Blair leaned back and looked up into her face. Gram had been around as long as the three women had been friends. And while she and Libby were much closer, Blair had always loved her antics. Still, she’d never guessed that Gram was so sentimental about her. “Thank you,” she whispered. It was as if Gram had known exactly what she’d needed to hear.
Gram winked. “Now someone make me a bride!”
Megan laughed and handed her a roll.
Neil’s grandmother sat close to his group, of which she was technically a member, but she didn’t participate. She watched everything around her with an expressionless face, and Blair couldn’t help but wonder what the older woman was plotting. She was definitely the polar opposite of Megan’s grandmother.
“Hold still, Neil!” Debra cried out, stumbling as she tried to wrap the toilet paper more firmly around his chest. “I think the patio must be uneven. I can’t seem to stay upright.”
Neil rolled his eyes, then turned his attention to Blair. “Do we get to play-act the wedding ceremony, Blair?” There was a huge grin on his face as held out his arms so his sister could give him sleeves. “We can practice our kiss.”
“Only if you win!” someone in the third group shouted.
Blair watched him, wondering what in the hell she was doing. Neil wasn’t fireworks and rollercoaster feelings, but did she really want that? There was no doubt she and Garrett still had chemistry, but a fire could only burn so long before it became a pile of ashes—a lesson she’d already learned the hard way.
And as she watched Neil good-naturedly play along with the game, she realized he really was a great guy. He had a respectable career. He was responsible. He was good-looking. And he was capable of adapting to social situations. Neil wasn’t a stupid man. He had to know something had happened between her and Garrett, and yet here he was making an effort to have fun.
Was she really willing to throw away everything they had together? And for what? A few months with Garrett before he changed his mind again? She needed stability and respect, and she got both of those things from the man she was engaged to marry in a few days.
“You can have one now.” It went against her nature to show public displays of affection, but she wanted to offer him an olive branch. She walked over and lifted her mouth to his, expecting a brief kiss. But Neil glanced over her head as she moved to kiss him. Something flickered in his eyes, and his arms snaked around her back, pulling her tight against him, his kiss all teeth and tongue, catching her off guard. When she tried to pull loose, he held her close for a couple seconds longer before finally lifting his head.
Several of the women squealed and tittered, but Blair’s face burned with embarrassment.
“Neil!” his mother shouted, throwing up her hands in disgust. “Look what you’ve done! You’ve gone and ruined your dress.”
“But I got the girl,” he said smugly, glancing back toward the deck again. “That’s all that really matters.”
It was only then that Blair realized Noah and Garrett were on the deck. They’d seen the whole thing. Garrett’s body was rigid, but he let Noah lead him to the patio area.
Neil had staged the entire thing to prove a point to Garrett. They saw her as the prize for a competition. Was that why Garrett was pressing her so hard? To get one up on his cousin? Anger simmered below the surface, but guilt rose above it, catching her by surprise. Sure she had reason to feel guilty over her kiss with Garrett, but strangely enough, her guilt was over the way Garrett was watching her now. He didn’t look like besting Neil was his end goal.
“Hot damn!” Gram shouted. “Somebody needs to hose that boy down!”
Debra gasped, grabbing her cat and shaking it. “One dollar!”
“WTF?” Gram asked, walking toward her.
“Gram!” Megan gasped, but she couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
She looked back at her granddaughter. “What? Isn’t that what you kids say?”
Libby giggled. “Do you even know what WTF means, Gram?”
“Yeah. Wild turkey fun.”
The women burst out laughing. But Knickers was wringing her hands as she assessed the situation.
One of Blair’s old friends groaned. “What’s the point of doing this if Blair’s just going to pick her fiancé anyway?” Then, as if in agreement, everyone stopped decorating their models.
Knickers’s eyes were wild with dismay. She was used to running things her way, and everything she’d planned was going to shit. “Well, okay…We can move to the next game.”
Blair stifled a groan. She wasn’t sure how much more of this evening she could take. Especially with the way Neil was clinging to her.
Knickers grabbed several trash bags and handed them out. “Let’s clean up, and then we’ll start.” She turned to look at the new additions and frowned. “Even the men can play this one.”
The toilet paper was cleaned up within minutes, and now that everyone was listening to Megan’s mother, she seemed much more self-assured. She picked up a shallow bowl filled with small pieces of paper and pens. “Everyone sit down and take two pieces of paper and a pen.” She walked around with the bowl, allowing each guest to pick his or her own slips. “Answer the questions you’ve selected, and then we’ll put them into the bowl. I’ll read the answers out loud, and Blair will have to guess who wrote them.”
Blair couldn’t restrain her groan this time. This sounded like pure torture. She hadn’t seen half the women in this group since high school and early college, and she’d spent as little time as possible with Neil’s family.
Knickers heard her sound of dismay and flashed her a toothy smile. There was no way she was getting out of this. Part of Blair couldn’t help wondering if this was Megan’s mother’s way of seeking revenge for all the shit the three of them had given her over the years. Truth be told, Blair probably deserved it.
She sat dutifully in the tall stool Knickers had assigned her, watching as everyone scrawled down their responses. Some finished quickly, and Blair took note of who they were, hoping it would give her a better chance at guessing who had written the short answers. Neil kept looking up at her with playful eyes that caught her off guard. What was he doing? Their relationship had been many things over the last two years, but it had never been playful. Megan and Libby looked tense, splitting their attention between their assigned task and the two men who were vying for Blair’s attention.
Garrett. Her gaze landed on the man who made her want to forget about responsibility and just say to hell with it all. But she was scared. Garrett Lowry was about the furthest thing from a safe bet, and while Blair might play high stakes with her work, she always thought through every move carefully before making it, even if she appeared to do otherwise. There would be no safety net with Garrett. Yet watching him now, bent over his paper, still writing when everyone else had finished and handed their papers to Knickers, part of her wondered…what if?
Finally, Garrett looked up and handed his sheets to Megan’s mother. His eyes met hers, and she could feel her resolve weaken, but then her gaze shifted to Neil, and she knew he’d seen it all.
Her chest tightened, squeezing the air from her lungs until her head felt fuzzy.
“Blair, dear,” Knickers said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
No. She was nowhere near okay, but Blair Anne Myers Hansen never showed signs of weakness. She lifted her chin, defiance filling her and easing the clamp on her lungs. “Of course. I’m fine.”
Her two best friends didn’t believe her, but she could tell they weren’t sure what to do about it.
Knickers reached into the bowl and handed her a paper. “Let’s get started!”
Sucking in a deep breath, Blair reached into the bowl and pulled out a slip, then opened it and read out loud, “When did you first meet Blair?” A slow smile spread across her face. “The first day of kindergarten. I was crying after my mom dropped me off, and Tim Eagers called me a crybaby. Blair walked in with her blonde curls and
blue dress, headed straight over to Tim, and told him she’d beat his ass if he ever talked shit to her best friend again.” Blair looked up, surprised by the burning in her eyes. What the hell was going on with her? All this sentimental shit was coming out of nowhere. “Megan.”
Megan laughed. “And that’s exactly how it happened. You got sent to the principal’s office the very first day for cursing.”
Neil gave her a disapproving look, but Garrett was beaming.
Debra cleared her throat. “That’s two dollars, Blair.” She passed the kitty to her daughter, who leaned forward and reached it out toward her.
Blair chuckled and pulled two dollars from her pocket and stuck them in the jar. Then she winked at Megan, who was wiping her eyes. “Best two dollars I ever spent.”
Hopefully most of the questions and answers wouldn’t be like that—otherwise, Blair was doomed to embarrass herself with tears. Blair grabbed another question.
“What is Blair’s idea of a fun night?” She looked over the one-sentence answer, then read it out loud. “Working in her office.” She glanced up. “Debra.” Even if she hadn’t known, the tight loopy handwriting would have given it away.
Debra’s mouth pinched into a frown. “You really need to get a hobby, dear. Like quilting or couponing…so you’ll have something to occupy your time when the babies come.”
Garrett looked like he was going to combust, but Josh and Noah now sat on either side of him, and they each grabbed hold of him.
Gram’s mouth twisted with worry. “Maybe I should take my present back if you’re already pregnant. It’s a box full of edible underwear and lotions.”
“I am not pregnant,” Blair said, vehemently shaking her head.
Libby giggled and patted Gram’s arm. “And even if she were pregnant, she could still eat it…I mean wear it.” She and half their friends broke out into hysterical laughter.
Blair might have joined them if she wasn’t about to bolt out of the chair.
Knickers patted her shoulder. “Maybe we should read another question.”
Blair went through several more papers, most of them easy to guess. And even if she couldn’t guess who’d written the answer, all she had to do was keep an eye on the group as she read the paper. She was used to reading people, and the person usually gave himself or herself away without realizing it.
After about ten minutes, the crowd was getting restless, so Knickers handed her the bowl and said, “Last one, Blair. Make it a good one.”
She opened the paper and automatically read, “Your first impression of Blair.” Then she stopped when she saw the words that followed. Her heart sped up, and she glanced up at Garrett, his eyes dark and intense.
“Go on,” Knickers encouraged.
The words swam on the page through her tears. Oh, God. She couldn’t believe what he’d written, and she definitely didn’t have the strength to read it out loud.
Before she knew what was happening, Knickers pulled the paper from her hand and started to read. “I was blown away by her confidence. Most of us were anxious, but not Blair. She walked into class like she owned the place and let everyone know she was the one to follow. I could see she held people at a distance, afraid to let them close. But that first day, as she walked past me, I looked into her eyes—something everyone else was too intimated to do—and she held my gaze for a mere second, but it was long enough for me to see she was just as nervous as the rest of us. She was only better at hiding it. It took me six months to work up the courage to ask her out for pizza and beer. And when she sat across from me that first night, I lost my heart to her forever.”
Blair’s skin prickled and panic swam through her head as she glanced up at Neil’s furious face.
Knickers pulled the paper to her chest and sighed. “Neil, that is so romantic.”
The other women in the crowd gushed over him, and he forced a smile. “What can I say?”
Garrett glanced at his cousin in disbelief as Debra said, “I didn’t know you had any classes with Blair. I thought you were introduced by a friend.”
Blair could feel herself losing her tenuous grasp on control. She slid out of the chair, desperate to escape.
Megan jumped out of her seat as though someone had shot her in the ass. “Time for cake!”
Knickers shook her head. “But I have another game.”
“But everyone wants cake, Mom.” Then she pulled Blair’s arm and tugged her toward the back door. “We’ll go get it. Libby too.”
“Megan!” Knickers called after her. “You can’t make the bride get her own cake!”
“She wants first pick!” Libby said as she hurried after them into the house. “And she has a really hard time making up her mind, so this might take a while. We’ll be out when she’s done.”
“But there’s only one flavor,” Megan’s mother called after them.
Megan shoved Blair through the door, and when Libby entered, Megan shut the door and locked it.
Blair began to pace and sucked in deep breaths of air, feeling dangerously close to losing it.
“Blair,” Megan said, “talk to us.”
She shook her head. “There’s nothing to talk about.” She just had to whip herself into shape, go back out there, and finish this party. Then she could go home and sleep.
“How about starting with why you’re so upset,” Libby suggested.
“I’m perfectly fine!” she practically shouted.
“Okay…” Megan said, lifting her hands in surrender.
“Please,” Blair begged. “Just give me a minute to catch my breath.”
She continued to pace while sucking in deep breaths. What should she do? She had finally composed herself after getting caught in the kitchen, but then Garrett had written that damn answer…Part of her desperately wanted to talk to him, but based on the way she seemed to lose all sense of reason when she was near him, she suspected there wouldn’t be much talking. She couldn’t risk it.
The fact was that she had to stay as far from Garrett Lowry as possible. She only had to make it through the week. Then he’d be gone, and everything would go back to normal.
But her heart wanted more. Then the faces of her clients filled her head—women who had crawled into her office, shards of their former selves, all because they had given too much of themselves away in the name of love.
Blair had lived through the pain of a broken heart once, and once was enough.
No, she’d thought long and hard about marrying Neil. It made perfect sense, so there was no point in reconsidering now.
Finally, Megan sighed. “Blair, talk to us.”
“About what?”
Megan opened her mouth, but Libby interrupted before she could say anything. “Girl talk. When was the last time we had a good chat?”
“Are you insane?” Blair nearly shouted. “There are a dozen women out there who never cared much for me in high school. They would just love to find every little flaw I have and shove it in my face. Then there’s Neil’s family, who wouldn’t know fun if it bit them in the ass. We can’t leave those wild hyenas with your mother so we can chat.”
Megan grinned. “I left a family dinner before my wedding to run off with Josh. You can afford to give your friends a few minutes. Besides, Gram can entertain them until we go back out there.”
“Blair, you’re overwhelmed, and it’s okay. It’s your party, so you can cry if you want to,” Libby teased.
“I don’t cry!” Blair pointed a finger in her face. “And I don’t need any help! I can do it myself!”
“Of course you can, Blair,” Megan said softly. “No one is questioning that. But you’ve got a lot on your plate right now with all the fuss about the ring, not to mention your job hinging on the wedding.” She gave Blair a sad look. “And Garrett.” When Blair opened her mouth to ask her how she knew about her job, Megan gave her a weak smile. “Libby told me. You should have called me.”
Blair shook her head, irritated by the tears burning behind h
er eyes. “I can handle it.” But there was no force behind the words.
“We know you can,” Libby said quietly.
“What do you want me to say?” she asked defensively.
There was a knock at the back door. “Megan?” Knickers called through the door. “Is everything okay in there? I thought I heard shouting.”
“We’re all excited over this cake!” Libby said.
“Oh…okay. Are you coming out soon?”
“Yes,” Blair said, heading for the door.
“Not yet!” Megan yelled, blocking the door. “We’re still working on the cake.”
“Well, okay…”
They heard her clomp off and Libby hopped onto a barstool. “The sooner we get our answer, the sooner we’ll let you out of here. Why don’t you start with what’s going on between you and Garrett?”
Blair’s preservation instinct sprang into action before she even realized what she was doing. “You want do to the sharing thing? How about we start with what’s going on with you and Noah?”
Her friend folded her hands on the table and rolled her eyes. “Fine, if you want to start with me, we will, but you have to agree to answer our questions, too.”
Blair put her hands on her hips. “Fine.” She figured she’d badger Libby with enough questions to exasperate her into giving up her witch-hunt. “Now tell us about Noah.”
“Quit trying to make something out of it that’s not there. We’re just friends.”
“A friend who spends the night?” Megan asked.
“He sleeps on the sofa,” Libby protested good-naturedly. “That’s not the topic of discussion. And don’t help her deflect, Megan.”
“Why not?” Blair asked, leaning against the bar counter. “I thought we were having girl talk.”
Megan shot a glance out the back windows, her brow wrinkling with worry. Despite all her posturing, Megan would soon cave to the societal demand to appease her mother and her guests. Blair crossed her arms, feeling a bit evil. Better to feel evil and in control than on the verge of a panic attack.
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