The Road Taken by Rona Jaffe Read Free Book Online Page A

pretty tonight in that dress.”
    “Thank you.” He hadn’t noticed; she always wore that dress to festive events, she had first worn it as Maude’s maid of honor, and afterward it was her good dress for this year.
    Well, at least he had noticed now.
    When the evening was over Ben Carson asked her if he could walk her home. “Oh, I was going to do that,” Tom said. Rose couldn’t look at Maude because she was afraid she would break into a triumphant smile.
    On the way home Tom asked her what she wanted in life. “A happy home,” Rose said. “Lots of children, well, at least five; love, of course, and to laugh every day, and to spend my whole life right here in Bristol. I feel safe here.”
    “That’s just what I want,” Tom said. “I come from a big family, as you know, and everyone helps each other. I want to keep working in the boat yards like my father did. It’s exciting to see a beautiful yacht rise up out of nothing and to know I was a part of that. Wherever it goes, it will take a piece of me with it. And, later, when I’m too old, maybe I’ll work in the office.”
    “I’ll bring you your lunch,” Rose said lightly.
    “Would you?”
    “Yes, I would.”
    “That’s very sweet.”
    When they reached her house they stood together for a moment on her front porch. “Would you like to go to the beach with me tomorrow?” he asked. “We can dig up quahogs.”
    “I’d love that.” He was asking her out, at last! She hoped she wasn’t blushing. Oh, thank you, Maude, Rose thought.
    “I’ll pick you up at four o’clock, when it’s not so hot. Bring a big basket. I’ve found some really good ones this summer.”
    “All right.”
    “Maybe afterward you can come over for supper. My mother will steam them. You haven’t seen my family for a long time.”
    “I know. I’d like to see them,” Rose said.
    She felt his breath on her cheek, and then he kissed her. It was her first kiss. His closed lips were warm and firm, and when she looked into his smiling eyes she saw the children they would have together.
    “We mustn’t go too fast,” he said. “You’re very young.”
    “We’ve known one another all our lives,” she said.
    “I know. So we don’t have to be chaperoned. No one will think anything of it.” They both laughed.
    They went to the beach the next day, and after that day they saw each other regularly. He was cautious because she was only sixteen: He thought she might change her mind, or that someone might talk her out of her feelings about him. To protect their privacy they tried to pretend to everyone else that they were still just friends. Rose even went out with other boys occasionally, just to keep up appearances. She and Tom didn’t know if they were fooling their families, but everyone went along with the game. As for Rose, she was so in love, so afraid of losing the best thing she had ever had after all the losses in her life, that she wanted the two of them to stay on this private island of romance for as long as they could.
    The only one she told was Maude, of course. She told Maude when Tom said he loved her, and when they decided they would become engaged in two years when she was eighteen, she told Maude that too.
    “I haven’t told Papa and Celia,” Rose said. “They think I’m still a child. Well, maybe Celia wouldn’t think so; when she was eighteen she was already married; but still, you’re the only one who knows, and I want to keep it that way.”
    “That’s probably wise,” Maude said. “You’ll find out that everyone has an opinion.”
    Rose nodded. But why would anyone have the opinion that Tom Sainsbury was not the perfect man for her? She couldn’t imagine it.
    She wished her mother could have been here to see how her life had turned out. It seemed such a short time ago that she had lost Adelaide, even though it had been six years. And then there had been Alfred’s death. Rose had been stunned by that. She had never really warmed up to