Will couldn’t argue with the old man.
“You end up mad at whoever is on your team.” She glanced at her grandfather in the rearview mirror and held up her hand to stop him before he could interrupt. “And before you fib and say ‘not me,’ I want to remind you of that game night four Christmases ago when I refused to turn my hat inside out like a rally cap when we were down to our last five hundred dollars and rolling to get past Park Place. You retaliated by putting coal in my stocking.”
The older man sank down in his seat. “You can’t prove that was me.”
Hadley let out a little chuckle. “PawPaw.”
“Fine, it was me, but that doesn’t change anything.” His gaze bounced from Will to Hadley. “If you want my silence, you’re on my team.”
There weren’t a lot of times when Will had ever felt like he was in over his head or that he couldn’t read the room’s undercurrent. At this moment, though? Yeah, there was obviously family history here, and the game night must have some really high stakes. Hadley’s beseeching gaze slid over his way. He shrugged.
She let out a sigh. “We’ll be on your team.”
“Excellent.” PawPaw’s smile was wide enough to cross both lanes of the highway. “Did I ever tell you about the time I danced with Dolly Parton while I was dressed up as Dolly Parton?”
And that was how the rest of the drive went, with PawPaw telling one farfetched story after another until they were on the gravel path leading to Hidden Creek Ranch and then pulling into the drive in front of the main house.
“Before we get out, are you sure you don’t want to just come clean?” PawPaw asked, leaning up close to the front seat, his voice low, as if the people inside the house might hear him. “You could tell them things didn’t work out, and no one would say a word.”
“Yeah, that’ll be the day when this family doesn’t have an opinion to offer. We’re not a couple. We never will be a couple, but Mom doesn’t need to know that,” Hadley said a little too fast for Will’s ego.
PawPaw muttered something that sounded a lot like “young fools” but didn’t press it further. Will had just gotten out and Hadley had crossed the front of the rental to join them on the way to the house when Adalyn came hustling out of the house and down the stairs, her smile huge but tight at the corners.
She stopped in front of Hadley. “Try to remember all the reasons you love Mom.”
Neither of them got a chance to ask why, because that’s when Stephanie walked out onto the porch.
“There you are!” Stephanie said, shooting an apologetic glance at Hadley. “Look who stopped by out of the blue.”
Right on cue, a man who looked like a smug version of the Marlboro Man if he Juuled followed her through the front door.
“Matt?” Hadley asked.
The man strutted down the stairs and across the gravel, ignoring PawPaw, Adalyn, and the fact that somehow in the middle of all this Will had started holding Hadley’s hand. When had that happened? He had no fucking clue, but he wasn’t letting go now.
“Hey, Hads.” Matt leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “You know I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to come by and say hi.” He turned to Will, holding out his hand. “Don’t suppose you’re the Web everyone keeps telling me about. Hads and I used to date eons ago. Nothing to worry about at all.”
“I’m sure there’s not,” he said, dropping Hadley’s hand to shake the man’s offered one. “My friends call me Will.”
“Good to know,” Matt said and squeezed his grip before letting go. “Web.”
Grinding his molars to dust, Will watched as Matt slung an arm around Hadley’s shoulders and walked with her back to the house. This was a good thing. A very good thing. Really. And if he said it enough, he’d start to believe it.
He fisted his hand and hung back by the rental, going through all the ways that the appearance of her ex-boyfriend would be good, as if that would make his gut twist less. The biggest being that if she went for the guy, then Will wouldn’t need to worry about exposing Hadley’s gold-digging ways to save Web. Hadley would be off his radar and not his responsibility. He started toward the house, pulverizing the gravel under his boots with every stomping step. What the hell did he care if she ended up ripping a hole into Matt the Asshat’s bottom line? That would be all the better.
If that’s the case, then why do I want nothing more than to punch his lights out?
At the front door, PawPaw looked back at him and shook his head. “Well, this should get interesting.”
Why did Will suddenly feel like he’d chewed glass the whole trip, and that was going to be the best part of his day?
Chapter Twelve
Once inside, Hadley made a beeline for the kitchen while everyone headed out back for a game of horseshoes.
She found her mom peeking into the oven to check the two pans of Frito pie baking. Hadley almost forgot why she was there when the smell of melted cheese, seasoned ground beef, corn chips, enchilada sauce, and beans hit her. This was heaven in food form. Damn, that wasn’t fair. Her mom had definitely planned her move well. It was hard to concentrate on being annoyed that her ex had finagled his way inside with her favorite comfort food in the oven. She took a deep inhale, closed her eyes, and
could almost taste the salty crunch of the chips.