Panic raged through her like wildfire. “I have to go.”
His hands held her waist. “It’s okay, Blazer. We’ll figure this out together.”
The song ended, and her eyes flew open. “One dance. You said one dance and you’d quit the wedding.”
“Blair, I love you, and I think you love me too. But I’m damn sure he doesn’t love you.”
She shook her head. “You don’t know that.”
“Do you love him? Tell me that you love him.”
Tears stung her eyes. “Garrett.”
“How can you marry him if you don’t love him?”
She shoved against him. “I have to leave.”
He held on tighter, his eyes begging her to listen. “How can you deny this thing between us?”
She wanted him so much it hurt, but she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t take such a risk. “It’s not real, Garrett. If it were real, we would have lasted the first time.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not true.”
“It is. You do what I do, so you see the same parade of people. They flow into your office too. They all loved each other once—most of them were head over heels when they married. Hate is the opposite of love, Garrett, and only a fine line separates them. One minute you’re in love and the next . . .” Her voice broke. “We love each other too much. We would destroy each other.”
“You don’t know that! We don’t know that we’ll break up.”
Sadness filled her with an ache that made it difficult to breathe. “But we don’t know that we won’t.”
His eyes hardened. “The Blair Myers I knew never ran from anything.”
“You already told me this morning that I do. Why should it come as such a surprise now?” She jerked free from his hold and took a step to the side. “I can’t risk it. I’m marrying Neil.”
“You’re really going to throw us away?” he demanded in disbelief.
“There is no us! We were done five years ago!”
He shook his head, anger burning in his eyes.
“I gave you a dance. Now call your grandmother and tell her you’re not in the wedding.”
His jaw tensed. “No. There was no deal.”
Her mouth dropped. “What are you talking about?”
“I only asked you to dance with me. I never agreed to bow out of the wedding in exchange. You concocted that one. I just didn’t correct you.”
Rage rushed through her. She shoved at his shoulders, but he barely budged. “You bastard! Why are you doing this to me?”
His eyes were wild. “Because I love you, Blair. I love you, and I can’t let you marry him.”
“You can’t?” she shouted, her voice drowned out by the music overhead. “When did you get the power to allow me anything?”
“Dammit! That’s not what I meant!”
His hold loosened, and she gave him another shove. He stumbled back several steps, and she bolted for her friends, panic making her clumsy.
Megan spotted her first, and she slid off her stool and rushed toward her. Libby’s eyes widened in concern and she followed.
“Blair?”
“I have to go.” She grabbed her purse from her chair as she passed it.
“Okay.” Both women flanked her as she hurried for the door, leaving behind the McMillans.
When they reached the sidewalk, Libby grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. “Blair, slow down. Tell us why you’re crying.”
“I’m not crying!” But when she reached up to touch her face, her cheeks were wet.
“What happened?” Megan asked softly.
And that was what pushed her over the edge. Megan’s kindness. She couldn’t handle softness, not now. She choked on a sob but swallowed it back down. “I have to go.”
“We’ll go with you,” Megan said.
Blair glanced at the entrance to the bar. It surprised her that Garrett hadn’t followed her out. In truth, it disappointed her too. The thought sent a new wave of terror through her, and she felt the desperate need to be alone.
“No.” She took a deep breath, forcing all the escaped emotions back into the cracks from which they’d oozed. Only they wouldn’t go back. Now that they were loose, they refused to be tamed.
An empty cab turned the corner, and Blair flagged it down. She had to get away. She had to escape from her friends’ sympathy. It was unbearable.
The taxi stopped, and she opened the door, pausing only to glance back at her stunned friends. “I have to go. I’ll see you both tomorrow night.”
“Blair.”
Blair climbed into the car and shut the door.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Where to, indeed. There was only one place on earth she wanted to be, and she wasn’t willing to take the risk. Which meant she had nowhere to go at all.
Chapter Twenty-One
Melissa took one look at Blair’s swollen eyes the next morning and brought her a cup of coffee, shutting the door behind her. Still, typical Melissa, she set the cup on her desk and ignored the elephant in the room. “The only thing on your schedule today is your consultation. Do you want to leave at noon and join Neil and his family?”
“No.” That was the very last thing she wanted to do. “I think I’ll stick around and work.”
Melissa nodded. “You’ll need to go home and change for the rehearsal. Do you have a dress picked out?”
“For the hoedown?” she snorted. “Yes.”
Melissa left without comment, and Blair got to work. She became so engrossed in her computer that she was caught off guard when Melissa buzzed to tell her that her consultation had arrived.
“Send her in.”
Blair hadn’t been expecting a young woman. Her clients were typically in their forties and fifties, but the woman entering her office had to be in her late twenties or early thirties.
Blair stood and walked around the desk. “Mrs. Cooper. Please, come in.” She met the woman in the middle of the room and held out her hand. “I’m Blair Hansen.”
“I expected you to be older,” the woman said, looking Blair up and down.
Blair smiled. “And I could say the same about you. How did you hear about me?”
“You represented my mother. She said you fought tooth and nail for her. When I suspected Thomas . . .” She paused. “I knew who I had to call.”
Blair motioned her toward her small conference table. “Thank you for the confidence. Why don’t we sit, and you can give me your side of things.”
The young woman told her story, and Blair took notes. In many ways, it was similar to her other cases. The couple had started out young and in love, but for the past several months, Leslie Cooper had suspected her husband of cheating on her. As Blair listened, a cold chill washed over her. Leslie was a beautiful, intelligent woman. Why would her husband cheat on her?
“So did you catch him?” Blair asked.
“No.”
Blair glanced up. “Do you know who he’s having an affair with?”
“No.”
Blair set down her pen. “What did he say when you confronted him?”