The faster they made it to her pawpaw and then got back on the road so this endless road trip could be over, the better. There was not anything that would get him to deviate from that course.
Chapter Nine
After an hour and a half of the world’s shittiest music—somewhere there was a crappy coffee house missing its fuck-everyone acoustic play-list—Will breathed a sigh of relief as they pulled into the guest parking lot at the Sandhills Senior Living Village. The village was actually a four-building apartment complex with a clubhouse, pool, and large green area with walking paths and a working community garden.
When they got out of the car and headed for the double glass doors of the clubhouse, Hadley still wasn’t speaking to him. That was just fine with him, because it only showed that she was pissed for getting caught sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. He couldn’t fault her for trying. Information was power—especially when it came to someone trying to worm their way into another person’s life.
Mia had done her research when it came to him. It wasn’t until after everything blew up that Will had discovered just how much legwork she’d done. His grandmother. The majority of Holt Enterprises’ board of directors. Former girlfriends. Shit, even the doorman at his building had been the target of one of Mia’s flirty interrogations.
They were both fast-walking for the door at the same time—no doubt she was as determined to win as he was—when it burst open and an older man flanked by two women walked out. After giving each of them a quick kiss on the cheek, the older man walked toward Will and Hadley with a huge smile on his face. He was lean and leathery, with a shock of white hair cut close. He had a swagger that had either come from a lifetime of riding horses or successfully charming women—possibly both. As soon as he was within arm’s reach of Hadley, he wrapped her up in a hug.
“Trigger, what in the world are you doing here?” he asked, taking a step back. “You look like you’re ready to take on the world per usual. I hope I’m not the one you’re gearing up to do battle with.”
“Nope, just doing Mom’s bidding,” Hadley said with a chuckle. “You ready to head out?”
“I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow,” PawPaw said as he turned to Will and held out his huge meat hook of a hand, complete with well-earned callouses that hadn’t gone away even though the man had to be in his late seventies or early eighties. “You must be her special friend, Web.”
“That would be me, but everyone calls me Will.”
“Good to meet someone else whose name isn’t their name. My real name is Paul but this one”—he hooked a thumb at Hadley—“couldn’t quite manage Grandpa Paul when she was little so she started saying PawPaw, and it stuck.”
“She does like to get her way,” Will said, smiling at her as if that was just an adorable quirk of her personality.
“Ain’t that the truth,” PawPaw said with a shrug. “But unfortunately, I can’t give in on leaving today. It’s the Summer of Love dance tonight. I broke out my tie-dye. Plus, Marion, Alice, and Cat would skin me alive if I ditched them.”
“You have three dates?” Will asked.
“Do you know what the ratio of men to women is in a place like this?” PawPaw leaned in close and said in a stage whisper, “Very good odds, if you get my drift. I do better than others because I still have my original hips—which tends to come in pretty damn handy.”
Okay, that was more information than he needed, but good for PawPaw. He glanced over at Hadley, who was staring up at the sky as if she wished she was anywhere but here, finding out about her grandpa’s dating life.
Hadley shook her head and made a tsk-tsk sound. “You’re going to have to call Mom and tell her we’re not coming home today.”
“That seems extreme—especially when it comes to news she’s not gonna want to hear. I’ll text.” PawPaw took out a brick of a phone and started thumb typing. “You two are lucky that I’ve got more than enough tie-dye to share and that I’ve got a spare room, because Rochelle is having a family reunion and there are Burgesses packed into every hotel room for miles.”
Hadley’s eyes went wide. “We can drive home tonight and come back tomorrow.”
Will’s stomach took a ten-story nosedive at the idea of driving back three hours today only to do it all over again tomorrow.
“Don’t be silly, Trigger.” PawPaw hooked his arm through Hadley’s and started walking with her toward the green space. “Plus, this way we’ll get an early start in the morning. I already told your mom we’d be there by lunch. So now you two can have a little dinner and dancing. What could be better than that?”
Okay, Will could think of about a million things better than that—especially since he and Hadley still hadn’t said a single word to each other since she’d tipped her hand with all those questions in the convenience store. However, saying that wasn’t part of his plan.
“I can’t think of anything better,” he said, falling into step with Hadley and PawPaw.
“Looks like it’s a plan, then. Don’t you worry, Trigger, I bet one of the ladies has an extra tie-dye outfit you can borrow.” He looked over at Will. “I’ve got a couple of Grateful Dead T-shirts that should work for you.”
Will wasn’t usually a costume kind of guy, but if it meant not getting in the car again until tomorrow, then he’d wear a chicken suit if necessary.
…
How had this happened? How had Hadley ended up wearing a tie-dyed micromini dress as three of her grandpa’s girlfriends wove daisies in the single, loose braid flowing down her back? This was nuts. Totally bananas.
“Are you sure I shouldn’t wear my jeans with this?” she asked, tugging down on the hem that barely reached mid-thigh.
Marion gasped, whipping her head around so fast to stare at Hadley in shock that her no-nonsense bob, dyed a dignified brown, took a heartbeat to catch up. “And ruin the look?”
Alice added a final daisy to Hadley’s hair and stood back to admire her work. “When my cousin sent me this dress all the way from California all those years ago, my daddy forbade me from wearing it.” She let out a sigh that spoke of could’ve beens and if onlys. “I’ve had it in a trunk ever since. Don’t you dare ruin this dress’s coming out by wearing it with jeans.”
Cat smoothed the dress’s Peter Pan collar and then locked eyes with Hadley in the mirror. “Just be careful how you sit in it or you’ll be showing the world your good china.”
Great, something new to worry about beyond the fact that she was going to have to dance with Will. She’d tried to work out a way to avoid it and had come up totally blank. Taking a deep breath—and offering up a quick prayer that the fifty-year-old seams of a one-size-smaller-than-her-belly-liked dress would hold—she had to admit defeat. She hated that. But there was no way around it. She was going to have to get up close and personal with the big jerk who happened to be saving her ass.
Luckily, Alice, Cat, and Marion had just the thing to settle her pre-dance nerves—Ensure spiked with vodka. She’d questioned it at first, but after one drink, it was obvious these older women knew what they were about.
“This was really nice of you guys,” she said, lifting her glass in a toast. “Thank you.”
Cat fluffed her steel-gray curls that went down to her shoulders and gave her a smile. “It’s not every day we get to kidnap one of Paul’s granddaughters and dress her up.”
Hadley had no idea how to respond to that, so she just smiled at the three self-appointed fairy godmothers and let them get on with her transformation.
“Shoes! You need something besides…those,” Cat said, finishing by pointing at Hadley’s running shoes and wrinkling her pert little nose in disappointment.
“I have just the thing, one minute.” Marion disappeared into her bedroom, moving quickly despite her cane that had tennis balls on its three-pronged base. She returned a moment later with a pair of woven wedges. “My granddaughter left these last time she visited. You two look to be about the same size.”
Hadley slipped on the shoes and then did a quick walk around the small kitchenette. They were about half a size too small, but she wasn’t going to be wearing them for hours. They’d make an appearance for PawPaw’s sake and then get out of there. One dance—max—and that would be it.
“So what do you think?” She did a spin for her fairy godmothers and executed a quick curtsy as they clapped. “Thank you for letting me borrow it. It’s a fabulous dress.”
“It’s not just a dress, you know,” Alice said. “It’s self-determination, control, power. You kids now with your Amazon Prime delivery and Instacarts, you have no idea what it was like to wait weeks for a package to arrive. I held my breath opening it up. I was one of those kids who hated tearing the wrapping paper on my Christmas presents, so imagine that but with the heavy tape they used to seal parcels.”
“You are still like that, Alice,” Cat said before taking a drink of spiked Ensure.