Last Call (34 page)

"Would you mind if I take over?" My father graciously handed me over to Gage as a new song began to play.

"Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?" he asked; taking my right hand in his and bringing it up and between our chests, while his other hand inched around my back. I fought the urge to place my head on his chest and we swayed gently to the beat.

"You have, actually," I teased him softly.

"Well not enough," he insisted, bringing our entwined hands up to his lips and lightly kissing my fingers. "You are stunning. I'm sorry I interrupted your dance with your father, but I was watching you and couldn't stop thinking about how gorgeous you looked, and…" he trailed off. His golden eyes looked up and scanned the crowd around us.

My hand was resting on his upper arm, but when he stopped speaking I slid it up over his shoulder and onto the side of his face, pulling him back to me. "You've just called me beautiful, stunning and gorgeous in the span of one minute. Please, go on," I urged.

When he focused back on me, I saw something different in his face. My heart leapt at the tenderness I found in the warm pools of his eyes as he continued. "I thought you looked so gorgeous and I wanted to get to you. I wanted to be the man dancing with you, Savannah. I wanted everyone to know that
I
was lucky enough to be the man that you’re with."

Dying. I'm dead. No words would form as I watched this beautiful man spill his guts to me.

"I know there were some demons you needed to exorcise this weekend, and I hope you have."

"I'm sorry, Gage. I know I should have told you about everything from the past. It wasn't fair of me to bring you here without the background story," I admitted, and then gave in to the desire to press my cheek to his chest. I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him tightly.

"No, you don't owe me anything, Savannah. Not yet," he spoke into my hair and rested his cheek on my head. "I'm ready to move forward with you, though, and I feel like you’re ready for it too. I have things I need to tell you and I'm sure you have more things to tell me, and we’ll do all of that. But I can't keep doing this tentative thing with you. It's driving me crazy. I want so badly for you to be mine."

Wow. "I'm…." Floored. Shocked. Rendered speechless. For him to lay it out for me the way he had, I was scared as hell that I would say the wrong thing.
What did I want?
my head screamed at me.
Don't be an idiot, Savannah. Say something!
Gage made me feel something I didn't think I would ever be able to feel again. When I thought about him, I knew it was
more
than I'd ever felt before.

What was wrong with me that would prevent me from reaching out with both hands and saying yes? I was suddenly overwhelmed, and pulled back slightly from his arms. "I'm sorry - you know what? I need a moment. Excuse me." He dropped his arms and stood there as I walked away. He was pretending not to care, but I saw the look of disbelief cross his features before he steeled them to show nonchalance.

"Shoot," I muttered to myself as I walked away; the same old fear creeping back up in me. Fear that I was making a huge mistake by leaving him on the dance floor. But I was having a hard time reading my own thoughts, and needed a moment of peace. My father's words
He looks at you like you’re precious
rang through my head.

Was Gage in love with me? Surely not. This couldn't be love. Not yet, anyway. He wanted to be with me though, that much was clear. Was it lust or did he truly want something more?

Making my way to the building where the restrooms were located, I walked slowly along the lantern lit path; the thick muggy evening air stealing my breath much as Gage's words had.

"Savannah?"

I stilled at the familiar voice. "Spence?"

"Can we talk for a moment?" he asked softly. He walked up to stand next to me; uncertainty making itself known in his awkward body language.

"Spencer, we don't have anything more to say. I told you that I've moved on."

"Savannah, I have regretted the moment I said goodbye to you since the moment I did it. Can't we just talk?"

"Why? It won't change the fact that it happened."

"Your mother has hounded me since I came back to Charleston, and everywhere I go I see the places I spent time with you. You haunt me here. I miss you."

"I'm sorry but I can’t, Spencer. You don't know how much it hurt me when we ended. It wrecked me Spence, even worse than my relationship with Daniel did."

A pained look crossed his face. "God, I'm sorry. I was so stupid." He pulled me into a hug, and I allowed him to touch me because I knew what he was feeling. When I looked at his handsome face, I felt it too. The memories of what we shared one long, hot summer three years ago. It
was
special to me, and until a few weeks ago, I'm pretty sure I would have jumped at the chance to renew our relationship.

"Spencer," I inserted, pulling back a little. "I'm sorry. I wish things could have ended differently but they didn't. It's been three years."

"You’re right - three long years, yet I’m still not over you. Things can be different," he insisted. He quickly leaned in and kissed my lips. For a moment I thought he was going to just give me a quick peck, but then his hands braced my back and he put pressure on my lips as he tried to force my mouth to yield to him.

The old memories of his lips on mine rushed in for a moment and I forgot where I was. I allowed my hands to move up his chest of their own accord. I was lost in the moment, yet a small voice was nagging in my ear.

"Savannah, Spencer is finished with law school and he's going to be taking over his father’s practice in a few years. You would have the perfect life here at home
where you belong
."
It was my mother's voice, and it was full of all of the ideas she'd been trying to force down my throat for years.

Remembering that we were standing in the middle of a walkway on the way to the club, I lightly pushed Spencer away. "No."

Stepping back, his face a mask of desire and sorrow, Spencer watched silently as I spun on my heel and hurried into the building.

I cursed myself for allowing that moment of weakness to happen in the first place. It was like I was being tossed about in an angry sea of waves. Spencer's face entered my mind and immediate confusion swept through me when I touched my lips. They still tingled from his kiss, and I tried to focus on that feeling. The memory of being in his arms again. How it felt to kiss his lips after so long.

But no matter how hard I tried to focus on Spencer, it was Gage who kept coming back into my mind. Gage, with his dimpled smile, always pushed the others away from my vision…and then it hit me. I was over Spencer. I was over Daniel. I was ready to move forward with someone, and I was one hundred percent sure that someone was Gage. I was scared as hell that I would make a mistake and screw it up, but I had no choice. It was
Gage
that my heart wanted.

Excited at the revelation, I quickly freshened up my lipstick in the sitting room mirror. I was about to push my way out of the restroom when the door swung in and my mother entered.

"There you are, darling. How are you taking it all in?"

Being forced to have this conversation with my mother,
again
, exasperated me. "I'm fine, mother. It was a lovely wedding and I'm happy for them."

She rolled her eyes like she thought I was crazy.

"What, mother? Why is that so hard to believe, huh?" I shot out, tired of her theatrics.

"Savannah Rose. There is no need for you to sound so short with me," she huffed. She raised a hand to pat her hair as she spoke, "I know how hard it was for you to come here and take part in their happiness. I was worried about you."

"Mother, I’m fine. I have Gage." Saying it aloud was so
right
, and I smiled at the truth in the words.

He had been a rock for me throughout the entire wedding debacle. He’d sat beside me with his hand around my shoulders; his fingers lightly teasing my bare shoulder and causing chill bumps to appear.

Several times he leaned in and whispered funny little comments about one of the ladies hats, or another's putrid purple dress. When I found myself struggling to hold back tears when Mary Anne walked into the room, Gage lightly stroked my fingers and whispered in my ear.

"It's very emotional watching someone give up their dating freedom, isn't it?" I slapped my hand over my mouth as a giggle welled up in my throat. "I mean, think of all of the wonderful dates they’re losing out on. All of the songs that won't get a name put with them."

Holding tight to his hand, I turned towards him with gratitude. "I'd take the song game over this any day." I meant that I would take him over Daniel, but I don't think he understood that.

He leaned towards me like he was going to kiss me right there as Mary Anne walked down the aisle, and it was only the slight cough of my father to my right that pulled us out of our bubble.

Wanting to hurry back to him I pulled open the door to leave my mother, but she stopped me before I could escape.

"Savannah, honey - I'm sure that he’s very nice, but what type of a future would you actually have with someone like him?"

"Someone like him?" I asked, playing stupid. At some point since arriving in Charleston my father had filled my mother in on Gage's job, and I knew she wasn't happy that he was a bartender.

"Don't try to make me out to sound like the bad guy here, Savannah. I mean Gage is
gorgeous
, honey, and I can
see
why you brought him. He has certainly been turning heads the past few days. But he's no Daniel, no matter how handsome he is. You deserve something more, darling. You deserve the fairy tale too, if not more, than Mary Anne."

"Yes," I rolled my own eyes in defeat. "I brought him just so I could make all of the country club cronies pant after him. So that everyone who saw me get thrown to the side by Daniel could see that I was having a ball with my sexy new boy toy."

"We only want you to be happy, darling," my mother exclaimed.

"I had my chance at ‘happily ever after’, remember? The upstanding young lawyer with the trust fund was all in the bag until the beautiful bride came and stole him." My words tasted bitter as they poured from my mouth. In truth, I wanted to thank Mary Anne for taking Daniel off of my hands all those years ago. It may have hurt like hell back then, but I was so much better off for it now.

The sound of footsteps, a small commotion and a male voice pardoning himself pulled me from my conversation with my mother. Realizing that we'd been speaking with the door open, I quickly stepped out and looked around. The glass door leading out of the building was slowly clicking closed, and I saw a tall figure swiftly making his way down the steps outside.

The lady that he must have bumped into stepped around me as I stood there in shock. I recognized her as a friend of my parents’ from the club.

"Dear, that is some accent your guy has." She winked and then fanned herself over dramatically.

I rushed out of the building upon understanding that it was Gage who had overheard our conversation. Ahead of me was the large outdoor tent where the wedding reception was taking place, and to the left were lit paths that would bring guests to the tennis courts and pool area. To my right were pathways leading around the club and towards the golf course. Scanning the area frantically, I searched for my handsome date in his dark suit. I spotted him to my right and immediately took off after him.

"Gage?" I exclaimed after the silhouette began taking long strides across the lawn of the country club ahead of me. He was walking quickly away from the building and my heels dug into the grass; tripping me as I tried to catch up with him. "Gage!" I shouted louder, panic beginning to clutch at my chest.

The light of the almost-full moon provided all of the lighting this far from the clubhouse. I found him stopped under a large tree with his hands stuffed into his pants pockets, and I placed a hand on his bicep once I finally reached him. Panting from the exertion of racing to catch up to him, I tried to turn him around to face me by tugging on his arm, but he stalwartly resisted. I stood behind him for a moment trying to find the right words to say. When I leaned into him and placed my cheek against his back, he finally spoke.

His voice was raw when he said, "What was this, Savannah? Was I just eye candy to you? A short trip home to show off the sexy Aussie to your vapid little cousin?"

Regret slapped me in the face and I cried out, "No! Do you honestly think so little of me?" He didn’t reply right away, so I stated the obvious. "You heard my mother and I just now, right?"

He stepped forward suddenly, which caused me to stumble back. He turned my way and I saw the disgust written in his face. The moon provided just enough light for me to see the anger flashing in his eyes. "Were you trying to show your ex you could forget him? Is that what all those dates were for? But when you couldn't find a rich ass worth the time to bring home to momma, you went for the lowly bartender because of his sex appeal?"

"Gage, no. I swear, that's…"