The Wedding Date Disaster Read online

  “I got you this.” She shoved one of the cans of ginger ale and the box of crackers into his hands, covering up her inconvenient attraction with a surly attitude, per usual. She opened the box of Dramamine and threw a pill at him. “Take this, too. This is pretty much the end of the line for places like this. We’ll hit a couple of small gas stations between here and the ranch, but if you need anything, you should get it now.”

  “I’m good,” he said, sounding more like his usual cocky self, but took everything she’d held out.

  She gave him a nod and got back in the driver’s side, syncing up her driving playlist with the car stereo again and making her way down the highway.

  “Thanks for the ginger ale and crackers,” he said, settling back in the reclined passenger seat and closing his eyes. “That plus a nap should get me through this.”

  Of course he was snoring quietly before they’d gone five miles. The spoiled and the rich never needed to worry about anything. It had nothing to do with the Dramamine, she insisted to herself.

  The rest of the drive, while not quick by any means, went about as fast as it usually did. Growing up out in the sticks, a person either had to learn to deal with a lot of time in the car to get to a mall, the movies, a supersize grocery store or they had to spend their life at home and hope that UPS would deliver even though their address was a PO Box at the closest post office.

  Some people loved it, relished the rugged individualism of it all. That was not Hadley. She’d had moving feet since birth, and by the time she was fourteen when her mom married Gabe, she’d already planned how she was going to ditch the sticks for Harbor City. She’d have a gorgeous apartment with a view, a glamorous job, and a thriving social life. At least, that’s what she’d promised everyone.

  What she’d ended up with was a fifth-floor walk-up with windows looking out on the brick side of the building next door, a frustrating but rewarding job that she’d just lost, and a social life that usually consisted of Netflix and the occasional work-related party. Except for Fiona and Web, she didn’t have many friends. Acquaintances? Sure. Friends? Not so much. And she was lonely.

  It was a real transition to go from her hyper-involved family on the ranch to the city where people didn’t even make eye contact when you accidentally plowed into them on the sidewalk.

  But she wasn’t pathetic. She hadn’t failed to make her dream a reality. It was just taking longer than expected was all.

  So she’d kept her mouth shut about the realities of her life in Harbor City when she talked with her mom and let everyone think she had it made. She stuck to her plan to fake it until she made it in Harbor City. No one—especially not her family—needed to know the real situation.

  Will woke up as soon as she made the left turn off the paved two-lane highway and onto the gravel road leading to the ranch. “Where are we?”

  She tried not to watch out of the corner of her eye as he extended his arms in a stretch that showed off all his muscled glory. The man’s forearms should be illegal. They could cause an accident.

  She forced her attention back to the road. “We’re almost home.”

  He looked around, his green eyes widening as he no doubt realized the landscape went on for practically forever without a single building getting in the way. “So what’s the backstory of our relationship, or do you just want me to wing it?”

  Her heart sped up in panic at the idea of Will winging it.

  “Web and I were sticking close to the truth.” Because that was the way not to get caught in an embarrassing lie. “We started out as friends, and it just morphed.”

  He nodded. “I can work with that.”

  “It’s not serious, though. I’m not bringing ‘the one’ home to meet my parents,” she continued. “Web was just giving me a buffer, an excuse to not spend all my time with my family. I love them, but they’re just…a lot to take. And they never understood why I left for the city.” She sighed. She hated lying to her family, but she also didn’t think she could take a whole week of “helpful” nosiness, either. Especially not now that they didn’t know she’d been fired.

  Her jaw clenched at that memory, and she grabbed on to the anger like a life raft. “It’s your fault I got fired, which my family knows nothing about, so really, you’ve got no one to blame for this mess but yourself.”

  He cocked one arrogant eyebrow at her but gladly didn’t argue.

  They drove in silence until they crossed underneath the sign for Hidden Creek Ranch. It only took a few seconds before Hadley spotted the three cowboys in the distance. They were sitting on their horses on a slight rise in the land. Something soft and good settled in her belly right then—that sense of being home.

  She didn’t have to be up close to know their boots were dusty, their jeans worn in, and their hats weren’t just for decoration. Her stepdad, Gabe, and her brothers had obviously come to the lookout to see if they could spot her. Just like old times, she hit the horn three times, each one a short burst of sound that would be carried on the breeze that never seemed to ever stop blowing out here. One of the three—probably Weston, the sentimental one of the bunch—raised his hat in acknowledgment, and then they all took off, disappearing in the horizon.

  Damn, she hadn’t expected the hot happy tears she was blinking away or the lump in her throat. Even though she’d never move back, there was no beating the feeling of being here with her family. They were overwhelming and nosy and constantly finding fault, but she never, not for one single instant, doubted that they loved her or that she loved them.

  And she was already planning to ditch them whenever she could. Worst of all, she was doing it with the biggest asshole snob she knew. Her gut dropped and her heart went into overdrive with the spike of panic shooting through her veins.

  What if he behaves around them in the same shitty way he acts around me?

  “Look, we need to get something straight.” She pulled off to the side of the road, a cloud of dust settling in their wake. “I appreciate you doing this when Web couldn’t, but this is my family. They make me nuts, but I love them.” And she did. She might live a four-hour plane ride plus a five-hour drive away, but that didn’t change her feelings even one bit. “They are amazing and frustrating and some of the best people you’ll ever meet.” She turned to face Will, needing him to see on her face just how 100 percent serious she was. “And if you do anything to make them feel bad about not being rich Harbor City high society, I’ll cut your balls off. We own cattle. I know how to do it.”

  Okay, she didn’t, but he sure as hell didn’t need to know that.

  He raised an eyebrow and toasted her with his empty ginger ale can. “Duly noted.”

  And with a final evil-eyed glare, she pulled back onto the road, feeling pretty good about things—right up until she drove into the yard in front of the house. There were nearly a dozen family members waiting on the front porch, eager to get all the constant family togetherness started.

  Oh God. What in the blue blazes had she done?

  …

  There were a million people waiting for them when Hadley pulled up in front of the house.

  It was a big place, two stories with a wraparound porch that had an honest-to-God metal triangle hanging from the ceiling that someone could bang the attached rod against, the clang alerting everyone it was time to head home—just like the old black-and-white cowboy movies he used to watch as a kid. It sat alone on the top of what could barely be called a hill, since it was more of a roll in the land. Big leafy trees surrounded the house like guards around the four walls. Off in the distance, he spotted the red metal roof of a barn or bunkhouse and several smaller houses between the big building and the main house.

  The whole thing was about as country sweet as you could get—especially considering the place had managed to spawn the ball-threatening Hadley Donavan. Maybe she moved in late in life.

  �
��Were you born here?” Will asked.

  “Not out here.” She put the SUV into Park and turned off the engine. “I grew up in town. Didn’t move out here until I was fourteen when Mom married Gabe.”

  “There’s a town?” Okay, he’d sacked out, lulled to sleep by the Dramamine and never-ending interstate, but he definitely would have woken up with stop-and-go city traffic.

  “Yeah, we drove right through it.” She reached for the door, exhaling as if to gird herself, and opened it. “We were lucky and the single stoplight on Main Street was a blinking yellow when I drove through.” She paused and shot him another glare. “Remember what I said about my family. Do not fuck with them.”

  “The thought never crossed my mind.” No, he’d been too busy having dreams about literally fucking Hadley, which just went to show how much the drive had messed with him.

  He took a sly peek at her ass as she got out of the car. Yes, he was a glutton for punishment in the no-touch zone, but he wasn’t fully awake yet and had absolutely no interest in Hadley, no matter what lies the lusty twitch in his dick tried to tell as he watched her strut around the SUV’s hood.

  Damn. He was going to have to get all of this “not interested” under control if he was going to make it through this week without getting distracted. He was a man on a mission, and he wasn’t about to let his brother fall into the same trap that had gotten Will once before. No pretty face or sweet ass would come between the Holts and their money ever again.

  Although Will was going to have to be careful about how he went about convincing Hadley that even if Web might be an easy mark, Will would do whatever it took to protect him. There were a lot of places to hide a body out here—not that anyone looked particularly murderous, but if there was one thing he understood more than anything else, it was the power of family loyalty. Judging by the happy tears, hard hugs, and general joy from Hadley’s family as they rushed to greet her, he had no doubt her family understood it as well.

  Unable to put off this ridiculous plan any longer, he channeled his twin and put on his friendliest smile before getting out of the car and joining the throng of mostly women surrounding Hadley.

  “You must be Webster. I’m Hadley’s mom, Stephanie,” Stephanie said, turning to him with a friendly, if reserved smile and holding out her hand.

  He accepted her handshake and managed to cover his shock at the strength in her grip. “Everyone but Hadley calls me Will. She loves to give me a hard time about my name.”

  Hadley shot him a death glare. So they hadn’t discussed the name thing, but he was right and he knew it. It was only a matter of time before he failed to answer to Web and then the gig would be up.

  Adalyn, judging by her Bride-To-Be T-shirt, cocked her head to the side, her face twisting with confusion. “Isn’t that your bro—”

  Her question was cut off by a well-timed elbow from Hadley followed by a speaking glance that said, Shut the hell up.

  “My brother’s nickname for me, yes,” he covered.

  “Well.” Stephanie paused for a second, not looking the least bit appeased. “Will. It’s good to have you here for this special occasion.”

  “Thanks for having me, and please let me know what I can do to help.” The polite words came out almost as a reflex, because the answer was always no when it came to big events that were always catered and planned by professionals.

  “Don’t suppose you can cook?” Stephanie asked.

  Considering she probably didn’t want her entire family slightly poisoned by undercooked chicken, there was only one answer he could give. “No, but I can wash dishes like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “Good.” She gave him a real smile this time that had the corners of her eyes crinkling. “You’ve got a job.”

  As everyone started to walk inside, Hadley pulled him back half a step. “Do you even know how to wash dishes?”

  “I can load a dishwasher.” Occasionally he even did it. Usually, though, the cleaning crew took care of all that at his Harbor City penthouse.

  “But have you ever actually done that?” She took a step closer, looking up at him with a knowing little smirk—the one that told him she knew just how full of shit he was. “Have you ever washed dishes by hand?”

  “I’m not a complete spoiled jerk,” he said, sounding exactly like one even to his own ears.

  She just lifted an eyebrow.

  God, she was pushy—something that should have been annoying. Really, it was annoying. Completely. Utterly. Without a doubt. That was the only reason why he couldn’t drag his attention away from that smart mouth of hers because he couldn’t believe what words came out of it.

  “Okay, fine.” He closed the distance between them, using the advantage of his height to look down at her. “No. I haven’t, but I’m sure I won’t have a problem excelling at it just like I do everything else.”

  “Oh really?” she asked, not giving an inch. “I suppose you can also excel at all the ranching chores, like help check the fencing and gather eggs and muck the stalls, too.”

  “Of course,” he said, his mouth running without his brain because all he could think about was how badly he wanted to kiss that knowing grin off her face right now. “By the end of the week, your relatives will be thinking of me like I’m just another cowboy in the family. They’re gonna love me.”

  Hadley scoffed. “No. Fucking. Way.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  He had no idea why he was doing this. Proving her wrong about his abilities to wash dishes or muck fences or mend stalls or be a beloved member of her family wasn’t on his agenda. He was here for one reason: to convince her to take her gold-digger hooks out of his brother. She was priming Web, softening him up for the taking. He’d seen it before—lived it—and the pattern was the same as what Mia had done to him. Start with friendship, add in some damsel-in-distress bullshit like her I-really-need-you-to-go-to-my-sister’s-wedding ploy, and then go in for the multimillion-dollar kill.

  “So do we have a bet or not?” he asked.

  “Bet on what?” she asked as she pantomimed pulling finger guns from a holster on each side of her round hips and shooting them into the air like a trick shot. “That you can become a rootin’ tootin’ city slicker cowboy much beloved by my family in a week? It’ll never happen.”

  Oh, it was definitely happening now. Winning was his specialty. There was no way he’d lose to her. “If you lose, you leave my brother alone. If I lose—which isn’t going to happen—I’ll never mention you being a gold digger again, and I’ll get out from between you and my brother.”

  Hadley released a dramatic sigh and pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. “Oh no, all my plans to marry a billionaire are in jeopardy.”

  Such a smart-ass.

  “Is that a yes?” he asked.

  She crossed her arms, cocked her hip, and considered him for a moment before saying, “You bet your never-seen-a-cow-patty-before boots.”

  Then, in a repeat of what had happened at the airport, she turned and walked away, going up the steps of the ranch house’s front porch.

  She was confident, he’d give her that. Too bad for her, he was a man who never lost—not in business and not when it came to protecting his family.

  Hadley Donavan was about to find out firsthand just how good the bad Holt twin could be.

  Chapter Six

  Hadley was going to love watching Will have to shut up already about his totally wrongheaded belief that she was friends with Web only because she had plans to steal his money. Really, how many bad movies had he watched to come up with such an inane plot? All of which would make seeing him end up falling on his tight-Wranglers-wearing ass at the end of the week even sweeter.

  Petty?

  Her?

  In this case, she so very much was and could accept that about herself. If anyone deserved to come down a few pegs, it wa
s Will Holt, CEO of Holt Enterprises and perpetual pain in her ass.

  “That’s some smile that fella has you wearing,” Aunt Louise said as she stood by the screen door in her usual uniform of jeans, a seed company T-shirt, and worn baseball cap with her iron-gray hair pulled back into a French braid that reached all the way down to the middle of her back. “I like to see it.”

  Oh, this was perfect. Her aunt Louise—who’d run her small ranch by herself since her husband, Dexter, had passed away forty years ago—would talk Will’s ear off about all things ranching related. By the time she was done, his brain would be filled with so much cattle-related minutiae that he’d admit defeat on the bet before it even got started.

  “Aren’t you sweet for saying so,” Hadley said. Could this get any worse? But she knew for sure they couldn’t sell “serious relationship” with how often her family was going to notice they wanted to kill each other. Time to change the subject. “However, he is really interested in learning everything there is to know about the cowboy life,” she said, lacing her voice with enough oh-my-gosh-gee-willikers insincere sweetness that there was no way Will would miss that she was setting him up.

  “Really?” Aunt Louise’s eyes lit up with interest and she turned her full attention to Will. “What do you want to know?”

  He didn’t even hesitate. “Everything.”

  Of course he said the exact right thing. God. This week was going to be hell.

  Aunt Louise clapped her hands together. “Well, you have come to the right woman.” She nodded at Hadley. “This one never did take to anything about ranch life.”

  “Gotta say, I’m glad about that,” Will said, putting his arm around Hadley’s waist and tucking her up close against him. “If she had, then she never would have come to Harbor City and I wouldn’t have met her.”

  His fingertips brushed against the roll that always made an appearance as soon as she buttoned her pants and—on instinct—she sucked in her gut before realizing what she was doing and letting it all back out again. Will was the last guy she was going to put on a front—or Spanx—to impress. So what if she had so-called unsightly bulges, unfortunate chin hairs that reappeared no matter how many times she plucked them, and unpainted fingernails trimmed down as far as possible? He could pretend to date her as she was or he could go jump in an irrigation ditch. Either way, she’d be happy.