Honeysuckle Summer

“They are if you start thinking those kinds of events are the most important things in life,” Raylene said. “I was so determined to make my mother and grandparents happy, I forgot what mattered to me. And let’s not forget that was the night I met Paul Hammond and sealed my fate with that louse.”

Paul had been older, a medical student, in fact, but he’d come to the party as a date for a plain Jane cousin whose partner had bailed on her. He’d spent the entire evening flirting with Raylene, whose own dull date was the grandson of friends of her grandparents.

By the end of the evening she’d been smitten, and despite the difference in ages, her grandparents and even her mother had encouraged the match. Her father had clearly disapproved, but he hadn’t gone against his wife’s wishes. She and Paul had married soon after she turned eighteen, while he was serving his medical internship.

The stress of his demanding training had been the excuse for all the times he’d lost his temper with her. After a while he hadn’t bothered with excuses for what began as verbal attacks and escalated over time into more violent behavior.

The marriage had been a horror show, all the more terrifying because on the few occasions when she’d tried to tell her mother what was happening, her fears had been dismissed. She’d been told she was overreacting, and that all marriages hit rough patches. Too many times she’d been reminded of all the advantages that would come with being married to a successful doctor from a prominent Charleston family. Her relationship with her mother had been permanently damaged by Raylene’s discovery that she couldn’t count on her mother when it mattered.

Not wanting to dwell in the past, Raylene shook off the memories and took another sip of her margarita. “Let’s not go there,” she said as the others nodded readily and lifted their glasses.

“I propose a toast to Raylene and a brighter future,” Sarah said. “Do you mind if I tell them about tomorrow?”

“What’s happening tomorrow?” Helen asked.

“Dr. McDaniels is coming here to determine if I have a panic disorder of some kind that keeps me from leaving the house,” Raylene told them. “I guess we’ll find out if I’m nuts or just lazy.”

“You’re not either one,” Sarah said fiercely. “Stop saying things like that.”

“I agree,” Dana Sue said, crossing the room to give Raylene a hug. “I’m so glad you’re finally seeing her. She was a godsend to Annie, wasn’t she, sweetie?”

Annie nodded. “I’d probably be dead if not for her. I still rely on her guidance from time to time when I get scared that I’m falling into my old eating pattern. Fortunately, right now, I seem to be eating all the time. And nursing Meg seems to keep me from gaining an ounce.”

Any mention of Annie’s baby was enough to make Raylene feel a deep sense of sorrow for the baby she’d lost. Even though she’d only been in her first trimester, the baby had already been real to her. When she’d started bleeding and had miscarried just days after one of Paul’s beatings, it had been worse than anything else she’d suffered at his hands. The only blessing that had come from that awful tragedy was that she’d finally found the strength to leave him and end her marriage.

Annie gave her hand a squeeze, her expression sympathetic. Though Raylene had never mentioned losing her child to Annie, she knew Sarah had probably told her. It was one secret she was relieved not to have to talk about herself.

“Your turn will come,” Annie whispered. “I know it.”

Raylene regarded her sadly. “I’m just glad to be here with friends. I don’t need miracles.”

“But you deserve one,” Annie insisted. “And something tells me one is just around the corner.”

When Raylene saw the sheriff’s cruiser pull to a stop in front of the house, her heart climbed into her throat. She thought of Annie’s words the night before and had to choke back a laugh. Surely this wasn’t the miracle Annie had had in mind for her. She knew what the man now identified as Carter Rollins thought of her. Travis had told Sarah of their conversation, and Sarah, fit to be tied, had told Raylene after last night’s Sweet Magnolias gathering.

She watched as he crossed the front lawn with long strides and a look of purpose on his face. Was it possible he’d found some crime with which to charge her? Could he do that without Travis and Sarah wanting him to? She barely resisted the desire to grab the phone and call Helen for advice before opening the door to him.

Instead, though, she stood tall and waited. One thing she knew all too well was how to put on a facade when she was feeling scared or out of her element. She’d put on more shows in public during her pitiful marriage than any actress in a Broadway production. The minute the doorbell rang, she swung open the door and offered him her brightest smile.

“Deputy Rollins, I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon. Did you stop by to check on Tommy and Libby?” she asked, seizing the initiative. “They’re taking their naps right now. I can assure you they’re in their beds, right where they belong. Laurie, the babysitter, is in the den.” She leveled a knowing look directly into his eyes. “Feel free to check if you don’t believe me.”

To his credit, he flushed ever so slightly. He removed his sunglasses, revealing hazel eyes with emerald flecks. He fiddled nervously with the glasses. “Actually I was around the corner on a call and thought I’d come by to offer you the apology I think I owe you.”

“Oh?”

“I misjudged you the other day,” he admitted, looking uncomfortable.

“Did you really?”

His lips twitched a little at her response. “I’m sure you know all about it, because Mr. McDonald was pretty indignant on your behalf.”

“He might have mentioned something about a conversation the two of you had, though he told his wife, not me,” she admitted. “Sarah filled me in.”

He nodded. “I had a feeling it would work something like that, Serenity being the kind of town it is. As Mr. McDonald informed me, folks here look after their own.”

“We certainly try to,” she agreed. She decided he’d squirmed enough and let her ingrained manners kick in. Southern women were always ready to offer a cool drink, if not an entire spread of food, at a moment’s notice. “Could I offer you some coffee? Maybe a glass of lemonade or some sweet tea? It’s another scorcher out there today. There are cookies, too, if the kids haven’t gotten to them today.”

He looked a bit startled by the invitation. “You sure?”

She gave him a thoughtful survey that brought more color to his cheeks. “Well, despite the fact that you’re wearing a gun, you don’t look all that dangerous to me, so yes, I’m sure.”

“I just thought maybe me being a stranger would make you nervous.”

“It’s not people who terrify me,” she found herself saying. “It’s everything outside this house.” She gave him a wry look. “Crazy, isn’t it, since I grew up in this town and all my problems were over in Charleston.”

“What kind of problems, if you don’t mind me asking? Travis said something about domestic violence.”

Raylene hesitated. Her disastrous marriage wasn’t something she liked to talk about to anyone, much less a stranger. If he knew about the abuse, he knew more than enough.

“It’s in the past, and I don’t like to talk about it,” she said. “Now, about that coffee, are you interested?”

“The lemonade sounds better,” he said, then followed her inside.

In the kitchen, she gestured for him to take a seat, then poured two tall glasses of lemonade over ice and handed one to him. She put an assortment of chocolate-chip and oatmeal cookies on a plate and set it on the table, then took a seat herself. Only a trained observer might notice that she sat on the edge of the chair and a safe distance away, rather than relaxing. She had a hunch that Carter noticed.

Calling on her once-instinctive social graces, she said, “Are you new to Serenity? I know you weren’t in school with us, and you seem to be about the same age.”

“I moved here a few months ago when I hired on as a deputy. It seemed like a good place to raise kids.”

His response surprised her. She’d automatically checked for a wedding band and there hadn’t been one. Of course, as she knew all too well from her philandering ex-husband, some men were adept at hiding rings when it suited their purposes. Or he could be divorced or even a widower.

“How many children do you have?” she asked.

“None of my own, but my two younger sisters are living with me. They’re fourteen and almost sixteen. Our parents died a couple of years back. We stuck it out in Columbia for a while, but I liked the idea of a small town. When a job opened up here this spring, I grabbed it. I’m hoping they’ll get in less trouble here than they might have in the city.”

Raylene chuckled, thinking of some of the mischief she, Annie and Sarah had gotten into as teenagers. “Trust me, if girls want to get into trouble, they can do it anywhere.”

He regarded her with an impudent grin. “Do tell. Just what kind of trouble did you get yourself into? If I go into the computer, will I find a dark criminal past?”

“Hardly,” she said, then grinned. “We were far too clever to get caught.”

“Really?”

She thought back over her high school years and chose one of many incidents. “Really. For instance, there was one memorable slumber party when we let boys sneak in,” she confided. “Annie’s mom, Dana Sue Sullivan…” Her voice trailed off.

“The owner of the restaurant,” he guessed.

“Exactly. She about had a fit over that one. Of course, the fact that Annie collapsed that night and wound up in the hospital pretty much trumped whatever trouble we probably would have gotten in over inviting the boys to the party.”