The Carson Springs Trilogy: Stranger in Paradise, Taste of Honey, and Wish Come True by Eileen Goudge Read Free Book Online Page A

traditional.
    “Believe me, she won’t mind,” Laura said. “Anyway, it’s only for a couple of days, right?”
    Finch fell silent.
    Laura watched her awkwardly bring a forkful of food to her mouth, noting that her fingernails were bitten to the quick. She felt a tug inside, like a muscle giving way. As gently as possible, she said, “If you’re worried I’m going to go behind your back, don’t be.”
    The girl flicked her an apprehensive glance. “You won’t call the cops?”
    “You have my word on it.”
    For the longest moment Finch didn’t speak. She just sat there, hunched over her plate, staring off into the distance. When at last she turned to Laura, it was with the clenched cautiousness of someone used to being lied to…or worse. “I guess it’d be okay.” Almost as an afterthought, she muttered, “Uh, thanks.”
    “Listen, it’s no big deal, okay?” Laura stood up, brushing the back of her dress, which was now hopelessly stained. But who cared? It wasn’t as if she had any intention of ever wearing it again. A dress that made her look, she knew, like a rose-colored hitching post. “By the way, my name’s Laura. Laura Kiley.” She stuck out her hand.
    After a moment of hesitation the girl reached up to take it. “Hi.” Shy fingers slipped through Laura’s like cool water.
    “Listen, it’ll be a couple more hours,” she said. “If you don’t feel like hanging around there’s room in my car to curl up. The green Explorer.”
    The girl nodded distractedly, as if holding open her options. If she’d been a stray puppy or kitten, Laura would have tucked Finch under her arm to keep her from taking off.
    The rest of the afternoon seemed to crawl by. Laura was glad to see her sister so happy, but the day had brought too many unwelcome reminders of Peter. She wanted nothing more than to be home, in her oldest pair of jeans, kicking back with Maude and Hector. When the cake was finally cut, and the bridal bouquet tossed pointedly in Laura’s direction (which she just as pointedly ignored), she wasted no time rounding up Maude. The girl, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen.
    Laura found her fast asleep in the Explorer, curled up in back on a quilted saddle blanket, her filthy canvas backpack as a pillow.
    Maude peered in the window. “Oh, the poor thing. She reminds me of Napoleon when we first got him. Do you think she’ll let us keep her?”
    Laura remembered how tenderly she’d nursed their tomcat back to health after he turned up on their doorstep, near dead and missing half an ear. If only people were that uncomplicated, she thought. “It’s just for a day or two,” she said firmly, more to convince herself than Maude. “I’m sure she has a family. They’re probably looking for her as we speak.”
    “I wonder.” Maude’s blue eyes were troubled. Was she thinking of her own family? The son and daughter-in-law who’d forced her to run off in the middle of the night, suitcase in hand. “Suppose she has good reason not to go back?”
    “One step at a time, okay?” Laura dug into her purse, rummaging for her keys. “To start with, she could use a change of clothes. I’ll check my closet when we get home.” She’d kept a few things from when she’d been a size smaller, before lonely nights with only Ben & Jerry as consolation had gotten the better of her.
    The girl didn’t wake up when she started the car, and was still dead to the world when they pulled into the driveway fifteen minutes later. Crunching to a stop in the graveled yard, Laura saw the house as Finch would: in need of paint, the porch—onto which an old cat-scratched sofa had been dragged—listing slightly to starboard. Not exactly luxurious digs, though Laura wouldn’t have had it any other way.
    With Maude’s help she managed to rouse the girl and steer her up the front path into the house, where Finch tottered groggily down the hall to Maude’s room. Within seconds she was once again fast