Maybe there was hope for them.
Room service knocked on the door, and he gently settled her back onto the bed before he signed for the food. He considered waking her to eat, but she looked so peaceful he couldn’t disturb her. He ate his burger while he checked his email and studied for his deposition in the morning, all the while sneaking glances at her. Watching her was surreal. He’d never expected to see her again, let alone have her on his bed. Of course, he’d prefer to have her doing other things in his bed, but the peace and happiness he felt in her mere presence was a telling sign of how he felt.
Soon her draw was too strong. He changed into a T-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts and carefully lay down on the bed next to her, both of them on top of the comforter. She stirred, and he studied her face, taking in every detail and committing it to memory in case she refused to listen to him, which, he realized, was the most likely scenario. Blair was firmly against second chances. The way she’d turned her back on her father was proof enough of that.
She sighed and rolled over again, pressing her back to his stomach. He held his breath, waiting for her to wake up and accuse him of trying to take advantage of her. But she soon stilled, pulling his arm tighter against her stomach. He breathed in her scent, drowning in memories. She still used the same vanilla-scented shampoo.
“I miss you, Garrett,” she mumbled, and he froze. If she hadn’t said his name, he would have thought she was talking about her fiancé/husband. But she had said his name. So he wasn’t the only one who still had feelings.
He could make this work. He’d figure out a way. Screw Neil’s damn wedding. Screw the Norfolk depositions. He’d stay here with her as long as it took to convince her to give him a second chance.
But when he woke the next morning, the room still dark, he was devastated to find her side of the bed empty.
Blair was gone.
Chapter Three
Blair leaned her head back against the seat on her flight to Kansas City. Tears stung her eyes, making her angry.
What the hell had happened?
She would have chalked it up to an alcohol-induced hallucination, but she was sober when the airline had texted at four-thirty—hung over, yes, but very sober. And there was no denying Garrett Lowry had been in her bed.
She’d panicked, bolting off the mattress and taking stock of her clothing. Skirt and blouse had both been on, if more than a little wrinkled, although the latter had been completely unbuttoned. All her undergarments had still been intact. The only things missing had been her shoes, which had been strewn on the floor. Even Garrett had been dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. She couldn’t remember much after seeing him at the bar, just bits and pieces. Something about horses and lawsuits, which made no sense. She vaguely remembered a woman telling her there wasn’t a room for her after all. So how had she ended up in a room with Garrett? Oh, God. Had she gotten all nostalgic and begged him to sleep with her?
She was going to die of embarrassment.
Her first mistake had been asking for a second drink. Then a third. And so on. She couldn’t hold her liquor, as evidenced by her behavior the night before. Or by how little of it she remembered. She groaned and squeezed her eyes tight. No matter what she’d done—or hadn’t done—it chafed her that she’d lost control. Blair did not lose control. Ever.
But there was still the question of why he’d spent the night with her. She couldn’t help wondering if they’d had sex and then redressed. She couldn’t imagine Garrett staying with her otherwise. But if that was the case, she’d cheated on Neil. Regardless of whether anything had actually happened, she couldn’t ignore the fact that she still wanted him. Even after all these years and what he’d done to her. She wanted him, and that in and of itself was the same as cheating.
The thought made her want to throw up.
She was just like her father.
She shuddered, and the flight attendant was at her side in moments. One of the perks of business class. “Do you need a blanket, Ms. Hansen?”
Blair smiled up at her. “No. I’m fine. Thanks.” Of course, she was anything but fine. She prided herself on never falling to pieces, no matter what the situation, but now she felt like a shattered sheet of glass. And she had no idea what to do about that.
Her plane landed after nine, and she checked her phone to see multiple missed calls during the flight from the office and one from Neil. She groaned as she pulled her carry-on bag from the overhead bin. She hadn’t called anyone the night before to tell them about being grounded in Phoenix.
She called her assistant as she walked to the terminal.
“Oh, my God, Blair!” Melissa gushed as soon as she answered. “I’ve been worried sick. I tried to call you last night, and you never answered.”
“I’m sorry. I got stuck in Phoenix overnight—gusting winds or some such shit. I just landed, but I’m going to be late. Stall Lopez for the deposition.” She chuckled. “That shouldn’t be too hard. I doubt he’s eager to see me after our last encounter.”
“Um . . . Lopez couldn’t make it. They’ve sent someone else from his firm, but he’s going to be late too. He says he should be here around eleven.”
“They change attorneys last minute, and the new guy can’t even bother to show up on time? Never mind.” Blair shook her head, getting angry as she maneuvered her rolling bag through the mass of people standing at the gate. She wasn’t going to be on time either, but it was the principle of the matter. “Then I’m going home to shower. I slept in my clothes last night, and I don’t have a clean change of clothes in my bag.”
“But you have an appointment at ten forty-five with Ben Stuart. In his office.”
Her heart skipped a beat, and she stopped moving, causing a man to slam into her back. He broke out into a string of curses as she moved to the side. “Wait. Ben? Why?”
“He didn’t say, but he told me to keep it secret. Off the books, even.”
She sucked in a breath. Ben was a junior partner, and although he’d introduced Blair to Neil two years ago, they rarely spoke, and they never had meetings.
She started walking again. If she was meeting with Ben, then she definitely needed a shower and a change of clothes. Something was amiss. “But I was supposed to be in the deposition at ten. When did he request the meeting?”
“He came down here looking for you this morning. He found out about the deposition delay and told me to have you swing by his office at ten forty-five.”
“You didn’t tell him you didn’t know where I was, did you?” she asked in a panic.
“Do you take me for an amateur? No, I covered for you.”
True, she’d been in L.A. for a work matter, and she couldn’t help the plane delays, but no one at Sisco, Sisco, and Reece liked to hear excuses. And Blair did her damnedest to make sure she never needed one. While Ben was only a junior partner, he still had voting power, and it was rumored he had influence with the senior partner Robert Sisco Sr. himself. “Thanks, Melissa. I owe you,” she said as she hurried through the sliding glass doors and out into the August heat.
August was miserable in Kansas City. It was hot and humid, and it was landlocked besides, so there was no escaping to the beach. Why Neil’s parents had insisted on an August wedding was beyond her, but it wasn’t worth fighting over. She wasn’t one of those girls who made a huge fuss over wedding frills, although that wasn’t to say she wasn’t obsessed over the details. The senior and junior partners at the firm were invited to the wedding, and they and their wives would critique every detail, down to the distance between the tines on the salad forks. Blair wasn’t about to give them a single reason to deny her partnership.