A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [121]
“What about around two?” he said.
“Fine. I’ll be ready.” And then she gave him a look that clearly said, And you, Griffin Hayes, better be ready to explain what this little stunt is all about.
Griffin was on time and Erica was dressed and ready to walk out the door. “Okay, Griffin, what’s going on and where is April?”
He waited for her to close and lock the door behind her. “I’m taking you to her now.”
“I figured you would be, but why so secretive? And why on earth did you pull that stunt earlier in front of Mom? You deliberately gave her the wrong impression. Now she thinks something is developing between us.”
“April will explain everything.”
Moments later when they were seated in his car, he glanced over at her. “Promise me you’ll keep an open mind.”
“About what?”
“About anything and everything.”
The look she gave him told him that she was more confused than ever. A half hour later he could tell her confusion increased when he took a turnoff for the interstate and headed for the lake house his parents had once owned but sold to him a few years back. But she didn’t ask any questions and he was glad of that.
He was also glad to see April standing outside when they pulled into the lake house drive. Erica, he noticed, had seen April, too, and a huge smile spread across her lips.
Griffin thought it was actually kind of strange the way things had started out between them all those years ago. There had always been a closeness between April and Erica, a deep friendship that even Karen Sanders hadn’t been able to destroy. And the sad thing about it was that the older woman truly thought she had destroyed it.
Karen’s visit to April should have accomplished that. It was sad, Griffin thought, that she didn’t know anything about love—the kind between true friends as well as the undying love between a man and a woman. That had been Karen Sanders’s downfall.
Erica had opened the car door to get out before he brought the vehicle to a complete stop. And as he unhooked his seat belt he saw the two women run toward each other and embrace.
“Girl, where have you been? Don’t you dare let me worry about you like that again. No matter what is happening with you, I should have been there for you,” Erica said, looking her friend over to make sure she was okay.
“I know. It was something I couldn’t share with you at the time but now I can,” April said, smiling.
“And this had better be a good reason for shutting me out.”
“I think it will be. And I understand you’ve been going through your own hell without me,” April said.
The smile left Erica lips when she was reminded why she cried herself to sleep every night and had lost weight. Heartbreak could do that to you.
She tried not thinking about Brian but would find herself doing so anyway, anytime and anyplace. All the time. Whenever she thought about her love for him and the pain caused by his betrayal, her heart would start breaking all over again.
Beside her, April ushered her up the steps. “Come on inside so we can talk.”
Erica sensed something was going on the moment her feet touched the porch and she glanced over at April, who gave her a funny look. Griffin had a similar look on his face. “Okay, you guys, what’s going on?”
Instead of responding, Griffin opened the door and then they stepped aside to let her enter first. She frowned as she walked over the threshold. She was vaguely aware of someone closing the door behind her when she caught a movement across the room out of her peripheral vision.
She knew even before turning who was in the room with her; she picked up his warm, subtle scent. And when he moved out of the shadows her breath caught in her throat. She looked into his face and her heart jumped at the sight of him. His features taut, serious and as handsome as she remembered, Brian stood there looking so overwhelmingly sexy. It had been almost four weeks since she’d seen him, but she had thought of him every day.
“Hello, Erica. It’s good seeing you again,” he said, his gaze focused