Free Ties That Bind by Brenda Jackson Page B

me. I refuse to become involved with a girl who will make me miserable for the rest of my life, just for the sake of making Grandma Julia happy. Ross may be willing to do it but I won’t.”
    His grandfather looked at him, slightly surprised. “Are you saying Ross isn’t happy dating Angela?”
    Randolph raised his eyes to the ceiling. Was his grandfather really that unobservant? “What do you think, Grandfather? When do they ever see each other with her going to school in Boston? And she is so prim and proper it’s downright sickening. Next time you see them together take a real good look at them. Then take a real good look at Ross and you’ll see just how miserable he is. I have no intentions of being miserable. Jenna makes me happy and nothing is going to make me change my mind about her. Nothing and no one.”
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    Julia Fuller angrily paced the confines of her bedroom. Every so often she would take a puff off her cigarette. Randolph had defied her for the very last time. She had just spoken to Maureen Weaver and had assured the woman Randolph would start paying more attention to her daughter. Now it seemed that would not be the case.
    She took a huge puff off her cigarette thinking of a plan. There was no way Randolph would make Jenna Haywood a member of their family. How could he even consider such a thing? Why couldn’t he be like Ross and happily accept the woman she had picked out for him?
    She smiled. Angela Douglass was such a well-bred young lady and the fact that she was a descendant of Frederick Douglass and came
from an impeccable family made her perfect. The same held true for Lena being a relative of Robert C. Weaver.
    In addition to their family and social connections there was another reason she wanted Angela and Lena for granddaughters-in-law. They were both light skinned, just like her. Any smart African-American man knew to choose a light-skinned woman for a wife, especially if he wanted to move up in the world. In this day and time, the color of a person’s skin mattered.
    Sighing, she picked up the phone. A few minutes later when the party on the other end answered she said, “There’s something I want you to do.”
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    Howard University
    Randolph was thrilled when he returned back to school and saw Jenna. Over the following weeks they grew closer and their relationship became stronger. During the weekdays they spent a lot of time together studying and then on the weekend they did a number of activities together. She even went with a group that followed the football team out of town to a game.
    One night after they had gone to a movie, Randolph asked her if she planned on going home for Christmas. “Yes, I can’t imagine not being with my family on Christmas. Why?”
    He looked at her tenderly. “Because I plan to spend Christmas in South Carolina with my maternal grandparents and was wondering if you could come and spend some time with me there for a few days.”
    Uncertainty tugged at her heart. “I don’t know if my parents will allow it,” she said to him. She knew they would frown at the thought that she was going somewhere to spend some time with a boy, especially one they hadn’t met yet.
    â€œWould it help if I come up and meet them first and have my grandmother call with an invitation?”
    Jenna nodded. She figured that might work. It wasn’t that her parents were overly strict or anything, they just had a certain set of moral
values they had established for her and she had always abided by them. “Would your grandmother do that?”
    â€œYes, she’s dying to meet you anyway. I’ve told her a lot about you.”
    Jenna smiled. “You have?”
    â€œSure I have. I’m very close to Gramma Mattie and I want her to meet the woman I plan to marry one day.”
    Jenna’s breath caught. That had been the first time either of them had ever mentioned marriage. “You