Shaking his head, Will grimaced. “You’ll need to get in line.”
Then they stood there in a silent what-the-fuck moment, staring at the photo of a very healthy Web out on the family yacht with a handful of people in cowboy hats and bathing suits behind him. Web was obviously having the time of his life. The caption read: Celebrating the two people I love most in the world finally getting to spend some time together. That definitely calls for a little vitamin D! Yeehaw.
She made a sound that bordered on a growl. “He faked having food poisoning.”
“Looks like it.” Will might be the bad twin, but that didn’t mean Web didn’t get into plenty of shit himself.
“But why?” she asked, looking up at him as if they were on the same side for once.
The combination of her closeness and that nonhostile expression on her face was disconcerting. It made his fingers itch to reach out and run a thumb across the line of her jaw, tilt her face back, dip his head down, and— Whoa there, Holt. Remember who you’re looking at and why.
Rubbing his palm across the back of his neck, he tried to steady his pulse. “Guess someone wants us to be friends.”
Hadley snorted. “Not gonna happen.”
“Finally,” he said, not meaning to but somehow dropping his gaze to her glossy pink lips. “Something we can agree on.”
But that wasn’t the only thing they’d agreed on. A week ago, they’d agreed on that kiss, that stick-your-brain-in-a-wind-tunnel-and-let-it-get-blown-away-because-you-aren’t-using-it-and-you-don’t-care kiss. As if she were thinking about the same moment, Hadley lifted her fingertips to her mouth and let out a shaky breath.
“Enough with the gadgets—come on into the kitchen,” Stephanie called from the area behind them.
He and Hadley jolted apart, the air coming back into the room with a whoosh, and looked away from each other. After a few seconds, Hadley led him from the living room. Everyone had gathered around the huge kitchen island and was eating handfuls of a Chex cereal, peanut butter, and chocolate mixture that they called Puppy Chow. There was Hadley’s mom, her sister, several people introduced as cousins ranging in age from six months to late teens, and one older lady who’d spent a lot of time staring at his junk and then unashamedly giving him a wink when he caught her.
Note to self: Do not dance at the wedding with the old lady. Possible package grabber alert.
The radio was tuned to a country music station, but with so many people talking at once, he only caught a half a verse here or there. It was loud enough, however, that Hadley was moving along to the beat, her hip occasionally bumping up against his as they stood next to each other on one end of the island that separated the kitchen area from the living room.
“Don’t be a chicken,” Hadley said, nudging toward him the bright-green bowl everyone was snacking from. “It’s made from only the best organic dog food.”
She was giving him a hard time—he knew this because what was in the bowl looked like a giant vat of Muddy Buddies. Still, her cocky we’re-on-my-home-court stance had him second-guessing himself, something he never did.
He dipped his hand into the bowl and scooped up a few pieces. “You’re giving me shit, aren’t you?”
Hadley elbowed him in the side, shooting him a what-is-wrong-with-you look, at the same time her mom cleared her throat.
“Language, young man,” Stephanie said, her tone cutting him not even an ounce of slack.
He winced. Cursing in front of the family was definitely a mistake Web wouldn’t have made. “Sorry, ma’am.”
“Yeah, I’m Stephanie. There’s no reason for that ma’am stuff.” She rolled up the sleeves of her denim work shirt, never taking her eyes off him, as if he were the kind of person who needed to be kept track of at all times. “Now, Web—sorry, Will, we haven’t heard hardly anything about you except that you’re a fabulous dancer.”
That was one of the talents he and his brother had in common. Their grandmother had insisted on lessons, which he’d hated then but got the most possible use out of now. Women loved a guy who knew how to move on the dance floor.
“Mom,” Hadley said with a groan. “Don’t interrogate him; he just got here.”
Stephanie grinned. “That seems like the perfect time. He’s tired out from the trip and vulnerable.”
“Now I see where Hadley gets her instincts.” Will gave Hadley’s mom his best charming smile and it had absolutely no impact at all. Okay, then. Maybe it only worked on women from the city. Maybe that’s why Hadley had always blown him off. “I grew up in Harbor City, and I work in the family business.”
Usually, this is when he dropped the Holt Enterprises name and people got dollar signs in their eyes. That didn’t seem right here. Not because of Hadley’s warning but because everyone here seemed genuinely nice. They weren’t looking at him like they were wondering how they could use him to their advantage. It was more like they were considering him. It was weird, and he kinda liked it.
“What do you do for fun?” one of the cousins—Raider?—asked.
“I play rugby.” When they gave him a look that all but screamed weirdo sport, he continued. “It’s like football, just take away the pads, change the rules completely, and swap out the ball.”
“So how did you two meet?” Stephanie asked, obviously still sizing him up going by the friendly-but-not-really tone in her voice.
“Yes,” Adalyn said with a happy sigh. “Tell us everything. I love these meet-cute stories.”
Tension poured off Hadley in waves as she stood next to him, biting down on her bottom lip. He could understand why. He had all the power right now. One word from him and he could have her family believing that she met him at a nudist beach or at a vegan grocery. He was more than just a little tempted to do it just to mess with little Miss Perk and Perfect—but he’d promised Web.
“I was in the coat check room at a party hosted by her company and in walked Hadley.” There. That was close to factual, and the plan was to stick to the truth as much as possible.
Hadley’s eyes went wide and her foot came down on the toe of his right boot. “And that’s the end of the story.”
Everyone in the kitchen looked from Hadley to him. The old lady who up until then couldn’t keep her attention off his junk was leaning forward in her chair as she popped one piece of Puppy Chow after another into her mouth. The pressure on his toes increased, though, and for as much fun as it would be to tell everyone about that kiss just to watch Hadley get all worked up, he couldn’t do it. The woman was going to know where he was sleeping for the next week, and he had no doubt she would use that information to her advantage by smothering him in his sleep. So he just shrugged and kept his mouth shut.
The crowd let out a collective groan of disappointment.
“You’re no fun,” Aunt Louise said, settling back in her chair, her disappointment obvious. “How can you say you don’t want to get serious with this one? I swear, I’ll never get you, Trigger.”
Next to him, Hadley groaned.
What was this? An embarrassing childhood nickname? Oh yes, he was going to have to find out more—just to get under her skin, of course.
He turned to Hadley. “Trigger?”
His pretend girlfriend shoved a handful of the surprisingly delicious Puppy Chow into her mouth, pointed to her puffed-out cheeks, and shrugged as if answering was beyond her abilities at the moment. Luckily, her mom wasn’t as hesitant to give up the goods.
“When we first moved out to the ranch, the kids were all scared of the horses. So to try to help them get used to their new surroundings and the animals, Gabe and I gave the kids nicknames of famous horses to make them seem friendlier,” Stephanie said. “Hadley is Trigger. Adalyn is Buttermilk after Dale Evans’s horse. Knox is Goldie and Weston is Buckshot.”
“So it’s not for your temper?” That really did seem to be the most likely possibility to him.
“No.” Aunt Louise cackled. “But it could be.”
Everyone had a good chuckle about that—including Hadley. Relaxing his guard, Will took another handful of the Puppy Chow, which really was amazingly good. All of Hadley’s relatives were talking over one another again, happy and at ease. It was so strange compared to what he was used to.
After his and Web’s parents had died, their grandmother had raised them. She was not the chatty sort. When they’d come home for break while attending boarding school, she’d mainly stayed in her wing of the mansion that took up a huge chunk of a city block near Center Park. Other than Grandma, there were a few distant cousins, but that was it. He’d never sat around in the kitchen and shot the shit with his family ever and had no idea that he’d been missing all of this.
Hadley was lucky, not that he could tell from looking at her. While everyone else was smiling and having fun, she was hanging back, her face carefully neutral. What the hell?
“So yeah, we’ll be having game night, a bonfire, and Gabe’s been setting up a cowboy obstacle course,” Stephanie said, talking to Aunt Louise, her voice carrying over the din. “It’s going to be so much fun this week.”