A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [1]
Needing to escape the oppressive atmosphere of the town even more than Erica did, April had traveled west to attend UCLA, where she’d met husbands one and two. Husband number three, whom she’d divorced a year ago, was someone she’d met in Great Britain.
“You know as well as I do,” April continued to say while eating her salad, “that Ms. Karen’s idea of a dream marriage is one between you and Griffin.”
Erica knew that was true. Griffin Hayes’s family, like hers, represented old money in Hattersville. Naturally some people, especially her mother, assumed she and Griffin would grow up and marry. There were those, again namely her mother, who figured that doing such a thing was not only politically correct, but would destroy some curse reputed to have been placed upon the two families that could only be broken by a marriage between them.
Unfortunately, nobody bothered to inform her and Griffin’s hearts, since they just weren’t feeling it. Their families had thrown them together so often when they were growing up that eventually they began thinking of themselves as sister and brother, rather than as a couple whose lives were destined to end in holy matrimony.
Although they’d tried dating while in high school, the fire was simply not there. Griffin had recognized it and so had she. That was when they’d made the decision to be nothing more than friends.
“Mom might as well get used to the idea that I will not be Mrs. Griffin Hayes,” Erica said. “I most certainly have. Trust me. Brian is all the man I want and need.” She doubted anyone, even April, knew just how much she meant that.
“Will he be flying in this weekend?”
A huge smile spread across Erica’s lips and she held up two crossed fingers. “Let’s hope. They’ve hired two more attorneys at his firm but he still has a large caseload.”
She and Brian, an attorney at a prestigious law firm in Dallas, had met last summer while vacationing in Myrtle Beach. He had been out fishing on the pier one morning and she had been jogging along the shoreline. They had struck up a conversation, and he had invited her to breakfast the next day. A few weeks later, they had become lovers.
When the summer ended they decided to keep the affair going and, beating the odds, their long-distance romance had survived. Over the Christmas holidays Brian had asked her to marry him. She had accepted and now looked forward to her August wedding and her move to Texas.
Her mother had been in an uproar at the thought of her only child marrying someone other than a Hayes and moving away. Even now, months later, there were days Karen Sanders had problems coping with the inevitable.
“So how’s your dad holding out?” April asked, breaking in on Erica’s thoughts. “Has your mom convinced him to disown you yet?”
Erica thought about her dad, with his soft hazel eyes so filled with love and understanding. He had given her his full support—although he kept it low-key so as not to get her mother riled. But it was the little things he would say and do to let her know he admired the fact that she was doing the very thing he hadn’t done, marrying for love instead of for the sake of preserving some legacy. It was no secret her parents’ marriage had been arranged.
“You know as well as I that won’t be happening,” she replied. She and her father had a close relationship and things between them would always be that way.
A short while later she and April were walking to their parked cars, promising to get together several more times while April was in