Star by Danielle Steel

working hard on her pronunciation. Crystal had even brought her some of her books from school, and Hiroko pored over them diligently, learning quickly.
    Crystal sat down in the tiny kitchen with them, and cautiously tried what they told her was raw fish. She was willing to try anything, and she had shared numerous meals with them, tasting the delicacies that Hiroko prepared with nimble fingers.
    Your father is well? Hiroko asked quietly, and Crystal nodded with a worried frown.
    He's better. It was a hard winter for him. I stopped by to see Becky today, she smiled at her friend, the baby's really getting cute. And then she saw an odd look pass between them. Boyd looked at his wife encouragingly, his freckles seemed to stand out more than ever in his pale face. He was so different from Crystal, whose skin bronzed to a deep tan despite her fair hair and blue eyes. But he seemed impervious to her beauty. He had eyes only for Hiroko.
    Tell her. He was smiling at his wife, and he wanted to include their only friend in the good news that seemed less of a burden now that they had found Dr. Yoshikawa. They could ill afford a child, yet it was what they had both desperately wanted. They were only surprised it had taken so long. It had taken over two years for Hiroko to get pregnant. Go on ' Boyd nudged her, and Hiroko looked embarrassed, as Crystal waited. She was too young to suspect anything. But having babies wasn't something Crystal thought about much, and she looked at them with wide, expectant eyes, but Hiroko couldn't bring herself to say it. And finally Boyd had to do it for her. We're having a baby in the spring. He looked so proud as he said it, and Hiroko turned away shyly. She still wasn't used to his American ways, and his openness in telling people things that were intensely private, and yet she was as happy about it as he was.
    That's wonderful. Crystal smiled. When? March, we think. He beamed proudly at his wife, and Hiroko helped Crystal to more sashimi.
    Seems a long way off, doesn't it? It seemed like forever to Crystal. It had seemed endless waiting for Becky to have her baby. She had complained night and day, she was always moaning about how sick she was, and how uncomfortable. In the end, Crystal couldn't stand being around her. Even Jared got tired of her, and Tom went out alone with his friends at night. Only Olivia was sympathetic. The two women were closer than they had ever been, but Crystal didn't mind. She was her happiest spending time with her father. And her visits to Hiroko had become more and more enjoyable in the past year. They talked about nature and life and ideas, and very seldom about people. Hiroko had no friends to talk about, only her family in Japan, and she seldom talked about them now. They were so far away as to be almost lost to her. But she confessed once that she missed her little sisters. And in exchange for the confidence, Crystal had admitted that sometimes she dreamed about being in the movies. Hiroko seemed fascinated by the idea, and thought she was pretty enough. But Hollywood was a long, long way from the Alexander Valley. It was so remote to them, it might as well have been on another planet.
    Hiroko and Boyd were both there on William's christening day. He wailed lustily when the minister drenched his little head with water. And he was wearing the christening dress that had been worn by Grandma Minerva's father. Hiroko looked a little pale as they left the church, and Boyd gently took her arm, questioning her with his eyes, and she only nodded. She never complained about not feeling well, but he knew that she had started feeling poorly. She still cooked all his meals with the same attention to detail, but she hardly ate, just pushing her food around on her plate, and he had heard her getting sick on several mornings. Crystal's eyes met hers before Boyd drove her away, and the two women smiled at each other, but no one seemed to notice. Everyone was too busy admiring the