Read Online Once More From the Top (The Women of Willow Bay) by Nan Reinhardt - Free Book Online Page A

found out I was pregnant, I knew I wasn’t going to be playing in piano competitions. It wasn’t what I wanted anyway—it was Dad’s dream for me to be a concert pianist like Mother. I’d lived it for so long, I didn’t even have any dreams of my own.”
    “You’d had sex with that man and you say you didn’t have any dreams? Cripes, Carrie, what about him? He’s a dream.”
    “Jules, we’d known each other a week .” Carrie drew the razor up her calf. “I didn’t want to be following him around the world, waiting in hotel rooms and backstage until he got tired of me and moved on. That’s exactly what would have happened if I’d told him. I especially didn’t want that life with a baby. There’s no way we could have made it work.”
    “Why didn’t you have an abortion?” As usual, Julie went for the blunt question.
    Carrie didn’t hesitate. “I couldn’t. That was never an option.”
    “You were in love with him?”
    Meeting her friend’s probing gaze straight on, Carrie admitted, “I was nuts about him. It was heaven, and I love—um— loved him so much it hurt. But we never would have made it. Love wasn’t enough. With a baby, I needed security, and he needed to follow his dream. It was doomed from the start.”
    “Why?” Julie leaned forward earnestly. “Look at you. You’re already glowing and he hasn’t been in town twenty-four hours.” She sat back with a knowing smirk. “He’s already kissed you, hasn’t he?”
    “The glow is from this hot bath, dummy. Get real.” Carrie busied herself with the other leg.
    Julie’s eyes narrowed. “Shit. Now you’re blushing. He did kiss you, didn’t he?” She stamped her feet, chortling. “Oh, good God!”
    Carrie’s cheeks burned. She focused on the razor.
    “Was it hot?” Julie persisted.
    “Okay, he kissed me on the beach this morning. But first it was anger and then sympathy, nothing more.” Carrie confessed without raising her eyes. “I told him about Jack and of course, I cried. He was furious, but I also think he felt sorry for me.”
    “Did he use his tongue?” Julie asked, standing up to look through the assortment of makeup on the vanity.
    “Oh, my God, Julianne. Are we in junior high here? I cannot believe you asked me that.” Carrie glowered at her friend. She finished shaving and dropped her leg back in the sudsy water.
    “Ha! He did. I knew it. I saw how he was staring at you earlier.” Julie looked at her in the mirror and winked. “It wasn’t sympathy, honey. Sympathy never involves a man putting his tongue down your throat.” She opened a compact of blusher and brushed pink across her already faultless cheekbones. “How did he react to the news about Jack?”
    “Pissed beyond words. Then he cried.” Carrie’s saw Julie’s eyes on her in the mirror. “Well, not sobbing or anything, just a few tears.”
    Very touching and sexy tears.
    “Seriously? How’d you even tell him? Was he freaked?” Julie smudged shadow onto her eyelids, but Carrie could tell she was measuring her reactions.
    “He was freaked alright.” Carrie rolled her eyes. “ I didn’t tell him. He found Jack’s picture in the bait shop. But that was after I saw him in the Grind.” Bubbles floated as Carrie expelled a breath. “I just acted casual this morning. I never even mentioned Jack. So when he dropped that bomb on the beach later, I was ready for him to be furious—and he was. But I never expected him to be so hurt . I mean stabbed-in-the-heart hurt—” She put her hand on her chest. “—because I’d kept Jack from him. Even more hurt that I’ve never told Jack who his father is.”
    “Do you blame him?” Julie sounded infuriatingly reasonable. “After all, how would you feel if you found out you had a fifteen-year-old son you knew nothing about? Who knew nothing about you?”
    “I’d be mad as hell and hurt,” Carrie admitted. “I guess I don’t blame him.” She didn’t blame him, but she hoped he’d see