Honey Moon Read Online Free PDF

conscience over insisting on the lie. It was a lot better than having Chantal announce to the world that what she really wanted out of life was to marry Burt Reynolds.
    As Honey applauded, she breathed a silent prayer of thanksgiving that she had been smart enough to abandon the fire baton. Chantal would have done more damage to Paxawatchie County with those flames than William Tecumseh Sherman's entire army.
    Ten minutes later, as she made her way through the crowd to the backstage area of the high school auditorium, she determinedly ignored the clusters of families gathered everywhere beaming at the girls in their filmy dresses: plump mothers and balding fathers, aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. She never looked at families if she could avoid it. Never . Some things hurt too much to be borne.
    She spotted Shep Watley, the county sheriff, with his daughter Amelia. Just the sight of him crimped the edges of her excitement over ChantaPs victory.
    Yesterday Shep had nailed a foreclosure sign on the front gates, closing the park down forever and making her so scared about today that she hadn't been able to sleep. Now that Chantal had won the contest, Honey told herself it didn't matter about the foreclosure or the fact that the Disney people hadn't answered any of her letters. When those television casting agents saw Chantal, they were going to fall in love with her just as the judges had. Chantal would start making lots of money, and they'd be able to buy back the park.
    Here her imagination faltered. If Chantal was going to be a movie star in California, how could they all be together again at the park?
    Worrying was getting to be a bad habit with her lately, and she did her best to shake it off. Her heart swelled with pride as she saw Chantal talking with Miss Monica Waring, the pageant director. Chantal looked so beautiful standing there in the white gown she'd worn to her senior prom, with the rhinestone crown perched in her inky black curls, nodding and smiling at whatever Miss Waring was telling her. The television people wouldn't be able to resist her.
    "That's fine, Miss Waring," Chantal was saying as Honey approached. "I don't mind the change at all."
    "You're a darling girl for being so understanding." Monica Waring, the thin, stylish woman who was both the pageant director and the executive in charge of public relations for Dundee's Department Store, looked so relieved by Chantal's response that Honey immediately grew suspicious.
    "What's this?" Honey stepped forward, her instincts twitching like a rabbit's nose at the hint of danger.
    Chantal's eyes shifted nervously between the two women as she reluctantly introduced them. "Miss Waring, this is my cousin, Honey Moon."
    Monica Waring looked startled, as people generally did when they heard her name for the first time. "What an unusual name."
    According to Sophie, when Honey was born, the nurse had told Carolann that she had a little baby girl sweet as honey, and Carolann had decided right then that she liked the name. It wasn't until the birth certificate had arrived and Honey's mother saw the whole thing in print for the first time that she realized she might have made a mistake.
    Since Honey didn't want anybody to think that her mother was stupid, she gave her usual response. "It's
    a family name. Oldest daughter to oldest daughter. One Honey Moon after another all the way back to
    the Revolutionary War."
    "I see." If Monica Waring thought it was unusual that so many generations of childbearing women had never changed their last name, she gave no indication.
    Turning to Chantal, she patted her arm. "Congratulations again, dear. And I'll take care of the changes on Monday."
    "What changes would those be?" Honey asked before Miss Waring could walk away.
    "Uh—Jimmy McCully and his friends are waving at me," Chantal said nervously. "I'd better go say hi to them." Before Honey could stop her, she slipped away.
    Miss Waring glanced past Honey. "I've