Of.
Them.
Every single person, from all of twenty billion branches sprouting from the Donavan-Martinez family tree, would be at the wedding. More than that, most of them would be staying at the ranch. It would be wall-to-wall Donavans, Martinezes, and Donavan-Martinezes until the cows came home.
All of that meant that the family-mandatory-fun-time-togetherness was going to be at epic levels, leading up to Adalyn’s wedding in a week. If it wasn’t for how much she loved her baby sister and wanted to see her say “I do,” Hadley would definitely be saying “I don’t” to a full week wrapped in her family’s well-meaning but claustrophobic embrace.
Her phone vibrated in her cross-body purse as she pulled up short to avoid getting run over by a group of people rushing toward the TSA line. She pulled it out and hit Talk, keeping her eyes on the constant flow of human foot traffic, hoping to spot Web walking out of the arrivals area.
“Oh good,” her sister, Adalyn, said with a relieved sigh. “You haven’t lost cell signal yet.”
That would happen about four hours into the five-hour drive from the airport when she turned off the main highway and onto the long, gravel-covered county road leading to Hidden Creek Ranch. Service would get spotty and texting would become an imaginary dream of the future until she got about five miles out from the ranch and the signal from the towers improved.
“I’m still at the airport,” Hadley said, dodging a seven-year-old pulling his own miniature wheely
suitcase before it went right over her toes.
Adalyn—always the dramatic one—let out a groan. “You have to save me from Mom. She’s lost it.”
That was no surprise. No one wanted things to be perfect more than Stephanie Donavan-Martinez. There was no way her daughter’s wedding would be any different. If the woman was sleeping at all between rounds of stress cleaning and prepping food for a small army of people, Hadley would go into shock.
“Is she recleaning the bathroom after Dad already did it again?”
“Worse.” Adalyn took a dramatic pause. “She’s stopped all cleaning and is locked in her crafting room.”
Hadley jolted to a dead stop in the middle of the airport, her jaw slack. Their mom had gone into hibernation with the entire family about to converge on the ranch? This was very not good. “Oh God, what did you guys do?”
With the exception of herself, the suspects to get on Mom’s last nerve were all there: her sister, her brothers Weston and Knox, and her dad in all but actual DNA, Gabe. Mom loved them all, but there was no denying they each had a special gift for making their mom a little batty.
“Me?” Adalyn asked, her pitch going higher. “Why would I have done anything?”
“Because that’s what little sisters do. They cause trouble.” She almost got that out without a giggle. Adalyn was forever the people-pleasing—if a little over-the-top—one. It was Hadley who was forever the child most likely to cause trouble.
“Nice try.” Her sister laughed. “I am the good daughter while you are the one whose name is followed by a soft sigh and gaze turned heavenward.”
“Just because I’m the only one to move out of the state.” And didn’t go into ranching or marry a rancher or listen to country music or…the list went on and on.
“Plus, you’re single at thirty,” her sister teased. Adalyn altered the cadence and tone of her voice to mimic their mom with damn near perfection. “Not that a woman needs a man, but…”
Hadley chuckled. “Don’t do that again; you sound just like her.”
“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.