Chapter Seven

Hadley cracked her eyes open. What parts of her body weren’t heavy with sleep were aching from the uncomfortable crash of consciousness—calling it a nap was too generous—in the single overstuffed chair in the living room. She had no idea how much time had passed, but the sky had turned pinky orange and the scent of hamburgers on the grill was wafting in from the open window.

“Welcome back to the world of the not-currently-snoring,” Will said from his spot on the couch. “I’ve never heard anything like it before. It was like the cross-harbor train was hiccupping but louder.”

Ignoring the fact that his light-brown hair was mussed to just the right amount of took-a-nap-but-am-still-crazy-hot, the deep dimple in his cheek as he grinned at her, and the way his shirt clung to his muscular chest—okay, mostly ignoring it—she lifted her chin.

“I don’t snore,” she said, a declaration that probably would have carried more weight if she hadn’t been trying to subtly dab at the drool on the corner of her mouth while she said it.

“I thought you might say that.” He got up from the couch and crossed over to her before squatting down next to her chair and holding out his phone so they could both see the screen. “That is why I recorded it.”

He hit Play and—

Damn those tech people and their need to constantly improve the video quality of cell phones.

The image on the screen showed her with her mouth open wide enough to catch a swarm of horseflies, her hair going every which way, and a very distinctly glistening line of moisture going from her mouth to her chin. It was bad. It wasn’t like grab-a-horse-and-ride-off-to-the-farthest-pasture-for-the-rest-of-eternity bad, but it was still very not good. Then it got worse because of course it did. Will clicked the volume control button and took the phone off mute and a low, loud, stuttering rumble of a snore filled the room.

Hadley closed her eyes, but it only made the snores louder in her head. Great. Exhaling, she opened her eyes and looked up at Mr. Bargain Bin Halloween Costume Cowboy himself. The big jerk was grinning down at her, his cute-boy dimple doing its best to distract from his evil nature.

She shrugged. “So it happened once.”

Will slid his phone back in his front pocket—how there was enough room, considering how tightly they fit, she had no idea—and stood upright, his attention never straying from her face.

“By the end of the week, we’ll know for sure,” he said.

Ah yes, they were stuck sleeping together. Well, not together. They’d be in the same room—one that was small enough that if she got up right now, she’d have no choice but to stand within touching distance of him.

Not that she wanted to touch him.

Ugh.

That was the last thing she wanted even if he had one section of hair in desperate need of being brushed back and a day’s worth of scruff on his jaw that looked like it was the perfect mix of sandpaper and silk to the touch. Nope. She was keeping her hands to herself, clasped right in the middle of her lap, and her ass firmly planted on the damn uncomfortable chair because what had happened in the coat closet at the fundraiser had been an accident.

Pure chance.

Bad luck.

An obvious sign that she’d done something horrible in a previous life.

“I have no idea what’s going on in that head of yours, but it looks like steam is about to come out of your ears.” He leaned down and put his hands on the chair’s armrests on either side of her. “You thinking about all the hot dreams you had of me?”

No!

But now she probably would be, damn her easily suggestible subconscious.

Not that she’d admit that the coat-closet kiss had been an ahem inspiration that might have—all right, had—required the purchasing of new batteries. The man’s ego was out of control enough as it was. Plus with Will here, there was not enough privacy on the whole of Hidden Creek Ranch for her to use the vibrator she’d tucked into her suitcase. Somehow the man would figure it out. And he’d call her on it. And oh my God why was it getting so hot in here and why were her nipples suddenly so achingly hard?

Do you really need three cowboy guesses for that one, Hadley?

“We need to head out for dinner before Aunt Louise sends one of the cousins to see if we are doing something we aren’t supposed to,” she said, the words all coming out in one fast rush that still managed to sound breathy and desperate to her own ears.

There was no way Will would miss it—or the probable reason for her discomfort.

He stood up and took a step back, but the intensity of his attention remained on her like a yearned-for-but-unspoken-about touch. “You mean like finishing what we started in the coat closet?”

“That is finished.” Say it enough and it’s gotta be true.

His green-eyed gaze dipped down to her mouth, lingering and hot. “Too bad for me.”

She exhaled a shaky breath. “Yes, it is.”

His gaze flicked up to her eyes, and the air practically crackled between them. “I don’t doubt that for a minute.”

Needing to move before she reached out and did something dumb, she all but jumped up from the chair and started pacing in the small space, her heart hammering against her ribs as desire threaded through her, warm and addicting. “Why are you saying things like that? There’s no one here to see it.”

He cocked his head to the side, genuine curiosity softening his hard features. “Don’t people just flirt with you for fun, not because there’s an audience?”

She snorted. “No.”

He stepped into her path, forcing her to stop walking or ram right into his hard chest. “Why not?”

A million reasons. She was too bitchy, too mousy, too soft, too hard, too round, too flat, too loud, too quiet, too country, too out of place in the world she thought she’d wanted to be a part of since she was a kid decorating her room with pictures of Harbor City. No matter the reason, she wasn’t the type of woman people flirted with. She was the one they usually ignored—except for Web. He hadn’t flirted; there was none of that between them, but she hadn’t felt that tug with him anyway. It really had been the weird kind of instant friendship that sometimes happened where after five minutes it was like she’d known him forever.

She was saved from any of that spilling out, though, by the knock at the door that had to be a cousin sent by Aunt Louise to find out what was holding them up—and, therefore, everyone’s dinner.

Hadley switched directions and headed toward the door. “We’ve gotta go.”

“I want to finish this conversation later,” Will said.

“It’s good to want things,” she responded as she yanked open the front door and nearly plowed into her cousin Marco in her hurry to put some space between her and the Evil Twin.

She didn’t run off the porch after that. She was a grown adult woman and didn’t run away from uncomfortable truths. No. She quick-walked because hamburgers on the grill meant baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and German potato salad along with no-bake cookies and homemade popcorn balls. It would be heaven on a paper plate. Her speed had nothing to do with getting out of the cabin before that man tempted her any more and she did something foolish. Nope. Not a damn thing.

…

Will settled in next to Hadley at one of the three picnic tables behind the main house. Everyone was talking and laughing as they carried their plates loaded down with food and grabbed a can of beer or pop, as all the Donavan-Martinezes had called soda, from the gigantic cooler. Well, all of the family members were, with the exception of Adalyn, who was standing off to the side of the house, talking on her phone and looking like she just might nut whoever was on the other end of the line.

“So,” Gabe said in between bites of a delicious-looking burger that was the size of a small country. “Hadley was telling us that you secretly wanted to learn how to be a cowboy.”

Of course she was. He wouldn’t expect anything less—anything to get under his skin. If she wasn’t trying to set his brother up for a seven-figure sucker punch, he’d probably admire her for it.

“I’m not sure those were my exact words?”

“Don’t be shy,” Hadley said with a sweet smile he knew meant anything but good things. “You said you couldn’t wait to learn how to be a real cowboy.”

Oh, she was playing dirty.

“That would be great,” Will said. “But don’t tell them all my secrets, darlin’.”

A hint of pink touched her cheeks, highlighting the freckles across her nose that he hadn’t noticed before. “Not all of them.”

“Oh yeah,” Knox said as he slathered butter over his corn on the cob. “Just the ones about your pure-gold toilet and ten ex-wives.”

Will almost flinched, but years of going toe to toe during cutthroat business negotiations when Holt Enterprises had been on the verge of collapse had taught him to keep his outward reactions in check. He covered with his usual cocky nonchalance. “Regular toilet and only one ex-fiancée.”

Next to him, Hadley stiffened. “You were engaged?”

“Only for a few months.” All but seven days of which had been a living hell once he’d realized how he’d not only fallen for a shark, he’d nearly lost the family business and most of his money. “Turned out she loved my bank account quite a bit more than she loved me.”

Hadley pursed her full lips and looked down at the half-eaten burger on her plate. More than likely she was trying to figure out how she’d have to change her run at Web, since it was harder to play a mark if someone watching out for them had been in the game before.

That’s right, darling. Get ready. I’m coming for you, and you might as well realize it now.

Will didn’t knock Web for not realizing why his new friend was acting the way she was. His brother wasn’t soft, but he was trusting. He looked at the world and saw only the possibilities, which was why he headed up the family foundation while Will had taken over the family business and the mantle as the head of the family. He’d gone into Holt Enterprises, saw the shit it was in financially, and had done everything he had to in order to set it right again. He’d learned to read the room at a glance so he could push through his vision when no one thought he had the experience or the know-how to turn the company around. He’d learned how to gauge the mood of the worriers on the company’s board of directors so he could tailor his message to allay their fears. He’d discovered how to spot a competitor’s tell; then he’d hit them in their softest point during negotiations so he could swoop in and turn that to his advantage. He’d figured out—too late, he’d admit to himself—how to detect the truth (given rarely) and ferret out the lie (the more common human response).

And that skill was how he’d first figured out that Hadley was up to something. Web may not have noticed the little fibs, the conversational diversions, and her general shadiness, but Will had, and he wasn’t about to forget it just because Hadley knocked him off-balance every damn time he saw her. It didn’t matter, though, because he was on to her.

“I was young,” Will said, flashing an it’s-no-big-deal smile at the table even while his hands were curled into fists in his lap. “Live and learn.”

Gabe nodded and looked over at his wife, his gaze softening. “There’s something to be said for life experience.”

Stephanie chuckled, the hard-ass Will had met this afternoon transforming into…still a hard-ass but one with the edges rounded a bit. “And a willingness not to run for the hills when the woman you asked for coffee blurts out that she has four kids at home.”

“Any man who’d do that is an idiot,” Gabe said, looking at Stephanie as if she were the only other person in the world. “And I’m grateful for each and every one of their dumb asses.”

“Language,” she said, but there wasn’t any heat in the objection.

Gabe shrugged. “Guess how much I love you just gets the best of me sometimes.”

Knox let out a melodramatic groan that would have marked him as the youngest even if he didn’t have a baby face. “We are sitting right here, you know.”

Gabe didn’t even bother to look over at his youngest stepson. “So you should look away, because I’m gonna kiss your mom now.”

And he did, a quick kiss that left Stephanie hazy-eyed. Will tried to remember a time before his parents died when they’d ever held hands, let alone kissed. He couldn’t. They weren’t physically affectionate people when it came to each other or their kids. No doubt they would have seen the kiss between Hadley’s parents as gauche.

Cutting a look to the side, he tried to gauge Hadley’s reaction. Like the rest of her family, she was rolling her eyes at the PDA, but the upward curl of her lips gave away her true feelings. The only person who wasn’t watching the interaction between Stephanie and Gabe without an indulgent smile was Adalyn, who’d finished her call and joined them at the table.

She let out a sigh. “Looks like Derek won’t be able to make it down for a few more days. His boss has him practically chained to the desk,” Adalyn said. “So what did I miss?”

“The usual old-people PDA with Mom and Dad,” Weston said.

Knox sat up straighter and leaned forward. “And Will here wants to learn how to be a cowboy.”

Adalyn looked at him and shook her head. “I’m sure Knox and Weston can help you out there. I’d do it, but the wedding stuff has me out of the saddle until after the honeymoon.”

“Hadley couldn’t show me the ropes?” It really would be the perfect revenge for pawning him off on her brothers.

Everyone at the table—including Hadley—laughed at that.

“Hadley is pretty much a town-only kind of person,” Weston said. “But I’m sure Knox and I could teach you a thing or two. You’re not afraid of a little hard work, are you?”

The smug, raised-eyebrow, hey-city-slicker look Hadley’s oldest brother gave him telegraphed all too clearly exactly how much work the brothers thought he did. If they only knew. His days may not be as physical as theirs, but he was still up at four, in the office by six, and after that it was in back-to-back meetings until dinner, schmoozing potential investment partners until he got home and fell asleep reading emails in bed at around midnight.

“Hard work has never scared me,” Will said.

“Great,” Weston said with a curt nod. “We’ll start in the morning. Be ready by dawn, and we’ll take you out on snipe patrol.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Hadley glaring at her brothers. Of course she didn’t want him to win their sorta bet that her family would fall in love with him. Well, she was going to have to get used to losing on that front, too, because Will always won—no matter what.

Stephanie cleared her throat, silencing everyone at the table. “Not tomorrow, I’m going to need Hadley and Will to go on down and get PawPaw for the wedding festivities.”

Was that a dog? A peg-legged possum? He was about to ask a follow-up question when he noticed Hadley’s glare had transformed into a shit-eating grin that would look perfectly in place on a lottery winner’s face.

“You don’t mind coming with me to get my granddad, right?” she asked. “For some fun family togetherness?”

The sweetness in her tone should have warned him about the trouble ahead, but the always-needs-to-know-the-answer part of his brain had just taken a hit of that’s-the-answer dopamine. “No problem—anything for you.”

“So sweet,” Hadley said, resting her head on his shoulder and really playing up the fake-girlfriend role. “It’s only a three-hour drive down there, so we should be fine to leave in the morning and be back home by dinner.”

Fuck me.

She got him. Again. There was no way to back out of it now without admitting weakness—a definite not-gonna-happen if there had ever been one. He’d concede this battle to her, but she’d better enjoy this victory while she could, because it was going to be her last one.

And that determination made it all the way through dinner, toasts to the bride-to-be, and Adalyn’s favorite dessert—s’mores over the firepit. However, as soon as they got back to the cabin and he saw Hadley’s shoulders slump at the sight of the chair she’d napped in, he gave in—for strategic purposes, of course. It was smart to keep your competition off-kilter by throwing some no-strings-attached free will every once in a while.

“You can have the pull-out.”

Now, this was where she’d feign protest for politeness’s sake—that fake generosity would be the smart move for someone trying to slyly move in on his brother for all the dollars in his bank account.

Hadley didn’t even hesitate before grabbing ahold of her suitcase and rolling it behind her as she walked down the short hall toward the bathroom. “We’ll take turns. Me tonight, you tomorrow when we get back from driving PawPaw home.”

With her, it was always what he didn’t expect. Just like how she’d managed to get him to agree to another gut-wrenching drive. “You set me up with that.”

“I did,” she said, glancing over her shoulder and winking at him.

Will was in a pair of sleep pants and brushing his teeth over the kitchen sink when Hadley sauntered back into the living room in a silky red tank top and matching shorts trimmed in lace. Most of his blood went south before the realization settled in that she’d packed those pajamas thinking it would be his brother who’d see them.

A good man would have pulled himself back from the edge and remembered a gold digger played the long con. He recalled that last bit all right, but he was still balancing right there on the edge of lust and loathing without a clue which side to fall on, while he watched her set up the fold-out bed and slip between the sheets already on it and promptly closing her eyes without ever looking his way or uttering a single good night. He would have thought he would have gotten his ability to breathe back again, but no.

“You gonna turn out the light?” she asked in a bored tone, “or are you just standing there in the kitchen with a mouth full of toothpaste and staring at me while I’m sleeping—because that’s not creepy at all.”

Face hot at getting caught, he swallowed the toothpaste without thinking. It tasted like mint-flavored poor choices. “I’ll be done in a second.”

She didn’t answer, just rolled over and tucked the sheet up high under her chin. By the time he kicked his boots under the pull-out mattress so he didn’t trip over them in the middle of the night and sat down in the chair, Hadley’s breathing had already evened out as she slept. Without the usual annoyed expression she wore when she saw him, she looked softer, sweeter, somehow even sexier than usual. Hell, she looked every bit like she was the kindhearted person she presented around Web. But she wasn’t. And Will couldn’t—Web couldn’t—afford to forget that.