Melissa continued to watch her. “I know you went to law school together.”
Blair’s gaze narrowed as anger burned to life in her chest. “You’re spying on me?”
“No. I was checking up on him.” When Blair didn’t respond, Melissa added, “I had to know his connection to you so I could protect you.”
Blair clenched her teeth. “I don’t need protecting, Melissa. You’re overstepping your bounds.”
Melissa held her ground. “No. I’m not. You wouldn’t tell me, so I had to find out myself. I’m the gatekeeper, Blair. You’re depending on me to keep him away from you, and I need to know what I’m facing. That meant finding out how he knew you.”
Blair didn’t answer.
Melissa sat in the chair in front of her desk. “I’m sorry.”
Blair sighed and lightly rubbed her temple. “No, it’s fine. I overreacted.”
“You two used to date, didn’t you?”
Blair shook her head. “It was more than casual dating.” She groaned. “We were together for a year, then he dropped me to date every other woman in law school.”
“So he’s a player,” Melissa said in disgust. “Do you think he’s trying to go for round two?”
“There’s more to it than that. He’s Neil’s cousin. The groomsman his mother called you about. And I only just found out yesterday.”
Melissa gasped. “What?”
“And there’s more.” Blair found herself spilling out the whole story about the animosity between the two men and the engagement ring, but she left out the part about him taking her home. There was only so much humiliation she could take in one day.
Melissa leaned forward to get a better look at Blair’s left hand. “He actually claimed the ring?”
“Neil and his mother just about flipped their shit, and I could tell that Garrett loved every minute of it.”
“So he’s here to stir up trouble.”
Blair nodded slowly. “Looks like it.”
“Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me.”
“I should have told you yesterday, but I was embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Because I fell for his charm and let him dump me.” Although that wasn’t quite true. She’d never felt like he was using her or pretending to have feelings he didn’t. But that had only made it worse in the end.
“You’re not the first person to fall for a smooth-talking, good-looking man, and our very line of work depends on you not being the last. But the fool-you-once adage seems apropos here.”
“Agreed,” Blair said absently, then she shuddered and looked her assistant in the eye. “Thanks for having my back.”
Melissa stood. “What are good assistants for?”
“You’re coming tomorrow night, aren’t you?”
Melissa looked surprised. “Sure, I can come and make sure everything goes okay if you want.”
“No. Not for work. As my friend.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened as she stared at Blair.
Blair shook her head. What had she been thinking? A few moments of sharing her emotions and she’d presumed their relationship was more than professional. What if Melissa asked for a transfer now? Especially knowing she might be out of a job next week. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to—”
A wide smile spread across Melissa’s face. “I’d love to come. Thank you for asking.”
Blair’s face started to heat up. “Well, I’d give you the details, but it turns out that you know them.”
She laughed. “Sure enough.” She walked to the door and started to open it before turning around, her hand on the knob. “Thanks, Blair.”
Blair’s eyes met hers. “Thank you.” Then she remembered something else. “Oh, can you get me a stack of dollar bills by the end of the day? At least twenty . . . no, better make it forty.”
Melissa’s eyebrows rose in amusement. “Planning a racy bachelorette party?”
“Hardly,” she grumbled. “A tight-ass wedding shower.”
As Melissa walked out of the office, Blair wondered if there were enough bills in circulation to help get her through this weekend.
Chapter Nine
Garrett longed to loosen his tie, but to do so would be, one, unprofessional, and two, it would give Blair the satisfaction of knowing she was getting to him. Not that she didn’t already know. The smirk on her face when she shot glances at him between questions was proof enough of that. But he felt like he was choking. He was choking all right—on embarrassment.
He kept reminding himself that Brian Norfolk wasn’t really his client. That he hadn’t been the one to prep Amanda Beasley for the deposition. But even though Lopez had done a shitty job—so much so that he wished he had the authority to fly back to San Diego and demand his resignation—there was no denying that it was a crap case. If Rowena Norfolk’s attorney had been content to just go through the motions, it would have gone smoother, but Blair Myers Hansen didn’t understand the concept of going through the motions. She was smart, articulate, and ruthless. It didn’t hurt that there wasn’t an attorney alive who could make Lopez’s client look like a saint. Under the circumstances, Garrett was semi-holding his own, but Blair was a barracuda.
Back when they were together, he’d loved to get her riled up. Her eyes always lit up with a righteous fire when she was in the middle of an argument. But their arguments had mostly been over politics and current events—topics they had enjoyed debating. Afterwards, they would laugh together and then take the same passion they’d harnessed for their disagreement to their bed. He hadn’t lied to her when he said she was in the top five of the best lays he’d ever had, but he hadn’t told her the truth either. No one else had even come close.