Ties That Bind Read Online Free PDF

driving, keeping the wheel exactly where it was, saying nothing.
    â€œI don’t see what you’re so upset about,” she said, running her fingernail around the edge of her lips. “All I did was suggest that you’d be the perfect person to welcome Reverend Clarkson. You’re so hospitable. Everyone knows that. Besides, you were the natural choice. Everyone else has families. They’re all busy getting ready for the holidays.”
    â€œAnd I suppose I’m not!”
    Abigail jerked in her seat, surprised by my outburst.
    â€œJust because I’m single doesn’t mean I have nothing to do! And I do have a family! They’re all coming for Christmas! So I’ve got plenty of things on my plate already— especially since I’m single! I don’t have a husband to help me with the preparations. And I don’t have time to be a one-woman welcome wagon! And even if I did, you only volunteered me because you’re trying to set me up with the new minister.”
    Abigail was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry, Margot. That was insensitive of me. You’re just as busy as the rest of us; I know that. Being single has nothing to do with it. It just seemed to me that … well, your faith is so important to you. I thought a nice, unmarried man of the cloth might be the perfect match for you. I was only trying to help.”
    â€œI don’t want that kind of help. I’m perfectly happy being single.”
    Abigail put the cap back on her tube of lipstick and closed the visor. “Of course,” she said flatly. “Anyone can see that. You positively radiate joy and contentment.”
    â€œI’m fine. I have a nice home, a good job, and most of my friends are lovely people. Let’s just leave well enough alone, all right?”
    Abigail looked shocked. “Why? I’ve never left well enough alone. Not when I saw the possibility of getting something better. And I want something better for you, not me. What’s so terrible about that?”
    â€œNothing,” I said, feeling guilty for snapping at her. Abigail really does mean well, but she’s so … insistent. “But I believe I’ll be a lot happier if I just embrace myself and my life as it is and get over the idea that I need a man to be complete as a woman.”
    â€œWell, of course you don’t! What a silly idea. Is that how you’ve felt? Truly?”
    I nodded sheepishly as I turned my car onto Commerce Street.
    â€œReally,” Abigail said, in a slightly disbelieving tone. “Well, then I applaud your enlightenment—however recent it may be. That whole ‘you complete me’ bunk is just that, a lot of sentimental hoo-hah invented in Hollywood. Or some such place.
    â€œIf a man alone can make you happy, then my first marriage should have made me the happiest woman on earth. Woolley Wynne was handsome, very rich, and very generous, a rare combination, and he adored me. At first. But I wasn’t happy with myself. I was forever regretting my lost love, the man who’d made me truly miserable, which, for a lot of young women, seems to be an incredibly magnetic quality in a man.
    â€œWhy is that, do you suppose? Why should a young, attractive, intelligent, and interesting woman, as indeed I was at the time, scan a horizon thick with potential suitors only to say, ‘Aha! Another opportunity to suffer!’ and then run headlong toward the man best equipped to ruin her life?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œNor do I,” Abigail said. “But that’s exactly what I did. Thank heaven I’m past that stage. You couldn’t pay me to be twenty-five again, Margot. You really couldn’t.”
    Abigail is so rich she doesn’t need anybody to pay her to be anything, but I do understand her point. There are plenty of things bothering me about this birthday, but I truly would not wish to be younger. I like knowing what