A Slice Of Heaven. Sherryl Woods

streak kicked in.

      “Once Annie’s well, I’ll have to come by and try yours,” he said, taking a sip of orange juice. “I seem to recall they were pretty spectacular when you made them for us on holiday mornings.”

      “Don’t start dredging up ancient history, Ronnie,” she said. “I have no desire to stroll down memory lane with you.”

      “Okay, then, let’s talk about something more recent,” he said, looking directly into her eyes and removing the kid gloves with which he’d been treating her. “How the hell did Annie get into the shape she’s in?”

      “A lot of teenage girls have eating disorders,” Dana Sue said defensively.

      “I only care about our teenage daughter. How did things get this bad without your taking some kind of action?”

      Dana Sue dropped her fork and burst into tears. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I honestly don’t know. I thought I was on top of it. I fixed good food for her. She swore to me she was eating it. I guess I just didn’t want to believe she would lie to me about something so important.”

      Ronnie was too angry to allow himself to feel even a moment’s pity for her obvious anguish. “You were here. You had to know there was something wrong. Good God, she can’t even weigh ninety pounds.”

      Eyes blazing, Dana Sue glared right back at him. “Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I’ve asked myself a thousand times why I didn’t force the issue sooner? I did the best I could, Ronnie. I talked to her. The whole sleepover was supposed to give me some idea if she was doing this on her own or if her friends were just as obsessed with dieting as she was.”

      “Too little, too damn late!”

      “Don’t you dare blame all this on me!” she said. “Where were you?”

      He dismissed a momentary pang of guilt and retaliated with a barb of his own. “I was where you wanted me to be—gone.”

      “Because you cheated on me!” she said furiously. “And that’s what started this whole mess.”

      He stared at her incredulously. “You’re blaming Annie’s anorexia on me because I cheated on you?”

      “Yes, I am,” she said fiercely. “She convinced herself that if I’d been thin enough, you wouldn’t have cheated, so she decided to starve herself so she wouldn’t wind up alone like me.”

      “That’s absurd,” Ronnie declared. “Did she tell you that?”

      “Not in so many words, but it was right there every time she got on my case about my weight. She hated you for cheating on me, Ronnie, but she hated me just as much because she thought it was my fault.”

      Ronnie sank back in his chair and raked a hand over his head. It was an automatic gesture he hadn’t stopped even after he’d shaved his balding head. Some habits die hard.

      As Dana Sue watched him, her stark despair faded for just an instant. “I like the new look,” she said. “You still getting used to it?”

      Ronnie nodded. “I saw little point in pretending I wasn’t going bald, so I figured what the hell.”

      “It suits you. On you bald is very sexy.”

      “Really? That’s quite a compliment coming from you.”

      Her expression promptly closed down. “Don’t let it go to your bald head,” she said.

      “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he assured her.

      “Maybe we should limit our conversation to Annie,” Dana Sue suggested.

      “It would be safer turf,” he agreed. “Although you never used to take the safe route, sugar.”

      “I’ve changed,” she said tersely. “Let’s stick to what Annie needs.”

      Despite his desire to continue to spar with Dana Sue, if only to put some color in her cheeks, he sighed. “That poor kid,” he murmured. “I honestly thought she was doing okay. She sounded fine when we talked.” He glanced warily at Dana Sue. “You knew we’d been talking, right?”

      “I just found out a few days ago,” she admitted. “How long has it been going on?”

      “I started calling from the beginning.” He shrugged. “She hung up. A while back, maybe six months ago, she finally started talking. To be honest, I don’t think she wanted you to know.”

      “Then it wasn’t your idea that she keep it from me?”

      “No, of course not. I figured she’d know the best way to handle it.”

      “You left it up to a sixteen-year-old to decide whether to lie to her mother?”

      “Omit the truth,” he contradicted. “I wasn’t violating our agreement, Dana Sue. I’d had the right to talk to her and see her all along. If she didn’t say anything to you, it’s probably because she didn’t want to upset you.”

      Dana Sue regarded him with surprise, as if she hadn’t expected him to understand that. “You’re right,” she conceded with obvious reluctance. “I suppose on some level I needed to believe you didn’t give a damn about either of us anymore.”