Crossroad To Love (Fab Five Series) (19 page)

“She’s right. I am starved,” Angie answered. She would not
let Michael Gray ruin her evening with her friends. In a few days it would be
time for them all to go home and face their lives. Tonight was for the four
girls.

“Angie, we need to decide when you want me to come to Iowa
and meet with you about the designs for your hotel,” Katy subtly changed the
subject.

“I’ll check my schedule when I get back home and get with
you on that. I know you’ll be coming back to Dallas to work with Ryan too. I am
so excited about us working together.”

“I’ll be coming back to Dallas if all goes well with Ryan
tomorrow night,” she replied quietly. “He may ask me to bow out of the project,
though.”

“Now, now, we’re not going to discuss our problems tonight,
remember?” Lizzie chided.

And on that note, the girls ordered their dinners and began
indulging in light, fun conversation. At least they tried. Given their
individual circumstances, it was not an easy task.

“Well, would you look at that?” Michael asked as he spied
the table of four.

“What?” Jon asked distractedly.

“The famous ‘Fab Four’ is dining in this very room.
Obviously, they haven’t seen us or the fireworks would have started by now.”

“Either that, or they’re simply ignoring us.”

“I’ll let them finish their dinner in peace, then little
Miss Angie and I are going to have some words. We have to get this thing
settled before we start work on her big project next week.”

“Don’t do or say anything you’ll regret, my friend. I need
to try and convince my wife to talk to me too, because I can’t go home with
this dark cloud hanging over us.”

The two men agreed to wait until the girls had finished
their dinner before making a move. As the girls were bantering back and forth,
laughing and apparently having a good time, the two men at the table across the
room watched and waited patiently. They paid for their drinks and food, and
when they saw the waiter take the check to the girls, they rose from their
seats and headed straight to their table.

“So, are you stalking us now?” Marianne asked coldly as Jon
walked up to the table and stood by her chair.

“Marianne, stop it. We have to talk and you know it. I’m
going to book a suite and you and I are going to go there and hash this thing
out right now.”

“Oh, can you get your girlfriend out of the suite long
enough for us to talk, or is she going to join us? I don’t think I’d be
interested in a threesome. She’s not my type.” Mari could have bitten off her
tongue.
Why on earth am I being such a shrew? I am pretty
certain by
now that Jon is telling the truth.

Jon sighed as he replied calmly, “There is no suite with a
girl in it. I am going to the desk right now to try to book one for us… you and
me… We’re going to talk and then you can join your friends to finish your
vacation. But I am
not
going home tonight without talking to you about
this. The air needs to be cleared once and for all. This whole thing is just
downright ridiculous and you know it.” He was growing more perturbed with each
passing minute.

“You do what you want, Jonny boy, but I think everything has
been said.” Marianne was still very angry with him in spite of the fact she
believed him. Angry that he had put her through months of agonizing. If he had told
her the truth to begin with, it would have saved her a lot of grief.

“The problem with that is you didn’t listen to what was said.”
And on that note, Jon walked out of the bar and straight to the front desk to
book a suite.
I have to get her to
listen to reason
. She was
acting so flippantly with him in front of her friends. 
I have to get her
alone and try to get her to hear what I am saying.
Nothing happened.
How many times do I
have to keep saying it before she will believe it
?
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. This would explain the drinking problem.

“Angie, you and I have to talk also. I would appreciate it
if you would accompany me back to my room for a little while.” Michael looked
at Angie with sadness in his eyes.

“Of course I will, Michael. I realize that we have things to
discuss before we go back to Iowa next week. I just want to make sure Marianne
is going to be all right and then I will meet you.”

That was easier than I thought it would be.
Michael
thought.
But how in the world am I going to handle the situation when I get
her alone
?

“Marianne, you have to calm down and listen to what Jon has
to say,” Angie said. “Please, don’t be the fool I was fifteen years ago and
throw away your life. If there is any way to salvage your marriage, you need to
find it. And that is all I am going to say, other than good luck. I love you.”
Angie gave her friend a quick hug.

“I love all of you too and I will listen to him. I just have
to find a way to control this horrible anger I have inside of me. I can’t seem
to stop myself from lashing out at him.”

“That’s totally understandable. He apparently thought it
wasn’t worth mentioning, but he seems to be willing to admit that it was wrong
not to tell you anyway. You need to find it in your heart to forgive him, if
you want to stay married to him. You can’t continue the bitterness, or you’ll
both be miserable for the rest of your lives. You’ve wasted months agonizing
over an affair that never happened,” Katy cautioned her friend. “Maybe he was
trying to spare you. It had to be aggravating for him to have her harassing him
all the time.”

“Good luck to you both. We’ll wait up for you. I need to give
Rex a call back to discuss the ads for the O’Gradys with him before he arrives
tomorrow. I didn’t really have a chance earlier when he called.” Lizzie got up
from the table.  

“And I need to give some thought to how I am going to tell
Ryan what I need to tell him tomorrow night. So I’ll see both of you later this
evening. Follow your hearts, both of you,” Katy said as she hugged them both
and got up to follow Lizzie back to the suite. As she walked into the suite,
her thoughts were racing.
Hopefully they are going to work things out, and
then I can
go home at the end of the week knowing that all is well in
the lives of my friends once again
.
Too bad things won’t be well in my
life by then
.

Angie prepared to face Michael in his suite. She told
Marianne she would walk her out to the lobby to meet Jon. “And then you’re on
your own.”

“Thank you, Angie. I will remember what you said. Good luck
with Michael.”

Angie smiled and walked toward the elevator.
Please, God,
let Michael be willing to
forgive me for what I did to him all those
years ago.
She reached his suite and timidly knocked on the door.

Michael answered the door with a tense smile. “I’m glad you
agreed to join me, Angela.” He welcomed her into the room.

“Thank you,” she answered nervously.

“Have a seat. Is there anything I can get you?”

“No, thanks.” She began, “Michael, I am so sorry. I know I
have hurt you deeply. That was never my intention. You have to know that.”

He ran his fingers through his hair as he sat down in the
chair across from her. He looked at her with sadness in his eyes as he began to
speak very softly to her.

“I have done nothing for the last twenty-four hours but
think about what you told me last night. I was very angry with you at first. I
could
not
believe that you didn’t trust me enough to call me back from
my trip when you were in the hospital. I couldn’t believe that you chose not to
tell me at all, divorcing me, leading me to believe it was because you wanted
to pursue your career. You told me that your work didn’t allow you to start a
family, that you had goals and you would never achieve them if you stayed
married to me. Do you have any idea how that made me feel, to know that you
chose your career over me and a possible family together? Women work and stay
married and have babies all the time. So I had to assume you had fallen out of
love with me. I was devastated. But I decided not to stand in your way. I
always had the hope that we could someday find our way back to each other.
That’s why I jumped at the chance to work with you on this project of yours, so
that I could see you again, see what kind of a life you had. I wanted to see if
you were happy with the life you had chosen or if there was the slightest
chance that you might have missed me as much as I had missed you.”

“And then last night, when everything was so perfect between
us, when we had admitted, for the first time in all these years, that we were
still in love, I thought we actually were getting our act together. And then
boom, out of nowhere, you lay something so heavy on me that I couldn’t even
stand to be in the same room with you. Do you know how it made me feel to know
that you kept something so sacred hidden from me? You didn’t even give me the
chance to grieve with you. We could have stayed together, Angie. We could have
had a childless marriage or we could have adopted. We could have been happy
together all these years instead of miserable apart.”

He simply dropped his head and sobbed as he finished, “I
love you, Angie.”

Angie watched as the man she loved cried. The tears he
should have cried with her fifteen years ago, had she let him.
I am such a
fool. I can see that now. But back then, I just couldn’t see it
, she
thought as she watched him. She walked over to him and put her arms around him.
She did not say a word. She just held him in her arms and cried with him.

Finally, she spoke softly, “Let it all out, Michael. These
are the tears I deprived you of fifteen years ago. Let it all out, my love.”

They held each other and sobbed together. They cried for
their baby. And they cried for the last fifteen wasted years of their lives.

When they had cried all the tears there were to cry, he said
softly, “Angie, I never stopped loving you.”

“And I never stopped loving you,” she answered as she
cradled him in her arms.

“Why did you do it? I spoke with Jackie this morning. She
said you were devastated.”

“I was so messed up at the time. I guess I went into some
sort of shock. You were out of town and it just seemed simpler not to tell you.
When I lost the baby, it was bad enough, but when the doctor told me I could
never have a child, something in me just snapped. I was numb. It was like my
whole world was over. I knew how much you wanted children. I did what I thought
was best and set you free. I grieved for you and that baby and all the other
babies I could never have for years. I was heartbroken, so I threw myself into
my work. It was the one thing in my life that I felt I was actually not a
failure at. It wasn’t until I saw you and found out that you had never remarried
and never had a family that I realized what a mistake I had made. What a mess I
had made of both our lives. That’s why I knew that if we were to get back
together, as I was so hoping we would, I would have no choice but to tell you
everything. No more secrets. I am so sorry, Michael. I love you with all my
heart. I always have and I always will, no matter where you decide we go from
here.”

“Where do you want to go from here?” he asked gently as his
chocolate eyes searched her green ones for an answer.

“I want you back in my life. I want your forgiveness. I want
to put the last fifteen years behind us and move on. I want us to start a new
life together. I feel like we’re at the crossroad and we have to decide which
way to turn. It’s now or never. We need to decide which direction in that
crossroad we’re going to take, because once we take it, there is no going back.
But it won’t work if you cannot forgive me.”

“Last night, I would have said I could never forgive you.
But tonight, after much agonizing and a lot of good advice, I realize what it
took for you to keep this to yourself. I realize the sacrifice you made for me
even though I wouldn’t have asked you to do that. As long as I know that you
still love me and that there are no more secrets and never will be again, I
actually think there may be a chance for us, Babe. Maybe we just need to take
it a little slowly at first.”

Angie rushed into his arms. “Oh, Michael, I will never keep
a secret from you again as long as I have you back in my life.”

“Do you need to get back to the ‘Fab Four’ right away, or
can you stay awhile and just be with me?” He kissed her forehead and her nose.

“I thought we were taking this slow?” She laughed as she
gently caressed his cheek.

“We are. I just want to spend some time with you. We need to
just spend some quiet time in each other’s arms. We have had a very
heart-wrenching few hours.”

“Let me call Lizzie and tell her not to wait up for me.
There is nothing I would like better than to spend the next few hours cuddling
with you and discussing our future, Mr. Gray.”

“Um… that sounds good to me, Mrs. Gray. And I think you had
better give your mother a call and let her know we are all right. She has
already invited me to dinner.”

“Mom will be pleased to hear that we are going to give it
another whirl, I’m sure.”

After Angie had made her phone calls, she settled back in
Michael’s arms and sighed. “They were both happy for us.”

“I’m glad we had so many people rooting for us. Lizzie and
Marianne paid me a friendly little visit this morning.”

“That doesn’t surprise me, the ‘Fab Four’ in action again.
I’m really surprised Katy wasn’t beating down your door.”

“You know, we really need to discuss this Mrs. Gray thing.
What kind of time frame are you thinking, before we make it official again?”
Michael asked, getting back to the subject at hand.

“Well, so much for taking it slow, Mr. Gray. We can discuss
that later. Right now, I just want to enjoy the next few hours being with you.
We have so much to talk about and so many plans to make. But rest assured I won’t
let you drag your feet getting me back to the altar. I am not letting you get
away. We have a lot of time to make up for.”