Free Sweet Serenade (Riverbend Romance 3) by Valerie Comer Page B

regard? Unless she could somehow convince Brittany to keep the secret.
    One glance into her cousin’s glittering eyes dispelled that thought. Her best bet would be to minimize it, but could she do that without lying? Because, in truth, that kiss had been amazing. Had sustained Carly for over a month.
    “It was the day we capsized the canoe in the rapids. I was kind of hysterical when I got safely to shore, and he kissed me to shut me up.” Man, that had totally worked. Her lips had been far too busy for a while to be used for speaking.
    Brittany began to laugh. She clutched her arms around her middle and bent over, howling.
    It wasn’t that funny.
    Carly set the plates in the sink and waited for Brittany’s other shoe to fall.
    “Oh, that’s hilarious,” Brittany gasped. “I never would have thought to try that tack, but Reed does love peace and quiet. To think Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes would kiss a girl to keep her from talking.” She wiped her eyes.
    Babbling, more like. Carly wrenched the hot water faucet on and stabbed the plug into the bottom of the sink. But he hadn’t kissed like he was too good for her. Just the opposite.
    Brittany elbowed her. “What happened next?”
    “What do you mean, what happened next?” Carly squeezed the dish detergent bottle over the sink.
    “You know.”
    Carly swiveled to face her cousin. “No, I don’t. We carried the canoe back to the truck and came back to town. He dropped me off here. The next day we went for ice cream and took a long walk at the park. You know what’s happened since then.”
    Brittany tipped her head and raised her eyebrows. “Uh huh? You’ve been together an awful lot.”
    “Are you asking if we’ve had sex?” Carly reached back to turn off the tap. “Because that’s the only thing I can think of that your question is leading to. And the answer is no. We’ve only kissed that one time, and there definitely hasn’t been any sleeping together.” She stared into Brittany’s eyes. “How about you and Joseph?”
    Her cousin shrugged. “We’ve been careful.”
    “What on earth is that supposed to mean? Have you, or haven’t you?” But deep inside, Carly knew even before Brittany nodded.
    “It’s not that big a deal, Carly. Everyone does it.” She quirked an eyebrow. “Well, almost everyone.”
    What Brittany didn’t know wouldn’t bite Carly back. “But you know better. You were raised in the church.” Carly had been raised all over, at least after Mom died. Not in church so much.
    “Oh, relax already. Times are different than when the Bible was written. Sure, it’s a great ideal to wait for marriage but, in reality, no one does. It’s like the whole ‘all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory’ thing. We can try to be perfect even while knowing it’s not possible. The Bible even says we can’t be. We can always ask God to forgive us, and He will.”
    “So that means it’s okay to do whatever we feel like? We can sin knowingly then ask forgiveness, and it doesn’t matter?” In Carly’s experience, that didn’t ring true. She rubbed the sponge across her plate so hard the floral pattern was in danger of flaking off.
    “Pretty much. Society is inundated with sexual temptation. It’s too much to expect people our age to withstand it.” Brittany elbowed Carly again. “Besides, sex is fun.”
    Not always. She’d never been more thankful for Reed, and his commitment to being her friend first. To his desire to know her as a person, not a sex object. She hadn’t fully appreciated his commitment to purity until right this minute. Still, she had to choose her words carefully. “Knowing my husband has never had sex with anyone before me sounds mighty good to me.” Hopefully no one needed to know the reverse wasn’t true.
    “Ha. You think you’ll marry Reed? You might, of course. I’ve never seen him give any girl the time of day before. But you might break up and marry a guy who’s been around like—I don’t