As We Lay
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Breck’s mind went to Boston and eased into Eric’s office. She saw him sitting at his desk with his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles....A killer smile stretched wide across his face, revealing perfect white teeth. She heard his laugh and her body began to quiver.
—from As We Lay
Indianapolis architect Breck Lawson has just received the call of her career: Eric Warren, a prominent property manager, has said that he is considering her to design a multicultural center in Boston. A contract with his firm would immediately put Breck in the who’s who of the architectural world. It’s just the break she’s been waiting for. But it soon seems as though Eric Warren offers more than just a lucky business deal.
From the moment they first speak on the phone, Breck and Eric feel a connection. Breck learns all about Eric’s devotion to his wife and son, as well as to his community. And she is able to open up to him about her personal life and romantic problems in a way she would normally never dare to in her competitive, male-dominated professional world. A friendship develops, and eventually turns into something deeper. Believing that her independence is intact, Breck is content to remain “the other woman,” but she still moves to Boston to be closer to Eric. There they form a parallel family, and Breck secretly has his child.
A tragic accident abruptly cuts Breck off from Eric, and she soon learns that the survival of his first child, Darius, and the well-being of Eric’s wife, Gaby, depend entirely on her—and her willingness to reveal the secrets of the life she shares with him. But the truth could destroy her reputation, her business, and the lives of the two families. Breck must decide if she has what it takes to put it all on the line.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Passion and heartbreak challenge an independent Indiana woman in Johnson's (Dream in Color) latest. Breck Lawson, an "attractive, headstrong, twenty-six-year-old African-American" architect, is struggling to keep her new business afloat until she wins a lucrative contract to design a convention center outside Boston. Eric Warren, a partner in the firm that hires her, charms her first over the phone: he's confident, insightful and not threatened by her success but he's married. They keep their desires in check for a while, but eventually become lovers. The project's success creates new business opportunities, and Breck moves close to Boston with her colleague and confidante, sexy Chi Tanaka, and expands into retail with a small but profitable coffeehouse. Despite close calls, Eric and Breck keep their relationship under wraps until Breck becomes pregnant. The new baby brings happiness and hardship; Eric plays a part-time father to two families. The romance blooms and fades amid heavy-handed prose and speechified dialogue ("I don't think the problem is that I can't love two women. The problem is that I can't have two women," Eric says. "Society doesn't accept it, so that makes me an awful person"). When Breck finally ends the relationship, Eric makes an about-face and decides to leave his wife. Tragedy intervenes, but so close to the end of the novel that only a few dozen pages are devoted to its aftermath. A modern romance full of great sex and plenty of conflict Johnson's novel is an autumn beach book: enjoyable if not memorable.