Read The Old Fashioned Way (A Homespun Romance) for Free Online Page B

would be better if you come up to the house and have something hot."
    "This is fine, thank you," said Daniel quickly.
    "Eat it right away," Sarah told him firmly.  "A young man needs to keep up his strength."
    Daniel admitted he did need to keep up his strength.  Arguing with Abby Silver took everything he had.
    Opening the bag, Daniel discovered there was no fork in the bag for the potato salad.  If he went into the community room to look for one and Agnes was in there, she would start talking.  It wouldn't be easy to get away.  Maybe one of the desk drawers would have a fork or a spoon.  He'd seen a plastic knife and a napkin in the top one yesterday.  Daniel decided to look.  The upper three drawers had nothing but old receipts and papers.  The last one stuck.  When he finally managed to open it, he realized it was filled with photographs.  Picking up the picture that had jammed the drawer, Daniel straightened it.
    It was a wedding picture.  Abby's wedding picture.  There was a date on the back.  Daniel drew in a big breath, let it out slowly.  If she had been married five years ago, where was her husband?
    "Gran thought you might like some salt and pepp...."
    Abby's voice trailed away as she saw the photograph in his hand. 
    "I was looking for a fork."  Daniel cursed himself.  He felt like a trespasser.  Abby's expression confirmed that feeling.
    Something about Daniel's expression told Abby he had found one of the old pictures she hadn't got around to destroying.
    She stretched her hand out, and Daniel handed the picture over.  Abby looked at it in a daze.  The smiling younger version of herself seemed like another person.  Someone who believed in dreams and happily-ever-after.  Rod looked like the prince she had believed she'd found.
    "You're married."
    "Was," Abby said, tearing the photograph into tiny pieces.  If only she could destroy her memories of the past the same way.  "He died in a motorcycle accident three years ago."
    "I'm sorry."  It explained so much.
    "It doesn't matter." 
    She didn't want Daniel to see the tears.  Putting the salt and pepper shakers on the table, Abby left the office.  Once around the corner of the office, she leaned against the wall waiting for the pain to ease. 
    In the beginning, it had all been so romantic.  Fresh out of college, she had met Rod at a friend's wedding, been swept off her feet by his smooth talk and charming ways.  Her pain and grief when she'd discovered her prince had feet of clay and a larger-than-life ego, had eaten at her all these years.  How could she have been such a gullible fool?
    Abby raised her hands and brushed the tears away.  She had learned her lesson.  As Gran said, `Once bitten, twice shy.'
    She would never let her heart influence any decisions she made.  Hopefully at twenty eight she was wiser and more sensible than she had been at twenty.
    In the house Abby took a caramel custard out of the refrigerator.  Picking up a spoon she dug into the English dessert as scenes from the past returned.  Rod yelling at her, telling her he had married her for her money, that she was a bore.  Rod leaving her alone while he made all those `business' trips.
    When her spoon came up empty Abby looked down at the bowl, and sighed.  Being worried cost her in calories she didn't need to consume.
    A glance at her watch showed it was almost time to leave for the library.  Rinsing the bowl out, she picked up her purse and headed for the front door.  Abby caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror Gran had hung in the entryway.  Her face was the only part of her where her weight didn't show.  There was too much of the rest in her.  She didn't seem to be able to get rid of the thirty extra pounds that had crept up on her during her marriage to Rod. 
    The sight of Daniel leaning against the old van brought Abby up short.  She wasn't concerned about spending the afternoon with him.  Once she got to the library, she would be so busy,