Read Dreams: Part One for Free Online

always perfectly innocent, of course?“
    His lips twitched with a small smile. “Of course – except when it came to drag racing on River Road.“
    “In short, the kind of boy our mothers warned us about,“ Diana replied with a flash of amusement.
    “Afraid so.“ Colby rolled onto his back and cradled his head on his folded arms.
    “Well, that makes sense,“ Diana said calmly. “That was always the most interesting kind of boy, naturally. I always wanted to meet one.“
    Colby blinked lazily. “But you never did?“
    “Unfortunately, no. I was never the type boys like that found fascinating. I wasn’t very pretty for one thing, and I was much too serious for another. From my first day in school, I knew I had to make something of myself. I always had my head in a book. By the time I was out of high school, I was on the fast track to college and a career.“
    “And the kind of boy who swiped hubcaps, drove too fast and wore his hair too long wasn’t interesting any more, was he? That kind of guy wouldn’t have had any place in your up-and-coming life-style.“
    Diana refused to let him bait her. “I don’t know if he would have fit in or not. I told you, I never got a chance to meet him.“
    “Be grateful. You might have wound up pregnant at eighteen, the way Cynthia Fulbrook did.“
    Diana hesitated a moment, absorbing that information. “You got Margaret Fulbrook’s daughter pregnant?“
    “Yeah.“
    Diana became irritated. “Well? Don’t just stop there. How did it happen?“
    He gave her an odd look. “The usual way.“
    “Colby, stop it. You know perfectly well what I mean.“
    He exhaled slowly. “Cynthia Fulbrook was the princess of Fulbrook Corners. She was the richest kid in town, the prettiest girl and the best-dressed student at Fulbrook Corners High. She got a brand-new red convertible from her parents the day she turned sixteen, and she had her choice of any boy in school. She was a year younger than me and I’d been as dazzled by her as every other male in town.“
    “How did she feel about you?“
    “She found me interesting. But her parents kept a close watch on her.“
    “Ah, the old forbidden fruit syndrome.“
    “On both sides,“ Colby admitted. “But nothing happened between us until after I went into the service. I saw the army as a way out of Fulbrook Corners, and I took it the day I got out of high school. Eddy Spooner went with me. The summer of my nineteenth year I came home on leave and there was Cynthia, just graduated and getting ready to go off to college. She took one look at me and decided to find out what forbidden fruit tasted like.“
    “And you took one look at her and decided to see what it was like to go to bed with a genuine princess?“
    “That’s about it. But neither one of us were quite as grown up as we thought we were. I thought I knew all about taking precautions, and Cynthia thought she knew all about safe times of the month and other mythical means of avoiding pregnancy. The net result was that we took some chances we shouldn’t have taken.“
    “And Cynthia got pregnant.“
    Colby nodded grimly. “There was hell to pay. Cynthia was scared to death. Her mother was screaming at her, and her father was threatening to have me put in jail or shot. They both agreed the pregnancy should be taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible. The last option anyone considered was allowing Cynthia to marry me and have the baby.“
    “So you ran off with her,“ Diana concluded.
    “We thought we were in love. Or at least, I did. I also thought I had to protect her from her parents. I don’t think poor Cynthia was thinking at all. She was a nervous wreck, torn between angry parents and the guy from the wrong side of the falls. I took charge, packed her up and drove her out of town before she had a chance to reconsider. We got married in Reno, and then I took her to the army base where I was stationed. She had Brandon seven months