Sister's Choice Read Online Free PDF

“The tall old buildings, the traffic on the streets, the shopping—we have nothing like that here.”
    “But you live in Portland,” put in Maggie, to keep in the conversation.
    “Portland may seem grand if that’s all you know, but once you see a really big city, you realize what you are missing.”
    “They are the ones missing something,” Evan said. “I mean—uh—if you ask me.”
    He added this because he’d obviously realized his contradiction might offend Tamara.
    “I guess Boston had many good points, too,” he added a bit lamely.
    “Like what?” Maggie asked. She probably shouldn’t have put him on the spot like that, but it irked her that he had clearly changed his opinion in order to support Tamara.
    “Well, uh . . . history . . . yes, history. So much there.”
    “That’s what I was saying,” Tamara said.
    “I never could take too much history,” said Colby.
    “Neither could I,” Maggie chimed in quickly. And though her statement was true, she realized she was doing just what Evan had done, lining herself up with Colby by supporting his statement.
    “You’d think differently if you could stand and look upon the very harbor where they had the Boston Tea Party,” Tamara said, her eyes alight with enthusiasm. “It is not the same as reading history in books.”
    “That would be interesting,” Colby said. “The Boston Tea Party was one of the few exciting stories I recall from school. I was always amused to think of our forefathers dressing up like Indians and sneaking onto British ships. They were quite the rebels of their day.”
    Maggie laughed. “Put that way, it is funny!”
    No one else laughed quite as heartily as Maggie, and there followed an awkward pause in the conversation.
    Finally Colby broke the silence. “I am parched. Can I get anyone punch?” When both Tamara and Maggie said yes, he responded, “I’ll make two trips.”
    “I’ll lend a hand,” offered Evan.
    The two men went to the refreshment table. Maggie searched her mind for something to say to Tamara, mostly because the silence was uncomfortable, but also because she wanted to know more about her . . . rival?
    “I hear you were in the same finishing school class as my sister, Ellie,” Maggie finally said.
    “Oh yes. What a dear girl. I hear she is to marry.”
    Glancing to where Ellie was standing across the room, Maggie noted Zack was beside her. He must have already been there when they arrived. “That’s him next to her,” Maggie pointed out.
    “He’s very handsome.” Tamara paused, seeming hesitant, then asked, “Is it true, what Mrs. Stoddard was saying . . . ?”
    “I’m sure it is.” Maggie laughed. “Yes, he pretended to be our minister so he could hide from a gangster who was after him. He was actually a very good minister.”
    “How positively . . . well . . . interesting.”
    “So, Tamara, you live in Portland?” Maggie asked.
    “Yes. My father is a doctor there.”
    “You must be engaged yourself, to be married, that is?” Maggie asked hopefully. It seemed possible that a beautiful girl like Tamara would be taken.
    “No, I’m not. My mother says I best make a choice soon, or I will be considered an old maid.”
    She smiled pleasantly, the kind of smile that made Maggie certain Tamara Brennan wasn’t a bad sort. In fact, she was rather friendly, and maybe Maggie could become friends with her. But first she had to know if Tamara had designs on Colby.
    “It’s too bad you had to interrupt your husband search to come here,” Maggie said. “You must have many suitors in Portland and Boston.”
    “I broke off an engagement two months ago. He—well, it didn’t work out. My mother thought a change of scene would do me good.”
    Colby returned holding two glasses of punch. Maggie reached out her hand, but Colby didn’t see it and gave one of his glasses to Tamara. He might have handed the other to Maggie, but just then Evan arrived. He was still a couple steps away when the