To Have and to Hold by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online

he stared up into the sunlit patches of leaves.
    "I like the way you fry chicken," he murmured lazily.
    She smiled, remembering how she'd had to hurry to fry it this lazy Saturday morning when she'd planned on sleeping late. "Thank you.
    "But the potato salad needed more salt and less pickles."
    "Picky!" she chided.
    "Me?"
    "You! All over the world men are eating potato salad and enjoying it."
    "Not," he replied, "if it has too many pickles and not enough salt."
    She brushed a stand of auburn hair out of her eyes. "Cal Forrest, there are times when I could just hit you!"
    He opened one eye. "Try it," he suggested in a soft tone. "Just once, try it."
    She shook her hair. "I could if I wanted to. I just don't feel like exerting my self right now."
    He grinned. "Coward."
    "Want a slice of chocolate cake?" she asked.
    "Make it two. I'm still growing," he added with a wisp of a smile.
    "If you grow much more, you'll have to have your cars custom made," she remarked.
    "Honey, my cars are custom made, the Mercedes not withstanding," he said gently.
    She concentrated on slicing the cake. "Sorry. I keep forgetting..." He had to be well-to-do, or he couldn't have afforded to rent airplanes and fly off to Panama City on the spur of the moment. But she took that remark with a grain of salt, because it was an old Mercedes, and several of his shirts were worn, even if only slightly. Not that it mattered, she thought with amusement, but if he needed that kind of morale boost, she wasn't about to deny it to him. He was far too nice—when he wasn't criticizing her cooking.
    Friday night she didn't hear from him, and thinking it might be time for another apple pie, she baked one and took it across to him.
    She didn't notice the low-slung burgundy sports car until she was at the door, and then it was too late. She heard voices, and soft music, and waited apprehensively at the door after she rang the bell. She'd spent much time with Cal lately she'd forgotten that he must have other friends, and she was aware of a nagging uneasiness about this visit.
    He opened the door and his eyes seemed to explode as he saw her there.
    "I brought you a pie," she said in a choked whisper, holding it out even as she caught the first glimpse of the seductive brunette in the background. "Sorry, I didn't see that you had company until it was too late. I hope it tastes okay. I was on my way out and it was a last-minute effort," she added with a forced laugh.
    Behind Cal, the brunette was hiding her laughter behind a tall glass of amber liquid and ice.
    Cal stiffened as he took the pie. "Burgundy..." he began deeply.
    "I've got to run," she laughed, forcing herself to be gay. "Good night!"
    She turned and ran for the hedge, and before she reached the back door, her face was wet with tears. She went inside, brushing past Cabbage, grabbed her purse and locked the door behind her. She got in the car and seconds later pulled out into the street, resolutely keeping her eyes away from the house next door.
    "That's what you get, you stupid woman," she told herself through a stream of tears. "What did you think he meant when he told you he had women? That he wrote to pen pals? Stupid!"
    She drove to the nearby mall and parked the car in a crowded section near the stores, locking both doors, and she sat there and cried until her throat hurt. The man didn't belong to her, for heaven's sake! He was just a friend, that was all. But, that slinky brunette....
    Finally, with a red nose and swollen eyelids, she got out of the car and made her way to the nearby theater. She was thirty minutes too early for the film, so she bought her ticket and sat on one of the wide benches against the wall of the carpeted area to wait.
    She closed her eyes, but Cal was behind them, Cal and the brunette, and she opened them again because she couldn't bear it. If only she'd fooled him. It wouldn't do to let him know how much seeing him with another woman had affected her. He might think she had some