Read Threading the Needle for Free Online

me to return to the one place I’d hoped never to see again—New Bern, Connecticut.

2
    Tessa Woodruff
    T hirty-four years ago, Lee Woodruff and I promised to love each other till death did us part, in sickness and health, for richer or poorer. As a bride, I’m not sure I fully grasped what that was all about, but I do now. There’s a reason they make you take vows—to hold you together through times like these.
    It’s not the fact that we’re celebrating our anniversary over breakfast at the Blue Bean Coffee Shop and Bakery instead of dinner at a white tablecloth restaurant that’s bothering me. I don’t mind that. But I do mind that there’s very little celebrating being done. We’ve never had an anniversary like this.
    Lee rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes as he stared at the legal pad. “I’m going to have to pull some money out of the 401(k) to pay Josh’s tuition.”
    â€œThat’s supposed to be our retirement.”
    â€œThe way things are looking, we’ll never be able to retire anyway.”
    â€œWon’t we have to pay a penalty if we take it out early?”
    Lee looked up. “Can you think of another plan? If you can, I’m all ears.”
    â€œHoney,” I said gently. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. We’re not the only ones this has happened to. A lot of people are in the same boat.”
    Lee picked up his coffee cup. “I should have seen this coming.”
    â€œHow? You’re an accountant, not a fortune-teller. Even the economists didn’t see this coming.”
    Lee shook his head before taking a slurp of coffee. I looked at his plate. He’d hardly touched his food.
    â€œMy dad always said a man’s first and last job is to protect his family. Right now, I’m almost glad he’s not alive to see how far off the job I’ve fallen.”
    â€œHey!” I said, giving him a nudge under the table. “This isn’t all your doing. We’ve worked hard, side by side, all this time. Up until now, we’ve done all right. In fact, I think we make a pretty good team.”
    I smiled, hoping to steer the conversation onto more romantic ground. Lee wasn’t picking up on my cues.
    â€œWe should have played it safe,” he mused. “We should have stayed in Boston and let well enough alone instead of putting everything on the line for a crazy dream.”
    â€œDon’t say that! I mean it, Lee! Don’t ever say that!”
    Lee put down his cup and looked at me with surprise. I’m not generally given to emotional outbursts. “I just meant that . . .”
    â€œI know what you meant, but you’re wrong. Moving to New Bern, finally working up the courage to start living our own dream instead of somebody else’s, is the best thing we’ve ever done. When I look back and think what our lives were like before we started talking about the farm and the shop and what we wanted out of life . . .”
    I shook my head and smeared a piece of toast with strawberry jam. “It’s practically a miracle that we got to be married this long.”
    Lee frowned. “What are you trying to say? You think we’d have ended up divorced if we’d stayed in Massachusetts? You never said anything about being unhappy. . . .”
    â€œI’m saying I didn’t even know I was unhappy. And so were you. Admit it, you were.”
    â€œWell,” he said slowly, “I don’t know if I’d have put it in those terms exactly.”
    â€œHow about bored? How about wondering if this was really all there was to life?”
    Lee looked at me, a little smile of admission crossing his lips. “Well. Maybe sometimes. But I never thought of divorce.”
    â€œNeither did I, but you’ve got to wonder if, eventually, we might have. It’s happened to so many people we know—Lena and John, Caroline and Stan, the Willises from across the