A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [44]
Rita began nibbling on her bottom lip. She loved Erica as the daughter she’d never had, but now she had a secret that if ever revealed would destroy that relationship forever. She could just imagine what Erica would think of her. It then flashed through her mind what Brian would think of her. She rubbed her hand down her face when she felt tears threatening to fall.
“Hey, don’t you dare cry anymore, Rita Tonette Sparks Lawson. What’s done is done and it’s time to move on. Time to get prepared.”
Rita let out a sigh. “For what?”
“For your body to start craving the very thing you gave it a taste of. All I’m saying, best friend of mine, is don’t be surprised if you start feeling the urge to seek out your Mr. Sanders again, married or not.”
Chapter Eleven
“Daddy! This is a pleasant surprise.”
Wilson smiled as he entered Erica’s home after leaning down and kissing her on the cheek. He wished there was some other way to find out the information he wanted but hadn’t thought of one, and the need to know about Rita was like a bellyache that wouldn’t go away.
“I hadn’t seen you in a couple of weeks and missed you,” he told her. That was no lie. He had missed her, but he was also hoping for some information during his visit.
“Things were slow at the library so I left for Dallas to start celebrating Brian’s promotion early.”
“And how is Brian?” he asked as he followed her into the kitchen.
“Brian’s fine and we celebrated all four days I was there. On Saturday night I met the other two partners, nice older men who had been friends of Brian’s father, and their wives. They took us out to dinner.”
“Sounds wonderful.” He paused a moment and then asked the burning question. “What about Brian’s family? His grandparents? His mother? How are they doing?”
He was taking a chance that Rita hadn’t mentioned anything about them seeing each other in Sweden and being stranded together there. Chances were she was trying hard to forget the entire episode. A part of him knew that if this was the case, he should grant her wish and let her be, but he couldn’t.
Erica was standing at the counter making coffee. He was nervous she might suspect something and patted his shirt pocket for cigarettes, but immediately recalled he had broken the nasty habit a year ago. This was the first time he’d forgotten he’d done so.
She turned around and smiled. “Everyone is fine. I saw his grandparents and got to spend a little time with them, but I didn’t get the chance to see his mother.”
A knot settled in his stomach and only deepened the ache there. “Oh? Was she out of town?” he asked, trying to sound as casual about it as possible.
“No, she had just returned from one of her trips the day after I arrived. Seems her flight got delayed somewhere in Europe because of that volcanic ash like yours did. Only thing was she came back with a little bug. She called to cancel our lunch.” She paused a moment and then said, “I hate that I didn’t get to see Rita this trip. I really like her, Dad.”
Wilson drew in a deep breath, tempted to tell his offspring that he really liked the woman as well, but for different reasons.
The time he spent with Rita had shown him that as a man he liked having a woman in his bed, a woman he found desirable, a woman who had a passion to match his own. A woman he could laugh with, enjoy jazz music with. A woman he could talk about his favorite pieces of art with and who didn’t make him feel like a sissy for doing so. A woman who could make his blood race and, yes, a woman who could also give him bellyaches. Like the one he’d been feeling since waking up that morning in Stockholm and finding her gone.
There was only one woman he wanted. She was free to be pursued but he had yet to do any pursuing. However, he planned to remedy that, and soon.
He wanted more than anything to talk to Rita, hear her voice, convince her that what they’d done was no one’s fault and that he had no regrets.
And heaven help him, he would do it again in a heartbeat. But only with