Crossroad To Love (Fab Five Series) (15 page)

“I would like to do the job. I really like all the O’Gradys
and hate to let them down. It will be a good start for my business, as well.
Surely, Ryan and I can work together civilly. I’d probably be working more with
Chloe than Ryan anyway”

“I hope you can do it. It’s such a good opportunity for you.
Now, I think we’ve all had a very stressful night and it’s time to hit the hay.
We can still get a few hours’ sleep and maybe things will look a little
brighter in the morning.” Marianne yawned as she stood up. “I need to begin
thinking about dealing with my problems too. It’s been so nice to forget about
it for these past few days.”

“Anytime you need to talk, you know we are here for you,”
Katy reminded her.

“I know, but some things just have to be dealt with alone. I
need to make a decision soon,” Marianne answered gloomily as she headed for the
bedroom.

Her three friends looked at each other sadly as they watched
her walk away.

“It’s amazing that we are all at such a crossroad in our
lives right now, isn’t it?” Lizzie asked.

“This trip was so needed for all of us. We just didn’t know
it was going to be so eventful,” Katy answered.

“When is Rex coming?” Angie looked at Lizzie.

“He’ll be here on Thursday. I need to pick him up at the
airport in the afternoon. We’re all supposed to have dinner at ‘Chloe’s Place’
that night.”

“I wonder if Michael will still go to dinner with us.” Angie
suddenly remembered that he, too, had been invited.

“If he does, I hope it won’t be too awkward for you,” Katy
replied.

“If I’m going to have to work with him, I may as well get used
to being around him, just like you will have to with Ryan.” Angie said with a
long sigh, wondering how she could possibly be so close to him and not be able
to touch him or reach out to him, laugh with him. What if he decided to pass
the hotel project on to someone else now? What if he could not stand to work
with her?

“I’m going to take Marianne’s advice and try to get some
shut eye. You two should probably try to rest a little too.” Lizzie headed for
bed.

“I’m going to have a drink to calm my nerves first,” Angie
replied.        

“And I will join you.” Katy said as she headed for the mini
bar.

“Alright, suit yourselves. I am dead on my feet. See you in
a few hours.”

“Good night, Lizzie,” Angie and Katy both said as they sat
on the couch, drinks in hand.

“What a mess we have both gotten ourselves into tonight, my
friend.” Katy was thoughtful as she looked at Angie.

“I know. Who would have thought that after all these years,
I would meet up with Michael again and actually have a chance to work things
out, only to mess it up.”

“You did the best thing by telling him the truth, Angie. You
could never truly be happy if you had kept it bottled up forever. You know
that, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I only hope I still have a chance with him. I
really do love him, you know.”

“I know, sweetie, I know. I have always known,” Katy
answered quietly.

They finished their drinks and then each retired to her
bedroom to try and catch at least a few hours of peaceful slumber.

One floor down, in his suite, Michael Gray lay in bed wide
awake. He was speaking to the empty room, “How could she have done this to me?
How could she have done this to us? I will never understand in a million years
why she didn’t tell me. I would have stood by her, comforted her, and helped
her through it. She didn’t even give me the chance. She kept the fact from me
that I, too, had lost a child. Oh, Angie, how could you do that?” he asked over
and over again as he tossed and turned in bed. “I know. I’ll call Jackie in a
few hours, when I’m sure she’s up. Maybe she can give me some answers.” Angie
had said her mother knew the whole story. He had always liked Jackie and he
thought she had been fond of him. Surely she would talk to him now that he
finally knew the truth. With that plan in mind, he rolled over and finally fell
into a deep, dreamless sleep. He slept soundly for the next few hours,
exhausted from the evening’s events.

And on the other side of town, in his posh bachelor pad
condo, another man was remembering his evening and whistling to himself as he
prepared for bed. Ryan O’Grady thought about the evening he had just spent with
Katy.
She is one fantastic woman. Smart, easy on the eyes, a good listener
.
He knew now that he had been waiting to meet someone like her for all these
years. He could finally put the past to rest.

Chloe was right, after all. Not all women were like his
first wife
. He was sure of that now. It was good to talk about it, to open
up to Katy about the tragedy he had suffered. But now that was the past and
Katy was the future.
Oh, life is going to be so sweet from now on
.

Sure, there would be problems. With her living in Chicago
and him in Dallas, something would have to be worked out. Maybe he would put a
restaurant in Chicago, after all. He would speak to Shane about the possibility.
And Katy would be coming back to Dallas to work on the designing of the party
room, and possibly the office and other restaurants. And then, there was her
son, would he approve of her seeing someone after all these years? And would he
approve of him? Ryan asked himself all these questions and many more as he lay
down on the bed.

He could not remember the last time he had been this happy.
“I wonder what time the florist opens in the morning?” he asked aloud just
before he finally fell asleep.
I have not
ordered flowers for a woman
in a very long time.
It was time to get back in the groove. He had a pretty
little lady to woo. His yellow rose. Ryan could not wait to get to the
restaurant in the morning and tell Chloe and Shane about his evening with his
beautiful little Katy.
I feel like a teenager after his first date
.

Little did he know that, like Michael, his world would soon
come crashing down around him once again.

Morning dawned with the brilliant Texas sun shining brightly
through Ryan’s bedroom window. He rolled out of bed and walked briskly into the
kitchen, grabbing a phone book. He started the coffee pot and went to the desk
to look for a florist. He located one and ordered two dozen yellow roses to be
delivered to Katy at her suite.
Will she be surprised?
He wished he
could be a fly on the wall to see her face when they arrived.
Oh, but life
is good and getting better all the time
.

He walked back upstairs carrying his mug of hot coffee,
singing to himself as thoughts of last night entered his head. Once he’d had a
hot shower, he shaved, dressed, grabbed another cup of the steaming black
coffee for the road, and headed out the door to work. As he drove down the
expressway to the restaurant, he was already thinking of the next time he would
see the beautiful little lady from Chicago.
My yellow rose
.

He entered the restaurant with a smile on his face and
hugged a stunned Chloe, who had just walked into the dining room from the
office. He picked her up and swung her around, and kissed her cheek when set
her back down. “Good morning, sweet sister-in-law of mine.”

“Well, someone is sure in a good mood this morning. I take
it y’all had a good time last night?” Chloe laughed as she looked up at her
handsome brother-in-law.

“You could say that, Chloe, my sweet. Katy is wonderful.”

“Oh, Ryan, I am so happy for you. You deserve the best, you
know.” Chloe could not have been happier for him. Ryan was more like a brother
than brother-in–law, and she truly wanted him to be as happy as she and Shane
had been all these years.

“And Katy is the best. I never knew women like her existed.
I never ran across one before. Except for you, my love, and alas, my dear
little brother found you first,” he teased her with a grin.

“What’s going on out here? Y’all flirting with my gal, bro?”
Shane asked as he entered the dining room in time to hear the two of them
laughing.

“Ryan was just telling me about his date last night. It
seems your brother is quite smitten with a certain little gal from Chicago.”

“I never thought I’d see the day when my big brother was
actually ‘smitten’ with anyone, let alone a Yankee gal.” Shane laughed as he
patted Ryan on the back. “I’m happy for you, bro. Does this mean your playboy
days are over? Whatever will the women of Dallas do?”

Laughing together, the three of them walked toward the
office to begin the day’s work.

At about that same time, in their hotel suite, the ‘Fab
Four’ were just forcing themselves awake after their few short hours of sleep
when there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it,” yelled Lizzie as she poured herself a cup of
hazelnut coffee.

“Who could be calling at this hour?” Angie asked sleepily.

“It
is
morning, honey, it just doesn’t seem like it
to us.” Katy laughed at her sleepy friend. Angie seemed to be in a little
better spirits this morning, although Katy could tell the evening’s events had
taken a definite toll on her. Angie had dark circles under her eyes and her
eyelids were puffy from crying most of the night.
Poor Angie
, she
thought.
What a mess she has created for herself
.

Katy was sitting quietly on the couch, sipping her morning
coffee, thoughts of Ryan running through her mind. She gestured for Angie to
join her.

“I am dreading the phone call I’ll be making to Alex in a
little while.” She looked at Angie for support.

“Hopefully he’ll understand your dilemma. I know you’d never
want to hurt him.”

“He has been through so much and has grown up to be a decent
young man, in spite of not having his dad and beloved big sister for the last
ten years.”

Katy’s son had been eight when they lost Bill and Bree. He
had been a very brave little eight-year-old boy, supporting his mother, never
giving her any problems growing up. She knew that not all parents were so
lucky, but maybe it was God’s way of evening the score. He took Bree away but
gave her an angel on earth in Alex.

Lizzie had answered the door and returned smiling, “Wow,
someone wants to make an impression this morning. Katy, sweetie, these are for
you. Read the card to us.” Lizzie carried a vase of twenty-four of the most
beautiful, yellow Texas roses she had ever seen. She sat the vase on the glass
coffee table and handed the card to Katy. Katy blushed as she admired the
roses. She opened the card, read it silently and smiled.            

 “Come on now, no holding out on us… We are the ‘Fab Four,’
you know,” Angie teased. “If I can come clean after all these years, there will
be no more secrets between us.”

Katy laughed as she read, “Katy, thank you for a great
evening, looking forward to seeing you soon. Love, Ryan.”

“She has definitely landed Dallas’s most eligible bachelor.
This is one for the history books,” Marianne remarked in awe.

“The man does have good taste.” Lizzie touched one of the
rose petals as she spoke.

“Katy, not to spoil the moment, but you really do have to
tell him soon. The man is obviously very interested in pursuing a relationship
with you,” Angie said seriously. “You can’t let it go on. The hurt will be that
much greater. Take it from one who learned the hard way.”

“Yes, I will have to tell him very soon, before this goes
much further. He asked me last night if I believed in love at first sight. You
know, I never gave it much thought, but there was a definite spark the very
first time I laid eyes on him that night at the restaurant. Why does there have
to be a problem? Why does he have to be who he is and why do I have to be who I
am?”       

“It’s that old fate thing again, I’m telling you. But this
time it was with a real twist. It was meant for you to come together at this
particular time in your lives, just like it was meant for Angie and Michael to
come together now, we just haven’t figured out why.”

“Marianne, you truly believe in fate. You always have and
have taken your share of teasing for it over the years. But now… maybe you are
right, after all,” Lizzie said.        

“You know, I think I will give Chloe a call and see if she
can get away from the restaurant for a few hours. Maybe she’ll meet me for
coffee. She knows Ryan about as well as anybody. I’ll get some advice from her,”
Katy said thoughtfully.
I would have loved having
her as a sister-in-law,
she pondered wistfully
. What fun the four of us could have had together
through the years.   

“I think that’s an excellent idea,” Lizzie agreed, bringing
Katy back to reality.

“I need to call Alex first. He has a late class this
morning, so I may be able to catch him right about now. Then I’ll call Chloe.”
Katy got up, poured herself another cup of coffee and went into the bedroom to
make her calls.

After she went into the bedroom, Lizzie asked the other two,
“Do you think they can work through this thing?”

“Well, they certainly are attracted to one another. And from
what I know about Ryan, that is very unusual for him. And we all know that Katy
hasn’t been serious about anyone since Bill, until now,” Marianne responded.
“But to be this man, of all the men in the world,” she added. “It’s sad, in a
way, because Katy may never get to have a relationship with him.”

“If it’s in the cards, it will all work out,” Angie said.
“Just like if it’s meant for me and Michael to be together, then that will work
out too. I can’t drive myself crazy over it. I’ll just give him some space and
if he doesn’t call me, I’ll call him. I can’t go back to work Monday with this
hanging over us.”

“I’m proud of you, girlfriend.” Lizzie got up and gave her
friend a hug.