmed.

And then they were gone, leaving him to clean up their take-out meal and to wrestle with the possibility that his overall mood these days was less than cheery. Thinking about this afternoon’s events certainly wasn’t doing a thing to improve that, and something told him he was going to be lying awake all night wondering why that was. Was it really about what might have happened to Tommy Price? Or was it about the woman to whom he’d taken an instant dislike?

When morning rolled around and the girls had left for school, Carter reported for duty at the sheriff’s department, then told the dispatcher he was going to patrol in Serenity unless a call came in and he was needed elsewhere.

“You’re not doing a drive-by in Tommy Price’s neighborhood, are you?” Gayle Kincaid asked.

Carter frowned at her astute guesswork. “What makes you think that’s where I’m headed?”

“Because I’ve been in this job for thirty years, and I saw the way you looked when you got back here yesterday afternoon,” she told him. “Your eyes were as dark as any storm cloud I ever saw. Spotted a few flashes of lightning in there, too.”

“What did you expect? I found that boy blocks from home,” he said in his own defense. “Why wouldn’t I check to make sure someone’s keeping a closer eye on him today?”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but if you take every case to heart like this, you’ll burn out before you turn thirty, which as I recall is only a few months from now.”

“I’m just riding around a neighborhood,” he told her. “I don’t think we need to worry about my mental health just yet. Call me if you need me.”

“Will do,” she said. “By the way, Sarah Price has been singing your praises on the air this morning. I imagine you’re a real hero around town by now.”

Carter wondered how she’d feel about him if he decided he had to take some kind of action against her babysitter, but he left that unsaid.

A few minutes later, he was cruising past the little bungalow looking for any sign that something might be amiss this morning. He heard kids squealing with glee in the backyard and caught a glimpse of Tommy and his younger sister—Libby, as he recalled—swinging on a swing set, being pushed by someone unfamiliar. Not much more than a teenager, from the looks of it, but still it had to be an improvement over the alternative. For an instant, relief washed over him. Maybe Sarah Price had fired the irresponsible woman and hired someone new already. If so, his worries were over.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, though, the back door swung open and the other woman called out, “Breakfast’s ready.” She turned her head, spotted him, and Carter swore he saw the blood drain out of her face. The screen door immediately slammed shut.

He waited until the kids and the other woman went inside before driving off. He was more confused than ever now. The woman from the day before was still there, but what was her role beyond dressing up the scenery?

Once again, she’d been wearing a pair of slacks and a blouse that he’d bet his entire month’s salary had cost a fortune. Thanks to Carrie and Mandy, who were obsessed with designer fashion, he recognized pricey clothes when he saw them. He’d spent too many hours listening to tearful pleas from his sisters for the latest jeans or fancy shoes. They didn’t seem to understand just how tight money was since their parents had died with little savings and only a minimum amount of life insurance. Added together, it had been barely enough to cover funeral expenses. He refused to touch the money they’d put aside for the girls’ college education. Instead, he tried to add a little to it each month, which further eroded the amount he had for basic expenses.

Nor did Carrie or Mandy seem to care that he was woefully inept at the whole parenting role that had been thrust upon him at the age of twenty-seven. They rarely cut him a break of any kind, but that was another issue.

Thinking about the boatload of responsibility that he’d struggled with for the past couple of years made him even more annoyed at how the babysitter had just let Tommy take off yesterday afternoon. If someone was going to take on the job of looking after someone else’s kids, then by gosh, they ought to be focused on it and not sitting around in the kitchen reading fashion magazines, or whatever, while the kids ran wild and put themselves in danger. He’d turned his life upside down to take care of Carrie and Mandy, hadn’t he?

He still had half a mind to park the cruiser, barge inside and warn her that if her friend hadn’t been so nice, a child-negligence charge could have been brought against her. Maybe that would get her attention so she’d take the job seriously. Then, again, maybe watching the kids wasn’t her job. Maybe she was some flighty relative who was visiting temporarily. He realized he needed more evidence—scratch that, more information—before he put his job on the line by stirring up a ruckus.

He decided to give the matter some more thought over an early lunch at Wharton’s, which made the only decent burger in town, and at a price he could afford on his paltry deputy’s salary. Most days, he made himself peanut butter and jelly or bologna sandwiches, same as he did for the girls.

Half a dozen locals greeted him as he slid into the red vinyl booth. Mayor Lewis, whom he’d met making the rounds of local officials after taking the job, stopped by the table before he could even place his order.

“Heard what happened with Sarah’s boy yesterday. Glad it turned out okay,” the mayor said. “Nice work.”

“I got lucky. I spotted Tommy on the second street I canvassed,” Carter told him. He hesitated, then asked, “Mind telling me what you know about the woman who was supposed to be watching him?”

The mayor blinked in apparent confusion, then nodded. “Oh, right. The babysitter’s just out of high school and working for Sarah until she goes off to college. Laurie Jenkins. She’s a good girl.”

Carter shook his head. That must have been the woman he’d seen in the backyard this morning. “This was someone older, mid-twenties, I’d say, about the same age as Sarah.”

Howard’s expression brightened. “Ah, you must mean Raylene.”

“We didn’t meet, but I suppose that’s who it was. Tall, too thin, dark hair. Looks like she belongs in a fashion magazine.”

“That’s Raylene, all right,” the mayor confirmed. “She and Sarah Price go way back. She’s tight with Annie Townsend, too. Have you met her? She’s married to Ty Townsend, a local boy who pitches for the Braves.”

This wasn’t the first time Carter had noticed how much the mayor liked to talk once he got wound up. Usually the meandering chitchat got on his last nerve, but this time he found the topic fascinating. He waited for more, and Howard didn’t disappoint him.

“Those three girls—Raylene, Annie and Sarah, that is—were best friends from about the time they could walk,” the mayor continued. “Never saw one without the other. Raylene was living over in Charleston for a while. Married a highfalutin doctor, as I recall. Then there was trouble of some kind and she came back here. She’s been stayin’ with Sarah ever since. Doesn’t get out much from what I hear.”

“Is she actually living with them, then?” Carter asked, wondering why a woman who could afford that expensive wardrobe would be living in a little bungalow with a family that wasn’t her own. Maybe it had something to do with that trouble she’d been running from.

“Far as I know, she’s there permanently.” Howard Lewis regarded him with curiosity. “Haven’t seen much of her, but she used to be a pretty little thing. You interested?”

“Not a chance,” Carter said fiercely. “The only thing I care about is making sure she doesn’t let those kids go roaming around on their own again. Next time, things could turn out a whole lot worse.”

Howard frowned at his somber tone. “You feel that strongly about it, maybe you should have a talk with Travis. He’s about to become their stepdad, and he just now walked in the door.” He beckoned the man in question over to the booth. “You two musta met yesterday. Travis McDonald, Carter Rollins.” He stepped aside and gestured for Travis to sit. “I’ll leave you both to your meals.”

Presented with the opportunity, Carter laid out his concerns for the man seated opposite him. As he talked, though, Travis’s expression turned increasingly indignant.

“Nobody loves those kids or is more protective of them than Raylene,” he told Carter. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“She didn’t do much to keep Tommy safe yesterday afternoon, now, did she?” Carter said. “I didn’t see her combing the streets to find him. No, indeed, she stood right there on the front steps and waited for everyone else to get the job done.”

Travis leveled a hard look at him that gave him pause. “I thought folks in police work were supposed to wait till the evidence was in before jumping to conclusions.”

“I saw all the evidence I needed to see,” Carter insisted, refusing to back down. “It was plain as day what happened. She didn’t take her responsibility seriously, and Tommy wandered off and could have gotten himself run over or kidnapped or who knows what. I’d think you’d be as concerned about that as I am.”

Despite the dire picture Carter painted, Travis didn’t back down. “Did you notice that even after Tommy came home, Raylene never left that front stoop?”

“Probably too guilt-ridden,” Carter assessed, dismissing the odd behavior that, frankly, hadn’t struck him at the time as anything other than a complete lack of caring. “Or scared I was going to arrest her on the spot.”

“No, it’s because she couldn’t,” Travis said, heat in his voice. “She has something called agoraphobia, at least that’s what Sarah and Annie think. Hasn’t left the house but once or twice since she moved in and that was well over a year ago, after she arrived here all battered and bruised from her abusive husband. Just think about that for a minute, why don’t you?”

He leaned in closer to hammer his point home without raising his voice. “That front stoop is as far as Raylene can make herself go without having a full-blown panic attack. When she phoned me yesterday, right after calling the sheriff’s office, she’d made it to the sidewalk and was beside herself that she couldn’t take another step. In fact, she was so guilt-ridden, she wanted to move out so the kids would never be at risk again.”

“Maybe she should,” Carter said, though he was beginning to see another side to the story, one he wasn’t quite ready to believe.

Travis’s scowl deepened. “Not happening,” he said emphatically. “For the record, she’s not the babysitter. In fact, she’s the one who insisted we hire someone else to look after the kids because of her panic attacks. She was only alone with them yesterday because Laurie ran to the store for a few minutes.”

Carter had heard of that kind of phobia, but he’d never run across anyone who suffered from it. Agoraphobia had always struck him as some sort of psycho-babble explanation people used as an excuse to avoid things they didn’t want to do. Given how seriously Travis seemed to be taking it in Raylene’s case, maybe he’d been wrong.

Still regarding Travis with skepticism, he said, “Honest to God? You’re sure she’s got a real problem?”

Travis nodded, then slid out of the booth, leaving his menu untouched. Apparently he’d lost his appetite.

“Next time you might want to do a little more investigating before making judgments,” Travis suggested mildly. “People in this town don’t take kindly to newcomers talking trash about one of our own. If you’re going to do any good in this community, you’d do well to remember that.”

He walked away and left Carter feeling like a jerk. Okay, maybe he’d been well intentioned, but he sure as hell hadn’t been fully informed, just the way Travis said. It was a good lesson for him. To his surprise, he realized that even though he hadn’t made a single accusation to Raylene’s face, he felt as if he owed her an apology.

And one of these days, when he’d managed to swallow his pride, he’d have to deliver it in person.

Walter dropped by Sarah’s house on his lunch hour. He’d seen the guilt in Raylene’s eyes the day before, and it had gotten to him. He might not be the most sensitive guy on the face of the earth, but somehow he felt connected to her. They’d both been down some bumpy roads and were still struggling to find their way.

During all the time his relationship with Sarah and his kids had been on shaky ground, Raylene had bridged the gap. She’d talked to him in her frank, un-censored way and made him see his own flaws. If things were better now between him and his ex-wife, it was at least in part due to Raylene. He didn’t want to see her worrying herself sick over what had happened, and he knew, without a doubt, that she would be.

“Did you stop by to make sure the kids are safe?” she asked when he walked into the kitchen.

Walter frowned at her. “Never any question about that, and you know it. Now stop beating yourself up over what happened.”

She regarded him with surprise. “Sarah told me you weren’t mad at me, but I didn’t entirely believe her.”

“Didn’t I tell you the same thing when I was here last night?”

“I thought maybe you’d have second thoughts once you’d had time to reflect about what happened.”

“Well, I didn’t, which is exactly why I’m here again today. I wanted to be sure you knew I don’t blame you.” He grinned at her. “And since I’m giving up my lunch break to come over here, how about fixing me one of those fancy salads of yours? I’m gaining too much weight living on burgers from Wharton’s and pizza from Rosalina’s.”

“Isn’t it way past time for you to find your own place and fix your own lunches?” Raylene said, though she immediately pulled lettuce, tomatoes and other ingredients from the refrigerator. “Now that you know it’s going to work out selling ads for the radio station, it’s time, Walter. The kids need a real bedroom so they can spend the night with you. Nice as it is, the inn’s no place for them for more than an hour or two.”