"Bennett, Cherie - Sunset Island 013 - Sunset Deceptions" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bennett Cherie)

on TV a few weeks ago, you looked to be about ten, maybe fifteen pounds
overweight. Now that I can see you live, you're even fatter than that! How do
you account for it?" The woman waited expectantly for her reply.
In the Templeton's family room, Sam dug Carrie in the ribs and giggled. "Let's
see how he answers this one!" she said.
Graham laughed ruefully. "No wonder my wife's been trying to put me on a diet!"
"These people, have they no shame?" Carrie asked rhetorically. "Anyway, he's got
a great body." "Hey, when you're famous, you're fair game," Sam said
matter-of-factly, "that's just the way it is." "Time for one more question,"
Donahue said on the screen. "Okay, over on the side, yes, you there!" He dashed
to the far side of the studio and handed the mike to a young woman about Sam and
Carrie's age who was dressed in a very hip-looking red leather jacket and a
short black miniskirt.
The woman took the mike from Donahue.
"Graham," she started, "there are a lot of kids my age using cocaine. Everyone
knows you've been in and out of rehab at least twice. What advice can you give
us, and why can't you seem to quit?" The studio audience went deadly silent. At
the Templetons', Carrie looked over to Chloe, to see if she was paying
attention. Her eyes were glued to the screen, just like Ian's and Sam's.
Finally, Graham answered. "My advice?" he asked the woman. "I'm qualified to
give advice? I'm a musician, not a social worker or a psychologist." "Yes, but
you can speak about your own experience," the young woman pressed.
"Okay," Graham finally said. "Here's my advice. Don't start. Because I started
once, and now I wish I never had. I'm clean now, but it's a struggle-every
single day of my life." The audience exploded again into applause.
Credits started to roll over the screen. The show was over.
"Wow, big points for honesty," Sam said, looking over at Carrie.
"Major," Carrie agreed. "I'm proud of him." "Me too," Ian said.
"Me too!" Chloe yelled, not wanting to be left out. "I'm proudest of all!" A few
hours later, Carrie and Sam sat with Ian, Chloe, and the Jacobs twins at a long
table at the Sunset Country Club. With them was Emma Cresswell, the third member
of the au pair threesome, and the boys she took care of, Ethan and Wills.
Carrie, Emma and Sam had become best friends the previous year when they'd met
at the International Au Pair Convention in New York City. Luckily they'd all
gotten jobs on Sunset Island, a fabulous resort island off the coast of Maine.
As Carrie sat at the table waiting for lunch to be served, she marveled, for the
millionth time since they'd first met, that the three of them had gotten to be
best friends. We're all so different! Emma's a blonde Boston heiress; Sam's a
tall wild redhead from the-middle-of-nowhere-Kansas; and me, well, I'm just your
basic upper-middle-class girl-next-door from New Jersey. But here we are! "You
get to see Graham on TV today, Emma?" Carrie asked Emma, who per usual was
wearing one of her great outfits-an all-white cotton shorts-and-top ensemble,
with white matching sunglasses perched on top of her perfect blond hair.
"I sure did," Emma answered, taking a sip of ice tea. "We had it on while I was
making breakfast for the kids." "What did you think?" Carrie asked.
"I thought-" "You thought the outfit that the last girl wore was fabulous, and
you called the station -right away and asked to buy it from her, and then you
bought the store it came from," Sam joked.
"How did you guess?" Emma said blithely. Carrie knew that Emma was used to Sam's
teasing-it hardly seemed to bother her anymore.