Those Red High Heels (19 page)

Greyson stared at my face and placed a gentle kiss on my cheek. “I have nothing to hide from you, Emma. I told you I broke it off with Nora and I did. She isn’t handling it very well. It’ll take sometime, but she’ll eventually move on. You can read anything you want on there. I’m not mad.”

Tears started to run down my cheeks, because he had no idea what she had sent him in that last message.

“You’re crying, what is it?” Greyson wiped a tear with his finger and walked over to his phone. He brought it back to me and opened it to his message center. “See, look.” He clicked on Nora’s name and noticed the last message. “Is this what you’re upset about? It’s probably nothing.” He clicked on the picture and turned completely white when he noticed what it was.

“She’s pregnant, Greyson. She’s pregnant with your baby.”

Chapter Seventeen

I couldn’t believe what was happening. Greyson was near a complete meltdown, and I was pacing back and forth from the kitchen to my bedroom. I hadn’t expected our new fate, the one where he had to go back to Nora to raise his child.

“Could she be faking this? You know, so you would have to come back, and then she’ll try to really get pregnant?”

“I don’t know. She can be a bit over dramatic, but faking a pregnancy? I can’t see her doing something like that.”

I stopped right in front of Greyson and put my finger in the air. “I know, you’ll have to confirm the pregnancy with the doctor. Let’s look at the picture again, and we can look up the hospital name. You can call them.”

Greyson put his head down in his hands and started to shake it. “No, I doubt they’ll give me that kind of information over the phone.”

He was probably right. “Is it yours? I mean, it most definitely is?”

Greyson looked up at me with a pained expression. “I know you don’t want to hear about this, but after Nora met you at Collin and Brynn’s engagement party, she was so jealous that she was saying and threatening all of these ridiculous things. I finally showed her that I did still want to marry her, even though it meant nothing to me. The minute I saw you, talked to you, you changed something in me, and I’m not lying when I say that. I didn’t know what it was at the time. I tried to tell myself to stay on the plan, and to keep moving forward. We haven’t been together again after that night.”

I walked over and sat next to a man I would never know if I could have had a great future with. “You need to go talk to her. To figure this out. She’s probably going crazy, and if this is your baby ... Well, it’s going to need you, too.”

Greyson reached over and pulled me to him. I lay my head on his chest and felt his erratic heartbeat. My eyes started to pool with liquid, and I had to tell myself that everything was going to be all right.

Greyson cleared his throat and tightened his embrace around me. “Nora didn’t even want children. She said she wanted to establish herself as a businesswoman, and that kids would get in the way. I have always wanted my own child, but I don’t want to raise one in this kind of lifestyle. It’s been a fear of mine that I’d end up like my own father. I can’t leave this baby to fend for itself. I need to be there, to raise it, Emma, if I’m going to be a real dad.”

“You’re going to be a wonderful dad,” I said softly and pulled away from him.

We looked at each other a long time before Greyson leaned forward to give me one last kiss. I thought I was going to lose the battle with my tears, but I held it together for that one last moment with him.

“Goodbye, Greyson.”

Greyson stood up and headed toward the door. He turned around and looked at me one final time. When the door clicked shut behind him, I finally let the dam break. I cried, not only for my own self, but also for Greyson. He was so close to being out of his personal hell, and out on his own. The baby was the only good part about that whole situation, and he was right. He needed to be there for that kid, because if Nora were to raise it on her own, well that would be a situation I wouldn’t want to think about.

After a good solid minute of ugly crying, my phone went off like it was the 4th of July. When I unplugged it from the charger, I noticed a text from Greg telling me about Miss Sadie Lou, and the rest looked like they were from a few random friends. Brynn also had texted me, asking how my morning was going and if I’d picked up a cute guy on the way home last night. Little did she know there was a guy who happened to be named Greyson.

I really didn’t feel like talking to anyone at that exact moment, so when I was about to throw my cell over onto my bed, it startled me when it started to play ‘Sweet Child of Mine.' I looked down and saw Brynn’s beautiful face smiling back at me. Maybe I did need to talk to my best friend.

“Hey,” I said, finding it impossible to hide the fact that I had been crying.

“Emma, what’s going on? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, I was about to lay down.”

Brynn was quiet for a minute, but then let me have it. “Bullshit. What’s going on? I can tell you've been crying. What is it?”

I broke down again and let it all go. “Oh, Brynn.” I tried to contain my hiccups. “I just ... It’s just, Greyson.”

“Stop, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t go anywhere.”

The phone went dead, and I placed my hands over my face again. I lay down on my bed and waited for my best friend to arrive.

What seemed like an eternity, but was only twenty minutes later, Brynn came busting threw the door and ran right over to me. “My God, Emma. What’s going on?”

I sat up and embraced her. I already felt better having her with me. “It’s really nothing too crazy, but my heart hurts.”

Brynn pulled back from me and looked me up and down. “You came home with Greyson last night?”

I nodded and gladly accepted the Kleenex she handed me. “It was so wonderful. He’s wonderful. All of our sexual tension, our few moments together, exploded. He had felt something for me the minute he saw me, and I had felt something for him. You don’t experience something like that very often, hell, maybe never.” I started to cry again, and put my head back down in my hands. “It’s over.” I sobbed and blew my nose.

“I’ll kill him. I don’t care if he’s the best man or a freaking gazillion air, I’ll kill him. We have some isolated fields in Illinois. All we have to do is sneak the body out, and it’s all taken care of. Give me the word, and consider it finished.”

I let out a laugh and pulled Brynn in for a hug. “I love you.”

Brynn hugged me back and whispered, “I’m not joking.”

“It’s not his fault, Brynn. It’s that psycho hose beast.”

“Nora?”

“Yes, Nora.”

Brynn let out a small laugh and cupped her mouth with her hand. “Sorry, but that’s funny. Psycho hose beast.”

I swatted her arm and rolled my eyes. “She is. I am going to tell you something, but you cannot say anything, and I mean anything. Okay?”

“I promise. I need to know what the hell is going on.”

I sat up and blotted my face. “Nora’s pregnant. She’s having Greyson’s baby. We found out this morning. He left right away. He has to go back to her.”

“Wait, he had broken it off with Nora?”

I nodded and caught a few tears slipping through my lashes. “I would never have slept with him if he hadn’t. He was at the party, and seemed so lost. I suggested that we skip the party and took him to the Irish pub I was telling you about. We had so much fun, and connected more and more as the night went on. We both wanted him to come up last night, and it was magical. I really fell hard, but now it can’t happen. I’m sadder for him than I am for myself. I mean, having a baby is such great news, but the fact that he was so close to being free, it breaks my heart.”

Brynn reached over and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “I can’t believe she’s pregnant. Oh, Emma. At least you gave him a glimpse of hope. Who knows, maybe they will make some kind of agreement, and Greyson will still branch off and do what he wants.”

I didn’t mean to, but I let out a grunt and rolled my eyes. “Nora is crazy. She’ll never let Greyson get out of being with her. I bet she would fight him and not let him see his kid. That would be devastating to Greyson.”

“Yeah, I know. I was trying to say something nice.”

We both let a small laugh out, but then embraced each other again. “This sucks, but I know what I need to do.”

Brynn stroked my hair and laid us back on my bed. “What’s that?”

“I need to break myself completely free of Greyson and Nora. I need to leave them alone for good. He needs to be with his family, and do the right thing. From now on, Greyson Lyons is a mythological creature that was only in my dreams.”

I could feel Brynn nodding, agreeing with me. “I think that’s going to be for the best, but just so you know, I was on team Emma and Greyson.”

“Me too.”

“The only hard part about this is going to be the wedding. I will make sure that you guys aren’t seated close to each other, and that you have a hot date.”

“I don’t want a hot date, and I can be in the same room as them. I’ll make sure to give them their space.”

“You’re a good woman, Emma Walker.”

We spent the next hour, talking and figuring out how our lives were going to pan out. Brynn told me a secret that she and Collin were going to try to have a baby right after they returned from their honeymoon. I was ecstatic, and couldn’t wait to be an aunty. She also mentioned how much I had an effect on Cade, and that he wanted to be my date for their wedding. That was her reference to my ‘hot date’ statement earlier. I didn’t want to think about that, but I kept the idea in my back pocket, just in case.

Chapter Eighteen

Later that month I was walking through my favorite part of Central Park, when I received a message from Brynn:

Want to meet at our spot? Thirty mins?

I smiled and hit reply.
Of course. See you soon-ish.

I headed out of the park and called a cab over to take me to our favorite coffee shop in all of Manhattan. They had the best coffee and some of the most delicious pastries in the city. It was probably the closest thing to Paris I would ever get.

When I arrived at The Bean, I found a perfect little table outside, right on the sidewalk. A few minutes later, Brynn came strolling up, meeting me with a huge grin.

“Well, don’t you look happy today. What’s going on?”

Brynn sat down, and placed a few shopping bags on the ground beside our feet. “I have some really exciting news. I haven’t called Purple Moon yet, because I wanted to tell you first.”

I sat there, waiting for her to tell me this great news. “Okay, spill.” I motioned my hand to tell her to keep going.

“
Stolen Ivory
is set to start production in July!” We both screamed and noticed a few angry looks from unsuspecting bystanders who we’d obviously startled.

“No way! Oh, Brynn. That's so wonderful. Please keep me updated on everything. I can’t believe it’s happening.”

“Everyone's ready, and we can’t wait to get this thing going. The cast selection is in the final stage, and locations are being secured. We aren’t shooting in Tahiti, but we found a small island that looks so perfect, it’s almost fate.” She smiled up at me and placed her hand over mine.