A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [53]
She’d heard that. Although Stacie’s ancestors hadn’t been among the town’s founding fathers, because her parents were loaded she had been included in the high-society niche. The one thing April remembered was that Stacie had the hots for Griffin.
April understood that Stacie was a divorcée. She couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps Stacie had heard about Erica’s marriage plans and figured that meant Griffin was finally free. Was Stacie moving back to Hattersville to try her luck once again? If that was the reason, her timing couldn’t have been more perfect. As mayor he would need a wife or fiancée who would be refined and sophisticated.
“I think it’s wonderful that Stacie is moving back,” she said.
“Do you?”
“Yes. Don’t you?”
He shrugged those massive shoulders again. “No reason not to be. At least I figure I’ll have her vote.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment and then decided to ask, “You didn’t go to Erica’s engagement party. Do you plan to attend the wedding?”
He took a sip of his coffee, then smiled at her. “I haven’t decided yet. Erica is a good friend and I think she would expect me to be there. But then I don’t want my mother or hers sitting on the edge of their seats thinking I’m going to do something ridiculous like stop the wedding. Knowing them, they’d really expect me to.”
Yes, she could imagine that they would. “Did it ever bother you that they tried putting you and Erica together at every twist and turn?”
“Of course it did, but luckily Erica and I formed an alliance to beat them at their own game. Once we knew we could only be friends, we just gave up trying to convince them of that and decided to let them figure it out for themselves.”
April shook her head. “I doubt they’ve figured it out, even now with Erica getting married in a few months. I don’t know about your mom, but I think Mrs. Sanders is obsessed with the idea.”
“And you know why, don’t you?”
“No. Is there a reason?”
Griffin smiled. “She thinks there is. Ever since Hattersville was founded, a Delbert has tried marrying a Hayes and something always happens before the wedding takes place. Some family members say there was a curse placed to keep the families apart.”
“A curse?”
“From what I gather, a Hayes was engaged to marry some girl in Canada, and he hauled ass one night a few weeks before the wedding, followed his friends to America and later settled in Ohio where they founded Hattersville. A month later Hayes became engaged to marry someone else, one of the Delbert sisters, and he sent for her to join him and her brother in Ohio. The father of the jilted bride heard about it and considered such an act total disrespect and deliberate humiliation toward his daughter. Some claim he placed a curse that there would never, ever be a Hayes–Delbert union, and so far there hasn’t been. Something has happened every time a wedding was to take place.”
Griffin took another sip of his coffee and continued. “The last time was over twenty-something years ago when Mrs. Sanders’s sister was engaged to marry my uncle Simon. She lost control of the car she was driving a week before the wedding, went into a coma and died.”
April nodded. She recalled Erica telling her about the aunt she never got to know.
“Before that, a Delbert was to marry a Hayes and a few weeks before the wedding she ran off with another man and hasn’t been heard from since.”
“So if you and Erica marry that will supposedly break the curse.”
“Yes, but breaking the curse is just one thing. In reversing the curse, untold riches are supposed to be showered upon both families.”
She took a sip of her drink. She knew that for Karen Sanders it must have something to do with increasing her wealth. April shook her head. This was the first she’d ever heard about the curse. And it was hard to believe some people actually believed in such stuff. “Does Erica know about this supposed curse?”
“I’m sure she does, but like me she doesn’t give a flip. If one of my offspring wants to marry one of Erica’s one