Read Online Here to Stay by Margot Early - Free Book Online Page B

pass of the church, certain his gut was wrong.
    But just as the rear fender nearly passed the foot of the steps, he caught a glimpse of white from the corner of his eye. He braked and turned his head as white, flowing white, spilled out of the church. Not on the arm of the groom.
    She was unaccompanied by a bridesmaid, though one stood in the doorway, making entreating gestures.
    Elijah backed the Nomad to the base of the steps, and the bride raised her gaze. She lifted up her train and rushed down the stairs, and Elijah, feeling more exposed than he ever had in his life, could not let her open her own door, could not even reach across the front seat to open hers from the inside—his upbringing was too strong. He got out and hurried around the front of the idling vehicle to let her in.
    Neither spoke while he tucked her in, folding the satin around her, draping the train in her lap, and closed the door. Sissy gazed at her bare left hand. She’d left her engagement ring in the dressing room.
    Only after they’d driven away, when Elijah was stopped at the first light past the cathedral, did he break the silence. “Where do you want to go?”
    Sissy tried to speak lightly, but her voice was husky. “I thought that was obvious. I’m running away with you.”

CHAPTER FOUR

    The first step in teaching a dog not to fight is preventing fights. If your bitch likes a scrap, never have her off-lead in a situation in which a fight could occur.
    — Teach Yourself, Teach Your Dog , Elijah Workman, 1973

    June 19, 1969

    T HE NEXT HOUR FLEW BY . Sissy had begged Elijah to take her to her sister’s house, where the maid had let her in. While Elijah waited, she collected her car and some clothing and wrote a brief note to her family telling them she would be in touch. Then she asked Elijah if she could follow him to his house.
    Soon, attired in bell-bottom jeans and a peasant blouse, she sat at his kitchen table with Five on her lap, while Whiteout paced around the table and Elijah. Sissy seemed content and utterly relaxed.
    Elijah was not relaxed.
    He suspected Sissy’s fleeing her own wedding had been a good move, especially because of the things she’d told him, primarily, “Elijah, I’m just not in lovewith him.” Nonetheless, he also felt a certain chaotic quality in her attraction to him. This must be what people meant by “on the rebound.”
    He didn’t want to live with her without their being married. It would seem to justify her parents’ disapproval of him years before. Besides, it wasn’t what he wanted—not with Sissy. But of course, Sissy was just visiting, not sleeping with him—he’d made up the guest room.
    He suspected, though, that it would take little more than a crook of his finger to get Sissy Atherton into bed with him. It was tempting, and he’d realized that when she’d entreated with him to let her stay at his house. They were past everything but caresses in a parked car. They were adults. He said, “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
    She counted Five’s toes—extra toes that Elijah believed went with extra brain power—and said, as though the discussion had never ended, “See what a good idea it is to have me here, Elijah? Your animals need me. Probably some days you’re gone all day, and they’ll have me to keep them company.”
    “Sissy, we’re not married .”
    “Oh, don’t be old-fashioned. Anyhow, you have a guest room. Not that I need to sleep there,” she added.
    Elijah turned away.
    “Not to put you on the spot or anything,” she said.
    He leaned against his refrigerator, his head against his arm, and kept his back to her. He wasn’t shocked by what Sissy offered, but it jarred with some picture he carried of her—and of himself. “I don’t want to do that to you.”
    At the table, stroking his cats, she looked at his broad-shouldered back uneasily. Did he believe her to be a virgin?
    Sadly, she remembered her long disinclination to have sexual intercourse