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after marriage and that everything leading up to sex would also happen then. Elijah figured a little fooling around wasn’t as sinister as people said. He had kissed other girls, had messed around a bit on double dates when someone had a car(he never did). He also believed that Lucia had done a lot more than fool around in the back seat of Tom Riordan’s Thunderbird before Tom went off to play football for the University of Iowa. Nonetheless, something held Elijah back from pursuing her, even from kissing her.
    He gazed down the Morgans’ dock and watched Sissy Atherton dive gracefully into the lake. Her swimsuit was a one-piece, all white. You could tell her class, that was for sure. More and more, she reminded him of a movie star—Grace Kelly, for instance—not exactly in looks but in style. He knew that when it came to marriage, he wanted someone like Sissy, who dated but whom he was sure remained a virgin, and a virgin with strict limits.
    He stood up from the low stone wall where he’d been sitting. “I’m going in the water.”
    It was 7:00 p.m. and still light out. Jay Morgan and Evan Chamberlain were down on the dock, talking to Sissy’s friend Anne Beth.
    “Me, too,” Lucia said, bouncing to her feet, her ample breasts nearly spilling from her bikini top.
    But Elijah realized he wanted to talk to Sissy, with whom he talked little these days. They’d grown apart in the past year. She was spending time with her ballet, he thought, and doing whatever people did at the country club. Someone had said she was going to teach swimming there this summer, not because she had to work, but probably because the country club would only hire someone like her, someone who was one of them.
    It seemed a lifetime ago that they used to talk about dogs and that they’d been at Jackson’s Dock together.That had been Elijah’s last dogfight experience. He’d continued to volunteer for the Humane Society, taking care of dogs at the local shelter. There was nothing to stop him asking Sissy out. Sure, he lived in a less affluent part of town, but he came from a good family. His parents had high expectations for him and his brothers and sisters. They’d all been taught to work hard, in and out of school, and he certainly planned to succeed in life.
    In any case, he was a good student and a basketball player, and he’d always been accepted by the other guys in his class.
    “You going to the prom?” Lucia asked as they headed down the dock.
    Elijah did not look at her. He knew she was hinting that they should go together, but he didn’t plan to ask her in any case. Except to kiss her and put your hands down her top, Elijah? The thought was tempting. But then she would be his girlfriend, he supposed, and he didn’t really want her for his girlfriend.
    “Not planning on it. I think I’ll be busy.” He was sure he’d be busy because he always was—if not earning money or studying, then playing basketball with his brothers or helping his father.
    Lucia understood everything he hadn’t said. With a wave that carefully hid any resentment of his disinterest, she strolled ahead of him to the end of the dock. Anne Beth had joined Sissy in the water, and the two girls were swimming out to the wooden raft moored fifty feet from the end of the dock.
    Jay wolf-whistled at Lucia and said, “Decided to share your charms with us, Lucia?” He and Evan hadbeen mixing martinis earlier, but had now dispensed with cocktail glasses, if not their chosen beverage, in favor of large plastic cups.
    Elijah slowed slightly, putting more distance between himself and Lucia D’Angelo.
    Lucia said, “What charms you is nothing I intend to share.”
    Evan scoffed, exchanging a look with Jay.
    “And what’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
    “We know you like to share,” said Evan.
    Elijah reached the end of the dock just behind Lucia, planning to dive in and get away from this conversation. Evan and Jay were drunk, and Evan reeked of