A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [73]
“Hey, you better watch it,” Matt warned, pulling the towel from around his neck and flapping it out to hit Brian’s shoulder with it. They were walking off the court and headed into the locker room. The summer’s heat had been brutal and although Matt had hinted otherwise, it hadn’t been easy for Brian to best his friend today.
Truthfully, he understood that Matt had a lot on his mind. Cassie, Matt’s girlfriend, was pregnant and still refused to marry him, saying she wasn’t sure she was ready to take such a big step in her life. Brian shook his head. To his way of thinking having a baby was a big step, and if Matt wanted to marry her then what was the holdup? Evidently Matt had begun wondering the same thing.
“I’m taking Cassie to dinner at my folks’ tonight. You can join us if you like. They always get a kick out of seeing you.”
“Thanks, man, but I have plans for later. Erica is having her first bridal shower today—as we speak—and one of her girlfriends is taping it. I’m going to download it onto my laptop so we can watch it together later.”
“Gee, sounds romantic,” Matt said, making a kissy face.
Brian smiled, ignoring his friend’s gesture and thinking how he and Erica could turn any moment—even long-distance ones—into a romantic time. They could have some heated conversations over the phone, and whenever they added the webcam into the mix it was like exploring a whole new frontier. “Trust me, Matt, it will be romantic.”
An hour later Brian had just stepped out of the shower when he heard the alert tone on his phone that meant he’d received a text.
He glanced at the clock and saw the time and figured it was probably Erica sending the video from her bridal shower. He smiled at the caption—Pictures for Erica’s special day—and immediately clicked it on.
“What the f—!
He sucked in a deep, shocked breath. Whatever he’d been expecting, this wasn’t it. He felt blood rush to his head. What the hell was Mr. Sanders doing kissing his mother?
He didn’t want to look at the other pictures attached, fearful of what he might find, but felt he had to. Someone had taken several shots of Erica’s father and his mother sharing candlelight dinners; walking hand-in-hand through the doors of several five-star hotels; kissing in parking lots, in front of hotel room doors…
He didn’t recognize the number that had sent the text, but he did see the other recipients of the pictures and he almost dropped the phone.
He drew in a deep breath and dialed Erica’s phone number and the call immediately went to voice mail, which meant she had her phone off.
He ran his hand down his face, waiting on the cue to leave a message. “Erica? Baby, where are you? Call me as soon as you get this message. Please call me.”
Blowing out an angry breath he then dialed his mother, who was on a business trip in Japan. As the phone rang he looked at the pictures again, but he refused to believe what he was seeing. Other than his father, he could never recall his mother in a relationship, serious or otherwise, with any man.
But what if this was true? What if his mother and Mr. Sanders were involved? He closed his eyes and sucked in a tormented breath at the thought. What could she have been thinking? What had Mr. Sanders been thinking? Not in a million years would he have expected this. Not in a million years.
On the small idyllic Japanese island of Miyako, Wilson and Rita stood at their hotel window and gazed out at the picturesque beauty of the white sandy beach. They had spent a good portion of the day out there, enjoying the beauty of the island together.
Rita turned in his arms and looked up at him. She could not believe how different her life had been over the past five weeks. Once she had decided to take a bite of the forbidden fruit and teach this tall, handsome and wonderful man what love was about, she’d not given herself