Read Online Sunset in St. Tropez by Danielle Steel - Free Book Online Page B

and said she had something to tell Pascale that would knock her off her feet.
    “You"re pregnant!” Pascale said with a tone of envy, and Diana laughed.
    “I sure hope not. If I am, the hormones I"ve been taking work better than I think.” She had gone through change of life two years before. For Diana, pregnancy was no longer an option, and it never had been for Pascale. “No, but it's almost as amazing as that. I had dinner with Samantha last night, after you all canceled and Eric had to work. We went to the Mezza Luna, or at least we were going to. We sneaked off somewhere else after we got there, but who do you think was there?”
    “I don't know … Tom Cruise, and he asked you for a date.”
    “Damn close. Robert. He was having dinner with a woman. And he was laughing and smiling. I didn't recognize the woman, but Sam did. You"re not going to believe this. It was Gwen Thomas.”
    “The actress?” Pascale sounded as though she'd been hit by a bomb, and she had. “Are you sure?”
    “No. But it looked like her. Sam was sure that was who it was.” She was beautiful, and young, and had looked deeply engrossed in conversation with him. And he looked very happy with her.
    “How do you suppose he knows her?” He had never mentioned her before. Nor had he mentioned having dinner with women in the months since Anne's death. Pascale couldn't help wondering if this was a first for him. It had to be.
    “Isn't she the star of the movie he saw with Mandy last week?” Diana inquired.
    “I think so,” Pascale said, sinking back onto her pillows again, staring pensively into space. “God, how stupid if he starts going out with actresses and starlets and models. He's so vulnerable, and so naive in a way. He and Anne were married forever. He knows nothing about that world. Anne always said he had hardly dated before they met. He certainly knows nothing about the dating scene.” Nor did any of them. They had all been married for so many years.
    “No, he doesn't,” Diana agreed with her completely, and vowed silently to protect him, for Anne's sake, and his own. She'd have expected it of them. He seemed the last person in the world to be going out with a famous actress or anyone at this point. It seemed impossible to imagine him with anyone but Anne.
    “How old is she?” Pascale sounded genuinely worried, fearing that Diana would say she was twenty-two, but she knew she was older than that. She was a very beautiful woman, and had recently been enjoying a huge success. She had won an Oscar the previous year.
    “I think she's in her late thirties, maybe forty. She doesn't look it though. She looks Sam's age.”
    “How stupid of him. He's way out of his league, if he starts going out with women like that. Did they look amorous?”
    “No,” Diana said fairly, “they didn't. They looked like friends,” she said, sounding slightly relieved.
    “I wonder how he met her.” “Maybe at the premiere.”
    The two women talked for the better part of an hour, about the dangers and the pitfalls and the traps that would be set for their friend, and they vowed to give him a lecture when the opportunity presented itself. It seemed more important than ever now to get him to St Tropez.
    “I wonder if Mandy knows he went out with her, or even that he met her,” Diana pondered.
    “She said she lost track of him at the premiere,” Pascale volunteered. “I'll invite him for dinner next week, and see if he says anything about her. Maybe we should ask him. Did he see you?”
    “No,” Diana admitted, “I was so shocked, we literally ran away. I didn't want to intrude. And in a way, I guess it's a good thing he's getting out and seeing women. But I just don't want him to get hurt.” Imagining him in the clutches of a movie star terrified them both.
    “Absolutely,” Pascale agreed. “There are lots of nice women we all know and can introduce him to, if he's ready. I just didn't think he was.” It had come as a huge surprise