Sweet Tea at Sunrise by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

turned sad. “Believe it or not, it’s better than the life I had in Charleston.”
    It sounded as if she were talking about more than the physical abuse to which she’d been subjected. “What do you mean?” Sarah asked. “What about all those fancy committees you told us you were on? All the fundraising you did?”
    “All talk,” Raylene said. “I didn’t want you and Annie to know how bad things were. I couldn’t serve on committees, because I never knew what shape I’d be in. You can’t join those things and then never show up. Oh, I tried for the first year we were married, but then I got a reputation as someone who couldn’t be counted on. I quit everything after I heard a woman telling a committee chair not to give me an important assignment because I wouldn’t be around to follow through.”
    “I had no idea,” Sarah whispered, understanding how much that must have hurt. “I’m so sorry.”
    “Don’t be. It was my fault.”
    “Being abused was not your fault,” Sarah said furiously. “The blame is all on that creep you married.”
    “I chose him,” Raylene said. “And I stayed much too long, because every time I mentioned that I might leave him, my parents—well, my mother really—reminded me about all the wonderful things I’d be giving up. She didn’t believe for a minute that someone from such an upstanding family and in such a respectable profession could have a mean streak. In her mind, I had this idyllic marriage, the one she should have had.”
    “What about your dad?”
    “I never told him,” Raylene admitted. “I couldn’t. It would have destroyed him, especially if he’d found out that my mother knew and advised me to stay. I’m glad he’s gone now, so he’ll never find out about any of this.”
    Sarah couldn’t imagine any mother who would knowingly let her daughter stay in an abusive relationship without fighting tooth and nail to get her out of it. She’d always thought that Raylene’s mother lived too much in her supposedly glorious past, that she complained too much about the pitiful life to which she’d been relegated in this little podunk town. This, though, turning her head when it came to Raylene’s marital mess was truly unconscionable.
    “No wonder you haven’t spoken to your mother since you moved over here,” she told Raylene.
    “She’s not as awful as this makes her sound,” Raylene said wearily. “She just wanted so badly for me to have the things she didn’t have with my dad.”
    “Material things,” Sarah said with feeling. “Didn’t she know those aren’t half as important as love and respect? She always had that from your dad. He adored her.”
    “But I don’t think she valued it as much as all thesterling silver that I received as wedding gifts,” Raylene said. “And to be honest, at first neither did I. Thanks to you and Annie, I think I’m finally beginning to put my life back into perspective and to get my priorities straight.”
    “That’s huge,” Sarah said, giving her a congratulatory high-five.
    Raylene gave her a rueful grin. “Yeah, now if my life only went beyond the boundaries of your house and this patio, everything would be just peachy.”

4
    W alter cursed himself every which way for mentioning to his father that Sarah had gotten a job and that the kids were spending time with a sitter. He was still struggling to make peace with it himself, and his father had finally called him on his distracted mood. Walter had told him about the situation, which was turning out to be yet another of his huge mistakes.
    “You’re letting a woman like that, a woman who’s obviously not a good mother, get away with stealing your son!” Marshall Price accused Walter, his expression filled with disdain. “What kind of man does that?”
    “Sarah hasn’t stolen Tommy,” Walter replied wearily. He was sick to death of the recriminations that were tossed at him every damn day since the divorce was finalized. “The custody