She sucked in several short breaths as she continued to stare his aunt down.
“Come on, Libs. Don’t do this to Blair,” Megan said, grabbing Libby’s arm and tugging. “Garrett’s right. Let’s go find her.”
Mitch looked baffled as he watched the scene, but Noah knew exactly what to do. When Libby continued to refuse to let Megan drag her out of the church, he walked over to them and stared her down. Finally she let Megan turn her toward the door, and Noah murmured comforting words to her, coaxing her down the aisle. He looked back at Neil’s mother. “If Blair’s smart, she’ll run far and fast to get away from you.”
She gasped. “Well, I never . . .”
“Do you think she will?” Kelsey asked Garrett.
“Not a chance. Blair loves a good fight. She’ll marry him for the sake of pissing her off.”
Aunt Debra had probably made his mission ten times harder.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Blair paced back and forth in the parking lot, stomping her feet so hard her soles hurt. “I can not believe her.”
Neil leaned against the trunk of his car as he watched her. “Blair, I’m sorry.”
“Who the hell does she think she is?”
He stood and moved in front of her, grabbing her shoulders. “You have to know I don’t approve of what my mother said.”
She studied his face, where she saw undeniable frustration.
“Blair.” He lowered his voice. “I’ll tell her she can’t come to the wedding.”
Her brow rose as some of her anger faded. “You would do that?”
“For you? Yes.”
He wasn’t acting like himself again, which only caused her anxiety to rise. He’d been trying so hard to prove himself to her, but while that should relieve her fears, it was sending her into a near panic attack.
“I love you, Blair.” He sounded desperate. “You have to know that.” She gave him a tight smile, but she let him pull her into his arms. He stroked the back of her head. “I don’t want to lose you.”
If the situation were reversed, she knew she wouldn’t have pled with him like he was doing with her. Was that another sign she didn’t really love him, or was it just a character flaw?
“I know things with my family have been unbearable. I’m sure Garrett throwing himself at you hasn’t helped.”
She couldn’t handle discussing Garrett, but she had no trouble discussing Debra. She pulled loose. “How long have you known that she hates me?”
“She doesn’t hate you.”
“Okay, strongly dislikes me.”
He sighed.
“Lying serves no purpose, Neil. She made her feelings perfectly clear. I can only presume she’s felt this way all along. I only need you to confirm it.”
He leaned his ass against the trunk of the car. “She’s old-fashioned. I have no control over her behavior. Just like you had no control over your father’s.”
Anger burned in her chest. “Don’t you bring him into this.”
“Why not? Isn’t he part of the reason we’re standing here in the parking lot arguing instead of inside with our family and friends?”
She shot him a glare. “We’re out here arguing because of your mother’s bitter tongue.”
“And that’s our only problem? At least we only have to visit my mother from time to time. Your father is haunting us from his grave. Isn’t he part of the reason you’re so cold and unfeeling?”
She gasped.
“Deny it.”
She couldn’t. Everything he’d said was true.
“I know your faults, yet I’m still here.” He stood and moved closer to her. “Why can’t you just admit it? You need me.”
She shook her head.
“It’s not a weakness to need someone.”
He was wrong. It was the worst kind of weakness.
“I don’t need you, Neil. We have a relationship based on mutual respect and companionship. That’s all this has ever been. It’s all we’ve ever needed.”
He stared at her, anger darkening his eyes. “Sometimes you can be such a bitch, Blair.”
His words drew blood on her already aching psyche. She clenched her hands into fists and stared into his eyes. “You’ve just now figured that out? Where the hell have you been the last two years?”
They stood in silence. Anger rippled across his face.
“Maybe we should just call this all off,” she finally said.
“You’ve said you don’t need me, but that’s not entirely true, is it? If you don’t go through with this wedding, you’ll lose your job.” He took a step toward her and looked down at her with cold eyes. “So maybe you need me more than you think you do.” He stated it like a threat, and in that moment, she felt she really didn’t know him—that maybe this was her first sight of the real Neil.
“Go to fucking hell, Neil.”
He cursed under his breath and stomped over to his car. Then, without a backward glance, he got in, backed his car out of the parking space, and took off, his tires squealing on the pavement.
“Blair?” Megan called out her name, sounding panicked.
Her eyes sank closed. She loved Megan and Libby like the sisters she’d never had, but the last thing she could handle right now was their hovering and mothering. She spun around to face them as they strode toward her.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m fine.”
“Like hell you are.” Libby looked furious, but Blair knew her friend’s anger wasn’t directed at her. Still, when Libby reached for her, she ducked her embrace and took several steps back.
“No.”
“Blair,” Megan pleaded. “Let us help you.”
“I don’t need any help!” Her shouts echoed in the parking lot, and the guests pouring out of the church could hear her hysterics. Her brewing panic was close to exploding, inflamed by the knowledge that she was about to make a spectacle of herself. “I have to get out of here.” She looked around. “Where’s my purse?”
Megan gave her a patient look. “We’ll get it. Or we can take you to get it.”
“Blair.” Garrett’s voice broke through the rest of the noise like a beacon, and then she saw him, making his way across the parking lot toward her.
She froze, tears burning her eyes, waiting for his pity or contempt, but neither of those emotions were apparent on his face or in his voice.
Her chest tightened, and she fought to catch her breath. “I have to get out of here,” she whispered raggedly.
“You need a ride?” he asked, walking past her two best friends. He glanced over at them, and they both nodded. “Let me take you.”
“You helped get me into this mess,” she choked past the lump in her throat.
His face softened. “I know. All the more reason for you to let me give you a ride.”
“This doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with you.”
He forced a smile and held his hands up in surrender. “I can live with that.” Then he motioned toward his car. She walked past him, opened the passenger door, and climbed in, knowing her friends would take care of her purse.
The driver’s door opened, and he settled into the seat and started the engine. “Where to?”
“Just drive.”
He did as she’d asked, driving toward the entrance to the parking lot. Blair heard Neil’s mother shouting her name, but both of them ignored her. She leaned her elbow on the door and rested her forehead in her hand.
Garrett drove for ten more minutes, then pulled into a parking lot and shut down the engine.
Blair’s head jerked up, and she started to laugh. “Chuck E. Cheese? Really?”
He shot her a grin. “It seemed somehow appropriate. Rumor has it I can get a beer here.”
“You’re going to need more than one to survive all the kids’ birthday parties.” She opened her car door and moved around to the back of the car.
Garrett met her there, still wearing his grin. “I like a challenge.”
“I’m not taking it
easy on you in Skee-Ball, Lowry,” she said as she walked to the entrance, her mood lightening. This was the last place she was supposed to be and with the last person on earth she should be with, but it felt so completely right that she decided to just go with it.
“God, I should hope not.”
“I don’t have any money, so you’ll have to spot me.”
He grinned. “I’ve got you covered.”
He opened the door and followed her inside. The noise from the games and screaming children was deafening.
The teenager at the entrance gave them a strange look as he stamped their hands with invisible ink.
“I’m hungry,” Garrett said. “Let’s get a pizza.”
She shook her head and laughed as he ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza, two beers, and got a cup full of tokens. She picked up the number for their order and found a table for them, then walked to the edge of the arcade. “Are you going to give me half those tokens?”
“No way. You have to earn them.”
“I already said I wasn’t sleeping with you.”
A mother with a baby on her hip walked past them at just the wrong moment and gave her a disapproving glare.
“Look at you. You’re in Chuck E. Cheese for less than five minutes, and you’re already making friends,” Garrett laughed. “And I never said I wanted to sleep with you.”
He might not have said it, but they both knew it. Correction: they wanted to sleep with each other, and the electricity in the air between them still scared the shit out of her. The panic hit again, and she took big gulps of air.
Garrett put his hands on her shoulders and squatted down so they were face to face. “Blazer. I would never try to convince you to do anything you didn’t want to do. You know that, right?”
She nodded. The night they’d spent together in Phoenix was proof enough of that.
“I promise you that I won’t make any moves on you at all tonight. No pressure. Just fun, okay?”
She nodded again, still trying to catch her breath.
“Everything’s going to be okay. Forget about everything else—except that you claim you can beat my ass in Skee-Ball. But I’ve been practicing, so I’m about to give you a run for your money.” He handed her the cup of tokens, but he didn’t let go of it. “Time to show me what you’re made of, Myers.”
She narrowed her eyes, but a grin tugged at her lips. “It’s Hansen now, and it’s time for you to kiss your ass goodbye.”
They carried their beers with them and headed for the Skee-Ball game. True to his word, he beat her in their first round.
“Lucky break, Lowry,” she said, putting another token into the machine. “I was just warming up.”
He gave her an ornery grin. “Bring it.”
Two boys who looked to be around eight years old picked the two lanes next to Garrett.
Blair leaned forward. “You boys any good at this game?”
They gave her a wary look. “Kind of.”
Garrett picked up his beer cup and took a sip.
“See this guy here?” She motioned her thumb toward Garrett. “He thinks he’s some kind of Skee-Ball king, and he’s offered to give five tokens to any kid who can beat him.”
Garrett choked on his beer, and Blair burst out laughing. “What’s the matter, Lowry?” she asked, slapping him on the back. “Afraid of a little healthy competition?”
“No way,” he grinned. “I can take ’em.”
The two quickly made mincemeat out of Garrett, and word got out that some old guy who wasn’t very good was holding a Skee-Ball contest. A line formed, and he ran out of tokens within ten minutes.
“So much for your mad Skee-Ball skills,” Blair teased, leaning against the basketball shooting game with her arms crossed. “You should demand a refund from your instructor.”
He laughed. “I think he fled to Mexico.”
“I can see why.” She waggled her eyebrows. “How about a basketball challenge?”
“Depends on who’s asking. You or every kid in this building?”
“I’ll go easy on you. Just me.” She winked.
“We need more tokens.”
She tapped her foot. “Get your ass moving. I’m not getting any younger.”
She beat him on the first round, and he beat her on the second before word spread through the building that the old Skee-Ball loser had moved on to basketball. He had to fend off a horde of power-hungry children as they moved away from the game.
Garrett pointed to the table. “The pizza’s ready.”
“Likely story,” Blair said. “Admit it, you need some time to lick your wounds.”
His eyes turned wicked. “Something like that,” he said with a grin.
“Hey, guy.” A little girl tugged on his shirt. “I want to win five tokens too.”
Blair laughed. “Come on, Lowry. Can you really turn her down?”
Garrett groaned and snatched the plastic cup from Blair. He dug out five tokens and handed them to the girl. “Let’s just save us both some time.”
“That old guy just gave me some tokens!” she shouted as she ran away. A low rumble instantly spread through the crowd.
“Look what you started,” Garrett said.
The small hint of fear in his voice was enough to send Blair into a fit of hysterics. “I never told you to just hand them out.”
A group of kids had already surrounded him and pushed Blair to the side in their quest for free tokens.
“Hey, are you like Santa Claus?” a kid shouted.
“Naw, his belly’s big, but not big enough,” a boy told him.
“Hey!” Garrett protested, good-naturedly. “No tokens for you.”
Blair watched him handle the kids, passing out the coins as he took their teasing and dished it back in return. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun. And then she remembered. It had been with him.
Nostalgia swept through her, hot and sweet, reminding her that chemistry wasn’t the only thing she missed about their relationship. It was his good nature, his healthy competitive streak, his kindness and compassion, and his intelligence. And most of all, it was his ability to ground her. He had always been the one person who could help her calm down after a less-than-perfect test score or some tiff with her friends.
She missed him.
He grinned at her above the heads of the kids, and she realized Garrett Lowry was the whole package. Looks, brains, and personality. Besides, she would wager the kid who’d made the belly comment a whole cup of tokens that he was wrong. She’d felt his torso under her fingers the other night, and it was all muscle.
Garrett dumped the cup upside down and shook it. “I’m tapped out, guys. Go thug roll some other old dude.”
Blair laughed as he approached her.
“You were loving every minute of that, weren’t you?”
“Thug roll?” she teased. “Is that even a thing?”
He gave her a goofy grin. “Not everyone can be hip to the lingo. Don’t be a hater, Blair.”
They had almost reached their table when Blair saw the whack-a-mole game. “Oh, I’m not passing this one up.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt.
“I’m fresh out of coins.”
She pulled one out of her pocket. “Good thing I saved a couple.”
“You’ve been holding out on me.”
“Hey, can you blame me? You keep giving them all away.”
His smile faltered. “I should have saved some for you. I can get more.”
She shook her head and picked up the mallet, getting a good grip on it. “I had more fun watching you with the kids.”
“Whose head are you planning to whack?”
She drained the last of her beer and handed him the empty cup before placing her token in the machine and picking up the club. A mole popped up, and she smashed its head. “That’s Neil.” Another mole’s head rose, and she hit that one too. “Robert Sisco Sr.” And another. “Rob Sisco Jr.” She hit the empty h
ole even harder. “Jack-wipe.”
She continued to beat the moles, naming them all before she slew them. She named the last one Garrett.
“I guess I deserve that,” he murmured.
She put another coin in the machine and played another round, drawing a crowd of kids as she smashed the heads with more enthusiasm than in the first round. She clipped one on the side, and the mole’s head dented on the lip of the hole.
“Oops.”
Two of the other heads stopped popping up, presumably broken, and the game finally ended when the mallet shattered into three pieces. When she looked up, panting, he was staring at her, and it was enough to make her lose her breath all over again. He leaned against the machine, his beer in his hand and his eyes on her. A wave of heat washed through her, and she knew she wanted him. God help her if he tossed her away again, but she wanted him for as long as she could have him.
He grinned and stalked toward her, pushing through her fan club of admiring eight-year-old boys and lifted her hand into the air. “And there you have it, kids. The mole champion!”
The kids cheered as he led her to the table, hand in hand. Tingles raced along her skin where it was joined with his.
“I think I probably owe Chuck E. Cheese about two grand, but I guess you’ll have to cover that too. I’m probably the most expensive date in history.” She gave him a mischievous grin.
His eyes were hungry when they met hers. “Worth every damn penny.”
They sat across from each other and ate for a few minutes in silence before Blair said, “I never heard from my mom. And I don’t have my phone.”
“Do you want to call her?”
“I need to tell her what happened.”
“What did happen, Blair?”
She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. “I don’t think I’m getting married anymore.”
Relief swept across his face as he handed her his phone.
She punched in her mother’s number and typed in a quick text message telling her that she was fine and would call her later and explain, then she handed the phone back to Garrett. “Thanks.”
He took the phone and slid it back into his pocket. “Finish up. It’s almost time for our next stop.”
She fake groaned. “Dear God, please tell me we’re not going to the park for the softball game.”
The Wedding Pact Box Set Page 56