Not Planning on You (Danvers #2)(66)
“I’m confused then. If you have all of this figured out, then why aren’t you over there begging Suzy to give you another chance? Why are you letting this drag on when it’s making you both so damned miserable?”
“I don’t want to hurt her anymore. I’m trying to give her time to come to terms with everything. If I push her now, she’ll only resent it later. Look how long it took me to get her to agree to a date. It’s killing me, but she asked me to love her enough to let her go. I can’t give her that, but I can love her enough to give her time.”
Nick uttered the question that terrified Gray the most about his plan, “What if it’s too late then? What if you’re just giving her enough time to move on instead?”
Chapter Twenty Five
Suzy found the old saying to be true, life does go on. No matter how much you seem to be running in place, the world moves on and you learn to move with it. It had been a month since she ended things with Gray, and she was slowly picking up the pieces again. It was still so damned hard to get out of bed each day, but she managed. She was even trying to put back on some of the weight she’d lost. There was a big difference in slim and skinny and right now she’d lost a lot of her curves and looked more like a stick figure.
Her cast had been removed a few weeks back and although her ankle was still weak, she was enjoying not having to lug crutches everywhere she went. Her friends had slowly backed off and were no longer giving her those nervous looks that she’d received for so long. Claire looked like she was going to go into labor at any moment and was no longer working at Danver’s per doctor’s orders. Beth and Ella had gotten even closer and Suzy had to admit, she was pretty fond of Ella, too. It was hard to believe she was the same person that used to annoy her daily. Nick was, well, just Nick. Her heart still hurt when she talked to him, but she managed to hide it. She cared a lot about him and it wasn’t his fault that things hadn’t worked out with Gray.
Since it was Saturday, Suzy was lazing on the couch flipping channels before she met Beth for lunch. When the doorbell rang a few minutes later, she looked at her watch. Apparently Beth had been running early and decided to come here instead of meeting her around the corner. Flipping off the television, Suzy swung the door open and then stood frozen in the doorway.
Standing on the doorstep with her cheeks flushed a brilliant shade of pink and looking very uncomfortable was Reva clutching the hand of a man that she’d never seen before. The man cleared his throat, “Ms. Denton, we’re sorry to drop in unexpectedly, but I hope that you can give us a few minutes of your time. Reva would really like to speak with you.”
Suzy stepped aside and motioned them in because she simply couldn’t think of anything else to do. What in the world would bring Reva to her doorstep and who was the man with her? He was too young to be her father so maybe her brother?
The couple was now standing in her living room looking around uncertainly. “Please have a seat,” Suzy said, pointing to the couch. Then sitting in the chair across from them, she decided to just get right to the point. “So this is a little weird to me. What exactly can I do for you and how did you find me?”
Reva was nervously working the strap of her pocketbook with her fingers, looking completely miserable. The man beside of her spoke up again. “Ms. Denton, I’m Mark Wyatt and I believe you have met Reva before. We owe you an apology and an explanation.”
Suddenly Reva’s head came up and she turned to the man beside of her. “No Mark, I did this and I need to be the one to explain.” He reached over and gripped her hand, love evident in his eyes as he looked at her.
Ok, so obviously not a brother with the vibes flowing between them, so what now? Does she want to ask me about being the live-in nanny or something?
Then taking a deep breath and getting another squeeze of encouragement from the man beside of her, Reva began. “Suzy, I don’t really know where to start so I’ll just go from the beginning. Mark and I have been in love for several years. He works for my father as a security guard. You would have to know my parents to understand why this would be a problem. I love them, I really do, but they’re obsessed with climbing the social ladder and I’ve always been one of their ways to do that. When they found out that I was involved with Mark, they hit the ceiling. No way was their daughter going to end up with some blue collar worker especially one who worked for them. Th…They fired Mark and threatened to cut me off completely if I ever saw him again.”
Suzy had a feeling that she knew where this was headed. Even though this woman had turned her life into a living hell, she still felt sympathy for the obvious pain that she was going through as well. “Reva, can I get your some water?”
Both Reva and Mark turned a grateful expression to hers at the offer. When she returned with two bottles of water, Reva took a long drink of hers before continuing her story.
“Even though I wanted to keep seeing Mark behind their backs, he wouldn’t do it. He said that I either stood up to my parents or we were finished. I…I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t strong enough to stand up to them so I let Mark go. I figured I could either make him jealous enough to take me on my terms or distract myself from my misery with someone new.” With a rueful expression, Reva said, “That’s where Gray comes in. I found out via a home pregnancy test that I was pregnant right before I met Gray.”