Read 1. That's What Friends Are For for Free Online

dismay. Brad turned into the entrance of a state park and followed the road toward the bluffs where they had spent countless hours as children.
    "What are we doing out here?" she demanded. "I thought we were going to get a drink?"
    Brad began to laugh. "I wondered when you were going to notice."
    "Brad, I don't have time to be out here. I've got to get home. I told Mother I'd be back by—" she glanced at her watch "—by now, darn you!"
    "Okay, so you're late. Big deal. She knows you're with me. I thought it might be fun to come out here again. I haven't been to the park in years. I threw some snacks in a sack and brought some cold drinks. Why don't we wander around for a while, relax and enjoy the scenery? I'll take you back home whenever you say."
    "Why is it I've never trusted you when you've used that tone of voice?"
    "I have no idea. Everyone else always has."
    "I know. But no one else knows you the way I do."
    "Good point, Penny. You might want to think about just what that means to both of us. It could surprise you."

Chapter 3

    B rad and Penny spent the next hour hiking along the bluffs, skipping rocks across the water and wading in the shallows—all activities they had shared during their years together.
    Penny realized that, like Sonia, she really was interested in hearing how Brad had adjusted to suddenly being thrust into the limelight of the entertainment world. She plied him with countless questions—some serious, others teasing, and he patiently answered them, one by one.
    When he grew tired of sitting quietly. Brad started a game of tag, and Penny seemed to forget her dignified years and chased him, convinced that he would be too out of shape to give her much trouble. She was wrong. Whatever he did in New York to keep in condition, it certainly worked.
    Eventually they threw themselves on the grassy bank of the slow-moving river where they had left their food. Brad reached into the water and pulled out two soda cans dripping with water and handed her one. Penny was convinced that nothing had ever tasted so good.
    "See? I told you I'd buy you a drink," he pointed out with a grin. He couldn't help but appreciate the fact that she no longer looked like the prim and proper Ms. Blackwell who was marrying the regal Mr. Duncan in a week. She'd lost the combs that had held her hair away from her face, so that the curls tumbled riotously around her cheeks and across her forehead.
    Her face was flushed from running, and she was still breathing hard. The thin tank top did nothing to disguise the sauciness of her heaving breasts. Perspiration dotted her upper lip, and Brad had an almost uncontrollable urge to reach over and wipe it away with his thumb.
    How could he possibly give up this woman? He had thought he would go out of his mind for the first several months he'd spent in New York. Only the remembered conversations with first her parents, then his, enabled him to recognize that before he asked her to marry him, Brad owed Penny a chance to have a life apart from him.
    Their parents had known how to get him to give her time. They had pointed out that she would probably marry him out of habit, because she was used to following his lead. Did he really want a bride who accepted him for that reason? They had already known the only answer he could live with.
    "What's the matter? Do I have dirt on my face?'' Penny asked with a grin, looking totally relaxed and unconcerned with her appearance. She was stretched out on the grass on her side, propped up enough so that she could drink from the can without spilling it. In her shorts and skimpy top she reminded him of the young girl he'd known, free and uninhibited.
    "Don't you always?" he teased. "I think you must bury your nose in the dirt every so often."
    She broke off some blades of grass and tossed them at him, then laughed as they decorated his shirt. "You aren't much better, you know. Just look at your shoe."
    They both gazed at his foot. His shoe and sock still