The Player (11 page)

“I can’t believe you’re Neil’s evil cousin.”

He laughed. “He calls me evil, huh?”

She put her hand on the armrest. “Not in so many words, but I can read between the lines.”

“We’re cousins all right. We used to spend two weeks together every summer at Nana’s farm. Neil hated it.”

“I can imagine. And you loved it.”

He glanced at her. “What makes you say that?”

“You like the outdoors.” She paused. “Or at least you used to.”

Her last statement gave him hope after the comment she’d made in the restaurant about people never changing. “Still do. I just don’t get out very much anymore. You know how it is to be an associate attorney, always trying to prove your worth, hoping to make partner. You spend most of your time enclosed in glass and metal.”

Her easygoing attitude dissolved. “Yeah.”

So his earlier assessment had been spot on. Something else was going on with her, something to do with her firm. “How long have you been at Sisco, Sisco, and Reece? You never answered me before.”

“Since law school. I did a summer internship there and was offered a position.” She tensed. “What about you? Divorce law. I never would have expected it.”

He shrugged. “I kind of fell into it. I started out practicing entertainment law, then switched soon after moving out to L.A. With all the high-profile people, not to mention all the alcohol and quickie weddings, there can be some pretty profitable cases.”

“And plenty of skinny actresses,” Blair said, disgust in her voice.

There was no use denying it. It was one of the reasons he’d moved to the West Coast. But now he was stuck with an awkward silence and no clue how to fill it without saying something else to piss her off. Then an idea hit him. The reason he was here.

“Have you met Nana Ruby yet?” he asked.

“No.” Her tone let him know she had no desire to meet her. “I hear she’s a tyrant. Debra’s bad enough.”

“Aunt Debra’s something all right, but I think you’ll like Nana Ruby.”

“I doubt it. She forced you into the wedding party, didn’t she? She sounds like a bully.”

“Some people might accuse you of the same thing.”

Her brow lowered. “I’ll never know why men are threatened by powerful women.”

“Not just men,” Garrett said. “And I know she sounds like a bully, but she usually has a reason for the things she does.”

“And what’s her reason for doing this?”

“My mother and Aunt Debra have fought over the ring on your hand off and on for over two decades. It used to belong to their grandmother, who left it to her granddaughter. Only no one can definitively prove
which
granddaughter. Aunt Debra claimed ownership because she’s had it in her possession most of that time, but my mother threw an epic fit when she found out Neil gave it to you. So Nana Ruby insisted I come and . . .” She was never going to believe him after he’d laid claim to the ring so publicly. But he’d promised himself to be truthful with her.

“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.

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.”

“Wait.
Garrett?
You mean your law school boyfriend?”

“Yes, him. And he’s messing up everything.”

“Wow. What are the chances of that happening?”

“And get this: he just happens to be the opposing counsel in the case I’m deposing this week. That’s not even the worst part. If my wedding isn’t perfect on Saturday, there’s a good chance I’m going to lose my job.”

“
What?
”

Blair explained the situation, then waited through several seconds of dead air as her friend mulled it all over.

“Blair, that’s totally illegal. You would think attorneys would know better.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not supposed to know anything about it, and a couple of the senior partners are old school. Think
Mad-Men
-type sexist. But I can’t do anything about the illegality of it. Ben told me in confidence and would lose his job if it ever got out. I can’t throw him under the bus.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Get married on Saturday. And that’s not the point, anyway. You need to break this curse.”

“I never thought I’d hear you say those words. What did you say earlier? That the curse was nonsense?”

“It is! I’m far too logical to believe in that sort of thing, but I’m not taking any chances. Just in case it might be real, I need you to get rid of it.”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you
can
’
t?
”

“Blair, the fortune teller at the Santa-Cal-Gon Days festival created the curse. She’s the only one who can break it.”

“
Then go hunt her down, Libby.
”

Libby laughed. “The first part of the curse says all three of our weddings would be disasters. You know what the second part says, right?”

She did—it was that she’d marry someone else—but there was no way that was happening.

“So Garrett . . . ?”

“Not happening, Libby.” Now if only her body would get on board with her mind. Just the thought of how close she came to kissing him made her hot. She told herself it was from embarrassment, not because she was turned on, but the reaction was so strong she had to grip the neck of her shirt and begin fanning herself.

Of course, it wasn’t easy to get anything by Libby, who knew her better than most people. “Things would probably go much easier if you would just open yourself to the possibility. At some point you have to stop relying on logic to get you through life and live with your heart. You’ll be a whole lot happier if you do.”

“See you at the shower tomorrow night, Libby.” Then Blair hung up before her friend could say another word. The little part of her that had jumped in excitement at Libby’s words scared her. It needed to be reined in. Stat.

Blair flopped down in a stiff chair in her living room, then scooted around trying to get comfortable. Why didn’t she have any overstuffed chairs to sink into? Maybe because she never lay around, relaxing. She heaved out of the chair, wondering what was wrong with her all of a sudden. Why was she so unsettled lately? She could blame part of it on Garrett, but she’d been questioning this marriage before he walked into the bar last night. She reminded herself that this was normal. Sane, reasonable people examined life decisions before jumping into them. That was what this was. She was just being cautious.