by Avery Flynn
“We all turn into our mother in the end.”
“So we’ll be badasses but the interfering, loving, drive-you-nuts kind?” Raising four kids as a single mom was no joke. Sure, she’d found Gabe and they’d had a whole Hallmark movie romance, but Hadley had been fourteen by then, her brothers twelve and ten, and Adalyn eight.
“Exactly.”
“Don’t worry—I’ll be there soon.” Hadley glanced over at the gate where all the arriving passengers would flow out, but only a few people trickled in, none of whom was Web. “Backup is on the way.”
“Thank God. You have no idea how grateful I am that you came in early. I know getting off work for a week was tough.”
Probably not as tough as it would have been had she not been fired after the incident. But no way was she sharing that news with her family. They still shook their heads whenever they mentioned her living in the “city.”
“You’re my sister.” Hadley resumed her impatient pacing in front of the arrivals area. “Of course I was going to be here for the whole wedding-week shindig.”
“Even if you had to bring your best friend to pose as your boyfriend because you want to ditch as much of the mandatory family fun time as possible?” Adalyn asked.
Hadley grimaced, guilt tickling the pit of her stomach. Busted. She opened her mouth to deny it, but who was she kidding? Everyone knew how weird all the family togetherness was to her. She couldn’t help it. There was obviously some emotional piece she was missing.
“I promise, I’m shut away behind a locked door in the bathroom,” her sister said with a sympathetic chuckle. “Your secret about why Web is really here is safe with me. Just don’t even think about chickening out between the airport and home.”
“I’m not scared.” Much.
“Just get here, Trigger. Derek is getting all weirded out.”
Something in Adalyn’s tone when she said her fiancé’s name set off Hadley’s worry alert, and her shoulders tensed.
“Pre-wedding nerves?” she asked, trying to keep her tone neutral even as she was already plotting her sister’s fiancé’s death if he even thought about doing something that would hurt Adalyn.
“Maybe. I just…” Her sister’s voice cracked. “Something seems off with him. I don’t know. It’s probably nothing. I’m sure I’m just worrying for no reason.”
That wasn’t what the tremble in her voice said, though. All of Hadley’s big-sister protectiveness whooshed up like a brushfire in the wind, and she started pacing to get some of the raw energy out. Glancing over at the flight notification board, she noted for the billionth time that his plane had gotten in fifteen minutes ago. Where was Web? She needed to get to the ranch. Now.
“It’s only jitters,” Hadley said, hoping like hell it was true, since she hadn’t met Derek yet. “Anyway, I pity anyone getting thrown into the Donavan-Martinez tornado for the first time, especially when you’re about to marry into the family. We’re a lot.”
Her sister giggled, but it didn’t have the same oomph it usually did. “That’s true.”
“It is,” she said, using her all-knowing big-sister tone, hoping it would work. “So relax and don’t hide in the bathroom for much longer or Aunt Louise will tell everyone that you’ve been pooping for too long and start sending the cousins to come check on you to make sure you don’t need help.”
That was the Aunt Louise Special. Yet one more bit of extra overwhelming family togetherness. Really. Let a person poop in peace.
“I will literally die of embarrassment if that happens,” Adalyn said. “You’re horrible for even putting the possibility into my head.”
“Love you, Buttermilk,” she said, using her sister’s nickname.
“Love you right back, Trigger.”
Hadley hung up and strolled by the bronze Elroy Jeppesen statue outside of passenger arrivals at the Denver International Airport for the fifty-second time. She sent up a big old fuzzy thank-you to the friendship gods for giving her a super-rich best friend who could come to Nebraska for a week.
That Webster “Web” Holt was willing to leave his cushy life in Harbor City to come to the Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska, for a week was amazing. Add in the fact that he’d agreed to help her keep her sanity with all the family togetherness, and it was easy to see why Web was pretty much her favorite person in the entire world. It didn’t matter that they’d had to take different flights, since he had spent the past few days at his family compound hours outside of Harbor City and that his plane had been delayed for three hours. She was so grateful to have him here that she wouldn’t even fight him for the last piece of Aunt Louise’s Frito pie, which just happened to be the most magical comfort food in the history of forever.
Just when she was about to check the arrivals board for the zillionth time, passengers started flowing through the security doors on their way to baggage claim. Hadley scanned the crowd, looking for her bestie. If their positions had been reversed, Web would have had a helluva time trying to spot her in the sea of humanity. She always just got lost in the crowd. That was the curse of being of average height (five feet four inches on a tall day), build (on the chuffy side of the scale but not giving a shit because doughnuts were to die for), and hair color (bland brown because she had no time to go to the salon for highlights or anything else).
However, at six feet four inches with dark-brown hair, green eyes, and the kind of laid-back attitude that came with never having to worry—about money, a job, or what people thought about him—Web always stood out. And if he walked into a room with his identical twin brother? No one could look away.
Annoyance started bubbling in her stomach at even the thought of Will.
The way he was always smirking at her as if he knew something she didn’t. Her chest tightened and she ground her molars together as that all-too-familiar tension locked her back tight. The pseudo-concerned crap he shoveled at her about not being born with the silver spoon of Harbor City’s high society firmly in her mouth.
She closed her eyes and envisioned smacking Will upside the head with that well-polished utensil.
And—on top of all that—there was the fact that he was the reason she was now unemployed.
She cut herself off before her temper went into countdown mode.
Let it go, Had. The second-best part about spending a week in Nebraska is not having to see your bestie’s completely horrible, absolutely awful, no-good twin. The first—obviously—would be your sister’s wedding.
Adalyn deserved to have the kind of happily ever after she’d spent her life wanting. Hadley could understand that, even if rolling over in bed to get blasted in the face with the same guy’s morning breath day after day, year after year, decade after decade was definitely not in her plans.
Hadley dreamed of adventure and freedom and total self-control all the days of her life.
But she didn’t have time to dwell on that amazing thought right now as her gaze snagged on Web’s tall frame coming through the security doors.
Her welcoming smile turned to outright amusement as the sight of him finally processed. The black cowboy hat that almost sat right on his head. Wrangler jeans so new, they still had a crease down each leg hugging his muscular thighs. And the boots? Good Lord. He was wearing the fancy, shiny kind that showed up only at movie premieres and would never see any actual work on branding day.
If there was a soft-focused holiday movie about a heifer with magical matchmaking abilities, the cowboy hero would look exactly like Web. He didn’t even begin to look as if his clothes had come from Feed and Steer, the store where a rancher could get his entire wardrobe, a fully automated roping shoot, and a gallon of supplements to encourage the cattle to stay hydrated while increasing their food consumption.
She shouldn’t laugh—Web was a child of Harbor City’s richest of the rich and obviously was trying to fit in the best he could. His heart wa
s in the right place. Still, her lips twitched as the giggles bubbled up inside her.
Get ahold of yourself, girl. This is your best friend. The guy who flew across the country to stand by your side. Don’t make him feel bad for cosplaying the kind of cowboy who exists only on TV.
“Hey, cowboy,” she called out, her voice giddy with unreleased laughter despite her best efforts.
Web turned his head, spotted her, and tipped his hat like he was Curly in an Oklahoma! revival, then headed her way, a sly grin on his face.
That’s when her oh-shit senses started buzzing. As he swaggered through the crowd, that warning sense grew from a low hum to a full-on-earthquake. Heart hammering and palms sweaty, her left eye started twitching as she held tight to the one truth that she had to believe: This couldn’t be. This abso-fucking-lutely couldn’t be.
She squeezed her eyes shut and forced out the oxygen that had been trapped in her lungs.
It was just a trick of the light or her pre-family-gathering jagged nerves playing her. That had to be it.
Please, whoever is the patron saint of women just trying to make it through the day without committing murder, deliver me from this vision of a totally fresh hell.
She opened her eyes right as he stopped in front of her. Searching his face for the tiny little markers that differentiated Web’s face from Will’s, she held on to that little ribbon of hope that everything hadn’t suddenly gone pear-shaped. Then she noticed the tiny mole by Web’s left eye was missing. Maybe she’d always imagined it had been there? She took in a deep inhale and was hit with the unique mix of musk, leather, and the kind of trouble mothers had been warning their daughters about for generations. It was a uniquely Evil Twin scent. There was no way she could deny what she’d known the moment she’d seen him move.
This wasn’t Web.
It was Will.
She stopped breathing, the world stopped spinning, and every one of the forty bazillion people in the crowded airport disappeared. It couldn’t. They wouldn’t. Holy fuck, her stomach was knotting up at the realization that she was now in hell.
He gave her a slow once-over that, despite knowing better, made her body wake up and take notice—stop it right now, boobs, or it will be all uncomfortable sports bras for you until the end of time—and punctuated it with a half smile.
He tipped his cowboy hat like a man who’d practiced it in the mirror. “Howdy.”
The way Will said it with that rough rumble that on anyone else would be sex personified made her twitch with annoyance. Oh God. She couldn’t kill him in front of witnesses.
Hadley crossed her arms and glared up at his somehow-hotter-than-his-identical-twin’s face. “Get back on that plane.”
“No can do.” He gave his head a regretful shake. “It’s going on to L.A. and I have had my fill of actresses for the time being, but it was sweet of you to think of me.”
Heated frustration shot up from the earth’s core and blasted through her. How did he always produce this hot, flushed, so-damn-bothered involuntary reaction just by existing in the same room as her? Every. Single. Time. Ugh. He was the worst, just the absolute worst.
“What are you doing here and where is Web?” she asked, practically biting off each word.
“In reverse order…” He held up two long fingers. “At our family place in the country puking his guts up, but don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” He lowered one finger. “Coming to your rescue.”
Ha! That would be the day. “I don’t think so.”
He smirked at her.
Yes, smirked, and it wasn’t even the least little bit sexy. It was enraging—like shake-her-fist-at-the-wide-open-high-plains-sky-and-yell-“nooooooooooooooo” enraging.
If Will had any idea how he was affecting her, he didn’t show it, just kept right on going like God’s gift to humanity. “I’m tall, dark, handsome, and rich. I’m pretty sure I fit the bill of a knight; I just need my brave steed. And anyway, I look exactly like Web, so your family will never know the difference. He and I used to swap spots all the time in school.”
Nope. This was not happening. “You can’t come with me.”
“Are you sure?” He shot her a skeptical look. “I was told this was an all-hands emergency. Web’s words were that anything—I repeat, anything—would be better for you than going to this wedding alone. Now, my brother’s not known for exaggerating, but there’s a first for everything. Are you really saying that spending a week with me is worse than facing down your entire family as they question every life choice you’ve made since you left your teeny, tiny hometown?”
The questions would come from love, Hadley knew it. A little query here, a comment there, a concern uttered in hushed tones over the homemade enchiladas. She was bound to crack under the pressure, which was exactly what she did not want to happen. Losing her cool and acting like the metaphorical flaming bag of dog poop during her sister’s wedding and thus ruining everything was pretty much a nightmare situation. She needed someone to have her back, to help keep her sane, and to give her an excuse to escape the confines of her family before she lost it.
She sighed and her shoulders sank. She needed Will Holt, and the big jerk knew it. “Don’t make me regret this.”
He tipped his hat at her again, as if this were some old western movie with him playing the part of the flirtatious gambler while she was the saloon girl with a heart of gold. “I’m all about leaving women happy wherever I go.”
Hadley clamped her mouth shut before she told him exactly how he could make her happy. Not to go into it, but in the week since the incident, she’d developed a very in-depth revenge fantasy that included a deep hole, hot honey, fire ants, and itching powder. Instead of telling him that, though, she turned and marched toward baggage claim, not bothering to check if the wrong cowboy was following.
Chapter Four
If Will didn’t love his brother, he’d try to kill him—on purpose this time for forcing him to go to these kind of ridiculous lengths.
The only positive in the current situation being that Country Barbie wasn’t happy about him being there. Good. Misery loves company.
At least he had her away from his brother. The fresh-from-the-country, I-just-want-to-be-friends scam might have fooled his brother, but Will knew better. There was no way Hadley was as innocent as her big brown eyes and freckled cheeks promised. She was after something, and Will knew well and good that it started with a Holt and ended with his family fortune.
No matter how apple-pie-adorable Hadley looked, she was just one more in a long line of dubious advisors, greedy sycophants, and con artists who saw the orphaned Holt brothers as easy pickings. Just like everyone else, she wanted something from them. No doubt, access to the Holt Foundation funds was just the beginning. That’s why she pushed so hard to be considered as an advisory candidate and why she’d made sure her dream home on Instagram always included a nursery. Alimony was one thing, but child support was guaranteed for eighteen years. Never trust anyone outside the family when it came to money, his dad had warned him before he’d died, but Will had been too young and naive to understand. Mia had worked the same sweet and innocent con on him, and it had almost been too late when he’d realized. He sure as hell wasn’t going to let Web suffer the same nut punch of betrayal.
His phone vibrated in the pocket of his stupid-tight jeans. No shock at the name or the text.
Web: Be nice to my friend.
Yeah, he’d be just as nice to her as she was to him.
Will: What, no hello? No how was your flight? No don’t get gored by a rogue bull?
Web: Again. Be nice to my friend or I’ll tell her to lock you in the barn with the…what in the hell lives in a barn? Horses? Could a pissed-off horse hurt anyone?
City people? He and his brother? Oh yeah, most definitely. They were Harbor City born and bred with only the trips to the fully manicured and well-st
affed upstate country compound as “roughing it” experience.
Will: When am I not nice to dear, sweet Hadley?
Web: Any time you two are in the same room.
No lies detected there—not that he’d admit it.
He weaved around another person in the crowded airport while he kept one eye on Hadley’s ass as she marched through the terminal and the other on texting his brother back.
Will: I’ll be so damn charming, her whole family will fall in love with me.
Web: Can you live stream that? No one will believe it otherwise.
Will: Very fucking funny.
Also, probably more than a little true. He wasn’t exactly the Holt twin everyone wanted to hang out with, which was how he liked it. The Prickly Bastard Holt Twin label fit him fine.
Web: Just remember you are a fake boyfriend. Help Hadley maintain her sanity this week WITHOUT getting into her pants. The last thing I need is for my brother and my best friend to be hate fucking.
Web’s words gave him a moment of joy. No jealousy at all implied. As much as Hadley might be after Web, his brother really did seem immune to her wiles. But that didn’t mean he’d remain immune forever.
Will glanced up from his phone. The woman in question had finally slowed her power walk to a still-quick strut. Sure, he noticed that sweet peach of an ass of hers—he’d have to be dead not to—but that didn’t mean he was interested. He wasn’t, no matter how often he’d thought about that kiss. It had been unexpected, that was all. Who’d have thought the devil would have such soft lips?
He grimaced and typed a response.
Will: Not an issue. Trust me.
It wasn’t. It wouldn’t be. Hadley was the enemy.
Web: Have a fun drive out to the ranch.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. He fucking hated car rides, had since he was a kid. The only thing that would make it tolerable was the uninterrupted opportunity to annoy the ever-loving shit out of Hadley—for a good cause, of course.