More Than Friends Read Online Free PDF Page B

whiskey, the tearing of her dress, the tears of shame. Her first time hadn’t been like she’d thought it would be, but then her first time hadn’t been with Chase. She shook off the feelings and concentrated on the facts.
    “Do you remember the carnival?” she asked. “Not the high school one we have every fall, but the big one that comes through town in July?”
    “What does that have to do with anything?”
    She touched his hand; he instantly released her. “Everything. Do you remember?”
    “Of course.” He glanced at her. “How could I forget? It was my first hangover. I believe I have you to thank for that.”
    She smiled sadly, remembering their innocence. How easily it had been stolen from them. “You’re right. We were both bored. It was hot and humid and the pool was closed for a few days.” The past drifted back, overlapping the present until she forgot to be afraid.
    “You dared me to steal liquor from my father’s study,” he said.
    “Only you would take Napoleon brandy.”
    “I always treated you to the best. God, I was a fool.”
    With a fluid motion that threatened to take her breath away, he settled onto the hood beside her. Their shoulders brushed. The feeling was so familiar, it was all she could do to keep from throwing herself into his arms. But Chase hadn’t come back to see her. He’d never called or written. He only remembered the end—when he thought she’d betrayed him. Now he was determined to punish her for her crimes.
    “After we polished off the bottle, you passed out,” she said.
    He shook his head. “All I remember is waking up in the middle of the parking lot and feeling like a thousand mill workers were hammering inside my head.”
    “Being a lady, I was much more genteel in my imbibing.”
    “Genteel, my ass. If memory serves, you liked acting big and carrying around a drink, but the taste made you gag.”
    “That, too.” Her smile faded. “There I was with a curfew but no ride home. You had the Camaro, and I couldn’t drive a stick shift. I tried calling the house and asking one of my sisters to pick me up, but Dad answered the phone. No way I could have told him what had happened. I started walking home. About a mile down the road, one of the carny workers picked me up.”
    “The blond guy with the mustache?”
    “How’d you know?”
    Chase frowned. “You’d been flirting with him all week. I was jealous as hell.” His tone was reluctant, as if he regretted admitting the weakness.
    Jenny bit her lower lip. “I think that was why I did it. Testing budding female wiles and all that. Stupid really. He drove me home, but I didn’t get out of the car right away and…” She swallowed against the rising tide of the past. Stay strong, she told herself. It’s over. “One thing led to another. I never meant to…well, you know. But it happened.”
    Could he see it was only half the truth? Would that even matter to him anymore?
    “That’s it?” he asked. “Some guy in the back seat of a car? I expected more of you, but then that’s always been my problem.”
    He hadn’t forgiven her. She’d known the risk she’d taken not saying anything all those years ago. She’d chosen to keep silent then. Nothing had changed. She was still choosing to keep silent, but this time it was for reasons of compassion rather than fear or shame. Perhaps when his father was better, she’d tell Chase the whole story. For now, she’d handle it the way she always had: one day at a time with the understanding that it had never been her fault.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
    “I was ashamed.”
    “Instead, you let me run off.”
    “I didn’t know you were leaving until long after you were gone. I tried to find you.” She paused, remembering the long lonely days when there was no one to talk to but her family. When she’d been unable to look in the mirror without seeing the shame in her own eyes. “After a while I gave up trying.