The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,134

every available woman in law school the next year, not to mention a couple of not-so-available ones, she knew she’d made the right decision.

Garrett Lowry was a player.

He may have taken a momentary side-stop with her, but he’d wasted no time before jumping back into the game. She was better off without him.

Still, the memories chafed.

Between Garrett’s betrayal and her father’s bad behavior, it had been easy for Blair to decide what type of law to practice. In fact, she should thank them both. Maybe she’d take daisies to her father’s grave when she came back from her honeymoon. He’d always hated daisies.

She was motioning to the bartender to bring her another drink, wishing the hotel staff would finally give her a damn room key, when she noticed him—the man standing in the entrance of the bar, his gaze fixed on her. She did a double take, certain the Embassy Suites was now including hallucinogens in their drinks, because standing in the doorway was the player himself—Garrett Lowry.

She stopped the bartender as he grabbed her glass. “I’m going to need you to make that a double.”

Chapter Two

Garrett Lowry wondered if he should just divorce his family and be done with them. Unfortunately, while he’d seen quite a few unusual divorce cases in his four years of practicing law, he’d never seen anyone divorce his mother and aunt.

All this fuss over a damned one-third carat diamond ring.

There was no disputing that his Great-Grandma Marie had bequeathed her engagement ring to her granddaughter. The trouble was that she hadn’t specified which granddaughter. Garrett’s Aunt Debra claimed that possession was nine-tenths of the law, and since she had possession of the ring, it was, ipso facto, hers . . . or rather, her son’s. She had given it to her son for his fiancée six months ago. Garrett’s mother felt otherwise, and so the colossal argument had begun. Though he had no real desire to contest his aunt’s stance on the issue, Garrett could think of half a dozen legal cases that disputed her claim. But even if he’d felt any familial connection to the round rock on the gold band, surrounded by multiple smaller diamonds, he had no present use for it. He hadn’t had a steady girlfriend since law school, when—in a moment of profound idiocy—he’d broken up with the one woman he’d ever loved.

Ever since, he had moved from one fling to the next like a water droplet on a hot skillet. It had been fun at first, but over the last year—with the big three-o on the horizon—Garrett had changed. He was ready to settle down with someone, but none of his relationships seemed to last longer than a couple of months.

The problem was simple, the solution less so: no one could live up to his ex-girlfriend Blair Myers. They’d shared a connection the likes of which he’d never found with anyone else, and he was becoming increasingly convinced that he wouldn’t find it with anyone else.

Garrett had to admit that it rubbed like hell that his cousin was getting married. The guy had to be the most boring person on the planet, not to mention the most annoying. Garrett assured himself that his bride-to-be was surely some milquetoast woman who was eager to settle with Dr. Neil Fredrick in their suburban house with two-point-five kids. He would come home from the hospital talking about which bacteria had given someone the squirts, and his wife would serve up pot roast and boiled potatoes.

But that didn’t make Garrett any more eager to take part in the War of the Ring, which had reached a boiling point now that the wedding was only a week away. Too bad Nana Ruby, the family matriarch, had taken it upon herself to assign him the role of peacemaker. Without bothering to consult him first, she’d arranged for him to be a last-minute groomsman in the wedding. He hadn’t even planned on going—he’d tossed the ivory invitation into the trash the moment it arrived, knowing he’d only received one at Nana Ruby’s behest—and he had plenty of work to do in San Diego. But Nana didn’t want excuses; she wanted to know that he would show up in Kansas City with a smile on his face and keep the peace.

And no one said no to Nana.

“I’m leaving the success or failure of this wedding in your hands, Garrett Michael Lowry,” the older woman had barked into the phone.

Garrett had snickered in response. “That seems like