“And stir up trouble? So your grandmother’s an instigator?”
“Believe it or not, she sent me here to keep the peace.”
“By announcing that the ring is yours?” she asked in disbelief as she glanced down at the ring on her hand.
“I don’t want the ring, Blair,” he said quietly.
“Then why the hell did you say that you did? Especially if your grandmother wanted you to smooth things over.”
He turned and looked at her. This was what he’d been waiting for—this was the time for him to amp up his campaign. The words I want you were on the tip of his tongue, but in this moment of truth, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. What if she was really happy with Neil? As hard as it was to accept, he didn’t want to be the one to screw that up for her. He gave her a lazy grin. “You’d never believe me if I told you.”
“Still the same,” she said, shaking her head in disgust. “Still the player.”
Was he? There was no denying that he’d dated more women than he could count, probably a dozen in the past year alone, but that didn’t mean it was what he wanted.
She gave him directions the rest of the way to her condo in Lee’s Summit, a suburb on the Missouri side of the city.
“I thought you were a city girl,” he teased as he pulled into the parking lot in front of her building. The brick cookie-cutter condos didn’t look like her at all. Back in law school, Blair had always insisted that she’d live in the heart of the city after graduation. In fact, she would have probably run off to New York City if not for her mother. She didn’t belong in this place.
“It’s a good investment.”
“I feel like you’d be happier down by the plaza,” he said as he parked the car.
She released a sigh. “I was renting there, but Neil heard about this place. It was a good deal, so I bought it and moved in six months ago.”
“Back when we were together, this wasn’t what you wanted.”
She looked into his eyes. “We don’t always get what we want, now do we?”
An ache squeezed his heart, and without realizing what he was doing, he leaned closer to her. “Sometimes we get a second chance.”
He expected her to contradict him or back away, but she did neither. Instead her gaze moved to his mouth.
“You said something to me last night that caught me by surprise.”
“Oh?” Her body was tense, and she seemed to have a hard time concentrating. “I was drunk, so I can’t be held accountable for anything I said.”
Her words were breathless, and a fire burned in his blood. All he could think about was kissing her and having her in his arms again, but this time not so platonically. He rested his hand on her hand, thankful when she didn’t jerk away. In fact, she leaned closer. “You said you missed me.”
Her eyes flew open, and the panic he saw there told him she’d meant what she’d said. “Dream on, Garrett.”
“Are you happy, Blair?” he whispered. “The woman I knew before wouldn’t be happy with this.”
She sucked in a breath as he leaned closer still, their faces only a couple of inches apart. “It’s called compromise.”
“The Blair Myers I knew wasn’t capable of compromise.”
“I’m told it’s necessary for keeping long-term relationships.” She licked her lower lip, and he was in agony.
She reached for the door handle. “I have to go.” But she didn’t open the door, and she didn’t look away.
“Blair.” Her sky blue eyes held his, and his mind raced for the right words. “For what it’s worth, I want you to be happy. Are you happy?”
Her body stiffened. “Five years too late, Garrett.” Then she opened the car door, grabbed her purse, and walked into the building.
Chapter Eight
Blair let herself into her condo and barely had the door shut behind her before she began to hyperventilate. She tossed her purse down in a panic as she tried to catch her breath. Being so close to Garrett Lowry unnerved her more than she cared to admit. She’d almost kissed him. Everything within her had demanded that she kiss him. If she had waited a moment longer before leaving, she would have succumbed . . . and she suspected it wouldn’t have ended with a single kiss. Now her traitorous body was complaining.
Garrett was a bitter reminder of everything she was giving up to marry stable, reliable Neil.
Too many things were bombarding her at once. Her possible dismissal from the firm. Questioning her relationship with Neil. Her feelings for Garrett.
It had been so much easier to dismiss her feelings for him as sentimentality for the past yesterday morning, but three random encounters in less than twenty-four hours had made her cold feet turn frigid. What were the odds of three coincidental meetings with the man who still stole her breath? And the odds of him turning out to be Neil’s cousin . . . How could such a thing happen?
Oh. God. No. A sick feeling spread from her stomach to the rest of her body—it felt a lot like certainty.
She picked up her purse and dug through it, then dumped the contents on her kitchen table when she couldn’t find her phone fast enough. Libby answered on the second ring, sounding breathless. “Hey, Blair.”
“What are you doing?” Blair asked. “Are you running? In this heat?”
“No, Noah and I are walking Tortoise around the pond at the dog park.”
Blair shuddered, wondering where to start. “You’re walking a turtle?”
Libby laughed. “No. Tortoise, my new lab rescue. I told you about him last week, but you were so preoccupied with the wedding you probably forgot. He’s been cooped up all day, so Noah and I brought him to the dog park.”
“Are you sure you’re responsible enough to care for another living animal? You kill plants.”
Libby laughed. “Shows what you know. My tomato plants are thriving.”
“Wow. You finally kept something alive longer than you usually keep your boyfriends. Hell, you might as well have a kid while you’re at it.”
Libby’s light tone turned serious. “What’s going on, Blair?”
“Why do you think something’s going on?”
“Because you’re talking nonsense.”
“Why are you at the dog park with Noah? That’s the real question here. Shouldn’t Mitch be with you instead?”
“He’s at football practice,” Libby replied. “You’d be amazed by the hours a high school football coach works.”
Blair wanted to ask if Mitch knew she was with Noah, then decided it was Libby’s business. She didn’t need to act the part of the jealous boyfriend for him. Besides, she had something more pressing to address. “Tell me again about this supposed wedding curse.”
“Oh, my God!” Libby squealed. “She was right, wasn’t she? Your wedding is cursed! I knew it!”
“You don’t have to sound so happy about it. Libby, I need this wedding to be perfect. My job depends on it.”
“Whoa. Start over and tell me why you think your wedding is cursed.”
“Garrett’s here. It turns out that he’s Neil’s cousin, and their grandmother is making him be a groomsman.”