Here to Stay by Margot Early

divided by the Vietnam War, by the suddenly clear reality of racism, by drugs and everything so different from what he’d known growing up. People protested actions he knew were wrong but also rejected those he believed were good.
    Sissy seemed to be clinging hard to that older world, and Elijah was surprised—and not completely pleased—to see it.
    Clark was an orthodontist—“But they met at a show!” Mrs. Atherton had exclaimed enthusiastically. “So we knew right away he was wonderful!”
    Clark raised Norfolk Terriers.
    “Of course they’ll have shepherds, too!” Sissy’s mother had continued to gush.
    Clark certainly had straight, white teeth, Elijah reflected. At the party, Elijah had enjoyed talking with Mr. Atherton, but now he craved solitude. He longed to somehow free his mind of the horrors crawling through it: knowledge of the dogs stolen by the thief they’d apprehended that day, knowledge of what had happened to those dogs.
    Not to mention the women who had been murdered. Sissy had been frightened for Teddy. Elijah—like Clark, he now acknowledged—had been frightened for her.But for Elijah, it had been fear with the knowledge of what the perpetrator could do.
    Now he was glad he’d chosen the work he had rather than become a homicide detective or even remain a sheriff’s deputy, glad his job didn’t involve telling someone what ghastly act had befallen a beloved child or spouse.
    To love animals and see them hurt was torture, yet he was good at this work. He saved animals, and the animals needed a voice. But how long could he keep doing it?
    His whole life he’d wanted to be an animal behaviorist, even before he knew what one was. The Humane Society certainly gave him hands-on experience with animals; it was how he spent virtually all his free time. Watching animals. Trying to figure them out.
    “He’s a good man,” said a voice beside him.
    Elijah glanced over at Sissy, now dressed in an ivory suit. She was gazing in the same direction Elijah had been—at Clark Treffinger-Hart, who was talking with two of his former fraternity brothers.
    “He seems very nice,” Elijah agreed mildly. “And you have so much in common.” He meant this sincerely, but even to his ears it sounded like a dig.
    “In a way.”
    These didn’t sound like the words of a woman avidly anticipating marriage. Elijah was reluctant to draw her out. The new Sissy was different from the old Sissy.
    Primarily the new Sissy was unavailable. Soon she would be someone else’s wife.
    The old Sissy had been a little wild. Perhaps a shade of that woman was wondering if she wanted to be married at all, to anyone.
    She wore her hair up in some kind of elaborate, elegant hairdo. It made her look very expensive. Her coltish adolescence had matured into beauty-queen poise. Even in heels she wasn’t as tall as Elijah, but she came close.
    “I don’t like Norfolk Terriers,” she finally admitted. “I’m not sure I can live with the yapping things.”
    Elijah threw back his head and gave a quiet laugh.
    “It’s not funny. I love dogs, but I don’t love them all equally. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with all of them.”
    Elijah could not resist. “But you’re in love with Clark. That won’t be a problem.”
    Her silence lasted a little too long, and he thought she blushed. Then, abruptly she changed the subject. “Tell me what you’re doing. You live here?”
    “Right now I’m based here.”
    “And you’re working for the Humane Society, investigating animal abuse cases. And you get paid for it.”
    “Very little,” he admitted.
    “It’s probably because of me you’re in that line of work,” Sissy said.
    Her ability to congratulate herself certainly hadn’t lessened with the years. Sure, she’d introduced him to this kind of work, but she wasn’t the reason he’d chosen to pursue it.
    He supposed Ella was. And Lucky. Lucky had passed away three years before, and now Elijah only had one cat,