Not Planning on You (31 page)

 

 

 

 

Suzy found Beth going over the dinner menu with the caterers in the kitchen. “Is everything on schedule for tonight, sis? I don’t want any delays so let’s stay on top of things. Has the band arrived yet?”

 

Beth stopped to study her in surprise. This was the most animated she’d seen Suzy since her breakup with Gray. “Um, have you been drinking?”

 

“What? Of course not, why?”

 

“Well, you look kind of high or something. Are you feeling ok? Your face is all flushed, and your eyes are glassy.”

 

With a dramatic sigh, Suzy snickered, “I’m high on love, sis, nothing else.”

 

“Oh God,” Beth groaned, “You’re drunk. Couldn’t you have at least waited until we hit the dinner phase of the evening?”

 

“Beth, chill, I’m not drunk, geez. I’m a little more professional than that.” Then, with a little dance, she said, “Gray isn’t the father of
Reva’s
baby, and I’m going to Charleston tonight for some long over-due makeup sex.”

 

“What, how, who?”

 

“Close your mouth Beth before something flies in it. We’ll talk later. How about checking to make sure the band is ready to go on in about an hour, and I’ll finish here and check with the bartender next.”

 

Beth took off to find the band, shooting confused looks over her shoulder. She was probably still questioning her sobriety, but didn’t know what to do about it.

 

When she finished in the kitchen, she saw Nick standing at the bar talking to Jason. They were both due to give a brief speech tonight before the band went on. “Hey guys, how’s tricks?”

 

“Suzy, everything looks great. I’ve gotten a lot of compliments on the setup for the conference this year. I don’t know how you do it, but you constantly come up with something new every year.”

 

“Thanks Jason, it’s pretty easy when you have the world’s best job. Where is Claire this evening?”

 

Jason grimaced, worry evident on his face. “She wanted to come tonight, and I argued all the way to the door, but finally managed to reason with her. Her feet are the size of footballs, but getting her to stay put for any length of time is almost impossible.” With an exasperated shake of his head, he continued, “This pregnancy may yet be the end of me. I spend all my time trying to get her to take it easy, and she spends all her time trying to prove to me why it’s not necessary. If I have to hear, ‘back in the old days, women had babies in the fields while they continued with their work,’ I’ll explode.”

 

“You think that’s bad,” Nick piped in, “you should go to a meal with all the women and let them describe their female issues in full detail. I’ll never be right again after that. A man needs to stay ignorant to a certain point.”

 

With a nod of agreement, Jason bumped his fist against Nick’s shoulder and said, “I feel your pain man, for sure.”

 

Turning back to Suzy, Jason asked, “So who’s the band playing tonight?”

 

“Oh, it’s a local rock band that does a lot of 80’s music along with some current Top 40 stuff. I think you’ll like them. I’ve used them before and had nothing but compliments.”

 

When she looked at Nick again he was studying her in a way that had her raising a brow in question. He quickly turned away saying that he needed to hit the men’s room before his speech. She shrugged it off as she sent Jason towards the stage for the opening speech and met Beth at the back for a final status check.

 

 

Nick met up with Jason and Gray backstage. “Do you think she suspects anything?”

“Nope, nothing, bro. Hell I don’t think she could guess this in a million years. Hey you never told me what happened with the girl in accounts payable who was giving your new numbers to
Reva
? How did she even have access to that information?”

With a grim look, Gray said, “Apparently there is online access to our cell phone accounts to make changes and dispute charges. It also lists all of our phone numbers. She was fired by her supervisor this afternoon.
Reva
really didn’t want to tell me who her mole was, but I insisted. We can’t have people like that on our staff. She was actually
Reva’s
cousin.”

“Damn, I guess family loyalty will get you so far, and then it’ll get your ass fired.”

Jason shook his head. “This whole mess is like something from a bad soap opera. I’m glad
Reva
finally came forward, though, and hopefully soon you and Suzy will be able to look back on it and laugh.”

Nick chuckled. “She should at least be able to laugh about this evening, if nothing else.”

Jason walked onto the stage for his speech, and Nick clapped a hand on Gray’s shoulder as he prepared to make a complete and utter fool out of himself. If it worked though, it would be well worth it.

 

 

 

 

As she settled in beside her sister, she could tell Beth was dying to know what was going on, but with the speeches starting, it was impossible to carry on a conversation without disturbing a nearby table. Jason and Nick were both very good public speakers and used the right about of humor and sincerity to captivate their audience.

 

Finally, the entertainment portion of the evening arrived and Nick introduced the band as he finished his speech. Soon light rock filled the room as the band eased into the opening set with some lighter songs. After a short break, the lead singer took the microphone and joked around with the audience.

 

“Our next number goes out to a special lady in the house, your very own Suzy Denton. I’m going to step aside and sing back-up on this one.”

 

As the lead singer stepped back to make room for the guest singer, Beth looked at Suzy, “What’s going on?”

 

Suzy shrugged her shoulders, “I have no idea. It’s probably some joke at my expense.”

 

When the spotlight hit the figure striding towards the lead microphone, Suzy almost dropped the drink she was holding. There standing at center stage in an old pair of faded jeans and a Bon-Jovi shirt from their Crush Tour, stood Gray.

 

Beth grabbed her arm, pulling frantically. “Did you know about this?”

 

“OH MY GOD, of course not.
What is he doing?”

 

Suzy’s eyes were riveted to him as he started to speak. “Hey everyone, sorry to interrupt this fabulous band, but they have been nice enough to humor me. I’ll warn you now I have very little singing talent so this might be a good time for a bathroom break.”

 

As laughter rang out in the room, Gray continued on. “There’s a special lady here tonight who has no idea how much she means to me or the lengths I’d go to in order to show her that she’s now and will always be first in my life.” Then squatting down to eye level with the audience, as if they were old friends, he said, “The woman I love is a free spirit. She was always accusing me of being something of a stuffed shirt, and maybe she was right.”

 

Gray smiled at the choruses of “no” that rang out in the audience. “Ah thanks guys. One of the things that Suzy said about me early on was that I was probably too uptight to own a Bon-Jovi tour shirt, but as you can see in the name of love, I now have one.”

 

Suzy couldn’t help but laugh at the way the audience was hanging on his every word. As he looked towards where she was standing in the back of the room, she could have sworn he could see her even though she knew it was impossible. My God, what was he doing? If he tried to drag her on the stage, she’d kill him.

 

“Well guys, since I now own the tour shirt, I thought it was only right that I also do something to show Suzy how much I love her. Anyone who knows me knows that I’d normally never do anything like this. There is only one person in this world that I’d do or be anything for and that’s Suzy Denton.”

 

Suzy was glued in place when the opening strains of Bon-Jovi’s Born to Be My Baby suddenly filled the room.
Oh shit, he’s not going to sing that. No way would her uptight man be up there in front of an audience preparing to belt out a rock song for her.

 

Beth grabbed her arm, squeezing it tight. “Oh Suzy, I can’t believe what he’s doing for you. He’s crazy, but oh man, how romantic.”

 

When Gray started singing the first part of the song, there was absolute silence in the audience. “Holy moly, he’s actually good, sis, I mean really good and that hip action, wow!”

 

“Hey, keep your eyes off my man’s hips,” Suzy growled.
Oh brother, Beth was right. Gray was good. He wasn’t Jon Bon-Jovi, but he brought his own brand of sexy to the song. She wanted to march up to that stage and rip his shirt right off his back.
When he got to the part of the song that said, ‘I know you’ll live in my heart until the day that I die,’ Suzy felt tears well up in her eyes. He was doing something that he knew would take him completely outside of his comfort zone. He was trying to show her with actions rather than words how much he loved her. She could never doubt the love of someone who would do something like this for her.

 

Suzy started making her way to the front of the room before Gray finished the song. Gray’s eyes tracked her progress as she drew closer to the stage.
 
When he finished the last line of the song, the audience started chanting, “Suzy, Suzy, Suzy.” Oh God, they wanted her to go up on the stage. Well hell, try to stop her. If Gray could belt out a song in the name of love, she could at least kiss the man.

 

Nick stood at the top of the stairway to the stage as she made it up the last step. “Wipe that shit-eating-grin off of your face,” Suzy joked as she ran by him. His laughter followed her as she was suddenly under the bright lights with Gray. She didn’t bother to act coy, she literally launched herself into his arms, and he caught her in mid-air. “Oh my God, you’re crazy, but I love you,” Suzy shouted as her lips locked on his.

 

The cheer from the audience was deafening as Gray’s mouth devoured hers. How long they stood locked in each other’s embrace she had no idea. When Gray settled her back on her feet, he immediately went down on one knee. Suzy froze, hardly able to believe what her eyes were telling her. The audience had like-wise stilled, completely captivated by the events unfolding on the stage.

 

When Gray drew a box from his pocket and looked up into her eyes, Suzy could feel the tears starting to flow. “Suzy, I hardly remember a time when I haven’t loved you. Before we met, my life was mostly in shades of black, white and gray. When I first met you, color exploded in my world making everything in it exquisite and vibrant. You’re my love, my life, my heart and every color under the rainbow all rolled up into one. Please marry me and keep me outside of my comfort zone every day of my life.”

 

With tears running down her cheeks, Suzy shouted, “Yes! You’ve completely lost your mind, but I love you with all my heart.” Holding a trembling hand out to him, Suzy watched as Gray slid a beautiful blue sapphire ring set in platinum and surrounded by pave set diamonds onto her finger. My God he did know her. A normal engagement ring after this evening would have seemed just wrong. This ring suited her completely; it was fiery, sassy and unique.

 

The applause continued as they made their way from the stage. When she saw Jason and Nick standing near the steps, she walked up to hug them both. “Sorry about this, Jason, I’m sure you would have rather we took our profession of love elsewhere.”

 

Jason laughed and said, “Are you kidding me? We already have people scrambling to sign up for the conference next year. You can’t buy this type of advertising. I’m happy for you both, you guys deserve it. I’m pretty impressed with the singing, my brother. It took some balls to do that.”

 

Gray clapped Jason on the shoulder and pulled Nick in for a quick hug. “Thanks for the help. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like some time alone with my fiancé.”

 

Suzy snuggled against him as they made their way through the crowd. Gray had apparently picked up something of a fan club, and she figured someone would be throwing their panties at him if she didn’t get him away soon. They finally made their way to the back, and she spotted Beth waving frantically as she made her way to them.

 

Beth squealed and threw herself at Gray. “You totally rock future brother-in-law! Welcome to the family.”

 

She then turned to her sister and grabbed her ring finger. Tears were swimming in her eyes as she pulled her close. “I told you that someday you would find your prince. Our parents might believe that fairytales are silly, but you and I know the truth, don’t we?” Beth whispered.

 

Suzy gave her sister one last hug and allowed Gray to pull her back into his arms. Finally, she was where she’d always belonged, in the arms of the man who completely understood every crazy part of her and loved her anyway.

 

Gray looked down at her, “Ready to go, baby?”

 

Locking her gaze with his, Suzy replied, “I’m all yours, lead the way.”