For All Our Tomorrows Read Online Free PDF Page A

the thought of anyone living so close to the president, bemused by the strange names he’d mentioned, and Bette didn’t understand what he meant by two-bit, assuming it to be meaningless American slang. ‘I’ve heard about Times Square and the Empire State Building.’
    ‘Hey, you’re well informed, honey.’
    ‘I’ve seen it at the pictures. I love going to the pictures, do you?’
    ‘Aw, the movies, I love ‘em. If you ever come to America, I’d love to take you to New York, up the Empire State, and to Hollywood, then you could see where movies get made.’
    ‘Would you really?’ Bette looked into his eyes, entranced, and Chad felt his throat tighten as he gazed back down at her.
    She was even lovelier close to than she’d appeared that morning from the truck, when he’d fallen for her hook, line and sinker, at first sight. But what was he thinking of making such promises? How could a dumb country boy like him ever hope to take her to those fancy places? He’d never had much luck with girls in the past as they generally fell for Barney’s dark, Italian looking charms, giving his own more homely features scarcely a glance. Not that he minded, he was real proud to be Barney’s best buddy and there never was any animosity between them.
    Maybe he was doing better with this chick because he was spinning her a bit of a yarn, not lying exactly, more stretching the truth somewhat, taking a leaf from his friend’s book. Barney was usually the one to shoot his mouth off but it generally won him the girl, so where was the harm? She was cute as a bug’s ears, this one and he just needed to be someone for once, instead of a nobody. Still, best not to get too carried away and overdo it.
    ‘Not that I live anywhere near Hollywood, you understand, but it sure is pretty. We got mountains and lakes, woods and deep ravines, hot springs and gushing falls, Indian reservations and real fine houses that were built way back before the civil war. Ante-bellum, we call ‘em. Hey, we got it all.’
    Bette’s sense of history was scant, but she shivered delightedly at the prospect of Indians, captivated by the romance of his descriptions. ‘And that’s where you live is it, in one of these fine houses? How wonderful!’  
    Chad gazed into her enchanting, golden-green eyes and couldn’t bring himself to disappoint her. ‘Well, it sure ain’t a bad house, nor small neither. My family has lived there for a generation or two, that’s fer sure.’ He slid an arm around her waist, anxious to stop all this chat and get down to business.
    Bette slid away, further along the bench, teasing him with her smile as she sucked salt and vinegar from her fingers, determined to make every effort to be sensible and practical and concentrate on essential details, as she’d promised herself that she would. ‘So what is it you did, exactly, before you joined the marines?’
      Chad got up, collected the used chip papers and went to stuff them in a nearby waste bin, his thoughts racing. He’d worked on the family farm before the war, like many another southern boy, though that had never impressed a gal yet, so why take the risk of being too honest with this one when he was doing so well?
    ‘I guess you could say that I’ve got me some land in Carolina. You ever been to North Carolina? No, course you ain’t. Like I say, prettiest place on God’s earth, just like you’re the prettiest woman I ever did see.’  
    ‘Land, but I thought you said that you lived in a fine big house in town?’
    He was growing confused by his own lies now and mumbled that there surely was a town close by, but Bette was persistent.
    ‘And is it a big town, where you live, with cinemas and big fancy shops and such like?’
    ‘We live a ways out of town,’ Chad admitted, carefully avoiding answering her question in too much detail, wishing that he’d kept quiet and not tried to impress her at all. ‘But I’d love to show you Athens and Charleston and