A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [45]
“Dad?”
It was then he realized that Erica has been talking to him. “Yes, sorry, sweetheart, I missed hearing what you said.”
She smiled, reached over and gently patted his hand as if he might be in the first stages of dementia, and if so, that was fine. She understood. “I was saying that I haven’t mentioned anything to Mom yet, but I’m thinking about resigning my position at the historical center and moving to Dallas a month early.”
He lifted a brow. “Before the wedding?”
“Yes. Brian mentioned the possibility of us looking for a house sooner than we planned. With him making partner it means more money will be coming in.”
Wilson couldn’t help but smile. His daughter never had to worry about money. Her grandparents on both sides had seen to that by leaving her trust funds. But she had mentioned a few months back, right after she had announced her engagement, that she had no intention to intimidate Brian with all her wealth. For once in her life she wanted to live like a normal human being who had to survive within her means. She had even considered donating all the monies in her trust to various charities.
He had talked her out of doing such a thing and instead had suggested she keep the trust funds to pass on to her kids, since she and Brian seemed eager to have plenty of them. According to her, they wanted at least four.
He didn’t mind being a grandfather, although Karen wasn’t looking forward to being a grandmother and was still wailing at the very thought that her daughter would want that many children.
Comments like that often made him wonder about Karen’s childhood and what could have possibly gone on at the Delbert house, behind those huge mansion doors. He’d tried to get her to talk about it once and she had refused, saying her parents had given both her and her sister the perfect life, and that she didn’t appreciate him insinuating that the Delberts had somehow been a dysfunctional family. Hell, he didn’t see why not, when the Sanderses definitely were. His father was a social drunk and his mother a sophisticated and refined nymphomaniac. It was sad but true. His father never wondered, or possibly never cared, why there had been so many gardeners rotating on and off the mansion’s grounds. When his mother got tired of one she gave him the boot. Oh, she had been discreet, or tried to be, until the time he and Marshall had stumbled upon her and one of her lovers at the lake house. They’d been kids at the time but old enough to figure out what was going down.
“So, what do you have planned for the rest of the day?” Erica broke into his thoughts to ask him.
He glanced across the table at her and smiled. “Nothing. I decided to take the day off work.”
He wanted to blame his malaise on jet lag, but he knew what he really was going through was sexual withdrawal. He had shared something that night with Rita he had never shared before with a woman and his body hadn’t adjusted, just refused to accept that it might never get to feel that way again.
Besides, mentioning anything about his time in Europe might get Erica to start asking questions and determine that he and Rita had been stranded in the same city.
“Why are you asking? Is there something you need me to do?” he asked her.
“No, but I was going to do some errands and would love to have you come along. I promise not to bore you and we can take my car. I’ll even stay within speed limits.”
He chuckled. He knew if she didn’t stay within speed limits, she would be the last person that the good sheriff would give a ticket to. That thought made him think of some thing. “I understand Griffin is thinking about running for mayor.”
She smiled brightly. “Yes, I heard. If he does decide to run I think he’ll be just what Hattersville needs. He’ll get my support.”
“You won’t be living here then. You’ll be in Dallas.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I can’t come back and help in some way with his campaign.”
Her father lifted a brow. “And Brian wouldn’t have a problem with it, considering Griffin is his rival?”
Erica shook her head, grinning. “Trust me, Griffin was