The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,184

about going to see Garrett’s family for Christmas, but they’d visited her mother instead. At Garrett’s insistence. He’d claimed it was because his mother and aunt were crazy, but after their breakup, she’d wondered if he’d maybe been ashamed of her.

Megan gave her a concerned glance, and Barb looked at her like she was flat-out crazy. “Well, you are the bride.” She laughed. “Debbie Sue and I may have our differences, but I know about Neil’s fiancée.”

“Oh,” she mumbled, the blood suddenly rushing from her head. She was totally losing it.

“Blair, are you okay?” Megan whispered. “You don’t look like you’re feeling well.”

“I’m fine.”

Barb seemed oblivious to her distress. Turned out the two sisters weren’t so different after all. “Debbie Sue says you’re a lawyer,” Barb said, glancing around the elaborately decorated yard. “My son Garrett is a lawyer too. What type of law do you do?”

“You mean practice?” Megan asked, sounding uncharacteristically snippy.

Barb waved her hand back and forth. “Whatever.”

Blair’s chest felt like someone was tightening a clamp, a quarter turn at a time, until all the air was squeezed out of her chest. Should she admit that she’d dated Garrett? Pretend she’d only just met him? “I . . . divorce law . . .” She wasn’t sure she could spend the rest of the evening with Garrett’s mother.

“Blair.” Megan sounded more insistent. “Let’s get you something to eat before the party gets started.”

Blair shook her head. “Knickers’ll have a fit if we mess up her display.”

“Let her.” Megan turned to the two sisters, who were currently shooting glares at each other that perfectly punctuated the sharply worded barbs they continued to volley. “If you’ll excuse us, I need to get the bride-to-be something to eat.”

“Of course. We’ll get a chance to chat later,” Barb said, then glanced around the yard, already dismissing the two women. “Where’s Dena? Is she bringing her ill-behaved children with her?”

Debra bristled at her sister’s remark. “Dena will be here soon. The real question is where is Kelsey? Too busy with her poor fatherless baby?”

“And that’s our cue . . .” Megan looped her arm through Blair’s and tugged her toward the food table, casting another worried look in her direction. “When was the last time you ate something?”

“I don’t know. Lunch, I guess, but I didn’t eat very much. Nerves.”

Megan grabbed a pink paper plate and stacked it with a couple of quartered sandwiches and some raw vegetables. “What’s going on, Blair? This is totally unlike you. You’re never affected by nerves.”

“I’m getting married,” Blair said. “I think I’m entitled.”

Megan didn’t say anything as she handed over the plate.

Even Blair knew she was acting like a bitch. “God, I’m sorry, Megs. I’ve got a lot on my mind, and I’m taking it out on you.”

“Now I’m really scared if you’re apologizing.” She grinned, but her eyes were full of worry.

Blair took a bite of one of the sandwiches. “This is delicious.”

Megan’s eyes narrowed. “Cut the crap, Blair. It’s not like you to change the subject. You always tell it like it is. What are you hiding?”

The back door banged against the house, and Debra shouted a greeting from the middle of the deck. “Momma, you came! And Dena . . . you brought him with you?” Her voice trailed off.

Great. The infamous Nana Ruby was here.

And so were Dena’s kids.

“I came across him as he was strolling up to the door,” Dena said, speaking in a tight drawl that conveyed her disgust.

Dena was the spitting image of her mother, right down to the way she curled her upper lip when dealing with someone she didn’t like, which not so surprisingly included a great many people. Blair still had her back to the deck, but she was certain Dena’s lip had curled into her trademark sneer, and she was equally certain she knew who’d put it there. She wouldn’t turn around yet. If she kept her back turned, maybe everything would be okay.

The high-pitched screaming of Dena’s children made Blair cringe. “Great. Dena did bring her wonder brats. They’re the most ill-behaved children I’ve ever met, but she thinks they’re absolutely perfect.”

“Blair,” Megan reprimanded. “They’re children.” She eyed them running all around the deck like a set of wild banshees. “They’re bound to have some energy.”

“Ha. We’ll see if you’re still saying that by the end of the evening. Ten dollars says one of them will end up in the pool.”

“Only a fool would take that bet,” a familiar male voice said from