by Avery Flynn
…
Will was sitting too close to Hadley and it was making her brain fry. Instead of being able to listen to him as he gave her clues about the secret word, she couldn’t stop looking at his mouth and remembering exactly how he’d used it a few hours earlier.
A sudden, sweeping hot flush made her lungs tighten as she sucked in a quick breath. Holy hell, how had it gotten so hot in here? She grabbed the scorepad and started fanning herself.
“Tease,” she said, blurting out the first word that came to mind that she could say in front of her family.
Will looked up from the Taboo game card at her and raised an eyebrow. “The clue was handbag.”
Because of course it was. She closed her eyes for a second and took a bracing inhale. “Maybe I’m really into purses.”
His grin told her he knew exactly what she was into—him. “Next clue is that it costs a lot.”
Sure, she’d always known he had green eyes, but how had she missed the light amber flecks near the iris? Or the way they crinkled at the corners when he smiled? Or that his lashes were twenty-eight miles long?
“Earth to Hads,” PawPaw said, cutting through her distraction.
Fuck. She’d done it again.
“Can you give me the clue again?” The question came out in a rush, as if that would cover the fact that she’d been making moon eyes at her nemesis.
And he was still that. Right? Hate fucking didn’t change anything. But is that what it was? Because it sure didn’t feel like it. Mentally telling that voice in her head to shove it, she tried to concentrate on the clues and not the man giving them. The one who had this thing he did with his fingers that—
“Oh for the love of Tom Osborne,” PawPaw said with a tortured groan. “Stop your flirting. This is the last question. Get your heads in the game and win. After that, you two can go off and finish whatever this is because for the rest of us it’s very awkward—and that’s coming from me.”
Cheeks burning, Hadley jerked her gaze away from Will and scanned the crowded living room where easily a dozen Donavans, Martinezes, and Donavan-Martinezes were watching them. Aaaaaaand there was nothing quite like being reminded in such a public fashion that her entire family was there watching her forget how to play the one family game night game that she usually kicked ass in. Well, almost everyone. Adalyn was still a no-show. Guilt and regret did a you-suck-Hadley tango in her gut, stomping out all the distracting lusty thoughts that she’d selfishly let take over.
“Sorry, sir,” Will said, looking anything but regretful. He turned back to Hadley and gave her a conspiratorial wink. “Well, now that I’m properly motivated—”
“We’re still here, Holt,” Weston said.
He and Knox stood by the fireplace, arms crossed, brotherly glares in place, and overprotective attitudes on full display.
Will shrugged, seemingly not bothered in the least by the growly brothers. “Seems you’re always around.”
“Not quite enough, it seems.” Knox tapped the side of his neck in the exact location where Hadley had tried to cover up her hickey with makeup.
“Clue,” she all but hollered out, flustered by the weird testosterone-fueled drama, and slapped her hand down on Will’s thigh a little harder than she meant. “Give me a clue.”
“Michael Kors,” he said.
“Designer.”
He nodded, scooting forward so their knees touched as they sat across from each other. “More.”
Somehow despite being suddenly and overwhelmingly aware of the erogenous zone formerly known as her kneecaps, the synapses in her brain continued to function. “Designer-brand clothes.”
“Yes.” Will shot up out of his chair, then picked her up, bringing her in close before spinning in a circle. “We win.”
“That’s right, Louise.” PawPaw cheered, raising his arms in the air Rocky style. “I gotcha.”
Aunt Louise rolled her eyes. “Only until next time.”
It was the usual post-family-game-night smack talk, but Hadley barely noticed because Will was right there, his face so close to hers, as he held her up even though they’d stopped spinning. Instead, the room had spun away and it was just them. Awareness crackled between them, electric and enticing as he lowered his mouth—
“Hey, Holt,” Weston said, his voice low.
The shock of her brother’s voice was enough to make her jolt. Slowly, Will lowered her until her feet touched the floor, but he didn’t step away from her.
“Winner has to clean up,” her brother said, his perma-glare around Will on full display before he turned and walked away.
Really, this was ridiculous. She was a grown woman. If she wanted to have a vacation fling or whatever, it was her decision. Not that she was having a fling with Will. It was just a strange mixing of circumstances and didn’t mean anything and—
Still rationalizing, she caught movement in her peripheral vision. Adalyn, her smile wobbly and her nose bright red, stood in the doorway leading to the back stairs, angled so she was hidden from most of the family’s view.
“I’ll be right back,” Hadley said, tilting her head toward the doorway.
Will squeezed her hand. “Go on—I got this.”
Using the cover of the general rambunctiousness that followed a family game night, Hadley made her way over to the doorway and snuck into the hall. She wrapped her arms around her sister and pulled her in tight.
“Adalyn, I’m sorry. I—”
“No,” her sister said, returning the hug. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. This wedding and everything with Derek just has me spinning. It was a stupid idea to try to impress you with the wedding. It all just sort of happened, and I guess I just never outgrew that eight-year-old girl always trying to impress her big sister.”
Hadley stepped back, needing her sister to see her face and understand the truth of it all. “I’m your sister. I’m not judging you. Ever.”
“Of course you’d say that.” Her sister wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “Everything for you is perfect. You have the ideal big-city life.”
A punch to the gut by Godzilla wouldn’t have hurt as much as realizing how her inability to admit to failure had unintentionally hurt the people she loved most. “Is that what you think?”
Adalyn nodded. “It’s what you tell us.”
“Come on,” she said, grabbing her sister’s hand and leading her down the hall toward Gabe’s office. “We need to talk.”
Chapter Sixteen
Will watched Hadley disappear down the hall with her sister, and the foreign urge to go with her and offer her support had him taking a step forward before he realized what he was doing. However, Gabe’s hand on his arm stopped him, making him look around at the fast emptying living room as all the family members said good night and went to their rooms.
“How about we go have a beer under the stars?” Gabe asked.
It might have been stated as a question, but Will knew better. “Sounds perfect.”
Will followed Hadley’s stepdad out the back door, expecting there to be more family on the patio because there were always people everywhere, it seemed, but they were alone. A rock settled in the bottom of his stomach as he took the beer that Gabe had pulled from the cooler by the picnic table. There was no way this was going to be a friendly little chat.
Gabe took a long pull from his beer and stared out at the land that seemed to go on forever and was held in only by star-filled sky. “My grandfather bought this ranch to give his family a safe place to call their own. Some people thought a guy like him wouldn’t be able to pull it off. They figured he just wasn’t the right shade of person to do that. He proved them wrong.”
Small towns hadn’t cornered the market on small thinking, but it had to be harder out here where a person’s neighbors could be a lifeline or an anchor when things got tough.
Looking out into the dark, Will pictured the ranch as he’d seen it in the day and imagined building it from nothing. “It’s quite a spread.”
“That it is.” Gabe nodded and took another drink, still looking out at all that great open space, shrouded in darkness that didn’t seem to inhibit the man’s ability to see it all. “Not everyone can appreciate its beauty and strength. It’s easy to pass by this country and think there’s nothing here but a moment’s distraction. But for those who take the chance and open themselves up to the possibilities, well, it can change their life. I know it did mine.”
“I can see how that could happen,” Will said, trying to translate the undercurrents in the conversation that obviously was leading somewhere.
“It’s a lot of work,” Gabe continued, finally turning to look at Will. “Sometimes it feels like it’s you against the world, but a place like this makes a man remember what’s important and he vows to love it, help it realize its full potential, and do whatever is needed to protect it from those who would take advantage.”
The man was about as subtle as a midtown bus during rush hour in Harbor City. “We aren’t just talking about the ranch anymore, are we?”
Gabe cocked an eyebrow. “Were we ever?”
“No, sir. I guess we weren’t.”
The other man finished his beer, once again looking out at the ranch. “The girls are likely to be talking for a while, so you might as well head back to the cabin.”
Message delivered and understood. “You’ll let Hadley know where I’ve gone?”
“Of course.” Gabe headed for the back door.
The man wasn’t wrong. Like the ranch, there was more to Hadley than most people—himself included—saw at first glance. She had the natural beauty and strength that came from this place, even if she didn’t call it home anymore. It would always be a part of her, and that was what he couldn’t let go of, and he wasn’t about to when they returned to Harbor City.
“I’ve never had a ranch like this before, but being here has definitely shown me that I’ve been missing out,” he said to Gabe’s retreating form. “If I’m lucky, I hope to have something like it someday soon. There’s more to it than people realize.”
Hadley’s stepdad paused at the door, turning back to give him a look of approval. “That there is.”
Then Gabe went into the house and Will made his way to the cabin, his thoughts swirling around in his head. Nothing about this trip had gone as planned—well, except for the look of absolute horror on Hadley’s face when she’d spotted him at the airport. After that, everything had gone pear-shaped. He was supposed to be elbowing the gold digger after his brother’s bank balance out of the picture. Instead, he was falling for the woman he just might have misjudged—fine, he’d totally misjudged her. What in the hell did he do now?
After he got to the cabin and did a quick check for uninvited swift foxes—luckily there was no sign of Lightning with or without a tasty dinner—Will pulled out his phone and called the one person he’d always been able to trust.
Web answered on the second ring. “Please tell me she hasn’t killed you and this is your ghost calling.”
Even though his twin couldn’t see him rolling his eyes, Will still knew he’d sense it. “No one will ever mistake you for being the funny twin.”
“That, my brother, is where you’re wrong,” Web said, his voice taking on that smug tone that meant he was up to something. “Everyone thinks I’m hilarious—especially when I tell them about your little setup.”
Will stopped mid-step as he walked toward the pullout couch. “You aren’t.”
“Oh, come on. You don’t think I could have kept something this good to myself, do you?” Web’s gotcha-sucker chuckle left Will slack-jawed. “Big brother, you got punked, and I’m telling the world. I gotta tell you, though, your chicken was not great. Do not quit your day job.”
But Web had been the one to warn him away from her. “You were the one who told me not to—”
“Fuck her?” Web finished.
Will’s entire body tensed with an unfamiliar overprotectiveness that he had no fucking clue how to process beyond a need to stop anyone, anyone, from thinking of Hadley as available. “Why, is that what you want to do?”
“Settle down there, cowboy. I set this up, remember?” Web mumbled something about blood relatives who were idiots. “Damn, I love it when a plan comes together.” He paused. “But there is something I need to tell you about Hadley.”
“Is it that you’re interested in her?” Will’s gut churned at the idea.
“As more than a friend?” Web let out an amused chuckle. “Not in the least—otherwise she’d already be mine. I am the more popular Holt twin. No, what I need to tell you is that she’s softer than she seems. Be careful with her.”
“I’m always careful.” But it was too late. He was already in too deep, and there was only one way to figure out what that meant. He told his brother everything. “So what do I do now?”
Web let out a dismissive snort. “If you can’t figure that out for yourself, then I can’t help you.”
Fuck, that hurt, but Web was right. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Being just the kind of asshole brother to fake like he was puking his guts up so I’d finally pull my head out of my ass.”
“Just have a good time.” Web hung up without a goodbye.
Will tossed his phone on the pullout bed and stared at the wall until a very familiar four-legged swift fox came waltzing into the living room. How in the hell Lightning had gotten in, he had no idea, but seeing the fox did give him a brilliant idea for how to show Hadley that what was happening between them could be more than just a road-trip romance.
Now he just needed her to come back to him.
…
Guilt ate away at Hadley’s gut, a constant gnawing that she felt all the way to her bones. Adalyn stood on the other side of Gabe’s office, every square inch of which was covered with printouts, random pieces of ranch equipment, and no less than five sweat-stained baseball hats bearing the Nebraska Cornhuskers logo.
This room was the one place where all the kids had come for advice or just to hang out while Gabe did the work most folks didn’t think about—the ordering, the accounting, the figuring out how to get through the lean years. It was the place where she and her siblings had all been given their horse nicknames when they first moved in and where they all informally took on the Martinez surname in a homemade ceremony devised by Adalyn right before Hadley had left for college. One family. One heart. One name, even if it wasn’t court official.
And right now, Hadley realized just how much her inability to admit failure had betrayed that pledge they’d all made to be a family, in it together, always.
“I’ve been lying,” she said.
Arms crossed, mascara smudged, Adalyn sniffed back her tears. “What are you talking about?”
Hadley took a deep breath, pushed back every ingrained instinct to cover up the ugly truth, and looked her sister dead in the eyes. “I’m a fraud.”
Adalyn snorted. “That is so not true.”
“It is.” It was time. Really, it was way past time. The need to make everything seem perfect had been part of her DNA since she and her mom had opened the garage door and found her dad in the front seat, overcome by fumes. Today, she was going to rewrite her code. She was going to take control—disastrous warts and all—of who she was, inside and out.
“My job? Nonexistent since I got fired the week before I flew out here.” She straightened her shoulders and let out a long breath. “My apartment? About the size of your walk-in closet, made to look bigger thanks to knowing the angles when I take pics. Plus, I share it, because there’s no way I could afford it on my own. My boyfriend?” She glanced back at the half-closed door that, knowing her family, would soon be opened to adm
it the others. “Actually, Will isn’t Web at all. He’s Web’s twin brother who pretty much hates my guts.” She crossed over to her sister. “My clothes are secondhand. My credit cards are maxed. My patience is frayed. And my grasp on anything ever working out is tenuous on a good day, and those are getting fewer and farther between.” She took her sister’s hand in hers, amazed at how they were the same size. Just as she wasn’t the girl she’d been at fourteen on that awful day, Adalyn wasn’t eight and in need of shielding anymore. She was a grown-ass woman, and it was beyond time for Hadley to recognize that as well. “I failed at absolutely everything I set out to do when I left here, and I’ve been too scared to admit it to anyone.”
“Too scared or too proud?”
Ow. That hit right in the feels. “Probably both.”
Adalyn sat down on the couch, pulling Hadley with her, and let her head fall back against the afghan blanket draped across the back. “And all this time, I thought I had to put on this big wedding no matter what my gut was telling me because I wanted you to finally see me as someone who’d grown up and was worthy of your Instagram-filtered status and attention.”
“Adalyn, you are so beyond worthy.” She pivoted to face her sister, needing her to understand more than she needed oxygen at that point. “I’m so sorry for keeping my mouth shut.”
“Why did you do it? Why didn’t you trust us enough to tell us—tell me—the truth?”
The hurt in her little sister’s voice grabbed Hadley and wouldn’t let go. And when her mom, Gabe, Knox, and Weston filtered in, she realized that all she’d accomplished by pretending her life in Harbor City was perfect was to push away the very people she most loved—the last thing she wanted to do. They were overbearing, a little too involved, and knew exactly how to push every one of her buttons, but they were her family. She loved them more than anyone else in the world, just like they loved her. It was about time she acted accordingly.
“After Dad died…” No, it was time to use the words. “After he killed himself, well, it was easier to act as if everything was fine rather than to admit how sad and hurt I was.” She’d gotten lost in the strangest things, like rearranging the fridge to accommodate all the casserole dishes people dropped off or playing round after round of Rummy with Knox. “I loved Dad, and it felt like the worst kind of betrayal to be mad at him. I was old enough to know he’d been very sad for a very long time even if he tried to cover it with jokes and pranks and surprise trips for ice cream. Showing how damn angry I was didn’t seem like an option, so I didn’t.” She’d become perpetually peppy and positive. Everything would work out because of the sheer force of her will alone. “After that, it just got to be a habit. I didn’t want Mom to worry when I went to Harbor City, so I spiffed up the truth.” She glanced over at her mom and offered up an apologetic look. “I took on this fake-it-until-you-make-it philosophy about everything—even when it came to my family. I lied to all of you.”
