Reva hadn’t seen him yet since Suzy was partially blocking his body. As they approached her table, she finally saw him. She looked at Suzy in annoyance, obviously thinking she was trying to pick Gray up. Her annoyance turned to confusion at the possessive arm that Gray placed around Suzy’s shoulders as they stopped at her table.
“Reva, thanks for meeting us. This is Suzanna, my girlfriend.” Shock crossed Reva’s face followed by a look that made him cringe.
Reva pushed her chair back from the table and Gray felt Suzy tense and the world tilt under his feet. Reva extended a hand towards Suzy and said, “Well what a surprise, I’m Reva, the mother of his unborn child.” All eyes dropped to the hand she laid against her swollen stomach.
How long they all stood there he’d no idea. “Reva, what in the hell is going on?” Gray realized they were all still standing and starting to get some curious looks. He pulled out a chair for Suzy and propped her crutches against the wall. Reva made a big production of settling back into her chair. He took Suzy’s cold fingers under the table, trying to offer her some reassurance that he was far from feeling.
With probably what Gray felt was one of her best performances to date, Reva promptly began to sniffle. “I…I’m so..rry, Gray.” With another sniffle, she continued, “I wanted to tell you sooner, but I couldn’t get you to see me. I just didn’t know what to do.”
Gray felt like his tongue was lodged in his throat. He was surprised he wasn’t choking on it. Beside of him, Suzy sat unmoving, as if in shock. Hell, he was in shock, too. He cleared his throat, carefully choosing his words. “Reva, you have called and texted me daily for months. You have left letters and God knows what else behind for me and you have also been calling Nick. Granted I stopped reading most of the stuff, but I’m willing to bet there was no mention of a baby in them. Now suddenly you’re sitting here in front of me in full maternity glory? What gives?”
More tears followed his questions and he had a bad feeling that Suzy thought he was some type of insensitive bastard for badgering a pregnant woman. She’d no idea what he’d been subjected to since meeting Reva. He doubted there was a day in her life that she wasn’t planning some sort of scheme.
With another sniffle, Reva said, “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to feel like I was trying to trap you. I…I know you don’t care anything about me. It was always her wasn’t it?” Reva finished miserably.
“Reva, we only had sex once and I used a condom so there is no way your baby is mine.”
Suzy suddenly pushed her chair back and stood. “Honey, where are you going?” Before she averted her eyes, Gray could see the tears shimmering in their depths. His gut clenched and his heart raced as he felt her slipping away from him.
“You both need time to talk and I don’t need to be here for it. I’m going to catch a cab back.”
Suzy was already reaching for her crutches. “No you aren’t, give me just a minute and we will leave.”
“Gray, let me go,” Suzy pleaded. She had to get out of here before she exploded. At that moment, she couldn’t stand the thought of being in the close confines of Gray’s car with him. She knew if she were ever going to get out of here without him following her, she had to put his mind at ease. Forcing herself to give him a smile, she said, “Just stay and finish up, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you back at condo. You know there are cabs out front so I won’t have any problem getting one.” She quickly fished the door key from the jacket pocket she’d saw him place it in earlier. She knew he was still torn so she reached up and brushed a quick kiss across his lips and took off as fast as her crutches would allow.
When she reached the door, she was relieved to see that although he was still standing there staring after her, he hadn’t made a move to follow. She quickly walked out the door and hailed the next cab in line. She held it together on the short ride back to Gray’s home. Her first inclination when she arrived was to throw herself across the bed and give way to all of the pain hammering to get out. Her second thought though was to just get out. Gray needed space to figure out his life and she couldn’t be here with him while he was doing it.
~~~
Suzy pulled her phone from her purse and called the one person she knew she could count on. When her sister answered the other line, Suzy simply said, “I need you to come get me, now.”
Beth only asked one question, “Where are you?”
Suzy quickly gave her directions and Beth assured her that she was leaving within five minutes. After ending the call, Suzy went to the bedroom to gather her stuff. Luckily, she’d only unpacked a few things so within minutes her bags were sitting at the door and she was left with nothing but her worst enemy..time.
Reva was pregnant and just like that, her life with Gray was over. Nothing would ever be the same again. Gray was going to be torn in two directions. She’d no doubt that he loved her; funny she could see that now. She loved him, as well, but things could never be like they were before. Gray’s life would be tied with Reva’s forever. Gray was an honorable man, so he might even feel that he needed to marry Reva because of the baby. Even if he didn’t marry her, he’d still constantly worry about how she was handling this. She had to let him go, she couldn’t be another stress point in his life.
Suzy was startled to hear a knock at the door. She had Gray’s key so it had to be him. She braced herself as she walked over and opened the door to find Beth and Nick standing there. “Wh..What’re you doing here so soon? It’s only been half an hour since I called you.”
“Um, when Nick told me what you guys were planning, I decided to come on down here for moral support or to you know…help you kick some ass if needed.”
She pulled her sister into a tight hug. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you.” When she pulled back, she saw the concern on Nick and Beth’s face. She took a deep breath and said, “Guys, I don’t want to go into this right now, but I need to get out of here.”
Nick stepped forward and took her hand. “Suzy are you alright? Where is my brother?”
Tears shimmed in her eyes as she looked into the face so similar to the man she loved. “Nick, please let me get out of here and we will talk, ok?”
Nick paused for another minute, clearly torn but with Beth’s urging, he grabbed Suzy’s bags and they all made their way to the elevator. When they reached the parking garage, Suzy got the laugh that she needed when Nick and Beth walked over to the mini-van. “Oh God, you kept the van? Nick, it’s just wrong somehow for a swinging bachelor to be driving this. What in the world do your dates say?”
Nick scowled at her saying, “I’ll have you know, this baby has a lot of horsepower, tons of storage and my chick digs it.”
Still laughing, Suzy said, “Don’t tell me you’re dating a soccer mom now. That’s about the only chick I could imagine digging this.” Good grief, where had these two lost their sense of humor? Both of them stood there giving her a disgusted expression. This was one of the worst days of her life, if she wanted to make fun of Nick’s damn mini-van then she would. Screw everyone; she had to do what she could to survive today.
Just as Nick walked around to help her into the van, Gray’s BMW came roaring into the parking garage. Suzy had the desire to jump in the driver’s seat and take off. She wasn’t sure she’d have been able to control the urge if she hadn’t been wearing the stupid cast. She stiffened her spine knowing it was going to destroy her to look into his eyes. She’d wanted to go home and re-group before she talked to him; she sure didn’t want to have this conversation with his brother and her sister standing close by.
As Gray approached them, Suzy noted that he didn’t seem surprised to see them all there. She’d a sneaking suspicion that Nick had called him. What had she really expected? Gray was his brother; of course his loyalty was with him first and foremost. Her sister, though, could have given her a little warning. She idly wondered what her sister and Nick were doing together anyway. She knew they pretty much despised each other so why did
they keep turning up together?
“Nick, Beth, can you give us a few minutes please?” Gray asked.
She knew it would be childish to object as her sister and Nick walked to the other side of the garage as Gray asked. He looked down at her without touching her and Suzy noticed how tired he looked. There were lines of fatigue around his eyes that weren’t usually there and his shoulders were bent as if he were carrying the weight of the world on them.
“Baby, what’re you doing?”
Sometimes she hated being a girl because she was helpless to stop the moisture gathering in the corner of her eyes. “I don’t know, Gray. I just need to get away for a few days. I need to go back home where I can…breathe again.”
He leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes as he searched for his next words. “I’m so sorry about this mess. I still don’t believe that this baby is mine. I don’t trust Reva to even give me her full name without lying about some part of it.”
Suzy let her crutches fall back into the van as she put her arms around him and just held on. Her emotions were in complete turmoil, but she knew that he needed her right now as he never had before. Gray was a strong man, but he was floundering. Something like this was probably enough to knock the feet out from under even the strongest man.
“Gray, I love you.” As his head jerked up to look at her with wonder, she continued, “It’s because of that love that I have to leave now. If I stay here with you, you will be worried about me and unable to figure out what you need to do about Reva. I don’t know if that’s your baby she’s carrying or not, but I know you need to decide what you’re going to do.”
“Suzanna, you have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear you say those three words. I promise you that we will be ok. When this baby is born there will be a paternity test and if it does turn out to be mine, then I’ll support him or her financially, as well as be a father. I won’t be marrying Reva nor will she be living with me. It would not be fair to a child to live in such an environment. I just have a gut feeling that something isn’t right with this whole thing and I need to find out what it is.
Suzy had to wonder if it was a gut feeling he was really having or wishful thinking. The Reva that he’d described seemed very different from the emotional woman she’d met in the bar tonight.
Looking very vulnerable, he said, “I just need to know you will be here. I know that I’m asking a lot, but you’re my life and I can’t lose you now.”
Suzy tenderly caressed the face of the man she loved so much and was helpless to deny him the reassurance that he so desperately needed at this moment. “I’m just going home, Gray, I’ll be there when you finish here.” She could feel the relief rolling off of Gray in waves.
“Thank God. If you must go, please go to our house.” As she started to protest, he silenced her with a finger on her lips. “I bought that house for us; it is your home. I’ll be home in a few days and I don’t want to worry about you trying to navigate any stairs while I’m away.”
Suzy couldn’t find the strength to argue over this request. Gray’s lips took hers in a kiss so sweet and full of love that she felt her heart melt. At that moment, she didn’t think it was possible to love another as much as she loved him. She only hoped her heart would survive the fall-out if something happened.
Nick and Beth walked back up to them and Suzy was surprised when Gray told them what had happened with Reva. Nick swore violently, his face flushed with anger. “Gray, man, I know you aren’t going to just take her word for it. The woman is a nut and if she’s gotten herself pregnant, there is no way it’s yours. For one, I know you wouldn’t be that careless and she sure wouldn’t have kept that a secret this whole time. She’s ringing all of our damn phones off the hook daily for months and doesn’t say a word? She’d have taken out a banner ad right after she found out if that were true.”
Beth had moved close to her sister since recovering from the shock of Gray’s words. While he and Nick continued to discuss what was going on, Beth looked at her with a mixture of anger and sympathy. “Sis, how are you holding up?”
Suzy gave her sister a weak smile. “It is what it is, there is nowhere else to go but forward.”
“Is it very wrong of me to want to kick a pregnant woman’s ass?” Beth asked.
Unable to control her laughter, Suzy looked at her sister and held her fingers apart. “A little bit, but thanks for the thought.”
The men finally wrapped up their conversation and Gray pulled her close for one last bittersweet kiss. “I’ll call you tonight. I love you, baby.”
Suzy felt shy about saying the words in front of an audience, but she knew that Gray needed to hear them. “I love you too. Try to get some rest today.”
The breath left her body as he picked her up in his arms and deposited her into the seat. “I’m not taking the chance on you hurting yourself trying to get into my brother’s mini-van.” With a smirk, he looked over at Nick. “Nice wheels, bro.”
Nick’s simple reply of, “Piss off” had them all laughing.
Suzy’s heart broke as they drove away, and she looked back at Gray one last time and saw him standing there in the parking garage looking like the last man on a sinking ship. Was leaving him the right thing to do? Like him she had to go with her gut and that told her that he needed to be alone right now even if being in his arms was what she needed more than anything.
~~~
What a big freaking mess. There goes the woman I love who actually loves me back and here I stand in complete hell. Was it even possible to make a bigger mess than I have? My father always told us that our dick could lead us to our destruction if we didn’t watch ourselves. Well, no shit, Dad, no shit.
Gray stepped off the elevator and into his home. He walked into the bedroom not really knowing what he was seeking until he looked down at the bed still rumpled from Suzy’s earlier nap. As he collapsed onto it, her scent wrapped around him and he felt the first bit of peace that he’d felt since he’d held her in his arms earlier after they had made love.
He relived his conversation earlier with Reva. Gone was the conniving confident Reva and in her place was a clingy, needy, emotional basket-case. It had gotten to the point that he was actually starting to feel sorry for her before he’d left. Was this yet another act on her part or genuine? There was no denying she was pregnant, but was the child his? As he’d thought, and of course as Nick had pointed out, why would she have waited this long? He was the one who had contacted her to meet tonight, so was she ever planning to tell him? Sure, she still called constantly, but even she’d admitted that she hadn’t left a message concerning the pregnancy. Why would someone stalk him for months and not use the one weapon guaranteed to get his attention?
Nothing about the whole thing made sense. He was very good at reading people and he was certain that her emotional distress earlier wasn’t an act. He was going to check around to people he knew in her circle and find out if she’d been seeing anyone else. If the child turned out to be his, then of course it would want for nothing. Reva, however, would never be any closer to him than she was now. He’d be polite, but she’d never be the woman in his life. That spot was Suzy’s alone.
Reva said that she hadn’t told anyone who the father of her baby was. That also seemed strange to him. He was surprised that her parents hadn’t already been on his doorstep demanding he do the right thing. From what he knew of them, he couldn’t imagine that they were thrilled that their daughter was pregnant with no man in sight. Something was off, but damned if he had the energy to figure it out right now.
He smiled as he thought of Suzy finally admitting that she loved him. God, how long had he waited to hear those words from her? There had never been a time when he’d needed to hear them more. He missed her now, but he knew she was right. He was being torn to pieces trying to shelter her feelings while trying to figure this mess out here. As long as he knew she’d be there when he came home, he could handle anything.
Chapter Eigh
teen
Suzy walked in the door of Gray’s beach home. Nick followed, carrying her bags through to the bedroom. Even though she’d argued with them, he and Beth were insistent on staying with her until Gray was back. Since she’d be returning to work tomorrow, she didn’t really think it mattered either way. At least they had put their differences behind them and didn’t argue as much. Nick still called Beth ‘princess,’ but she just shrugged it off.