The Wedding Date Disaster Read online

  “Sounds good to me,” he said, popping the top of his ginger ale.

  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 th
at 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.

  “I timed you on your birthday,” Marion said. “Your quickest unwrap was three minutes.”

  “If it bothers you so much, don’t watch next time.” Alice brushed her fingertips across the shoulder of the dress, picking off a piece of lint Hadley would have sworn didn’t really exist. “This dress was everything I wanted to be and couldn’t at the time. Then life happened and I forgot all about it. By the time I remembered, there was no way it would fit me anymore.”

  She stepped back, crossed her arms over her rainbow-colored T-shirt, and let out a happy sigh. Hadley might be within the other woman’s line of sight, but it sure didn’t seem like Alice was seeing her.

  “Are you sure you’re okay with letting me wear this?”

  “Oh, honey.” Alice stepped forward and gave Hadley a quick, surprisingly solid hug. “Dreams are meant to be unwrapped and worn proudly—and I’m glad mine is finally getting its time on the dance floor.”

  “Like she needs dreams when she has that tall drink of Cherry Coke,” Cat said with a wink directed at Hadley.

  Alice rolled her eyes. “Not everything is about getting a man.”

  “No, but it sure is nice to be able to warm your toes on those cold nights,” Cat countered as she threaded a belt through the loops on her tie-dyed shirtwaist dress.

  Oh God. This was going somewhere she did not want to go, considering the person warming Cat’s *ahem* toes (along with Marion’s and Alice’s, going by how they’d been talking) was Hadley’s pawpaw. Could she sneak out the door without them noticing? Since they were standing in front of it, probably not, but it just might be worth the effort.

  “Just use that electric blanket I got you for your last birthday,” Alice said, pulling on the light rainbow-colored cardigan.

  “You are such a dear, but I wasn’t really talking about my toes.” Cat turned and must have seen the embarrassment on Hadley’s face. “Sorry. I lost my filter when I turned seventy-six. Best thing to ever happen.”

  “Catherine,” Marion said with an indulgent sigh. “I’ve known you since you were twelve. You never had a filter.”

  And Cat didn’t look the least bit upset about it. Hadley had to admit her pawpaw had great taste in girlfriends. These three were a riot, if more than a little TMI.

  “Oh my gracious,” Alice said. “Look at the time. Time to hit the bricks, ladies.”

  Hadley’s dress was short enough that she’d feel the breeze on her panties when she walked, but she had an extra spring to her step anyway as they walked along one of the paths to the clubhouse. One dance, then she was out of there. Maybe it was the dress and Alice’s sweet advice, but she couldn’t help but feel like everything was going to go perfectly according to plan.

  And that lasted right up until they walked into the clubhouse and she spotted Will. If her dress was a bit small, since it was sized for a high-school-age Alice, the T-shirt PawPaw had given Will must have belonged to a middle-school version of her grandpa. “Tight” didn’t begin to cover it. The cotton clung to Will, from his broad shoulders, across the hard plane of his chest, and tapered down to his waist as if it were painted on. If she looked long enough, she’d probably be able to count each one of his six-pack abs.

  And if that wasn’t bad enough, he was heading straight for her. They hadn’t spoken to each other since he’d gone all weird in the gas station / grocery / diner and now she wasn’t sure she could form words. Anticipation danced across her skin, and her breath caught when she saw the way he looked at her—as if he knew and totally endorsed every naughty thought she’d had about him during her shower this morning.

  He tipped his cowboy hat at her fairy godmothers, which they answered with a set of harmonized giggles, then turned to Hadley. “Can I have this dance?”

  If she could have said no at that moment, she would have. Instead, she took his hand and walked out onto the dance floor.

  …

  Will should have agreed to driving back to the ranch tonight.

  Then he wouldn’t be wearing a ridiculously small T-shirt, holding Hadley in his arms, and swaying to “Lay, Lady, Lay” by Bob Dylan in the middle of a geriatric dance party. Her arms rested on his shoulders, her fingers twined loosely behind his neck, while his fingertips lay lightly on the small of her back.

  Feeling her move against him as Dylan sang made it hard to remember why he was here in the first place. Other dancers around them chatted and smiled while they glided around the floor. Not them. They were like those big statues on Easter Island, silent and unsmiling.

  It wasn’t suspicious at all.

  He dipped his head down, bringing his mouth close to her ear. “If you don’t at least pretend to be having fun, everyone is going to know that this whole thing is fake.”

  “Oh really?” She tensed in his arms. “I hadn’t considered that at all.”

  “So what are you going to do about it?” he asked as he spun them through the crowded dance floor.

  Hadley lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “Develop a headache that means I have to go to bed.”

  The mention of the word “bed” filled his brain with enough bad ideas to make him miss the beat. She looked up at him, her eyebrows raised in question, and the futility of the situation hit him hard. Despite it all, he wanted Hadley. Why? Because he was the king of fucking bad ideas at the moment.

  “Oh yeah,” he said, laying on the sarcasm thick. “That won’t be weird at all.”

  “Why are you like this?” She let out a huff of frustration. “From the day Web introduced us, you’ve either ignored me or insulted me. And don’t throw that gold-digger ridiculousness at me again. We both know that’s not really it.”

  The only answer he had to that was too close to the truth to be comfortable, which was exactly why he kept his mouth shut. It didn’t help, though, because with each inhale, he got the scent of the daisies in her hair and a hint of something sharper, much like the woman herself—delicate on the outside with an inner mettle that everyone else seemed to overlook.

  But not him. He’d noticed it from the beginning, as obvious as a flash in the dark.

  From that first moment, he’d kept his distance and watched, waiting for the real her to make an appearance, just like it had with Mia. He hadn’t been vigilant before. He was now.

  “One, who in the hell could ignore you?” He sure as fuck couldn’t. She all but haunted him no matter what he did. For the past year, she’d squeezed her way between any two thoughts in his head until she was the constant undercurrent of his day. “Two, I never insulted you. I just pointed out all the ways you were wrong about how the Holt Foundation should be awarding its grants.”

  “Really?” She came in closer so their bodies were touching, from the insanely short hem of her dress to her mouth righ
t up against his neck, so every word became a touch. “So in addition to graduating at the top of your business class, having three masters, and being the CEO voted most eligible bachelor in Harbor City, you had time to double major in nonprofit management and philanthropic studies like I did, plus gain more than five years of real-world experience? Wow. Impressive.”

  “So you looked into me?” Yeah, that was pretty much his big takeaway from her dressing down, and he wasn’t even sorry about it.

  “Yes, I cracked open the Harbor City Post. You’re in it multiple times a week.”

  He opened his mouth before he realized he didn’t have a retort for that. She wasn’t wrong. Then again, it made for a convenient cover story for why she knew so much about him and Web.

  “You always make assumptions about people,” she said, sliding her truth shiv home right between his ribs. “You might want to rethink that practice.”

  He gritted his teeth, annoyance at how well she thought she knew him making his muscles tense. “My gut instinct is what helped turn Holt Enterprises around.”

  The entire board thought he was nuts to invest in an app that provided real-time parking information. They’d called it niche. However, unlike the rest of the board, he didn’t have a driver and had to fight for parking spots himself and knew it was a winner. Thanks to Holt Enterprises’ investment, the app changed how every driver in Harbor City thought about parking. That had been his first foray into technology but not his last. They’d picked up the dating app Bramble, invested in a few other start-ups, and were neck deep in beta testing for the next big dating app for dog lovers called Bark Up.

  “It might serve you well in business, but people aren’t the same,” she said. “You have to give them a chance. Of course, you’re just going to ignore that advice, aren’t you?”

  Okay, maybe she did know him a little bit. “It does seem a little biased—especially coming from someone who can’t even trust her family enough not to lie to them.”