Read Online The Color of Family by Patricia Jones - Free Book Online Page B

marriage?” the red-haired woman asked.
    Aaron considered the question at first, rather bold and prying though it was, then said, “Well, aren’t we all headed toward marriage?”
    And his audience giggled politely, until the woman next to him said, “Well, that was evasive enough.”
    â€œOh, you got that one, huh?”
    â€œI sure did.”
    â€œI got it myself,” said the woman with the flaming hair, who was now smiling less fervently. “Basically, you think you said nothing, but actually you said no, you’re not headed toward marriage, and that makes me sad because I like Maggie. The two of you seem perfect together.”
    Aaron looked off past the woman for a moment, thinking he’d heard women talk like this before, only it was generally about soap-opera characters, or Ross and Rachel on Friends. So how did it come to pass, he wondered, that his life was so invaded by the concerns of people he didn’t know, would never know, and most likely would never see again? And why did they care? All he had the presence of mind to say this time was, “She’s terrific.”
    Just then, Ellen showed up to save him from giving away secrets he’d not planned to tell. “Ellen,” he said, standing to kiss her, never before so glad to see her as he was at that very moment.
    â€œHey there,” she said, returning his kiss.
    â€œDr. Barrett, you never told me that Aaron Jackson was your brother.”
    â€œOh, I suppose it simply never came up in conversation,” Ellen said. Then she turned to him. “I’ll be ready to leave in about forty-five minutes, if that’s not too long for you to wait. I got a little backed up even in spite of the fact that I had three patients cancel this morning. Anyway, I’ve got these three ladies, and then that’s it.”
    â€œThat’s fine,” Aaron said as he sat back in his seat. Then he leaned over and picked up a magazine from the coffee table without noticing that it was a magazine for expectant mothers. But he flipped it open and said, “I’ll just wait here and read.”
    â€œOkay,” Ellen said as she turned to leave. Then she looked over her shoulder and said, “You ladies can come with me. Nancy will get you set up in exam rooms. I’ll be right with each of you.”
    Aaron continued turning the pages of the magazine until it occurred to him that he should look at the title of the magazine. Mommy To Be it said. “What the heck is this?” he mumbled beneath his breath as he tossed it back onto the coffee table. It just wouldn’t leave him. That question— “Are you headed toward marriage?” Why he answered so evasively was now pressing down hard on him. He could have said yes, since that was what they were certainly expecting him to say. But he couldn’t say yes, because that wouldn’t have been altogether true. And if he’d said no, well it would have seemed to those women, and even to himself, that he was merely trifling with Maggie, which he wasn’t; at least he didn’t think that’s what he was doing.
    What troubled him most was he seemed to recall that just a month ago, he’d given a similar answer to that very same question at a dinner he’d had with two friends and their lovely female guest who’d just moved to town. Tawna was her name. He’d never forget her or her name because he recalled how he’d come to think of her right after the introduction—the tantalizing tawny Tawna. And when she asked him if he had future marriage plans, he remembered now, with a certain humiliation that served him well as he raked himself over his own freshly laid hot coals, he’d said, “Don’t we all have future marriage plans in one way or another?” The difference between then and now, he realized, was that then, he had a reason for being so evasive—and it lay in the power of an