Help Me to Stay by Elaine Ashford

Author:Elaine Ashford [Ashford, Elaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Lovelight Press
Published: 2016-03-08T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

"Have you been dating someone?" June says the second I sit down across from her at the Golden Bean two weeks later.

"I'm having coffee with you," I say, dodging the question badly.

"Yes, obviously." She waves my feeble attempt off. "But you haven't been home and you've been even shittier than normal at answering texts." Her eyes narrow. "Plus you look disgustingly happy."

I can't help it; I have to grin at that one. I think I really have been. It's a nice feeling.

"Aha!" She points directly into my face. "I knew it."

"Maybe," I say, taking a sip of my coffee to hide my face.

"No, you definitely are," she says. "Question is: who?"

"Is that your business?" I ask.

"I'm your sister," she says, like that answers the question. "Now spill." Her face softens. "I'm not going to be scandalized or whatever, I promise."

"I don't know if you know him," I prevaricate.

"Does it matter? I'd better know him soon if this is serious," she says.

I look down at her short, stocky frame. "Are you going to beat him up if he dumps me?"

She waves her coffee at me firmly. "Duh."

The mental image of her trying to fight a bewildered Tad, who's definitely a foot taller than she is, cracks me up. I can't help it.

When I straighten up, she's still watching me smugly. "I knew there was someone. Dish."

I go over the broadest sketch of the story: Tad, a vet, he's very nice. It omits our less favorable encounters and my panic over Flip's injury, but June isn't fooled.

"Wait," she says, when I roll to a stop. "I thought he was your nemesis or something. You hated him. You whined at me about him for days."

"I misjudged," I say with a shrug. "He's grown up a lot since high school. It makes sense. I think I have too, you know?"

"Well, maybe," she says with a piercing look. "Just make sure he knows he's going to be on my shit list if he goes back to his old tricks again, okay?"

"Thanks," I say, holding back my laugh. June's a real champ, even though I have no idea what she'd actually do if I tried to take her up on this stuff.

"So tell me all about him now," she says, sitting back on her chair. "If he's so different, and he's making you all glowy and smug."

I make a disgusted face. "Geez, that's too much information for you. You're my sister."

She pretends like she's going to chuck her paper napkin at me. "That wasn't what I meant and you know it. Now talk."

Her hands cover more and more of her mouth as I do, even in the heavily edited version I'm willing to give her. "Awwww, he sounds charming," she squeaks when I finish.

"Glad you approve," I say dryly. "Now if we can move on."

"I guess," she says, very sarcastic. "But you just remember I'll fight him if I have to."

"Noted," I say, and she finally lets it drop so we can move on to other things.

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