Honey Moon by Susan Elizabeth Phillips Read Free Book Online

didn't like the soft, mushy quality in Chantal's voice. They didn't need any more complications. Why did her cousin have to fall for every boy she met? She decided the time had come to interrupt.
    "That's not true, Chantal. What about that man who came to the park to paint the mural over the House of Horror?"
    "That's not real art," Chantal scoffed. "Gordon's a real artist."
    Honey liked the mural over the House of Horror, but her tastes in art tended to be more catholic than most people's. Gordon sent another prurient glance in Chantal's direction, and Honey made up her mind to bring him down to size.
    "How many pictures have you painted, Gordon?"
    "I don't know."
    "More than a hundred?"
    "Not that many."
    "More than fifty?"
    "Probably not."
    Honey snorted. "I don't see how you can call yourself a painter if you haven't even painted fifty pictures."
    "It's quality that counts," Chantal said. "Not how many."
    "Since when did you turn into such a big art authority, Chantal Booker? I know for a fact that the only paintings you ever pay any attention to are ones of naked people."
    "Don't let Honey hurt your feelings, Gordon. She gets moods sometimes."
    Honey wanted to order him to pull over to the shoulder of the road right that minute and get his weak chin out of her truck, but she knew that she needed him if she wanted to arrive in Los Angeles in time for that audition, so she held her tongue.
    She wasn't anxious to take over the driving quite yet, but she couldn't stand watching the two of them drooling over each other so she pulled out the papers that Monica Waring had given her. They contained handwritten directions to the studio, as well as a short summary of The Dash Coogan Show . She studied it.
    Rollicking laugh-a-minute humor results as ex-rodeo rider Dash Jones (Dash Coogan) marries beautiful East Coast socialite Eleanor Chadwick (Liz Castleberry) and they discover that love is funnier the second time around. He has a yen for country life, while she favors fancy cocktail parties. To complicate matters, his beautiful teenage daughter Celeste (to be cast) and Eleanor's almost-grown son Blake (Eric Dillon) form an attraction for each other. All of them discover that love is funnier the second time around.
    Honey found herself wondering who wrote stuff like "rollicking laugh-a-minute humor." The Dash Coogan Show didn't sound all that funny to her, but since she couldn't afford to be critical, she told herself that Mr. Coogan wouldn't be part of something that was garbage.
    She had never been enamored of movie stars, not like Chantal, but she had always cherished a secret admiration for Dash Coogan. Ever since she was a kid, she had watched his movies. Now that she thought about it, however, she realized it had been a long time since he'd made a new one. Cowboy movies didn't seem to be too popular anymore.
    A sliver of excitement crept through her. She wasn't one to be impressed by movie stars, but wouldn't it be something if she actually got the chance to meet ol' Dash Coogan when she went to Hollywood? Now wouldn't that be something.
    3
    Honey shoved Chantal's best sundress through the partially opened door of the Shell station's rest room. "Hurry up, Chantal. It's almost eleven o'clock. The auditions started three hours ago."
    Honey's old Myrtle Beach Fun in the Sun T-shirt was stuck to her chest with nervous sweat. She rubbed her damp palms on her shorts and nervously watched the traffic go by.
    "Chantal, hurry up!" Her stomach was pumping bile. What if the auditions were already over? The truck had broken down on the San Bernardino Freeway, and then Chantal and Gordon had had a lover's quarrel right there on the shoulder of the road. Honey had begun to feel as if she were stuck in one of those nightmares where she was trying to get someplace but couldn't make it. "If you don't hurry up, Chantal, we're going to miss the audition."
    "I feel like I'm getting ready to start my period," Chantal whined from the other side of