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enjoy going.”
    “Me, too,” Dana Sue said. “If I own a place like this, though, I’ll have to stay in shape. I’ll be happy. Doc Marshall will be happy. Even my daughter will stop commenting about the bulge around my middle.”
    “You do not have a bulge around your middle,” Maddie said indignantly. “That’s ridiculous!”
    “Compared to my daughter, I’m downright obese,” Dana Sue insisted. “To tell you the truth, I think Annie’s taking thewhole dieting thing to extremes, but every time I try to talk to her about it, she freaks out. And I can’t get her near a scale to prove my point.”
    Helen regarded her with alarm. “You don’t think she’s anorexic, do you? Lots of teenage girls are, you know.”
    “The idea scares me to death,” Dana Sue admitted. “I watch her like a hawk to see what she’s putting in her mouth, and she seems to eat okay. Maybe she’s just burning it all up. Some people are just plain lucky to have high metabolisms.”
    Helen exchanged a worried look with Maddie.
    “Dana Sue, don’t ignore this,” Maddie said gently. “It can be really dangerous.”
    “Don’t you think I know that?” Dana Sue snapped in a rare display of temper that proved just how worried she was. “I was there when Megan Hartwell collapsed at the prom, same as you. She nearly died, for goodness’ sake.”
    Maddie backed off. That night had been one none of them would ever forget. It was the first time they’d seen what an eating disorder could do to someone their age. Heck, back then no one had even acknowledged there was such a thing as an eating disorder. Before that, Megan Hartwell’s dieting obsession had just been a joke among them. If Dana Sue’s daughter did have a problem, surely Dana Sue would recognize it and deal with it without Maddie or anyone else nagging her.
    “Sorry,” she apologized.
    Dana Sue gave her a hug. “No, I’m sorry for biting your head off.”
    “Okay, let’s try to focus on this place,” Helen said briskly. “Maddie, now that you’ve seen it, what do you think?”
    “I think it’s a very ambitious plan,” she said cautiously.
    “Not for us,” Dana Sue said. “We can do anything we setour minds to. We are, after all, the Sweet Magnolias. Everyone at Serenity High knew we were destined to succeed. They said so in our yearbooks.”
    “They also said we were most likely to raise a ruckus and land in jail,” Maddie said.
    Helen grinned. “Okay, so it was a toss-up. But we’ve all stayed on the straight and narrow. And we have succeeded.”
    Dana Sue nodded. “Pretty much.”
    “Maybe you two can claim success,” Maddie said. “Helen not only made it through law school, but she’s built an incredible practice all over the state. Dana Sue, you’ve created a restaurant that’s as good as anything in Charleston, and that’s saying something. What have I ever done?”
    “You put your worthless hubby through med school, managed a home and raised three great kids. That’s nothing to sneeze at,” Helen said.
    “I just don’t know,” Maddie said. “This would be a huge time commitment and I really need to pay attention to the kids right now. They need me.”
    “We know that. We probably understand your priorities better than any other boss would,” Dana Sue told her.
    Maddie knew that was true, but she still wasn’t ready to say yes. There was one significant consideration she couldn’t ignore. “I’d be terrified of messing up and costing you a small fortune,” she admitted.
    “If I’m not worried about that, why should you be?” Helen asked.
    Despite the reassurance, Maddie couldn’t seem to shake the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that she was getting in way over her head. “How big a hurry are you two in to do this?” she asked.
    “I took out an option on the property yesterday for thirty days,” Helen said.
    “Then give me thirty days to make up my mind,” Maddie pleaded.
    “What will you know in thirty days