Free When Honey Got Married by Kimberly Lang, Ally Blake, Kelly Hunter, Anna Cleary

Players had told her she wasn’t capable of projecting enough emotional complexity to play a character like Blanche DuBois. Even though he’d acknowledged that she’d “nearly achieved” the accent.
    Rainer’s speculative grey gaze turned on her like a searchlight. He said softly, “You and Honey have been friends a long time.”
    “Sure we were. We were in the same year.”
    She barely kept her teeth unclenched. Of course she appeared in some of Honey’s pictures. What would he expect? She and Honey had been friendly, though they’d hardly moved in the same circles. The Fortescues had had an unfortunate number of girl babies in recent generations. They hadn’t been able to manage the resources to keep up with the Moreaus.
    Or marry the Delacroix boys.
    But sure, she and Honey had been on the softball team together. And here they were again. Her, Honey and Honey’s friend Pippa—who’d only just been dating Brent at that time…not that anyone was mentioning that little circumstance tonight.
    Eve wondered how Pippa felt about the wedding. Was she even invited? Here the three of them were again, standing on the stage of the Bellefleur High assembly hall singing with all their hearts.
    Brent’s girls.
    Eve’s heart panged and she turned away. It was all too painful. She’d have slunk away into a corner to weep and lick her wounds, except one of her old theater pals noticed her then and shrieked, “Eve Fortescue , is that you ?”
    That started a landslide of cheery folks exclaiming over her, gathering to hug her and ask when she was coming back to Bellefleur for good. They were so sweet she could have cried. But she kept her head high. Laughed and joked, flirted with the boys as expected and tried not to let them see the tears pricking her eyes.
    “Oh, sure. New York is just spectacular ,” she lied through her perfectly straight teeth. “Y’all should shake off the dust of this old town and come too. Life there’s so sophisticated. It’s just a wild, wild ride.”
    If only they knew the truth. If only she could come home.
    Sensing Rainer’s glance, she caught him watching her, a wry half-smile on his sexy mouth. Just for a second there was something in his eyes then that made her insides flinch and curl up. Something shrewd and serious, as if she were suddenly made of crystal and he could see straight through her.
    As usual, the Dixon sisters were staring from the sidelines at everything she did, muttering spiteful things to each other out of the corners of their mouths. Just like they did at church. Eve waved and blew them both a kiss.
    Poor souls. With their attitude, they weren’t likely to score any of the other kind.

Chapter Two
    Rainer was one of those big, quiet men who could cut a swath through a crowd without effort. At the bar he somehow managed to inspire two out-of-towners to vacate their barstools by the sheer force of his glance.
    Normally Eve would have relished being in the company of a man with such commanding stage presence. As it was, she sank onto her chair, too broken to even flutter a lash.
    However she tried to convince herself otherwise, it sure was looking as if Brent was Honey’s creature now. Was he truly lost to her forever? When she thought of all they’d shared… Their conversations in the office, over lunch, en route to conferences… Their deep and secret understanding, never spoken, only felt, running between them like a subterranean river…
    Could all that have meant nothing?
    Or—and this was what she agonized over on so many a sleepless night—had she thrown in the towel too soon? Maybe that kiss in Dallas had been real after all. At the time she’d been so destroyed at having her beautiful delusion exploded, she’d fled to New York.
    The hurt had been cruel. She’d believed in Brent so absolutely, romantic old notions of courtly love must have screwed her brain. And she’d been charmed to think a man could kiss her without demanding her body. For