“Sweetheart,” he said, flinging his bag over his shoulder and rushing in her direction. Elizabeth spun around.
“What’s wrong, John?” she asked. Her own brow furrowed with worry when she saw him.
“Let’s talk about it on the way downstairs,” John said, his arms enveloping her. His lips came down on Elizabeth’s, and Suzie felt as if she were imposing on a very private moment despite the fact that they stood just a few feet from where she sat working at her computer. After their slow kiss, John grabbed her hand and led her out of the executive suite, both of them oblivious to the world and deep in conversation.
Suzie dreamed of a relationship like that, and for brief little moments over the last week with Mark, she thought it might even be possible. But he’d barely said two words to her today. Even before they’d started having sex several weeks ago, he’d whispered sweet compliments in her ear that had shivers run down her spine. He’d stand at her desk for minutes on end talking about his daughters and trying to gain insight into the female mind, particularly the pre-teen female. After spending a week together, inseparable…today, nothing!
None of the other members exited the board room, so she went back to drafting a companywide email on Michael’s behalf. What the hell could be keeping them so late today? Sitting still was becoming an impossibility. The energy emanating from Mark earlier and then John just now had her on edge.
What a glorious week it had been. She’d never been with a man that made her feel so alive. She yearned the whole eight hours at work for the end of the day just so she could see him again. Now, she didn’t know what to think.
“Suzie.” Mark’s voice snapped her out of her reverie. She pushed to her feet, her chair rolling back. She winced as it slammed against the wall behind her. The board room doors stood wide open and the rest of the members were hustling about in the room.
“What is it?” she said. The panic in her voice was difficult to hide. “You’re scaring the shit out of me.” Her gaze met his, her heart pounding against her rib cage. He stepped closer to her and his hands cupped both sides of her face. Her eyes widened at his intimate contact, particularly in front of the others.
“I just resigned from the board,” he said. His voice was so calm, she didn’t think she heard him correctly.
“You what? Why?” Sadness bubbled to the surface and she couldn’t stop her eyes from filling with tears. She’d been head over heels for this man for so long and she finally had a taste of what it was like to be with him. He was stripping her of any reason to have contact with him. Now she wouldn’t even see him quarterly.
Jesus Christ! Did this past week mean nothing to him?
“Because I’m in love with you and I want to give us a chance,” he said. Suzie’s jaw dropped. She knew she must look ridiculous, her eyes wide, her mouth open, but he just said he loved her. “The best way for us to work is for me to separate myself from Advantage.”
“But why?” she squeaked out. Her coherent thoughts were scattered and her mind wasn’t capable of gathering them up at the moment. He just said he was in love with her.
“We’ll talk about it later,” he whispered. The warmth of his hands permeated her cheeks as he still cupped her face. “Right now, it’s Friday, and I want to take you out on a proper date. In front of other people. Where I can show you off as my girlfriend, if you’ll have me.” Lowering his head, he pressed his lips gently to hers and, just like always, she melted into him. Her hands gripped his forearms for support as he kissed her thoroughly.
She didn’t know how long she had stood there in the kiss with Mark before someone cleared his throat. Mark pulled back from their kiss and pulled her into his arms, nestling her close to his chest as he turned to look over his shoulder. His fresh masculine scent enveloped her and she breathed him in.
“Remember, Mark, this resignation is not yet permanent,” Phil said. “We’ll discuss it further next week.”
“Not permanent? What’s going on?” Suzie asked, tilting her head to the side to see the Chairman of the Board standing with his hands crossed over his chest in the doorway of the board room. The rest of group sans John stood behind him.
Turning his head back to her, Mark’s thumb and forefinger gripped her chin and turned her head to look at him. “Seth Kriken was trying to make some trouble for me, for you, for Advantage. I don’t want you to worry about anything, baby. I got this.” Despite the desire to sink into him and let the excitement of his profession of love envelope her, she just couldn’t get past the fact that he was leaving his position on the board for her.
“How am I not to worry? You’re resigning, albeit it may not be permanent, from a position you love,” she said. Lowering her voice, she said, “Is this because of me? Because of my sneaking into the bathroom at the Beach Club?” Her heart sank thinking that her actions gave this Seth creep ammunition against Mark…ammunition that had now cost him his position on the board—the thing he feared all along.
“Baby, it never had anything to do with you,” he whispered. “Never. He’s had it out for me since we went to high school together. Our parents were friends and I guess he’s always felt like he was in my shadow. But even before he started this shit today, I was going to resign. I don’t want anything to taint our attempt at a relationship.”
He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers again. She moaned softly, forgetting for a moment she was still standing behind her desk in the office until she heard the shuffle of the others. Her cheeks flushed and she pulled back from the kiss, burying her face in his chest.
“Don’t stop on our account,” Greg Snow said with a chuckle. Suzie turned her head slightly to see the burly attorney looking at her with his smiling grey eyes. Greg had always been one of the nicest men she’d ever met, always polite and concerned. “I’m happy for you.” He winked at her before patting Mark on the back. “Touch base with me this coming week, buddy. We’ll make some plans to golf, and the missus and I will have you guys over for dinner.”
“Thanks, Greg,” Mark said, smiling at his colleague and friend. “For everything.”
“Any time.” Greg patted his back one more time, gave Suzie’s hand a squeeze, and stalked toward the executive doors. Over his shoulder, he said “Enjoy your weekend.”
Several of the other board members issued warm sentiments their direction as they filed out of the executive suite to start their own weekends. Shaking her head just a little, she thought maybe she’d dreamt these whole last fifteen minutes, but she was still in Mark’s arms.
“What is it, baby?” he asked softly next to her ear.
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” she said. “I’ve been in love with you for so long, wanting so desperately for you to give me, give us, a chance. This past week was a peek into what we could be, but after the way you acted today, I thought maybe I was imagining everything. Now, you’re telling me you love me. Is this a dream, Mark?”
“It’s not a dream,” he said. With his hand under her jaw, he tilted her face up to look into his eyes. His green eyes shone with emotion. “This is the start of our life.” A tear slipped down the side of her cheek. Wiping the tear away with his thumb, he pressed his lips to hers.
Epilogue
“Let me see the ring.” Suzie reached across the table and grabbed Elizabeth Wright’s hand. Suzie and Mark had met their friends, John Dorsey, Elizabeth Wright, and Greg and Tessa Snow out for dinner and drinks at Bella Brava in downtown St. Petersburg. Being late in October, the weather was warm with a soft breeze hinting at the eventual Florida autumn, so they sat at a table on the outdoor patio facing Beach Drive and the Tampa Bay. The blue and pink streaked sky from the setting sun in the west cast a romantic hue as their backdrop.
On Elizabeth’s left ring finger sat a beautiful princess cut diamond engagement ring. Looking up at her and then John Dorsey, who sat next to her, Suzie nodded her head. “Nice choice, John!”
“I know! Right?” Elizabeth squealed. Her eyes widened in delig
ht, and the smile that spread across her lips could only be described as happiness. Suzie released her hand and Elizabeth stared at the ring on her finger for a few more seconds. “I didn’t even drop him any hints as to what I liked or wanted, but he hit it perfectly. Not too big or gaudy. Simple. Classic. Perfect.”
“She doesn’t think she dropped any hints, but the longing looks every time we passed a jewelry store window gave her away.” John laughed and slipped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. He pressed a soft kiss on her forehead, and Suzie melted at the sight of the two of them. She’d never witnessed such a perfect romance.
“Tell us how it happened,” Tessa Snow said. “We want all the details.” Suzie studied her other friend. She and Tessa had only known each other for a few months, but they were close in age and had come to find they had quite a bit in common. One of their commonalities was being in love with a man more than ten years their senior, who had each come with an ex-wife.
Tessa was glowing herself. Her blonde curls fell over her shoulders and her cheeks remained a rosy pink. Her gaze kept flipping over to her husband, Greg, who met her look each time with an endearing smile.
They’d gotten married less than six months after meeting last October. Suzie never believed such romances were smart, not knowing a person well enough before committing your life to them. Tessa and Greg dispelled that notion for her. Having known Greg for a few years as a member of the Advantage board, she’d always known he was a good guy…to the core. But the way he devoted himself to Tessa and their life together made Suzie’s heart swell.
“The. Most. Romantic. Morning. Of. My. Life,” Elizabeth said. Her face beamed with her glee and John laughed at her words.
“For a woman that I can never get to quit talking, that’s quite a simple description of my proposal.” He laughed again.
“Shut it, Dorsey,” Elizabeth said, swatting at him. “I was just getting started.” She cleared her throat and took a sip from her glass of pinot noir. “I was out on our deck last Sunday morning having my coffee. John was still sleeping, or so I thought. On weekends he has off, he usually sleeps late and I get my peace and quiet on the beach.” She jabbed him with her elbow.
“Peace and quiet, eh? What are you implying?” He winked at her.
“That you like to hear yourself talk,” Mark said with a laugh from across the table.
“Look who’s talking,” John shot back with a smile. The banter between the men always caused the girls to get giddy. It was like the guys were brothers, always picking on one another, yet always having each other’s backs.
Neither John nor Greg took Mark’s resignation lightly, both wanting to battle Seth Kriken so Mark could keep his place on the board. Mark would have none of it, though he did accept a consulting position on the board, which was just a quiet way for him to remain a part of the process without the formality of being an actual member. It didn’t necessarily come with the same level of prestige or money, but Mark seemed more than happy with it.
Greg wrote a glaring letter to Seth, informing him that if he so much as breathed a word of his lies to the media or elsewhere, he would be slapped with a defamation and slander lawsuit before his story made the evening news. Suzie wasn’t sure Mark knew about the letter Greg wrote because she had found out about it herself from Elizabeth, who pulled her aside at work the one day. Suzie never mentioned it to Mark because he seemed happy and she didn’t want to ruin that for him.
“Will you two knock it off and let her finish the story? Sheesh!” Suzie said with exasperation as she slapped at Mark’s arm.
“Thank you, Suzie.” Elizabeth tossed her auburn hair over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at her fiancé. “Anyway, unbeknownst to me, the whole time I was out on the deck reading a romance novel and enjoying my coffee, he was baking my favorite chocolate and peanut butter muffins. He came walking out with one on a plate and knelt next to the lounger. I didn’t know what he was doing. First, he’s not usually up at eight o’clock in the morning on his day off. Second, I knew I hadn’t made the muffins so I was puzzled as to where they came from. Third, instead of sitting on the lounger next to me, he was kneeling. Ha! He was kneeling and it didn’t even hit me.”
“You bake, Dorsey?” Greg asked.
“That’s what you’re getting out of this story?” Tessa asked, a look of disbelief in her eyes.
“I knew the proposal was coming for weeks, Tess,” Greg said. His grey eyes met Tessa’s and something passed between the two of them that Suzie couldn’t place. Tessa glanced over at Suzie and her cheeks flushed again at being caught in that moment with her husband. She grabbed her glass of water and took a sip before focusing her gaze back on Elizabeth. Suzie couldn’t help but wonder what that was about. It was as if Tessa and Greg were keeping a secret.
“Go on,” John encouraged Elizabeth.
“So, I asked him what he was doing.”
“You actually said, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’” John said with humor in his voice. Everyone at the table chuckled.
Elizabeth was attractive…to everyone. Her auburn hair, green eyes, and perfectly curved body turned heads everywhere. Even women looked at her with envy. She was sweet as sweet could be, and it often surprised people that she was a hard ass attorney with the occasional mouth of a sailor.
“This is my version and I was going to leave out the profanity, but since you already brought it up, yes, that is what I said.” Her cheeks reddened, but she carried on. “So he said he made me my favorite muffins for breakfast and he held the plate out. On the top of the muffin was a toothpick with a cherry on top, a small ribbon, and this ring hanging from it.” She held up her hand to display the gorgeous diamond again.
Tessa and Suzie squealed in unison with Elizabeth. Though the three of them hadn’t been friends very long, it was clear to Suzie that these two women would always be dear to her heart.
“I think my mouth hung open and tears filled my eyes. And he said, ‘Sweetheart, I’ve never been happier than this last year and a half with you. Will you be my wife?’” More squeals erupted around the table.
Several people from the two nearby tables turned to gape at them. “Sorry,” Suzie said, waving her hand at the staring folks.
“Awww, Dorsey, I never knew you to be such a romantic,” Mark teased. His hand rested on Suzie’s knee and when she glanced at him, he gave it a gentle squeeze. She placed her hand over his and relished the feel of his skin against hers. To be able to be out in public with him as his girlfriend finally was a dream come true and she took every opportunity to appreciate their situation.
“I’m a softie when it comes to this woman.” John leaned in and kissed her on the lips.
“He really is a softie,” Elizabeth said after she caught her breath from his kiss. “He’s tough on the outside, but it’s all an act. I’m marrying a soft-hearted man.”
“Sweetheart, you’re going to ruin my reputation here,” John said, smirking.
“I’m going to ruin you for the rest of your life, Mr. Dorsey,” Elizabeth said with a glint of devilment in her eyes.
“Promises. Promises,” John joked.
“Anyway, I couldn’t stop the tears from pouring down my face,” Elizabeth continued.
“But she said yes at least a hundred times,” John said with a huge smile.
“That is true. And I think I’ve said it a hundred more times each day since.” Elizabeth looked over at her fiancé, who picked up her hand from the table and kissed it. Just watching the two of them so in love with each other gave Suzie hope that she and Mark had a chance.
“Since we’re on happy topics, Tess and I have something to share with you,” Greg said. Tessa looked over at him with such adoration in her eyes. Suzie had noticed their sneaking glances at each other the entire time they’d been seated.
“Well, what is it?” Elizabeth asked. The impatience in her voice was impossible to disguise.
“Do you want to tell them?” Greg asked, look
ing at Tessa. She shook her head gently and smiled demurely at him. “Okay. Here goes. We’re having a baby.” Greg’s voice was soft, but filled with delight.
“What?” the rest of the group shouted together. The people at the table next to them turned around again to see what all the fuss was about. All six of them burst into a brief fit of laughter.
“Tessa’s pregnant,” Greg said once he regained his composure. He made no effort to hide the smile that was plastered on his face.
“I was wondering why you were drinking water instead having some wine. How far along, Tess?” Suzie asked, winking at her friend.
“Yesterday was officially twelve weeks along, so I feel okay to share the news now. Plus, I’m almost over the morning, noon, and night sickness.” She rubbed her hand over her belly, which actually still looked quite flat, but then again, Tessa was a lithe yoga instructor with hardly an ounce of fat on her body.
“Holy shit!” John Dorsey exclaimed. “You didn’t even hint at this, Greg. Not even a hint.” John shook his head in disbelief.
“I know,” Mark said in agreement. “We just played golf two weekends ago and nothing! Not one clue!”
“Tessa wanted to keep quiet about it until we got beyond the first trimester. I promised her I wouldn’t say anything.” He looked over at her and smiled, nothing but devotion in his grey eyes.
“I didn’t think he could do it,” Tessa said, running her hand over Greg’s forearm. “He’s been bursting at the seams since I took the home pregnancy test and the plus sign showed up.”
“What?” Greg said when all eyes trained on him. “I’ve always wanted to be a father. Tess has given me so much more than I ever thought possible.”
Tessa leaned over in her chair and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek. “He’s going to be an amazing dad!”
“That he is,” Suzie said. “Oh God, I’m so happy for you guys. This is like the best night ever. Being here with all of you. Sharing in all this good news.” She heard her voice crack and everyone’s eyes softened when they looked at her, including Mark’s.
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