"Wonderful, I figured this would be our last chance to get together before you go back to the city."
"You're probably right. I leave tomorrow and have no plans to come back here. It's not been a pleasant trip for me. What time do you want to meet?"
"How about seven? I'll have a table reserved in my name for us," Cindy said.
The elevator door open and a few people stepped out. "That sounds like a plan. I'll see you then." She stepped onto the elevator and went to her room.
That evening, Grace walked into the restaurant a little early and told the hostess she was dining with Cindy and a waitress seated her in one of the best tables in the room. After being served her cocktail, Cindy rushed in and sat down. "I'm sorry I'm late. It seems as though there's always an emergency when you want to get away." Cindy gave her drink order to the waitress and picked up the menu.
"It's the same at my office too."
"I wanted to make sure you knew that we're having a class reunion this summer and I'd love it if you could come. I know so many of the others would like to see you too."
"I don't know, it's hard to get away from work and well, Andy would probably be there and I really don't think I want to see him again."
"He's heartbroken, Grace. He's not been serious with any women since you and the thought that you two could have had a child together has really upset him. You should try and talk to him before you leave."
"Why? There's nothing we can say to each other to change things."
"He still cares so much about you."
"I've moved on. I live in Denver and he lives here. There's no future for us."
The waitress brought Cindy's cocktail and took their food order.
"I'm not saying that you have to take up where you left off, just open a dialogue with him."
"No, the memory's too painful. I thought I had put it past me, but coming here this week and seeing Andy again, it's brought all of that pain back. I just want to forget it again."
"But, it's not that easy, is it?" Cindy asked.
"No, it's not. I made the decision not to tell him about the baby to save him from being tied down. He had so many dreams and a baby would have ruined those dreams."
"You leaving ruined those dreams too."
"That wasn't my fault. My dad took that job away from here."
"I know. You can't change the past, but you can change the future. Just think about it, okay?" She reached across the table and gave Grace's hand a reassuring pat.
"I'll think about the reunion, but I won't make any promises."
"That's all I ask."
Grace and Cindy finished their meal talking about high school and what their classmates were doing now.
At nine o'clock, Cindy had to leave and Grace headed to the bar to meet her friends. At the doorway, she looked around the large room and finally spotted Maria waving to her from a back corner table. When she got to the table, she only saw Silvia and Maria.
"Where's Lucy?"
The two ladies looked at each other before answering. "She called me and said she had a date," Maria said.
Grace could tell something was up. "Who's her date with?"
Silvia blurted it out. "She said she had a date with your old boyfriend."
"Oh." She sat down and waved to the waiter. "Bring me a frozen margarita, please." Then, she looked at her friends who looked in shock. "Oh, you thought I'd be mad. Nonsense, Andy was my high school boyfriend. I'm long over him. Lucy can do whatever she wants with him." She may have fooled her friends, but inside she hated Lucy right now.
A few other co-workers, including James, joined them later in the evening. Grace had continued drinking margaritas and was finally reaching the point of feeling a little dizzy from it.
"I think I'm going to call it a night while I can still make it to my room on my own," she said.
"I'd be glad to make sure you make it there," James offered. The others made cat-calls at his comment, turning him a shade of red.
"Thanks, but I think I can make it okay."
She got up and left the bar, but in the lobby she felt the need for some fresh air before going up to her room, and stepped outside. She found a bench on the sidewalk in front of the hotel and sat down. The night was beautiful, a little cool with a clear sky.
She shivered a little and then jumped when she felt a coat being drape over her shoulders. She turned to find Andy standing behind her.
"What are you doing here?"
"Honestly, I was waiting for you to leave the bar." He stepped around the bench and sat next to her.
"You knew I was in the bar?"
"Cindy called and told me. I was watching from a table in the front corner."
She shook her head. "I thought you had a date with Lucy tonight?"
"Who?"
"Lucy, my friend that you met at the Purple Valley Tavern last night. Red hair, she was sitting with me."
"Oh, the lady who came joined me and the guys at the bar."
"That's her. Didn't you have a date with her tonight?"
"No. I think maybe Tom might have taken her out drinking though. He kind of liked her and she made it clear she was game for anything."
"Typical Lucy."
"Grace, I really want to talk tonight. Can we go somewhere?"
"I don't think that would be a good idea, Andy. I've drunk way too much to have a serious talk."
"But, Cindy said that you're leaving tomorrow and I have a feeling I won't have another chance."
He was right about that. "Let's just talk here."
"You're cold and I don't think my jacket is going to keep you warm with the falling temperatures. How about going to your room?"
"My room?" Even through her dizzy haze she knew that wasn't a good idea. "I don't think so."
"I promise, hands off and I'll be the perfect gentleman." He held his hands up in the air in front of him.
She didn't know if it was the tequila or the fact that she wouldn't see him again, but she gave in. "Okay, just talking. Nothing else."
"I promise."
She stood up, but wavered a little with Andy steadying her with his hand on her back. "I guess I had a little too much to drink tonight."
"We'll get some coffee once we get to the room," he suggested.
"Good idea."
They walked through the lobby and up the elevator to her room with Andy never taking his hand from her back.
She used her key card at the door and they went inside. "I need to use the restroom, can you start the coffee?"
"Sure."
She came out of the bathroom a few minutes later and found Andy sitting on the couch.
"Feeling better?"
"I didn't get sick, if that's what you mean. I just had to pee really bad."
"It's no wonder after all those margaritas I saw you drink tonight. As I recall, tequila was always your drink of choice, especially back when we shot them with salt and lime."
She looked at the coffee pot sitting empty, not even turned on. "Didn't you start the coffee?"
"I called room service for some and they said they would bring it right up. I thought I'd save what you have here in the room for your coffee in the morning."
She didn't want to sit on the bed, so she sat next to Andy on the couch.
"What time do you leave tomorrow?" he asked.
"We have a breakfast meeting at nine and the bus should be here around noon to take us all back."
"Did Cindy tell you about the class reunion?"
"Yes, but I'm not sure I'll be able to come. Work is usually pretty hectic and I take a lot of it home on the weekend to do."
Neither spoke for what seemed like minutes until there was a knock at the door. "Room service."
"I'll take care of this." Andy went to the door and let the server set a tray on the table. He handed him some money and the server left. Andy poured them each a cup of coffee and brought the tray over to the couch. "I thought you probably needed something to eat so I ordered a co
uple slices of pie. Chuck makes the best apple pie here at the hotel."
Grace took a bite and moaned. "You're right about that. It's delicious."
Andy sat down and they both devoured their food.
"I really needed that." She got up to put some sugar in her coffee. "It's getting late, you should say your peace and go." She sat back down on the couch.
He stood, took a deep breath, and began. "I understood that you had to go with your parents when you moved from here, but I still had plans for us. We would keep in touch and once I finished college and got a good job, I would propose to you and we'd come back here to marry and raise our kids. I didn't know at the time that I got things a little out of order."
"Go on."
"When you didn't answer any of my letters, I got upset and then worried. Then, Cindy said her mom heard from your mom about how things were going really great for you. That's when I got angry, even started hating you."
"You should hate me for what I did."
"No. I got past that. I grew up and knew one day I'd see you again and things would work out. I thought after our night at that cabin, I'd been right."
"But, then I dropped that bombshell on you."
"Yep, you sure did. I got all confused and angry all over again. After thinking long and hard over everything that's happened, I understand why you didn't tell me about the baby. You weren't selfish about it. You were thinking of me and my future."
"That's right."
"If you hadn't had that accident, would you have kept the baby?"
There it was, the question she'd been afraid he'd ask. "I'm not sure. I hadn't made that decision when the accident happened. I had mixed feelings about putting her up for adoption, but I would like to have thought I would have kept her."
"Her? It was girl?" He nearly had tears in his eyes.
"That's what they told me." Tears now streamed down her cheeks.
Andy walked over to the couch and reached for her hand, pulling her up into his arms. They both needed that.
Grace broke the embrace first. "You should probably get going and I need to get some sleep."
"Sure, you're right." They walked to the door. "Can we keep in touch this time?"
"Okay." She took a card off of the table and handed it to him. "Here's my card from work. You can email me there."
Before he went out the door, he pulled her into his arms again, this time for a kiss. He held her tight while his tongue parted her lips and swirled in circles inside her mouth. She suddenly felt herself kissing him back, while running her fingers through his hair.
He stepped back into the room, closing the door with is foot. He picked Grace up off the floor and carried her to the bed.
"Grace, I want you so badly. Please let me stay."
She shook her head yes and they both lay down on the bed together.
She unbuttoned his shirt and pitched it to the floor. Lying on his back, he removed his pants while she did the same with hers.
Before she could get her shirt unbuttoned, he caught her hand. "Leave some fun for me." He slowly unbuttoned the top button, revealing her skin. He planted a kiss after each button until he had worked all the way down to her stomach.
He moved his kisses back to her neck and rolled her over on top of him. With a quick flick of his finger, her bra was no longer an obstacle. She rose up straddling him as his hands found her plump swollen mounds.
Just as she remembered, his hands were calloused and rough from his work at the stables, and that sensation excited her all the more. He pulled her back down and rolled her onto her back.
Andy's hands were all over her from her neck down to her breasts, and finally between her legs.
Her head was telling her no, this was a bad idea, but her heart was overruling. He teased with tickles between her thighs. She felt her panties becoming wet and it wasn’t long before he found that out as well. She raised her hips and he took the hint. With his forefinger, he slipped her panties down her legs and onto the floor.
He trailed his kisses up her leg until he reached her sweet spot. She spread her legs farther apart and when his mouth made contact, she shivered with excitement. "You like that, eh?"
She tried to restrain herself, but she felt out of control. She had her hands on his head as he explored farther into her.
"Oh my God! Andy, you have to take me now or I'm going to finish without you."
He moved on top of her and plunged his hard erection inside of her. She moaned when he felt him slide in. Their rhythm fell into sync right away and she felt her excitement growing and screamed at the climax.
"Gracie, I love you," he responded.
They slumped together in a pile on the bed, their sweaty sticky bodies still entwined. She felt his member still throbbing inside her as their breathing slowed to normal.
He rolled off her but pulled her next to him with his arm around her and her head lying on his chest. That was how they both fell asleep.
Chapter Five
The alarm clock woke Grace the next morning, and she sat up in bed with a start. The memories of the night before floated back into her head as she looked around and found herself alone. Could it have been a dream?
When she scooted to the edge of the bed and felt soreness, she knew it was no dream.
"Andy, are you in the bathroom?"
No answer.
Thank goodness he was not there, she thought as she grabbed some clean panties and bra and went to take a shower.
When she came out, she threw her clothes into her suitcase. "What was I thinking by sleeping with him again last night? I'm never going to drink that much again."
She really wasn't certain if she was mad because she slept with him, or because he wasn't there when she woke up.
After closing her suitcase, she looked around the room one more time, not so much for anything she left, but to make sure she hadn't missed a note from him. Finding nothing, she headed down to the lobby.
A concierge waited there to take luggage for her group to the bus while they went to their breakfast meeting. After he took her bag, she saw Silvia, Maria, and Lucy waiting for her.
"Good morning," Silvia said.
"Good morning. I need to turn my keycard back in. Why don't you three go get a table and I'll be right in," Grace suggested.
"We'll see you inside," Maria said.
Grace scanned the lobby as she walked to the front desk. No Andy. She turned in her keycard to the clerk behind the counter, who then typed a few things on the computer. "Everything looks fine, Ms. Taylor. Your bill will be sent to your company. Thank you for staying with us."
"Can you check to see if I have any messages?"
The clerk typed again on the keyboard. "No, I don't see any messages for you."
"Thank you." Why was she feeling like this? She was glad this trip was over and she could get back to her own life and leave her past behind. She turned and ran into someone, nearly knocking them down. "Oh, I'm so sorry." She looked up and right into Andy's blue eyes.
"You didn't think I'd let you leave without seeing me again, did you?"
She started shaking her head. "Last night was another mistake. I drank too much and you knew it." She tried to move around him, but he stepped in front of her again.
"Give me five minutes, please."
"Five minutes. That's all."
He took her hand and they walked to a quiet corridor. "You may have drank a lot last night, but you knew exactly what you were doing. Just like you knew what you were doing when we were at that cabin. Gracie, you don't belong in the city. You belong here with me. We could have a long life together and have more babies. I want you to be my wife."
She refused to make eye contact with him. "Even if I wanted to, I have a job. I can't just up and leave that. People depend on me."
"You can work here. I already talked to the guy who is going to manage that new ski resort. They're already hiring marketing people and when I told him about you, he said you sounded like the
perfect person to head up their marketing department. The head of the marketing department, just like you said you wanted."
"Well, you seem to have it all worked out, don't you? Did you ever think that maybe you might want to ask me about working for them first?"
"I know you still love me. I could tell it at the cabin and I could tell it last night."
"Your five minutes are over."
"I'll be waiting for you across the street when your meeting's over," he said.
She pushed past him and into the meeting room.
* * * *
Around noon Andy and Cindy stood across the street from the hotel watching for Grace to come out. "There's not anything else you could have done, Andy. She knows how you feel. We just have to hope she feels the same way."
"I hope so. I never stopped loving her."
"I know." Cindy put her hand on his shoulder.
It wasn't long before a group of people starting filing out of the hotel. "That's her group," Cindy said.
Andy watched intently, waiting for Grace to come out. Finally, he saw her emerge from the hotel with her friends. She looked across the street at him and then turned her back to him talking to her friends. Just then, the bus pulled up in front of them for loading, blocking his view. He could see people walking on the bus taking their seats, but with the tinted windows he couldn't tell if Grace was one of them.
Looking as if everyone was finally seated, the door closed and the bus pulled away.
It seemed as though everything moved in slow motion. As the back part of the bus moved out of the way, he saw her. Grace stood in front of the hotel next to her suitcase. He couldn't believe it.
"Go, Andy!" Cindy exclaimed.
He ran across the street, nearly getting hit by a car, and into Grace's arms.
"I love you, Gracie," he whispered into her ear as they hugged.
THE END
###
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carol Preflatish lives in southern Indiana and shares a log cabin with her husband and two cats in what seems like an enchanted forest with a menagerie of wildlife constantly visiting. Her interest in writing began in high school when she worked as a reporter, photographer, and Sport's Editor for the school newspaper. She is currently the author of five novels and two non-fiction books. Carol enjoys writing romantic suspense and is a member of the Sisters in Crime organization and Kentuckiana Authors.
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