Star by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online Page A

with the eyes of a woman. He laughed at himself then. It was crazy. He had a life to live in a world far from here. There was no reason for him to be attracted to a fourteen-year-old girl in the lush wilderness of the Alexander Valley. No reason except that she wasn't just any girl. Even her name told him she was different. Crystal. He said it to himself as he drove away, remembering his promise to Boyd and Hiroko to come back and see them after the summer. Maybe he would ' maybe he really would ' the odd thing was that suddenly he knew that he had to.
    And as Crystal helped her mother clear the last of the platters away, she found herself thinking of him, the handsome stranger from San Francisco. She knew who he was now. She had heard Tom talking about him, his commanding officer in Japan. Tom had been pleased he'd come to the wedding, but he had more important things to think about. He and Becky had left in a shower of rice for their honeymoon by the ocean in Mendocino. They'd be gone for two weeks, and then they'd come home to live in the cottage on the ranch, and work with her father, and have babies. It all seemed so boring when Crystal thought of it. So expected and ordinary. There was nothing magical about their lives, nothing rare and unusual, unlike the people she dreamed about, or the movie stars she read about. She wondered if she'd be like that one day, married to one of the boys she knew, one of Jared's friends, one of the boys that she still hated. It was odd, as she thought of it, she felt pulled in two directions, toward the familiar world she knew ' and a world far beyond it, full of mystery and handsome strangers, like the one she had met at her sister's wedding.
    It was midnight by the time they'd finished the dishes and cleaned up the last of the mess left over from the wedding. Everything was put away, and Grandma had already gone to bed. The house seemed oddly quiet as Crystal said good night to her parents and her father walked her slowly to her room, and kissed her on the cheek with a tender look.
    It'll be your turn one day ' just like Becky.
    She shrugged, not anxious for it, and Jared hooted as he walked past to his own bedroom.
    Her father smiled down at her again.
    Want to ride with me tomorrow? I've got some work to do you could help with. He was so proud of her, so much more than she knew, as she smiled up at him and nodded.
    I'd like that, Daddy.
    I'll wake you at five. Get some sleep now. He ruffled her hair and she closed the door softly. It was the first night she would sleep alone in the room without her sister, and it seemed so peaceful. It was her domain, finally. And she lay in bed, thinking of Spencer as she drifted off to sleep. And in his bed, in a hotel room in San Francisco, Spencer Hill was thinking of Crystal.
    Tom and Becky's first baby was born ten months to the day after their wedding. He was born in the cottage on the ranch, with Minerva and Olivia standing by, and Tom pacing the porch of the main house as he waited. He was a healthy baby boy and they named him William after Tom's father, William Henry Parker. Becky was fiercely proud of him, as was Tom. It was a bright shining moment in what had otherwise been a difficult year for the Wyatts. Their crops had been poor after torrential rains, and Tad had come down with pneumonia and never quite seemed to recover. He was still weak when the baby was born, but he tried to pretend that he wasn't. Only Crystal knew how desperately tired he was. They went on shorter rides now, and he always seemed grateful to come home and go to bed, sometimes without even eating his supper.
    But he began to improve finally by the time they christened the baby on the day that India became independent, two days before Crystal's sixteenth birthday. He was christened in the same church where Toiri and Becky were married the year before, and Olivia invited sixty of their friends for lunch. It was a less elaborate party than the wedding, but it was