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.”