Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [93]
Syneda glanced up at Clayton. He took her hand in his. “When Syneda and I went to Florida together, it was as two good friends. However, we discovered something special while we were there. The reason we didn’t tell any of you about it was because we wanted to go slow. We needed time to see where the attraction was going and what it meant. And we needed time to sort out our feelings.”
He pulled her into his arms. “We have them sorted out now. We love each other very much and want to commit our lives to each other. I’ve asked her to make me the happiest man on earth by becoming my wife and she has agreed.”
Syneda’s gaze held Clayton’s. He had made it all sound so romantic. He had eloquently and smoothly presented his family with an understandable, convincing and acceptable reason why they’d kept their relationship a secret over the past months. Only the two of them knew things hadn’t really been quite that way.
“We’re happy for both of you.” Jonathan Madaris’s words to his youngest son and future daughter-in-law were followed by similar ones from the others as they crowded around the happy couple offering words of congratulations once the surprise had officially worn off.
A poll was taken to see who else had known about the couple’s involvement beforehand. Marilyn Madaris admitted knowing and confessed to passing the information to her husband that weekend at Whispering Pines.
Justin and Lorren admitted to finding out about the couple when they paid them a surprise visit to Florida.
And, surprising his wife, Kattie, Raymond admitted to knowing. He recalled seeing them together in Atlanta during one of his business trips, although they hadn’t seen him.
“The reason I didn’t tell you, Kattie,” Raymond said when she glared at him, “is because you don’t hold water any better than Traci.”
This was truly a day of Thanksgiving, Syneda thought hours later as she sat around the dinner table with Clayton at her side and his family around her. News of their engagement had quickly spread and the telephone calls from other members of Clayton’s family—uncles, aunts and cousins, began rolling in.
Everyone was more than happy to hear that the man who had loved his freedom, who often boasted of having to answer to no woman, and whose credo in life for the longest time had been “all men are fools, except for bachelors” was finally tying the knot. They were very pleased with his choice of wife. And there was no need to welcome her to the family because as far as they were concerned, she was a member of the family already.
“Tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year, Syneda,” Traci said from across the huge table in the Madaris family dining room. “If you like, we can go shopping for—”
“No!” It seemed the entire Madaris family echoed the single word at the same time. Traci turned and glared at them. “And what’s wrong with Syneda going shopping tomorrow?”
Daniel gave his wife a serious look. “There’s nothing wrong with Syneda going shopping. You just aren’t going with her. You’ve been suspended from shopping, remember?”
Justin chuckled. “Suspended from shopping? That’s a new one.”
Daniel smiled. “When you’re married to Traci, you have to do what you have to do.” He held up his hand when Clayton opened his mouth to say something. “And don’t you dare remind me that the three of you warned me, Clayton.”
Traci gave her husband an imploring look. “But, Dan, I have to go shopping with Syneda. How else will I know what she wants me to wear in her wedding?”
“The wedding isn’t until June. You have seven months to pay off your charge cards, Traci,” he replied.
Syneda smiled. It had been decided that Lorren and Caitlin would be her matrons of honor, and Clayton’s three sisters, and their cousin, Felicia Laverne, would be her bridesmaids. She thought of asking two good friends from college to be her bridesmaids, too.
The wedding would be held at Gramma Madaris’s church near Whispering Pines, and the way the plans were shaping up, the guest list would be enormous.
“Syneda won’t be going shopping