Chapter 48
BLAIR
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I had almost made it to the car when Theard footsteps. Hurried ones. Like someone was trying to catch up
to me.
I turned and found Chase closing the distance across the driveway, expression set with the same urgency he had worn at the diner.
The memory of the last time this happened hit immediately the photos, the headlines, Grayson’s fury, the pool. My stomach tightened.
“I’m in no mood to talk,” I said before he could start. “Especially not after the last articles that came out with us in them.”.
Chase stopped a few feet away, hands open like he could already see the refusal. “Five minutes. That’s all I’ m asking. I just want to know how you’re doing. I want to talk about you.”
I almost rolled my eyes. The restraint took effort.
“About me,” I repeated.
“Yes.”
“Interesting timing.” I kept my hand on the car door. “You didn’t need five minutes when! was still the girl paying your bills without credit. You didn’t need five minutes when you were rewriting your success story around Sophie. But now that you know who I am and what I did for you in private, suddenly my well-being is urgent.”
His jaw flexed. “That’s not fair.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Blair, I’m trying-”
‘To do what?” I cut in. “Reconstruct a version of us that only looks good now that my last name has importance in the room? You don’t get to discover my value after the fact and act like the delay was a misunderstanding.”
‘I made a mistake,” he said, stepping closer. “I know that. I know what you did for me. I know what I threw away. I’m not asking you to fix everything in a driveway. I’m asking for five minutes to talk to you like a person, for old times’ sake. I even got this for you.”
My eyes narrowed when I saw the red rose in his hand.
Was he serious right now? Did he think one rose could fix things? I ignored it, not even bothering to take it
from him.
“I do not want anything from you. I do not need anything from you.”
“I know.”
“I do not wish to see you.”
“I know that too.” His voice roughened. “I’m not proud of cheating…or any of it. That’s why I’m here.”
I laughed once, short and humorless. “You’re here because the truth became inconvenient for the story you preferred. There’s a difference.”
Chase opened his mouth again, but the sound of another engine cut across the driveway.
Headlights flashed over us as a black car pulled up behind mine. The door opened before it had fully stopped.
Grayson.
Chapter 48
My heart skipped a beat.
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fle wasn’t supposed to be here. The schedule. Every practical reason he should have been in another city tonight collapsed under the reality of him stepping out of the car in a dark suit, expression locked and unreadable until his eyes found me-and then Chase.
He crossed the space without slowing and took my hand.
The contact was firm. Possessive. Public.
My heart pounded in my chest.
Chase’s gaze dropped to our joined hands, then lifted again. “I’m talking to her.”
“You lost the right to talk to her when you married your coach’s daughter,” Grayson said flatly. “Walk away.” The tension between them was intense. I should have pulled my hand free, I should have said something. Instead I stood there with my fingers locked in Grayson’s and my pulse behaving like a traitor.
My cheeks were hot. I could feel the color in them and hated that couldn’t control it.
Why him?
Why did the simple act of him showing up-angry, direct, claiming the moment without asking permission, send my body into a reaction Chase had not managed with all his late apologies and desperate messages?
Chase looked at me like he expected me to choose the conversation, to pull my hand away and give him the five minutes he wanted. “Blair.”
Grayson’s hold on my hand tightened.
“She said she’s done talking,” he told Chase. “That should have been enough.”
I didn’t correct him.
He looked at our hands again, then at my face, and whatever he saw there made his mouth tighten.
“This isn’t over,” he said quietly.
“It is for tonight,” Grayson answered.
Chase held my gaze for one more second, searching for a version of me that would step back toward him. When he didn’t find it, he turned and walked back toward the event, shoulders rigid.
The driveway felt too quiet after he left.
Grayson didn’t release my hand immediately. When he finally looked down at me, the anger in his face had shifted into something else.
“You weren’t supposed to be here,” I said.
“I chose a different flight.” His eyes moved over my face, lingering on the heat I still couldn’t fully hide.” Good thing.”
What was wrong with my heart?
I had spent weeks telling myself this marriage was not going to last, that any reaction I had to him was nothing to worry about. Standing in a driveway with my hand in his and my heart racing over the simple fact of his arrival made that lie harder to hold onto.
I didn’t know what to do about it.
I only knew that when Grayson Shaw closed his fingers around mine and put himself between me and Chase without hesitation, something in me responded to him. Like my body was rejoicing that he’d come. I couldn’t deny it anymore. I was falling hard for Grayson and if I didn’t stop soon, I was bound to get hurt.
Chapter 49
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.