Garrett Lowry was Neil’s cousin? How had this never come up? Neil had told her about his nemesis, the cousin who’d made his every summer a living hell, but he’d never once referred to him by name. He was always asshole or Nana’s favorite. It had infuriated Neil when his nana insisted they invite him to the wedding. Admittedly, Blair hadn’t looked at Neil’s family’s guest list. She’d handed it over to her wedding planner, who had addressed all the invitations before running off to South America with one of her client’s grooms.
Garrett recovered enough to say, “Great to see you too, Neil. And I’m here on Nana Ruby’s orders. We both know that to defy Nana is to skirt one’s own death.” His gaze turned to Blair, and his eyes softened. “Trust me. This is the last place on earth I want to be right now.”
The pain behind his words caught her by surprise.
“Well . . .” Neil muttered.
Garrett tore his gaze away from Blair and turned his focus to Neil. “So you’re marrying Blair . . . Hansen.”
There was no mistaking the fact that he didn’t sound happy about it. She wasn’t sure what to make of that, or of her own elation over the possibility that he might still care for her.
She couldn’t trust Garrett Lowry, and she could deal with that. What she couldn’t handle was that she apparently couldn’t trust herself around him. Garrett was bad news, and she needed to steer clear of the man, or she was likely to be susceptible to falling for his charms. She’d fallen for him once; she couldn’t afford to do it again. She’d never survive it. But as she stared at him now, an undeniable feeling of longing rose up within her, and she wasn’t sure she had the strength to stay away from him.
She needed a drink. And quick.
But Neil must have picked up on something too, because Garrett had Neil’s attention now. Neil stood and wrapped an arm possessively around her waist. “You know Blair?”
One of the great things about Neil was that he didn’t pry about her past. Early on, they’d agreed never to talk much about exes, and they’d both stuck to that rule, only exchanging basic information. She planned to keep it that way. “Mr. Lowry is the opposing counsel on the case I had depositions for today.”
“So you’re adversaries?” Neil asked, looking down at her for confirmation. Then he placed a quick kiss on her mouth. “That’s my girl.”
“I wouldn’t say adversaries,” Garrett said smoothly, his voice oozing with charm. “More like we have opposing views.”
“Semantics.” Neil waved his hand. “And I thought the only reason you were here was because Nana Ruby forced you to come.”
Garrett’s back stiffened. “When my firm found out I was going to be in town anyway, they reassigned the case to me.” He gave Blair an appreciative smile. “Your fiancée made mincemeat out of my associate during their last encounter. He didn’t fight me for it.”
Neil didn’t look impressed, and Debra released a disapproving moan. “Blair, that’s so unladylike.”
Debra’s eighteenth century attitude was almost enough to make Blair lose it, particularly on top of the rest of the sexist nonsense that had been thrown at her all day. Debra Fredrick’s insistence that Blair quit her job and devote herself to being a wife and mother was easier to dismiss when she was three hours south in McDonald County, Missouri. At least Neil firmly supported her career and didn’t want her to quit. But Blair swallowed her pride. She couldn’t afford any discord at the wedding. She needed to keep everyone happy to impress the partners and their spouses.
Garrett waved toward the table. “Please, sit down. I don’t want to keep you from eating.”
Neil pulled out a chair for her, surprising her with his uncharacteristic attentiveness . . . until she noticed Garrett watching them from the other side of the table, where he’d taken a seat next to Debra. Huh. There was some kind of competition between the men.
Neil’s mother shifted in her seat and picked up the menu. “I think I’m going to order the pulled pork.” She looked up at Blair. “What about you, dear?”
“Uh . . .” Blair’s gaze was on Garrett, who was watching her just as intently as she was watching him.
“Why do I think there’s something else going on here?” Neil asked, glancing back and forth between them.
What sucky timing for Neil to suddenly become observant.
“I think we’re just surprised to see each other in a social setting,” Garrett said, something shifting in his eyes before he picked up his menu. “Especially after our last deposition.”
“No shop talk,” Debra muttered dismissively.
Garrett made a mocking face, and Blair had to stifle a laugh. It was no surprise that Garrett didn’t like his aunt. What was surprising was that he and Neil were cousins. Now that she’d had some time to absorb the initial shock, it made sense to her that she’d never discovered the connection. While Neil never really mentioned his nemesis cousin by name, Garrett had never mentioned his cousin at all. And she purposefully steered clear of Facebook, having seen more than one attorney ruin themselves with a poorly planned photo op. One of the associates at her firm had been let go after only a few months on the job. The senior partners didn’t have a problem with the associate attorneys posting vacation photos on social media, but they weren’t so understanding of the pictures of Byron’s vacation to Mexico. While his own photos were mundane, run-of-the-mill vacation pics, his friend had posted photos of Byron swinging from a rope in a pair of bikini briefs. He had a bottle of tequila raised to his mouth while bikini-clad women—none of whom were his wife—stuffed money into his briefs. The caption read “Byron plays piñata before some banging of his own later.” Blair deleted her own account within the hour.