The Parting Glass Read Online Free PDF Page A

key in the ignition. The neighborhood’s tough enough that maybe somebody will steal her. Once they see what they’re into, they’ll park her somewhere nice and safe until I can find her again.”
    “We’re still fifty yards from a door,” Casey said from the back seat.
    “It’s only sprinkling.”
    Peggy wiped the foggy windshield with her fingertips. “You know what? You’ve lived here too long. By anybody else’s standards, that’s a downpour. And you hate getting wet.”
    “Megan,” Casey said, “nobody will steal Charity, and you’re going to get towed if you stay here.”
    Charity chose that moment to sputter and die.
    “Looks like I don’t have a choice, and I’d rather bail her out of the impound lot than be late for my own wedding.”
    “At least your ambivalence disappeared,” Casey said.
    Megan didn’t bother to correct her. “Can you two get yourselves inside?”
    Peggy had been scrounging under the seat for an umbrella. She held one out to Megan, a poor cousin of the species but still useful. “You go ahead. The weather’s only going to get worse. I’ll see if I can start this monster.”
    “I’m not walking down the aisle without you. You have to hold me up.” After a lot of speculation on who should accompany her on the trip down the aisle, Megan had asked Casey and Peggy to walk just a step ahead of her, more escorts than attendants. She had a dozen male relatives who would have been happy to do the honors, but she had chosen her sisters instead. The man who should have walked with her wasn’t up to the task.
    Megan gauged the distance and the raindrops. “Which should I ruin? My pumps or my panty hose?”
    “I brought extra panty hose.” Casey was leaning over the seat now.
    Megan removed her shoes and opened the door. “See you inside.” She flipped open the umbrella, and in stocking feet she sprinted across the grass to her favored entrance. At the door to the stairwell, she shook like a spaniel, closing her eyes and the umbrella and letting the raindrops fly. When she opened them, her future husband was staring back at her.
    “Nick!” She put a hand over her heart. “What are you doing here?”
    “Checking to see if you’d deserted me at the altar.”
    She stared at him. The dark suit set off his wide shoulders, black hair and neatly trimmed beard. With his olive skin and Roman centurion features, he was the perfect finale to any walk down the aisle.
    “You weren’t supposed to see me like this.”
    He was smiling now. “I remember the first time we spent an evening together. Do you?”
    At the moment she wasn’t sure she remembered her own name. She stared at him, this gorgeous, masculine human being who wanted to share her life.
    “You invited me home after a day at work,” he said, “and you were exhausted. So you took a shower while I waited, and when you came into the kitchen your hair was wet. Sort of like it is now. And I was flattened by desire.”
    “Flattened?”
    “Metaphorically. More or less the opposite of my real state, I guess.”
    She smiled. “I’d forgotten.”
    “So I have a thing about seeing you wet. And dry, for that matter. Just seeing you.”
    “Oh, Nick.” She wanted to fall into his arms. Instead she spread her skirt, holding it out with both hands like a little girl in petticoats. “Are you sure you want to go through with this? I’m not much of a bargain.”
    “We never get guarantees, but I think you’re a pretty safe bet.”
    “I’m a mess. I’m dripping, my car’s probably going to be towed, and I’ve ripped my stockings into shreds.” A hand leaped to her hair. “And I lost my damned orange blossoms.”
    “Good. You look perfect the way you are.” He paused. “Although my mother and father will be more impressed if you put the shoes on your feet.”
    “They came?”
    He nodded.
    This time she did fall into his arms. Casey and Peggy arrived just as they finally stepped apart. “Peggy got Charity parked.