“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